Sunday Smörgåsbord #062
Sauna Saturdays, the Safe Keep, and a dog on wheels. Plus Valencia's campest Italian restaurant.
NB: [PW] signifies a paywall, though some providers allow you to read a set number of articles for free.
Hi friends,
I had a lovely weekend planned, the first to be packed with the kind of Christmassy plans that make you excited and not daunted for the month ahead. Thursday evening I went to bed feeling a bit under-the-weather, and woke up Friday feeling a bit groggy.
“I know!” I thought, I’ll drag myself to the beach for a dip in the sea. That will blow the cobwebs off. And it did. But I still ended the day feeling like I’d been hit by a truck.
As a result I’ve spent this weekend doing not much except moving from bed to sofa to bath back to sofa and then to bed again. I’ve read quite a lot of my latest read (Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith), written a surprisingly big chunk of The Novel (1000+ words yesterday!) and watched an embarrassingly high number of C4 true crime documentaries.
It’s been my most relaxed few days of Sabbatical yet! But wow, am I ready to see people again.
Hope you’ve had wonderful weekends.
Emma x
🍳 Recent servings, in case you missed them…
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📰 Features & Podcasts
“Gregg Wallace says complaints came from ‘middle-class women of a certain age’, The Guardian. Oh, sorry, Gregg, were those the same “middle-class women of a certain age” who, I don’t know, tend to watch your programmes? What an absolute berk for saying this, whether or not he’s guilty of doing what he is accused of. And to be honest, I wasn’t filled with confidence reading in a recent interview his insistence that he’s "never flirted or hit on anybody" in the twelve years that he has been with his wife. The lad(d)y doth need to protest too much?
“Grab your bathrobe, we’re heading to the sauna pub”, The Times [PW]. I know, I know - it sounds like something that Gregg Wallace might say. But don’t worry, this is an article about fully consensual sauna-going. I love a sauna, and in February I was lucky enough to visit the one featured in this article on a Saturday night, Löyly (see: Sunday Smörgåsbord #39). I can attest that the atmosphere on that weekend evening was so fun and convivial (surely being in your swimmers and a bathrobe is one of the great levellers?) and, even better, you sweat out the hangover before it can even begin. Bonus points, unlike your typical boozy night, I get the best sleep of my life after. I can see it coming to the UK. Spain’s hot summer nights? Not so much.
🎨 Arts, Culture & Entertainment
The Safe Keep, by Yael van der Wouden. Despite 80% of my week currently being deep in novel reading (and writing), I am truly woeful at reading anything contemporary. It’s partly why I outsourced most of my reading recs this Summer to this community. But in the hunt for comparative titles to my own book a couple of weeks ago, I chanced across this gift of a novel, one of the six on the Booker 2024 shortlist. It didn’t win, but read it anyway. This is a beautiful, haunting book about a Dutch woman living the epitome of a repressed life until her brother’s girlfriend comes to stay. Another pertinent reminder that history is written by the winners, it really hit home just how large the second world war still loomed in the sixties. If you’ve read it, I’d love to know what you thought.
Colin From Accounts (Series 2), BBC iPlayer. I inhaled the first series of this when I had Covid back in 2021, so it feels fitting that I watched at least part of the second series also severely under the weather. This charming, snappy comedy about a couple and their dog, Colin, is just as easy to watch as the first series; though it has a few plot points that make me scratch my head, they’re easily outnumbered by incredible dialogue and characters that are so good they sometimes make you want to scream. Episode 5, Waterfall, was particularly good, a split timeframe story that was as chilling as it was comedic, and left Andy and I both desperately memorising one another’s phone numbers afterwards.
‘The Murder Messages’, 24 Hours in Police Custody, C4. This show has to be up there as one of my favourite guilty (and morbid) pleasures. Put it down to the fact that once upon a time I wanted to be in the police (yes, I know, for the sake of the community, thank God that didn’t happen), and though it’s bloody depressing a lot of the time, it does show just how thankless a task it is to be a detective. But then every once in a while you get a twisty, gripping, storyline that surely makes them as satisfied going home as us switching off? This is one of them. I don’t want to give anything away. All I can say is, this episode only serves as more proof that THESE PEOPLE WALK AMONGST US. Terrifying.
📺 What have you seen lately that’s worth a read, watch or listen? Let me know in the comments.
🍹 Lifestyle
The V&A Members’ Cafe, The Victoria & Albert Museum. I’m taking a habit-tracking approach to my three-month Sabbatical that includes a weekly culture date, and this was the first week in four that I didn’t quite manage to tick it off. Yes, I made it to the V&A, but… to my shame…. only as far as the members’ cafe. Luckily, it’s so well-hidden but I couldn’t help but roam around some five-hundred year pots and - my favourite - the Rodin sculpture room, on my way there. Once I found it, though it was the perfect place for a pot of tea, a scone with jam and cream, and - crucially - a nice quiet spot in which to write for two hours. It’s not quite as jaw-droppingly beautiful as the downstairs public café, but it still left me so inspired that I’ve since considered changing the setting of my opening pages to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Mamma Pazzo, Carrer del Comte de Salvatierra, 37, L'Eixample, Valencia. As Valencia grows in popularity I can see more and more how some of London’s best-known concepts have made their way to our city of light. Mamma Pazzo is a relatively new Italian restaurant in the fancy Colon neighbourhood, and stands out for its bold colours (rich red entryway and back room), and fun, silly styling (cocktails are served in tankards of Silvio Berlusconi’s head). All too often I find these concept rip-offs are all style and no substance, built more for guiris and Tik Tok videos than people’s tastebuds, but I have to say Mamma Pazzo is a rare outlier. I’d go as far as to say the food is some of the best Italian I have tasted in Valencia, with a delicious, good-value wine menu. We shared beef carpaccio, followed by possibly the best truffle and sausage pasta I ever tasted, and a plate of heavenly pistachio and ricotta ravioli. What’s more, they even manage to nail the lighting in our dining room. I’ll be back.
That’s it for this week. I hope you find something in this list that sparks joy or curiosity.
If you’ve got any recommendations on articles, podcasts, Substacks or shows for me to dive into, please drop them in the comments. Until next time!
❤️ Thank you for reading. If you liked this post don’t forget to hit the heart to let me know and help others find my writing.
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Love a bit of Colin from Accounts! 🤣🙈 But yes some plot points are on the “batshit” scale. 🤪