I love tips because they make life so much easier.

Lately I look through all the streaming services to find something to watch and I just can’t choose. There’s so many options and my algorithm is screwy from letting Joey use my account. According to these vagaries, I am a middle-aged toddler who loves dinosaur transformers and grisly crime thrillers set in Scandinavia.

Maybe you have this problem too?

I love magazines, newspapers and Instagram but the trends that get pushed at make me alternately lol, sigh, raise my eyebrows, frown (worsening my giant forehead wrinkle) and generally discard.

I am going to review some stuff and share ideas and tips to make this messy business of life a bit more fun for people like me who have Champagne dreams and a non-vintage sparkling budget. I hope you like it!

Watching
Uncle on Stan. A comedy about a 31 year-old musician who has his precocious nephew foisted upon him. Much hilarity ensues with underlying themes of divorce, drugs and dysfunction. It’s like a longer, quirkier About a Boy. Recommended to me by @itsgingerceleste. Total winner!

Listening
Jungle on Spotify (music with fun summery vibes) and Honestly with Bari Weiss (interview-based podcast exploring all kinds of fascinating ideas, including the concept of ‘luxury beliefs’).

Drinking
Manly Spirits Coastal Citrus Gin. This stuff is like a beach holiday in a bottle. It ain’t cheap but it’s worth every cent because it tastes like a summer day.

Reading
Currently reading City of Girls by the OG of middle-aged white ladies, Elizabeth Gilbert (and loving it) and about to embark on Devotion, the latest novel by Hannah Kent. If anyone can make a Lutheran lesbian love story set between Germany and South Australia in the 1800s a gripping tale, it’s Kent. She managed to make a story about the last woman hanged in Iceland a bestseller (Burial Rites) so I’m looking forward to seeing how she manages to pull this off.

What are you loving this week? Please feel free to share your tips, ideas and suggestions in the comments! I am desperate to know what you’re into … tell me everything!