Thoughts on Things I’m Loving This Month: January 2025
The Traitors, 'middle class women of a certain age' merch, Brits reacting to snow, an emotional LA fires reunion - and more
Earlier this week I said I’d be concentrating my efforts on Substack and resting the blog for this year, and would see how it goes.
I’ve already found sticking to a regular Substack writing schedule is considerably easier than sticking to a regular blogging schedule (ex/current bloggers have you found this?).
But firstly: hello to all the new subscribers I’ve had this past week, and welcome! It’s really great to have you on board, and thank you to the other Substackers who have been recommending my newsletter. I truly appreciate it ❤️
Back to this post:
I’ve realised that a blog post is infinitely more work than a Substack newsletter. Once you’ve written your blog post, the work is only about half done. There’s all the SEO (search engine optimization) and Google-garble-whatever stuff to do. You need to create sharing-on-social media images and write and schedule the subscriber email (I always wrote my own, I never liked the somewhat limited automated ones). It all takes up SO much time. And if the blog post was all about the images (can you tell I’m old school…), then there was the editing of those to do as well. In Lightroom and then Photoshop. And uploading them to an image bank for safekeeping.
Urghh.
(Does the thought of all that extra work make me lazy? Or just old? Or maybe a little… jaded?)
This year needs to be easier for me after my annus horribilis of 2024. I’m paring back, I’m simplifying things. And although I’m resting the blog in 2025, there are a few things I want to transfer from there to here (as mentioned in last week’s Substack about my reimagined newsletter name of Not Lamb Anymore).
First up: the monthly Thoughts on Things I’m Loving This Month. It’ll be published on the last Saturday or Sunday of the month (depending on how busy my week has been) and will concern a few things I’ve seen/heard/read/liked/watched/bought/baked*, etc. etc. and my garbled thoughts around them.
*baked… like I ever would 😂
This month I’m just going with the three categories of what I’ve watched, brilliant things I bought (or received) for Christmas and social media posts I loved. I might switch it up next month. Who knows.
Anyway – hope you like these lovely things I’ve been enjoying the past few weeks. Happy Sunday!
Disclosure: This newsletter includes some affiliate links — if you buy through these links, I receive a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.
TV I loved
Traitors (BBC) — HOW good has the third UK series been? So many pop culture moments, most of which involved the people’s princess, Alexander. (Brits will always root for charisma, kindness and excellent manners, and I am gutted he didn’t win.) From ‘Sherber yur, wur, wur’ (if you know, you know), to ‘like a pony’. Plus, the faces he pulled in the death match. Also, I read somewhere that he was ‘Michael Fassbender if you drew him from memory’. Give that man his own TV show, stat.
Black Doves (Netflix) — We finally got round to watching this and we managed to stay wide awake through the whole thing (always a good sign for us)! Keira Knightley really suits a kick-ass role and I’ll watch Ben Wishaw in anything. 10/10 for its grippingness.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (Sky and NOW) —I bawled. I adored Reeve as Superman when I was a kid, and even now his chiselled beauty makes me melt whenever I see him in that iconic outfit with the black hairstyle. It was inspiring and devastating in equal measures.
The Fall Guy (Prime) — great Saturday night popcorn movie. Great leads, great chemistry, fun plot and great stunts (of course).
Outlander S7 part 2 (MGM) — of which I am a massive fan anyway (SPOILER ALERT): what about that revelation at the very end?! Does that mean that (correct me if I’m wrong) William slept with his… niece?!! OMG.
Best Christmas presents I bought or received
£2.99 and free UK delivery for a high-quality 3D-printed personalised name keyring? With tons of colour options and a stylish font? I bought three, great for kids and adults.
The M&S Apothecary Warmth range is a very, very good Le Labo Santal 33 fragrance dupe. I use the hand/body lotion and shower gel with the original Santal 33 and wowsers, you can’t tell the difference.
Super smart, super stylish (and very warm) black ladies’ gloves. Long cuffs, gooood. Bought as a present, liked them so much I bought some for myself.
The hooded neck travel pillow that prevents a lolling head on the sofa during a quick (or long…) kip, plus the hoodie bit blocks out light. The surprise hit of Christmas 2024 in the Summers household. Yep, we’re officially old.
A very cool Middle Class Woman of a Certain Age mug (cockwomble TV chef Gregg Wallace reference there, we’re reclaiming the phrase).
The snuggliest, warmest faux fur blanket, I’ve been watching box sets from under it since Christmas.
Perfect for someone with advanced dementia when nothing else works: Snap card game. My dad is in the latter stages and struggles to even communicate with us now, yet somehow he could play this game and we were amazed that it held his attention. No mention of dementia or Alzheimer’s on the box so it’s very discreet. Highly recommended.
The loveliest personalised initial bracelet with lots of pretty colour options and an easy-to-put-on adjustable cord rather than a fiddly clasp.
The Life Skills Every 9-Year-Old Should Know book. I’ll just copy-paste the Amazon description here as I can’t improve on what they’ve put: ‘An essential book for tween boys and girls to unlock their secret superpowers and be successful, healthy, and happy’. Other ages are available.
Buy now, save for next Christmas: a personalised dog tree decoration. An incredible selection of dog breeds, from a Podenco to a Lagotto Romagnolo, and a Swedish Vallhund to a Affenpinscher. See our Suki and Riley (our boy that we lost in 2019) ones, below, on our tree last month 💖 (do note the Suki one wasn’t from this particular seller, we got hers the year before).
My favourite social media posts
‘Open the pod bay doors, HAL’, if HAL were a more realistic 2020s smart speaker (i.e. a smart-ass sonofabitch, as all smart speakers are IMO).
The most-skilled piece of HGV (truck) driving I have EVER seen. My jaw dropped.
A classic piece of British comedy: Yes, Prime Minister with the most spot-on sketch about the British press. Hilariously, scarily accurate.
Such a heartwarming reunion after the LA fires: one man finds his dog who he’d been separated from when he lost his house. If you haven’t seen it… MASCARA WARNING.
A video about Gen X being the best generation (I’ll always say we are). But if you (Zoomers) say otherwise, Gen X will pick a fight with you… we fear nothing.
How Brits react to snow (this isn’t an exaggeration, my husband Keith had a member of his team do EXACTLY this to him at work when we had just one inch of snow).
The best social commentary use of Sylvanian families I’ve ever seen. Also, extra points for the use of the phrase ‘everything shower’ and a gay dinosaur.
Someone filmed bats upside down and it looks more like a goth nightclub than a goth nightclub looks like a goth nightclub.
Let me know the best thing you’ve watched (or thoughts on what I talked about here), your favourite Christmas present (given or received) and/or the best thing you’ve seen on social media in the comments:
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I guess I just keep things simple on my blog. Not fancy.
Exactly all the reasons I started writing here instead of on my blog last year, Catherine.
It's just so easy isn't it? Although, I am finding writing my Faffing Fridays every week a bit of a challenge. There's a lot goes into them so I'm figuring out a way to do a monthly version so that I can write other pieces I want to do. Currently I don't have enough time for it all xo