Some health stuff

I’ve had a newsletter sitting in my draft folder for months now about my walking pad and I haven’t the had the chance to publish it but here are the cliffs notes. And receipts via my health app which I’m obsessed with.

• I’ve been walking 10k steps minimum every day since October last year when my work ran a step challenge (I didn’t win but the guy who did clearly strapped his smart watch to his dog - I came second)

• It’s changed almost everything. My body feels better, I’m less anxious, I sleep better. Quite literally no complaints.

• I got The Neat which was like $250 on Amazon and I think it’s discontinued now but it’s the best money I’ve ever spent and I think most walking pads in that price range are fine. I’d link to it but I CBF. I’ll link to it in the proper report.

  

More on that very soon but in the mean time, do not hesitate to get a walking pad and walk whenever you can. It’s the tits.

Reading

The Phoenix Pencil Company. I know a lot of people loved this book but I did not. Spoiler - I don’t like books that mix fact with magic. That’s very specific, but I’m either at Basgiath War College and I’m telepathically communicating with dragons or I’m in 19th century Canada on trial for a murder I don’t remember committing. (Fourth Wing and Alias Grace for those playing at home).

And I never mind a novel suddenly and delightfully turning magic, that’s cool, I just don’t want to have a deeply historical set up involving immigration, generational family business, factual political events and then all of a sudden we’re altering history with enchantments. Nope.

Having said that, I also don’t like books that consist of nothing but letters. I couldn’t do The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society because it was all letters but my bestie told me to get over myself and read The Correspondent and it was excellent. So sometimes I just need to get out of my own way.

Watching

So much good stuff. Two docos - Maternal Instinct and A Toxic Love Story on Netflix. The former is harrowing (watch with caution) the latter is less harrowing but also wild. We watched Apex, a fab rompy thriller with Charlize Theron and Taron Edgerton (who isn’t related to Joel Edgerton and isn’t Australian but somehow nails our accent in this movie).

The horror film Hokum with Adam Scott was very worth watching, utterly terrifying, beautifully shot, superbly acted but also had a bit too much going on somehow. One of those movies that makes the dark walk to the car on gym mornings extra scary.

Continuing on our horror kick we watched 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and it was fantastic. Eleven billion stars out of ten. Ralph Fiennes is magnificent.

Listening

To Lena Dunham’s Famesick while simultaneously rewatching Girls. Incredible. I’m a big ol’ fan of Dunham, I think Girls is spectacular and this book doesn’t disappoint. The level of honesty is pretty out there but she’s nothing if not a truth teller. Adam Driver will probably never speak to her again but I lapped up every tidbit about their working relationship.

To this day, I remain incredibly grateful to Dunham for being the only truly realistic body I’ve ever seen naked on screen, then and since. It was healing for my generation to see a very normal and beautiful body be desired, because that’s the lived experience of almost every woman I know. She was a 23 year old baby who threw herself on sword for us. And yeah she’s said and done some weird things, but on the whole, I reckon she’s pretty ace.

Side note, rewatching Girls always makes me want to rebrand myself as Jessa. So chic to be a little bit mean with mermaid hair.

Eating

My kids have become hooked on frozen blueberries and I’ve had to start portioning them. I’m not spending $8 a day on frozen berries kids. I’m not made of money. Other than that we’ve been very lazy - spag bol on Mondays, salmon and rice on Tuesdays, brekkie dinner on Wednesdays and we just raw dog it the rest of the week. My eldest can make pizza almost 100% by herself now which is a treat and she loves making dinner for us now. Big kids rock.

Wearing

I did a cupboard cleanup and donated a bunch of clothes that just aren’t working for me. I’m not buying much though, it just seems this year none of the brands I like are doing clothes I’m interested it. I did take a gamble on this yellow jumper from Kloke and it paid off. I love it. Please excuse the messy room, like why would I ask AI to tidy it for me? No. I also need to clean my mirror. My kids are gross.

Doing

Played an utterly fantastic game of netball on Wednesday and got over my fear of playing shooter at the beginning of the game. I usually like to wait until the end of the game when we’re really winning or really losing so my skill or lack thereof will be inconsequential. I got every shot in so I was pretty proud and our team won by one point. Thrilling stuff.

I did a lovely hand building pottery course with a few mates and it was just delightful. It was at a gin distillery so we had a charming G&T while we waited for our trinket bowls to dry a little in the sun.

A few mates and I went to the Still Water sauna in Beechworth and it changed my body chemistry. You sit in the sauna for like 10 mins and then jump in the freezing lake and then go back in - repeat. We then had a cocktail and snacks at a secret bar I didn’t know existed, such a brill evening.

That’s it - how the hell are you?

Love

Carly