My old friend Carrie

I watched the original version of Footloose this week. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen it and I loved the crap out of it! But then I pretty much love anything that has dancing slash singing in it.

I was most pleased to discover that Sarah-Jessica Parker had a part. I’ve missed her. Carrie from Sex in the City is one of my favourite characters of all time. That show was nothing short of brilliant.

After finishing the movie, down the rabbit hole I fell into online Sarah-Jessica research. What’s she been doing since SITC? How are her kids? Does she have any good films coming up? Will there be any further movies?

I stumbled across this video that Vogue made earlier this year. Have you seen it? They give her five minutes to answer 73 questions. It’s clearly very rehearsed but I like what they did. She’s a cutie.

And now let’s look back at Marie Claire’s best Carrie Bradshaw quotes of all time. I wanted to pull out a few of my favourites and post them here, but then I realised that I was copying the entire list.

I miss you Carrie!

Links.

You know how sometimes you read something and it just sticks with you? Well these links below are those kind of pieces for me. Each article has been something that I keep finding myself thinking about and/or hearing myself referring to. They’re all really different and I hope you can take something from them too.

*** This first piece is a fascinating essay written from the perspective of a pig farmer who has started to believe that killing animals is wrong. I’m not a vegetarian and probably never will be but I also get frustrated with people who say ignorant things like ‘If we’re not supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?’ I personally only ever want to eat animals if I know they have been killed humanely so this was a brutally interesting essay for me.

***This article is one of the best things I’ve read all year. It’s about dealing with grief and the support you can offer to people who have gone through a tragedy. I like the suggestion that in tough times, there are fire-fighters and builders. Fire-fighters are the friends who turn up when something terrible has happened and they help you through the immediate crises. Builders are the friends who maybe didn’t know what to say or do during the tragedy, but they come afterwards and help you rebuild your life after everyone else has gone back to their own world. Apparently very few people can perform both roles. I’d like to think that I could be both things for my friends if the time came.

***This post made me think of my friend Justine. We often talk about how we’re scared of offending or upsetting people, so we go along to things or spend time with people when we really don’t want to. The short article is about how making those kind of choices is all about fear and not about love. Good food for thought.

***Have you read this excerpt from Rob Lowe’s book? It’s about sending his son off to college. Rob is such a wonderful writer! He has the most beautiful way with words and now I really want to read his whole memoir.

*** This article reminded me that we must always strive to be kind and thoughtful. When I first came across this story, I almost didn’t read it because I found the first photo to a bit much. But what a beautiful story. It was a balm to my heart. In life, we all need to show up with open eyes and open hearts and reach out to people in different ways.

***This interview with someone who lives in a teeny, tiny space is something I found really cute.  I love how she says that safe and cosy small spaces have always made her feel safe. And it’s a good reminder that you can live in a small space and still have a big life.

Have you read anything lately that you care to share?

 

Neen hearts quinoa

Can we take a moment for me to tell you how much I love quinoa? It’s not a new love, I’ve been a fan since the rest of the world discovered that the Peruvians were keeping their super grain a secret.

No other food makes me feel so satisfied in a non full way. Does that make sense? 

No other food leaves my palate feeling so clean.I guess sushi comes a close second, but that’s a whole other love affair.

My favourite quinoa  combo is this one. You basically mix sautéed Spanish onion with either smoked or flaked baked salmon (or canned if you care for that, which I don’t) and a bunch of greens. Voila! The perfect lunch.

I also very much like this recipe because a quinoa/pesto match is one I believe to be made in heaven.

Do you have any recipes you can share? What are you eating and loving right now?

Wanderlust

When you’re wanderlust like me, you spend a lot of time trawling the interwebs for travel related reading material. I’ve recently found a blog called I’m a traveller not a tourist and I’m addicted to it.

The posts are filled with cute infographics like this one.

 

And this. I’ve only been to 10 of these attractions. Clearly I nearly to spend more time exploring the world!

And relatedly, there’s a few other great travel posts I’ve read lately. Including:

– This piece on travelling alone. I know it’s easy to say this when you’re in a comfortable relationship and therefore have a built in travel partner, but I really think I could travel alone quite easily. It’s certainly a fun thing to do with other people but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easier than being by yourself!

– These travel tips for Japanese people who visit the USA made me laugh. I don’t think we realise how strange our everyday behaviour is until we see it through the eyes of others.

– These NYC travel tips also made me laugh. Anyone who has ever lived in a city will be able to relate to these!

– And then there’s this fab post! This guy lists 20 things he learnt while travelling. My favourite is him pointing out that nobody but Americans care about America.

And now it’s time to head to TripAdvisor so I can start planning my next adventure…..