It's Been a Week #1

A blog

An experiment — a weekly blog in bullet points. Because when I open a newsletter and there’s huge chunks of writing I immediately close it again. Think of this as a digestible *whispers* Livejournal?

Until next time,
Katie

P.S: I was going to do Thursday to Thursday but felt like I should at least show you the madness we created for the Christmas fair…

Thursday

• Waking up to frost makes me grateful to have a dog because now I have a legitimate reason to walk across a field and stomp my feet across the crunchy grass.

• I’m somehow shooting the new prospectus for my son’s school. You forget how small everything is in schools; the chairs seem just big enough to cup the bum of a fairy, the toilets are practically ankle height.

• I bake Genevieve Ko’s Chunky Chocolate Cookies which are, in short, a bloody triumph. I swap cocoa powder for dark cocoa powder which turns it into a sort of wonderful molten thing.
  

Friday

• Pop into town to check out Choosing Keeping, hoping it will sort me out with a friend’s birthday present. It does not, though I was momentarily swept up in the shop’s beauty and briefly consider buying a candle shaped like a cake for £18.

• The Choosing Keeping Christmas catalogue is a thing of (q overpriced) beauty

• In the name of research I try Crème. Have you tried Crème? It’s a shop in Soho which went viral on TikTok (where else) for its big cookies. One cookie is £5 and it was, by far, the most disappointing thing I put in my mouth today.

• My son’s letter to Father Christmas

Saturday

• Kipper, our little rescue dog from Bosnia, has never been on a train before… and this morning I make her board three. Three! You never notice how noisy the world is until you walk down the street with someone nervous. And trains, as we all know, make the most noise of all. But she did so well! I love her sm it’s mad

Her nervous little face!!

• The reason for the many trains is a big one: mum’s 70th birthday party. We fill the house with balloons, turn up Charli XCX (a brat winter?) and the kids decorate the birthday cake with enough buttercream to sink a ship

Germaphobes look away

• The party playlist takes me 3 hours to compile and although I try my best!!!, literally everyone has a complaint (I play the Pokemon theme song 3 times). How to satisfy a party of mixed ages?

• Miss Jackson, unexpectedly, is a huge hit with everyone. I never thought I would be dancing to Outkast with my nan, but there you go.

• I give up reading Knife by Salman Rushdie. Not because I’m not enjoying it because I am, very much so. Rushdie, for those unfamiliar, somehow survived the fatwa, was stabbed twelve times, lost an eye, and yet was still able to write concisely and unemotionally about the ordeal. But every time I read it I have the most awful nightmares. So I put it down. Salman, if you are reading this — and I’m sure you are! — I’m sorry.

Sunday

• Currently reading Gemma Bovery by Posy Simmonds. I love the design of it. Coincidentally Simmonds was recently on the In Writing podcast where she mentioned the weird shape of the graphic novel was due to the Guardian (at the time) being printed in that funny dimension

• Have you seen this burger water bottle from Tiger?

Monday

• I bake Nigella Lawson’s Monster Cookies recipe ahead of the school’s Christmas fair (keep up!). So simple to make. The cookies have a glorious crunch and a gooey middle. Lovely stuff.

• The storm blew slates off our roof, destroyed the wisteria, and basically just took a giant turd on our house. Today builders turn up, the start of a week’s worth of repairs. You can just imagine how much our dog loves that.

Tuesday

• My friend Rosy has made these lovely Christmas cards to raise money for Mummy’s Star, the only UK charity to support woman diagnosed with cancer during pregnancy

• I can’t quite nail a caption for an Instagram post (it’s been a long week —already), so do the most logical thing I can think of and turn to ChatGPT. I should probably say — and yes I know this is contradictory!!1 — that I am hugely against ChatGPT. According to a report, “Using the chatbot for between ten to 50 queries consumes about two litres of water”. That is barbaric.

• And the results? See for yourself —

  “More Than a Bookstore—A Community of Book Lovers
  Candlestick Books isn’t just a place to shop; it’s a haven for book enthusiasts. Whether you’re choosing the latest bestseller, a classic novel, or a hidden gem recommended by their passionate staff, you’re not just buying a product—you’re giving the gift of imagination and connection.”

Wednesday

• Take the dog for a walk along the river. For a while it’s just us and the ducks, giving Kipper time to plan her next move (aside from jumping at every sound). After a moment she decides to sink her front paws into the muddy Thames riverbank and then looks up at me, baffled.

  

• A recipe in a Christmas drinks book I add to the shop catches my eye, making me regret not having any gin at home—

Orange Blossom -
1 oz. orange juice
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 oz. dry gin

Shake well with cracked ice, strain into cocktail glass

Thursday

• As I walk into what used to be the staff room at our son’s school I seriously begin to question our commitment to the Christmas fair. There is just the skeleton of a gazebo and an Addison Lee of coloramas and other things found in our friend Gary’s studio.

• As home time approaches I’m not sure we can do it. And I still have over 40 cookies to bake.

Friday

• Spoiler: we did it. And by we I mean Gary and Ferry, because I was at home in cookie baking hell

• I arrive at school sweating and unable to communicate. The other parents smile at me sympathetically; this is not their first rodeo. Still, my cookies look good —

• I walk into the former staff room and literally gasp. I honestly cannot believe the transformation. The gazebo I left yesterday has been turned into the inside of a chocolate box (after my dad has eaten all the chocolates and left only wrappers) —

• To say the kids are shocked as they step gingerly into the grotto is an understatement. I don’t think any school Christmas grotto has ever looked like this. I think our work here is done.