I don’t normally do favourites posts because I’m not a lifestyle YouTuber but these are weird and unprecedented times and I thought, since no one’s travelling, it might not be a bad idea to share some of the things I’ve been enjoying lately.
(No affiliate links here: Amazon kicked me off their programme for failing to sell anything at all, so buy as you will safe in the knowledge that I get zero pennies from it.)
Books
I’m going to be honest here: I’ve pulled out a lot of children’s books. I’ve been reading pretty much nothing but Enid Blyton and LM Montgomery and I think the two favourites are Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm and Rilla of Ingleside.
Six Cousins is one of Blyton’s (slightly) more grown-up children’s book, by which I mean that it’s a character piece and doesn’t include any magical creatures or any boarding schools. It’s about three farm cousins who have their three town cousins come to live with them following a house fire. It’s about the farm cousins adapting to their more sophisticated cousins and the town cousins learning to be rougher and dirtier and useful and the whole lot learning to live and love together. Well, tolerate.
Rilla is the last in Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series and Rilla herself is Anne’s youngest daughter. It’s a story about WWI, about the life of the women left behind when the boys go to war and about Rilla’s journey from frivolous fifteen-year-old to responsible serious engaged nineteen-year-old and while the Anne books can be light and fanciful, the subject matter keeps it well away from becoming saccharine but never quite becomes grim.
TV
I picked up the Enid Blyton books because I watched the Malory Towers CBBC adaptation (on iPlayer). Great for kids, possibly only for the Blyton purists if you’re an adult and of course, there are plenty of changes, including a ghost story that runs the entire length of the series.
My TV favourites in isolation have been Farscape, Life on Mars and Killing Eve.
Farscape (I have the DVDs but it seems to be on Amazon Prime) is an old old favourite and I’ve sat and rewatched the whole thing recently. Well, not the whole thing. As of writing, I’m up to season three episode four but I’m kind of planning to finish it before I’m released.
I’d kind of forgotten Life on Mars but I was starting to remember it when it was unexpectedly put on Netflix. And it turns out it’s on iPlayer too. I was such a big fan when I was twenty-ish and I can see why and I’d be a fan all over again if it was new today. Still not fallen for Ashes to Ashes, though.
And of course Killing Eve. Well done, BBC, for releasing it early.
YouTube/internet
Laura Lexx’s News Drip. I really like Laura Lexx, I was supposed to be seeing her in Bristol this month and why isn’t she on Mock the Week yet?! You may have seen her Jurgen Klopp Sensible Fantasy Twitter thread or some of her live book readings but my particular favourite is News Drip, a short news broadcast of good, funny and ridiculous news, always featuring “And now, in travel – don’t!”
I’ve been enjoying Backpacking Bananas’ Colombia series. Christianne’s trip got cut short but there were still a dozen or so videos to go with stuff done and filmed before she left and so I’ve watched white water rafting and waterfalls and yoga and hiking and perfect little Caribbean islands. I wish I could make anything even 10% like this.
Brand new to the YouTube world is Seanna’s World. Seanna’s first video is on her London Bridges Challenge back at the end of February and I’m looking forward to seeing more from her.
Honestly, my favourite thing on Twitter is the F Litter. Devon and Cornwall Police Dog’s Puppy Development Programme had a litter last summer and they’re now pretty much full size, living with their various puppy walkers and doing basic training. Paul, who’s head of the programme, sends out regular training challenges to the puppy walker WhatsApp group and they send back videos of the puppies doing them which he then puts on Twitter and I’ve been really enjoying waggy pointy huge GSD puppies practicing their tracking and their searching and walking to heel.
(They’re called the F litter because presumably naming them all with the same letter makes it easier to keep track of each litter. This lot are Flo, Freya, Fozzy, Flint, Floyd, Fendi, Franky, Finni and Freddy.)
Simon decided that TPD Floyd was finding the outside searching too easy so he decided to take it indoors. I’m not sure if his wife Rebecca was aware of his plan but thankfully no damage was done. ( This time) pic.twitter.com/WuOHI0Szbr
— DC_Police Dogs ( Puppy Development Program) (@DC_PoliceDogs) April 20, 2020
I’ve enjoyed Shappi Khorsandi and Mark Watson for their general content, Rob Rouse for his daily chicken races and the Royal Academyfor their art challenges, which are frequently mad (“Who can draw us a fat bird?” “Who can draw us the best aubergine?”. I haven’t been drawing because I can’t but I enjoy the fact that such an auguste institution as the Royal Academy of Arts is putting this kind of stuff on Twitter and I may even have to go and visit them one day when we’re released.
I’m that level of tired when I can’t go to bed I’m sitting on the floor liking tweets people wrote 11 hours ago.
— Shaparak Khorsandi (@ShappiKhorsandi) April 17, 2020
Does anyone else complete an inessential task, THEN write it on the to-do list and instantly cross it off, just for the tiny mental lift?
— Mark Watson, the guy with that book, 'Contacts' (@watsoncomedian) April 20, 2020
HOLY CLOACCA! WHAT A RACE WE HAD TODAY. HERE IT IS IN ALL IT'S GLORY!!! PLEASE SHARE AND RT THE WATTLE OFF THIS. WE WERE ALSO LIVE ON @primevideouk .
JOIN US EVERY MON-FRI HERE AND ON INSTA AND TOMORROW LIVE ON @talkSPORT !!! pic.twitter.com/KTgypsAgm7— Rob Rouse (@robrouse) April 17, 2020
We asked you to doodle bluebells for all those who can't get out to see them.
And you delivered:#RAdailydoodle pic.twitter.com/XIRAZP8Btb
— Royal Academy (@royalacademy) April 14, 2020
Clothes
Yes, clothes. I have got dressed most days, even if only for the daily two-laps-of-the-local-rec. I’ve abandoned running since all this but I’ve taken up daily walking and I’ve covered 27.7 km in April. Other than 5km made of two walks to the shop on the main road, all of that has been within 225m of my house (that’s to the furthest corner of the rec, the furthest point I’ve been on my daily walks).
And the clothes I’ve been wearing for that have been mostly (but not entirely!)
My North Face Women’s Hedgehog Sandal II (the II is obsolete now but the III is available), to give them their technical name. My mountain sandals. The only time I’ve worn solid shoes since lockdown began is when I’ve occasionally put on my mum’s Cotton Traders slip-on things to go in the garden to water my lettuces. Anything else, the sandals. I have tan lines.
I can’t find it on the website (and never expected it to) but back in January or February I went into our nearest Tesco with a clothes department and bought a hoodie. I think it’s an activewear or gymwear thing. I’ve never owned anything like it. It’s thin, made of a fabric a bit like leggings, surprisingly heavy for the size of it, the sort of hoodie you can wear underneath a normal sweatshirty hoodie for extra warmth or wear on its own for April daily walks when it’s too hot for a real hoodie but not quite hot enough for just a t-shirt. It’s covered in crumbs and ice cream and is scheduled for a wash tomorrow but after three different outfit attempts today, I gave up and put it on. It’s the best.
And one last thing – something I never expected to be wearing, at least not until considerably later in the year. I bought a white lacey crocheted beach cover-up to wear as the sort of white lacey dress I see adventurers inexplicably wearing on Instagram. Because it’s entirely see-through I also bought a long, like getting on for knee-length, strappy spaghetti top to wear underneath and that’s getting more wear than I expected (both from Primark and neither on the website).
Coming Thursday: more isolation content. I’m not 100% sure what yet but we’re leaving the visits to the past and the trips to the alternative future and having a few posts set firmly in my isolation present. Wildlife right here, within 300 yards of my house? The weekend I went camping in the garden? Birdwatching? Don’t know yet but that’s what’s going on this blog for now.