#8 A Year Well Spent!
The final instalment of A Weekend Well Spent for this year. A weekly recommendations newsletter featuring my London faves and some things I'm loving that week.
Well, another one bites the dust! We have a couple of days left of the year, and, as to be expected, I’m feeling nostalgic. For this week’s newsletter, I’ll be taking you on a journey of sorts back through the last 12 months with an end-of-year round-up. I’ll cover my favourite eats, reads, trips, and some bits in between.
As I’ll be covering more ground than the usual weekend recap, I’ll keep it brief (I probably won’t) and will limit it to include only my absolute standouts.
Eating
Trullo. I just love this restaurant. It’s everything you want from a dining experience. The food is gorgeous, the staff is knowledgeable and attentive, and the space is impeccable. It makes even the most casual of weeknight dinner catch-ups feel like the special occasions they really are.
Jin Bao was one of the best unexpected eats! I mentioned it in a previous post, but we stumbled upon it on a trip to Kew Gardens, and it was so good!
The Eagle Farringdon may just be the perfect pub. It’s beautiful, unfussy, and serves excellent food. They are known for their steak sandwich, which I can’t comment on as a pesci, but they have ample delicious options available. I’ve had an amazing fish stew there and a mouthwateringly good watermelon and feta salad.
Wearing
Nike Cortez. If they are good enough for Jeremy Allen White, they are good enough for me. I’ve worn them all year, in every season, and next year is set to be no different!
The vintage Aquascutum wool coat I got from a charity shop on Mare Street may be my best second-hand find to date and maybe even my favourite item in my wardrobe. See her in her full glory here.
Coffee
Potter & Reid. It’s been my most loved and visited cafe this year. Not to be dramatic, but it's become one of my happy places as I’ve navigated being recently made redundant from my job of four years. Spending a few hours there on a weekday morning, writing and planning, has given the Capricorn-rising part of my brain that little bit of routine it craves. You can read my declaration of love for this cafe here.
Visiting
It is, in fact, New York or nowhere, I’m afraid. I love this city so much that my heart aches for it. I’ve said it before, but I always leave New York feeling that little bit more complete and closer to the person I want to be. I can’t help it, I just believe in the dream of cities, okay!!
I once saw a meme that said an Aquarius’ perfect birthday is on a plane, totally unreachable, headed somewhere far away, and that’s exactly how I spent mine this year. It was heavenly. I met Josh in Seoul, and we spent two weeks traveling around South Korea. It was one of my favorite trips ever. We had the best time, and it was so fun to explore somewhere neither of us had been before. We visited Seoul, Jeonju, and Busan and loved them all.
As I’ve mentioned astrology twice now, I’m sure you are all on the edge of your seat to know my chart. I’m an Aquarius Sun, Capricorn Rising, and Scorpio Moon. Chic, no?
Roma! I took a trip with my mum for the first time in years, and it was as cute as it sounds. We ate, we shopped, we strolled. It was fabulous.
Reading
I think the book that has left the biggest impression was the very first book I read this year, Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe. It’s creative non-fiction writing at its finest and an incredibly important read about the Sackler Dynasty. Other books I really enjoyed this year were A Flat Place by Noreen Masud and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.
Making
I’ve always had very little confidence and, to be honest, little interest in cooking, but I’ve been gently easing myself into learning how to cook over the past few years and really enjoying it. Something I’ve been making a lot of this year is condiments! Dressings, jams, preserves - you name it! I think it’s because they usually feel pretty accessible to my limited culinary skill set, but they have a huge payoff. It is SO satisfying to know I’ve made my own jam or Cesear dressing from scratch! Genuinely, though, it’s really boosted my confidence, and if you are a little wobbly in the kitchen, I would definitely recommend giving it a go. It’s also great because it’s taught me a lot about balancing and contrasting flavours and understanding the basics. It’s educational and fun!!
This year has also been my first real foray into baking! As expected, there have been some disasters, but one thing I have perfected is my madeleines.
A big part of what’s encouraged my cooking journey was finding the right cookbooks for me—ones that catered to my experience and tastes and made me want to learn about food. I’ve returned to the same cookbooks over and over again this past year, and they deserve an honourable mention!
Anna Jones’ One Pot, Pan, Planet
The Violet Bakery Cookbook by Claire Ptak
Doing
Watching Arsenal at the Emirates has been one of my favourite things to do this year! It’s really awakened a healthy competitive spirit in me (have I mentioned my chart yet? I’m a Scorpio moon, btw) and has added this sweet extra layer of love for North London, where I’m from. It’s notoriously difficult to get tickets to see the men’s team, but it's super easy to get tickets to see the incredible women’s team.
Going to the National Portrait Gallery. It’s such a great gallery, and I always really enjoy its exhibitions. This year, I saw David Hockney: Drawing from Life and Francis Bacon: Human Presence.
London has a few open-water swimming spots that feel like little pockets of an oasis during sticky, sweaty summer days. The best place, in my opinion, is Hampstead Heath Ponds. It’s an iconic and very beloved London institution. The Ladies Pond, in particular, is an incredibly special place. Other notable mentions are West Reservoir and Beckenham Place. Look, I’m under no illusion that they are not murky ponds, and various bird droppings usually surround you while you are sunbathing, but they are still magical, I swear!
This has far surpassed my intended word limit, so I think this will be it for this week and this year! Thanks so much for being here; it really means more to me than you know ❤️ x