Tag: postive

Categories
Adulthood Non-fiction Recommendations Review

Quite by Claudia Winkleman

Quite. A word that implies negativity. Not quite good enough. Sort of. Alright. But Claudia Winkleman turns that around in her fabulous non-fiction account. She puts quite as the level of expectation we should have for our lives. For our days, our experiences – everything.

Put it this way. You go out for the day. It’s a bank holiday. The sun is shining and you’ve got the next day off. Inside your mind you might picture the perfect lunch overlooking the river. Endless supplies of alcohol, the sun beaming down on your face as you enjoy every last sip. Then onto the next place.

Well. The lunch is crowded, the sun is too hot, the bevergages are bloating, everywhere is packed, things cost money. In fact the day is never perfect. But it mostly quite good.

If you went with that expectation, it leaves room for perfection, but if perfection never happens then your day was still a good day. This is what Claudia is getting at.

So many gems inside this novel I found myself noting down. The final line is one of the best ‘We’re here for five minutes: enjoy the view’ Words to live by each moment at a time.

Well worth a read. An honest account of life. It makes you feel good. It leaves you with a different outlook. And it boosts you to think you’re actually doing alright. And that alright is good enough.

For links to all of my writing related stuff, my link tree is below. You can also find published work in my portfolio. My debut novel, Dear Brannagh, is OUT NOW. If you enjoy what you’re seeing here and are interested in following me on my writing journey as I self-publish novel number two, then please subscribe to my newsletter by filling in the form at the bottom of any page of my website. Thank you x

linktr.ee/HJMWriting

Categories
Adulthood Non-fiction Observations

If the dilemma is other’s opinions, it’s not your dilemma

After four long months I have finally spent a weekend at the beach – yipee! Oh how I loved it. I’ve written about this magical place before and each time I visit, I grow to love it more. The peaceful feeling, the space, freedom, chilled vibes, everything that makes life great.

From the moment I turn on my ignition in my car, I smile from within every time I go to this place. The journey is part of the bliss and I treasure every second. Sometimes I choose to listen to my favourite music, sometimes I let Spotify choose and other times it’s podcasts or a chat show that I am feeling more. This time I chose podcasts – On Wednesday’s We Drink Wine. Check it out.

The podcast is very new to the mix and is hosted by Made In Chelsea stars Sophie Habboo and Melissa Tattum. The girls basically chat and drink wine. It does what it says on the tin and because they are the same age as me and love wine as much as me, I knew I could relate. I wasn’t wrong.

As they go they have certain features that will appear in each episode and one of these features is a dilemma section. During this they each pick a dilemma that a listener has sent in. Mostly these are relationship related because, let’s face it, that’s what’s on many 26 year old/ humans minds often and they respond with their opinions on the situation. I agreed with most. It was easy listening.

Then it struck me.

Do I have a dilemma?

I’m 26 years old and haven’t experienced many of these struggles faced. Boyfriends wanting open relationships, not posting me on social media, feeling so jealous that I could kill and so on.

Is that my dilemma? Should I ask them about it?

Then I stopped and asked myself if I am happy. The answer is yes. I then went further and asked how I would put it to them. Every time I tried to phrase it, the dilemma part of the situation was all down to other people’s opinions. Because people might find me weird; because it isn’t normal to be single for so long; because guys may question my motive if I were to find someone I felt I wanted to be in a long-term relationship with; because I won’t have anything to bring to the table when girl friends moan about their fellas. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Am I happy? Yes. Is this my dilemma? No.

If the problem becomes a problem purely based on other people’s opinions and when you remove that factor it is no longer a problem, then it was never YOUR problem in the first place.

FACT. IMO of course 😉

For links to all of my writing related stuff, my link tree is below. My debut novel, Dear Brannagh, is OUT NOW!!

https://linktr.ee/HJMWriting

Categories
Adulthood Non-fiction Observations

Let me tell you about gin…

It’s not news to hear about 2020 being a year like no other where everybody is clueless, scared and drinking too much. My current book on the go is Dawn O’Porter’s Life In Pieces and I’ve just finished Piece 4 which is all about booze.

I’m not the first and so unashamed to say that yes, I have drank far too much during 2020. I think I’ve had maybe one or two full days without consuming a single drop of the good stuff – ew.

But let me tell you about gin.

Gin is a drink which I love but dip in and out of. Wine is a constant, as is beer, but my consumption of gin appears in phases. I find it a refreshing drink to have on a warm summers day and also enjoy it during Christmas time in the depths of the cold so there is no logical explanation to this, it simply just happens.

One factor which does influence my gin intake is calorie counting and a poor effort to diet. I’ve googled calories within various alcoholic beverages numerous times throughout the year and while wine is awful (ly great but bad for losing weight) it’s surprising how few or many calories certain drinks have. I’ve been known to buy a crate of Corona for the week’s consumption after discovering only 133 calories in each bottle. There’s more in Coke and I’m certainly not sticking to water of an evening.

I digress.

It is well known that gin and tonic is (I think) low in calories. This is one huge reason why I rekindled my love for it recently.

I’m lucky to have a friend, well more like family actually – let’s call him framily – who used to bar-tend in America. He takes pride in his making of beverages. With this well known fact I asked him to make me a gin and tonic the other day.

It was SO GOOD.

Refreshing, clean tasting, strong, light, everything you could ever dream of in two substantial glasses.

It’s important to take the good from this year and these drinks are definitely towards the top of the list.

It’s Friday so even the more restrained of us will probably be having a drink tonight. Make it gin. But it won’t be as good. That’s all from me this week.

All blog posts can be found at https://www.harrietmills.co.uk/ and to read my published work visit my portfolio. My debut novel, Dear Brannagh, is out 30th November:

Shop now