Add to List - #85
Rooftop saunas, Materialists-inspired fashion, Tart, and bringing back Blancmange
Hello, thank you, and welcome. I love you for being here!
Add to List is my Sunday round-up. And this week it’s arriving a day late for the bank holiday. It’s the small things that brought me joy, evoked an emotional reaction, or became some short-lived stability in the past seven eight days.
Obsession
A case of the overplays on this week.
Two songs on repeat this week: very different energies, but both good feels.
Love myself a little bit of Olivia Dean, and I much prefer her more upbeat stuff.
And after I uploaded this song to my instagram post, I haven’t been able to extract this earworm. Funky 00s floorfiller energy at its finest. Bexter is never a bad idea.
Confession
DOWN, Immature? (3)
Yes.
I did laugh at this on Saturday’s crossword. I am 32 going on 12?
Shook
The ‘side-bum’.
Even if Dua Lipa, the woman we all wish we were, is making this a thing, this is not a thing. The side bum is absolutely NOT a thing. Please can nobody make this a thing? Thank you.
Cook
A mix of in-house and al-fresco dining this week.
Labneh, roasted balsamic tomatoes, freekeh cooked by me - when a veggie friend popped over for dinner this week, I trialled something new and served it alongside a beetroot and goats cheese salad, and some chilli halloumi kebabs.
Unctuously-filled prawn gyozas; Okko, Broadway market - It may have been thanks to the sauna beforehand, but even though this very quick meal was ordered with 3 minutes to spare before kitchen closed and devoured within a grand total of 20 minutes, the Izakaya-style sushi and small plates scene here felt incredibly zen.
Chilled reds, gildas, cheese, and duck rillettes; Provisions, Holloway Road - What is it about dining in a deli that feels so comforting? Something about seeing produce stocked up around you, coming to your plate, you begin to feel as if you too are almost essential ingredient in the running of the place, I think.
On Saturday night, I took a candle-lit window seat and took in the views (mostly Arsenal fans leaving the Emirates tbh — less romantic views but spirits were high on Holloway Road after a 5- 0 victory) and so were mine. When Provisions supplies some of London's best wine-focused bars and restaurants including Top Cuvee, Sager + Wilde, the Chiltern Firehouse, it’s safe to say the selection of drinks they have by the glass are fantastic. The snacks are sublime. Of course I had one too many glasses to remember the exact name of the delicious chilled red we tasted. Oh well, I’ll just have to head back to make sure I record it next time. And maybe buy a bottle for the road.
Scrambled eggs with garlic chilli oil; at home. This was thanks to a breakfast spread organised by my sister. Two of my favourite things. Together? Unparalleled.
Blancmange trifle; at a friend’s birthday. On Sunday my best-friend’s mum made a trifle with blancmange. I love the slightly corn-floury tainted taste; sort of like a refined school dinner. And the retro-custard is about due a comeback. I’m surprised this hasn’t made it on to a distressed-walled bistro menu…yet. It’s so kitsch (and weirdly delicious). Bring back blancmange, I say.
Book
Drippingly erotic but easy to digest, this heady, indulgent memoir following the life of a female London chef will not only leave you hungry but also more informed on the reality of what it’s like to work as a woman in the heat of this vibrant city’s kitchens.
Side note: if anyone else has read this book and can work out the specific restaurants she works at, I’d love to know. I’m a few clicks away from starting a Reddit thread about Crab Bottarga Pasta specialities.
Look
Dakota Johnson’s wardrobe.
I went to see Materialists on Monday (enjoyed it a lot, namely because it’s thematically related to some of what I’ve been thinking about and writing recently) and because I enjoyed the all-too-knowing laughter from an entire afternoon cinema of 30-something women laughing when Lucy from Adore Matchmakers has to convince Sophie to go on a date with a man who is listed as 5 ft 11 — she argues back that she knows that means he’s 5 foot 9. (Hinge girlies, I know you will relate).
The film is a lovely Tuesday evening type of viewing, one of those flicks that feels relaxing to your body while uncovering your inner mind. Director Celine Song actually worked as a matchmaker for a brief period of time (more about this here) and clearly weaves in her own experiences of evaluating humans based on physical characteristics, salary, etc. In true Celine Song style, not much-drama unfolds, and when it does it feels calm; almost like a mirror is being brought down over the screen to reflect how you’d behave in a similar situation. The film is less about the twists and turns that the characters go through, and more of an undulating existential interrogation on how we’re commoditising love. No huge spoilers, but I did think it has quite a hopeful ending.
Plus Dakota Johnson’s wardrobe it is outstanding. It’s a lot of well-tailored but relaxed fit suit trousers and shirts, neutral palettes and great but understatedly chic jewellery.
Watching it makes me wish I had a job where I might be required to power-dress beyond my PJs. That said, this look actually includes PJ top from a matching set I own which I’ve restyled a la Lucy from Adore.
Can’t Stop Scanning
Future slots at the Hackney Rooftop Saunas.
Saunas still seem to be having their hot moment.
And on Thursday I went to the Hackney Rooftop Sauna for the first time. The word ‘Hackney’ in front of anything immediately tends to make me think I won’t like it on account of its propensity to make me feel incredibly uncool. Reader, I loved it. And thanks to the cold-plunge, at points I did actually feel incredibly uncool.
Climb an unassuming industrial staircase on Netil Corner to a dimly-lit oasis of calm, sporting steel cold plunges baths and wooden bucket showers. The views from your private cabin sauna span far enough to see The Shard, The Gherkin, and most of Canary Wharf.
There’s something about hearing the drinking, chinking, and the chaos of the city on a summer evening while feeling utterly zen that felt quite magical. Murmery-backing tracks of pints al fresco pints while bringing yourself back into your body felt like a perfectly sobering distillation of what it means to experience all a juxtaposed city life has to offer. That opening line of The Great Gatsby sprung to mind:
"I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”
Less of the repelled part, though, mostly enchanted tbh.
Forward Planning
This week I’m heading to the countryside for a few days where I’ll be catching up with the writer pals who I worked with last year on co-producing RE-PRODUCTION.
But before I go, I’ll be popping along to the press night for Juniper Blood at The Donmar Warehouse. My sister is in it! And the preview section finishes next week with press night happening on Tuesday. Juniper Blood (written by the great Mike Bartlett) asks us to query how we look after each other, the land, and protect the future, while bringing together five different characters with different world views on a farm in Oxfordshire. The Donmar offers a lot of the best writing and drama this city has to offer, so to be able to watch my super talented little sis on stage there (before she’s even 30 — legend alert) is something I can’t even begin to put into words just quite how proud I feel. I predict I’ll start weeping the minute I see her walk out from the wings.
Also a reminder on a couple of other upcoming events:
Our next community meet up for writers on this platform will happen on 17th September. It’s taking place at the Gilded Acorn bookshop on 17th September. This time, it’s a panel discussion about how this platform can act as a method of self-discovery with chance to mingle afterwards. Prices include two drinks and entry to the event. You can sign up here. More details on
.I’m playing Cupid again with the folks at BookBar and Bored of Dating Apps on 2nd September. It’s a gorgeous chance to connect in real life with people who are genuinely looking to spark meaningful conversations, and discuss stories and ideas. Gents, still some spaces left if you fancy your very own Hugh Grant moment.
Muse <3