If you were one of the 11 million+ Aussies in lockdown at some point this month, I’m sure you spent part of July feeling like ~*~ the vibes were off ~*~. SAME!
Though I’ve slowly settled into a lockdown routine (wake, walk, work, eat, repeat), there were still books to be read and socially-distanced fun to be had.
So welcome one and all to the first wrap up newsletter - also known as the thing I promised you all before shooting off two completely unrelated newsletters.
Other things I read this month:
Living on Stolen Land - Ambelin Kwaymullina (Poetry): Short & succinct, these poems on colonialism in Australia should be required reading for Australians I think!
Who Gets to be Smart - Bri Lee (Non-Fiction): I won’t lie, I struggled with this one. It had interesting information but I think there was a missed opportunity here to dive deeper on inequality in our education system rather than focussing so much on the Rhodes scholar program. It also didn’t quite sit right that Lee seems to only acknowledge her own privilege to a small degree. Others have loved this one though, I know.
The Mothers - Brit Bennett (Contemporary Fiction): Such beautiful and brilliant writing from Brit Bennett, I imagine if you read & enjoyed Vanishing Half, this one (her debut) will do the trick too! I have read and enjoyed both now 💛
100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze - Clayton Zane Comber (Contemporary YA): This one was cute & a nice light read to distract from reality. If that’s what you’re looking for, I feel you and can recommend this one. Be warned though it did also make me cry 🙃
A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World - C.A. Fletcher (Dystopian Fiction) - Much like how I feel about action films, this book just had one or two too many twisty-turns for me and I was ready for it to end about 50 pages earlier. BUT, I did really enjoy the writing and the characters, so I’m still glad I picked it up! Purely a personal preference and I know many folks who’ve loved this one.
We are, indeed, creatures of habit…myself especially. So with not much else to tell you about this month, here are the meals that are keeping me sustained through the long lockdown days. I know you’re thoroughly interested in this ‘culinary’ content.
SOME FUN! I highly recommend any and all of these little activities to keep the lockdown blues away (if only for a night).
Our escape room was done through Escape Hunt Sydney - they have 3 ‘rooms’ available & you can link up between households (virtually of course) to do it! We’ll be doing the other two for sure :)
A meal swap is a fun idea if you have friends who live near you! We arranged a contactless swap with our buddies and it was great to have a new meal to try outside our usual routine-y rotation! Alternatively, you could try an Uber Eats meal swap with some pals & order dinner for each other.
We’ve been doing virtual trivia with our mate* Breko. $10 a head, join from anywhere via Zoom, teams just need to be minimum 3 people and again can link up between households (yes, virtually).
*When I say mate, I mean we have been doing his pub trivia for about 3 years now. We’re not sick of it yet which should tell you something!We also did a contactless drop off of Oreos to all neighbours unit doors. They were on special & vegan so seemed like a good choice, and it was a lovely way to connect with some block-mates.
Not pictured…this month I’ve also been part of a book swap AND a letter swap, both of which made me smile beause putting together a bit of mail to make someone else smile is really rewarding, let alone opening something fun!
A friend has also been sending us a photo of one conversation card from a FlexFactory card pack each day to our group chat - a fun way to connect and have a little 5-10 min chat without having to mention the weather or the case numbers.
I also just want to give a MASSIVE THANK YOU to all of you who have emailed me, sent me DMs on Instagram, left lovely notes on your shop orders, shared snippets of this newsletter in your IG stories to spread the love, or even bought me virtual coffees (*cries in happy*). Connecting with you all in a new way through this newsletter is absolutely the best thing that’s happened this lockdown. Hands down. I’m so glad you’re liking it ❤️😭
Alright, there we go. Hopefully you got something out of this longer form newsletter, and if not…here’s a gif of a kitten having his tummy rubbed that I have no joke had as a bookmark on my browser since 2012 because it brings me JOY.
Hugs,
Mel
A Cosy Reader: The Newsletter is a free newsletter written to bring you a smile. If you like my stuff, consider checking out my shop or buying me a coffee.