Pizza ovens, Real Housewives, phone calls and John O'Ceallaigh's home comforts
Welcome to issue #11 of Nesting
Ding dong, lockdown is gone! We’re merrily downing bottles of rosé in our local beer gardens, we’re upgrading our outdoor furniture at enormous expense and we’re even wearing jeans instead of leggings, on special occasions. It all got a bit bleak back there, didn’t it? But guess what? There are actually things I want to take with me on my way out of Covid jail. Here are eight of them.
The ability to appreciate nature. I mean truly appreciate it. Not just, ‘the blossom is out, let’s take a photo for Instagram.’ I mean appreciate it so hard that you’ll stop in the street to admire flowers you’ve never noticed before, or take a diversion on the way home to hang out under a magnolia tree you particularly like. I don’t want to forget that when everything else was taken away from us, nature was still there, keeping us all alive, entertained and happier, for free.
Not thinking it’s normal or acceptable to go out for dinner three times a week. And then getting an uber home for £35, as though I am a multi-millionaire with a pension and a highly paid job in banking. This is not normal. My pre-lockdown bank statement is a genuine thing of wonder and bafflement to me. I don’t want to go back there.
Realising that key workers are… well, key. And brave and brilliant. I want us to continue having NHS nurses and teachers on magazine covers and I want to be influenced by them, not by influencers. Can we do that?
Liking the hiking. I know we all think we never want to go for a walk again, but give it a month or two and I reckon we’ll be back out there, pacing our parks for the sheer joy of it. Side-by-side socialising is the best, plus it’ll help us live longer.
Slowing down. Why did we fill our lives with so much before? It really was completely unnecessary. I pledge to do just one thing a day from now on. So a perfectly reasonable excuse to turn down a dinner invite post-lockdown will be, ‘sorry I can’t, that’s the day I am planning to post a letter.’
Being neighbourly. We no longer have to tune into Channel 5 to learn that everybody needs good neighbours. We found that out during lockdown, when we ran out of toilet roll or really needed an impromptu chat. I want to carry on Being More Ramsay Street.
Staying local. My life during lockdown has felt villagey and cosy in a way I previously thought would only have been possible in the 1950s. So I will continue to order bread from the home bakery two streets away and I will no longer travel across London for a hair cut and I will try really, really hard not to get everything from Amazon.
Calling people. WhatsApp messages didn’t feel quite enough during a crisis and Zoom doesn’t do it for me (does it do it for anyone?), but picking up the phone to check in on the people you love? That I did more of and that I will keep doing. More talk, less type.
HOME COMFORTS WITH… JOHN O’CEALLAIGH
I first met John on a press trip to Hong Kong when he was heading up travel for The Telegraph and more recently wanted to swap lives with him when he got stranded in a series of five-star hotels in the Maldives over the second lockdown. Nowadays, you’ll find him here – and at home in Hackney, reluctantly.
How would you describe your home in three words?
As a travel editor who in the Before Times was off gallivanting many times a year, home right now is very familiar, somewhat suffocating and repetitive. I’m not quite climbing the walls, but I’ve come close.
Who is at home with you?
Right now it’s just me and a paltry collection of plants I’m struggling to keep alive.
Current Netflix/Amazon obsession?
I’ve gone old school and unearthed some old DVDs - I still have a player! I’m currently working my way through the entirety of 30 Rock.
Best home comfort meal?
One good thing about lockdown: I’ve improved immensely as a cook and I’m making progress as a baker. I have to resist making it too often, but I do this really good, properly gooey cream cheese and chocolate brownie.
Best section of the Sunday papers?
Of course it’s the travel section of The Telegraph, my alma mater. I know how hard it has been for travel journalists, across the board, to keep going this year and they’ve done a fantastic job. That said, I can’t wait to just read inspiring pieces about nice places to go without having to think about the C word...
Book currently on your bedside table?
I’m just getting started on Anam Cara by the late Irish philosopher and poet John O’Donohue. He was the most amazingly eloquent speaker – as an introduction, anyone who doesn’t know him should do a quick search on YouTube for some of his talks.
Background noise in your house?
If I’m working, there’s probably some innocuous, near-silent and really unsophisticated Spotify playlist in the background. When I’m cooking it’s likely some talk or lecture playing on YouTube.
Bath or shower?
Always shower. I used to have a huge stockpile of fancy products I’d pilfered from various posh hotels, but I’m almost at the end of the pile now. Never thought I’d reach the day…
My garden is….
A little deck with a table and more potted plants in various states of distress.
Your favourite home from home?
That’ll be my other home, and homeland, Ireland. It’s been over a year since I’ve been able to get back and I miss it desperately - I’ll be heading over the first day it’s realistically possible to do so.
Read John’s hot take on the Maldives – one month and six hotels later – here.
FOOD STUFF
The Bottled Baking Company was set up by a guy called Greg Fraser who wanted to make baking more fun for his son. Each reusable bottle comes packed with ingredients for brownies, cookies and cakes. Just shake them out and get cooking. They make such cute gifts.
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Unlike all the other pizza ovens, which cost a million pounds, this one, from Aldi, costs £40 and still does the job. Currently out of stock but they are coming back soon so get in line (or on the waiting list).
BEAUTY STUFF
I don’t really ‘do’ beauty stuff, because I am highly sceptical that any of it actually works. BUT then I tried this new rosehip and hyaluronic overnight mask and woke up glowing, despite having drunk quite a bit of wine the night before. It is rather expensive, but hey, can you put a price on good skin? (Turns out you can, and it’s £85.)
PODCAST STUFF
Housewives and Me
If you don’t know who Dawn Ward is and you aren’t already obsessed with Lisa Vanderpump, this might not be for you. If you do and you are, then welcome to Housewives and Me, a podcast entirely dedicated to The Real Housewives. I recommend the Elizabeth Day episode. Lowbrow and proud.
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Life Changing with Jane Garvey
Extraordinary things always happen to a friend of a friend of a friend, don’t they? In this new series from Jane Garvey (one half of the Fortunately podcast), we finally get to meet that original friend. Absolutely gripping stuff.
TV STUFF
Shooting Joe Exotic
I thought I’d reached peak Joe Exotic, but then Louis Theroux made another show and I was sucked back in, largely because I want to marry Louis Theroux and will happily watch anything he makes. He discovered the Tiger King long before Netflix, of course, with his documentary America’s Most Dangerous Pets and a decade on, he’s back to find out more.
SCROLLING STUFF
Some of the best things I’ve read online this month.
- How to behave in restaurants - a useful refresher course in the Guardian.
- Proof that community really can spring up anywhere - The New Yorker on what happened when a sofa company accidentally hit ‘reply all’ on an email to all of its customers.
- Highly optimistic UK travel inspiration piece in which Yorkshire is cited as the new Provence and Rathfinny in Sussex is presented as a viable alternative to Napa Valley, California.
- Yup, I’m still reading/listening/watching anything to do with Sex in the City – here’s Caroline O’Donoghue’s take on fandom for Harper’s Bazaar.
Right, must dash. Phone calls to make, trees to admire! See you next time. And enjoy that rosé, you deserve it.
Dx
Who on earth is Dominique Afacan?
A very good question. Dominique (that’s me) is a writer, sausage dog owner, and solo mum, based in London. The idea for the Nesting newsletter came about because after ten years as a travel journalist, I wanted to share my new-found excitement about hanging out at home. I am also the author of Bolder – Life lessons from people older and wiser than you – a great birthday present, if I don’t say so myself – and available to buy here. You can follow me on Instagram here or Twitter here.
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