I thought I was going to be “man down” today. Yesterday I had that awful sort of headache where it feels as though you have a big heavy bowling ball inside your skull, and everything sort of shifts when you lean forwards to put your shoes on and you get the sudden sense of foreboding that you’re about to have to spend four days in bed.
I also had Scratchy-Throat-Clearing-Throat™ and we all know what certain doom that spells. Can you ever come back from the illness brink once you’ve felt that little throat prickle?
Seemingly, yes, because I’ve just had a solid three hour daytime nap, there’s a can of Coke (regular, the only acceptable version) in the freezer and I’m ploughing through my to-do list while the kids are at the park. I feel as though I might just about pull through, folks. Is this because I’ve been spritzing the inside of my mouth with a Vitamin D spray all year? I have to say, this is the first year ever that I’ve taken Vitamin D every day (I think the spritz to the inside of the cheek bypasses the digestive system, or something?) and I have been noticeably well.
Apart from today. And also apart from the near-crippling level of fatigue, lack of motivation and sense that the human race is completely doomed that perpetually hangs over me. But isn’t that just called “life in 2026”?
I know you’re desperate to find out what’s on my to-do list and I shall tell you, because writing it all down means that I then have to commit to doing it:
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Buy The Right Kind of Lightbulbs
I have nine different lamps waiting to be plugged in at The Dorset Nest and they all take a different type of lightbulb. I’m knee deep in bayonet B22s, dimmable golf balls and E27 filament bulbs. The only constant, here, is that they are all in 2700K “warm white”, the only light bulb warmth that should be used in a domestic setting, unless you like your house to look like a kill room from Dexter.
If you’ve ever bought “daylight bulbs” or cool white bulbs by mistake then you’ll know how clinical and cold they make things look, and if you go much warmer than 2700K (the lower the K number, the warmer) then everything takes on the hue of a 1970s living room at Christmas, a sickly sort of yellow that surpasses “cosy warmth” and enters “nicotine-stained walls” territory.
A sidenote on lamps: I know that I bang on about quality a lot, and how sometimes spending that bit extra will get you something that lasts forever rather than something you’ll donate to the local jumble sale in ten/fifteen years’ time, but buying lamps for this latest cottage renovation has really driven it home. I snapped up a number of high street lamps (I won’t name and shame, because for the price they were fine) but when I unpacked them down at the cottage, they looked really flimsy and cheaply finished compared to the ones I had already set up, namely from OKA and Pooky.
One of the high street table lamps was just shy of eighty pounds, so less than half of the price of the Pooky and OKA ones I had it next to it, but the quality was way less than a half. Even down to the type of flex and the sturdiness of the bulb holder.
It’s a tricky one, talking about value and affordability, but lifting up the high street lamp (painted wood with a pleated cotton shade, easily knocked over due to its weighing approx 45g) and then the OKA one (bronze with a pleated silk shade, hefty af), the OKA one felt like something you would never part with, a precious object, whereas the high street one almost seemed as though it was there to serve a purpose. Fill a gap. And it was still eighty quid, which is NOT to be sniffed at.
I fully realise that the higher-end lamps are out of reach for many, price-wise, but I suppose my thoughts are that if you could stretch to the more expensive one, but were also thinking I bet that high street one that’s half the price is exactly the same; from my experience, it won’t be. Which is why I scour eBay for second hand Pooky and OKA and Soho Home lamps almost weekly and always have an eye out for sales. They’re never cheap, the good second hand ones, but you can often find them for about the same price as a brand new high street one.
If you can deal with the faff of it all. Many can’t, and I get it. They just want to order something online and know it’ll arrive safely and that they can send it back if they don’t like it. It’s just that often, the second hand market opens up this whole world of incredible levels of quality for the same sort of price.
Argh, I attempt to say something vaguely useful and I tie myself up in worry knots, trying not to sound tone deaf! I’d better not get started on my cushions spiel. (Get them in the OKA sales, when they are on, and you will have no regrets, ever. They look a million dollars and the feather inserts are supreme. Also, Rise & Fall’s Crisp & Cool Organic Cotton bedding sets, if we want to talk about creme de la creme. I’ve been “testing” premium bed linens for the past couple of years, aka “changing mattress size and therefore having to completely renew the bed linens at great expense” and the Rise & Fall have felt the most expensive and crisp and luxurious by a country mile. They have 20% off at the moment, on everything, which brings a kingsize set with duvet cover, sheet and pillow cases down to £136, here*. For (very vague) comparison’s sake, M&S non-organic kingsize cotton duvet set, plus fitted sheet, would come in at around £120.)
Buy Two Sets of Non-Stick Pans
I need a set of pans for The Dorset Nest and I also need new pans for home, because my trusty porridge pan (made by Salter) has fallen apart and the one I tried to use in lieu (stainless, no non-stick coating) instantly burned the milk and now I can’t get the scorch off for love nor money. I’ve tried everything, including wire brush with a dishwasher tablet and also boiling vinegar and bicarb inside the pan.
Bloody hell.
You’d think, what with being 45 and also currently furnishing my second holiday let, that I’d be au fait with the best pans, but you don’t really get to test that many pans in life, do you? I mean you do, because how many pans lose their non-stickness or fall apart, but it’s not something you tend to keep tabs on.
I’m just perpetually being let down by pans. I think I’m onto a good thing and then, a couple of years down the line, the coating starts to flake into my pasta sauce or the metal induction base comes loose and falls off. Pans should be for life! They’re such monstrosities to throw away; large, heavy, can they even be recycled?! I feel sickened every time one goes out. I think the pan companies should have to come and collect them and then they must re-coat them or whatever, make them like new. Why this total lack of responsibility, why can companies make stuff that only lasts a few years and that’s absolutely fine. No problemo, throw it on the skip.
Ugh.
The thing is, I would invest in a set of Hexclad or Le Creuset or whatever it is that ranks most highly if I could be sure they wouldn’t let me down. But imagine wanging that much money on a set of pans to find, five years down the line, that they were starting to fail? I know where I’m at with lamps and cushions, I know that my OKA lamps from 2017 are still as pristine as the day I bought them, but I don’t heat those up on a hob every day and scrape at them repeatedly with a nylon fish slice.
So: recommendations, please. Pans. Which do you rate? Which last? I need ones that are non-stick coating for the cottage (I have Ninja cookware in The Dorset Nook, but have yet to cook with them, mainly because it’s usually fully booked there and then when there is a gap and I can go in to check everything, I’ll take a romp along the cliffs to West Bay for something to eat rather than cook something myself) but I am happy with any sort for here at home, so long as they last.
Tell me then, the brands, the types, the frying pans you’ve had since your twenties and the casseroles that were passed down from your granny. I need to order in the next week, no pressure.
Write and Send my Hand-Printed Thank-You Cards
Yes that is a humble brag, I do hand-print my greetings cards! I’m less of a wanker than you’re thinking though, because I print them purely for enjoyment and satisfaction, not to show off. It’s almost a selfish act rather than a selfless one.
I’m loathe to get you addicted to a new hobby when you’re possibly time-poor as it is, but you will never regret buying an amazing stamp and an ink pad and a load of recycled postcards and brown envelopes! Oh the absolute joy of stamping your way through a pile of stationery and ending up with twenty shop-worthy notecards that look artsy and expensive.
My current favourite stamp is my seahorse. I have all sorts of stamps, from botanicals (these look best on repeat, so stamped across brown paper to use as wrapping) to illustrations of birthday bears and similar to use for kids’ birthday cards, and I like adding to them every year and then rootling about in the box to find inspiration.
There’s something so brilliant about needing a thank you card, or a get well card, or any sort of card and just sliding open the kitchen drawer to find everything you need to instantly create it.
And do you know what? Most cards get thrown out, but I have been to friends’ houses and repeatedly seen my little printed postcards propped up on a shelf in between the plates or vases or what have you, because they look so nice.
I get my stamps and inks from The English Stamp Company here.
Properly Test-Drive the Skylight Calendar - Is It Any Good?
You may remember I was instantly turned off by a few features on the much-advertised-online Skylight calendar and that, twenty minutes after setting it up, I packed it back into the box in a strop. I was going to immediately return it but in the interests of research I feel I need to persevere. At any rate, the returns window is lengthy (which is generous of them) and so there is no real rush to post it back, other than to give my credit card a healthier balance.
So, is it worth persevering with? The thing is, my natural instinct
