Mike TV's Wonka Bar

touching base / old phones

Morning folks

I haven’t written because I feel I have had nothing to write. This has often been the case, but committing to cracking the laptop open and sending a newsletter out each Sunday morning has proven that there is often things to write. Half the job is just about turning up, it would appear. But last week I just didn’t feel it.

This is a tentative toe back in the water, mainly to say hello and to see how your Januarys are going?

I’ve been working lots. Planning a move. Doing more around the house because my husband as done his back in and recovery is taking a lot longer than we thought. Contending with kids viruses. Eating way too much. I know full well that making time and space to write or play music is what makes me feel good, but some weeks it feels incredibly hard to drag yourself to the page or piano.

So at the moment I’m trying to learn from previous Januarys and just go super easy. My birthday falls on 1st February (Imbolc- halfway between winter and spring) which always feels like a good time to regroup.

Saltburn-by-the-Sea a couple of weeks ago. Not quite the re-set button we had hoped for, but this was a nice sunset.

This past week has been odd. My phone broke, and I’ve been using a super old Nokia in its place. No internet connectivity, no easy predictive text; I feel like I’ve been living in a weird world all of my own. I’ve read Laurie Colvin’s “Happy all the Time”; the first of hers I’ve read and exactly what was needed. I’ve watched all of Reservation Dogs on Disney Plus, which has perhaps found its way onto my top ten series I’ve watched. I’ve listened to some earworms (see above).

It would be easy to wax lyrical about the lack of distractions and notifications and constant pressure to read all the emails. Of course that has felt good. But I have also missed my WhatsApp voice note conversations with friends and Spotify podcasts quite a lot. I have lots of thoughts about this, but not for right now. I have no prompt this week for you, just this piece of writing from a couple of months ago from when I was feeling particularly inhabited by my smartphone and wanted to throw it in the sea.

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Apologies for the terrible picture formatting!

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As ever, thanks for reading. Whilst I don’t have many coherent thoughts or creative prompts to offer, I’m always happy to chat and would love to know how your month is going.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Much love,

Em x

P.S My book comes out on 4th Feb. I will try to be more present on social media, but this newsletter is my favourite way of chatting to people, so if you know someone who would like to read it, or would like to read my book- please share share share.