Keep your face to the sun ... and you will never see the shadows

That's a quote from Helen Keller and I felt it was particularly apposite.

I mean, we've had a global plague; the earth is warming even faster than the climate change scientists predicted; World War III is on the horizon; there is about to be a food shortage in the poorest parts of the world; Donald Trump is promising to run again; a relatively few people cut from a certain cloth are about to choose our next prime minister (having done such a great job the last time round .... and the time before that ...); inflation is running at 9%; there is another rail strike; the NHS is crumbling; and our holiday plans are being thwarted by those awful French border control police/baggage handlers/perfidious airlines.

What next? A swarm of locusts perhaps?

You wouldn't be blamed for feeling a bit down in the dumps. And yet, and yet ... I see reasons to be cheerful. Here are some of the things that made me happy this week.

We're not in lockdown

Did anyone else feel like they were in lockdown last week? On those 40 degree days?

I certainly did. In our house we stayed inside, shunned all contact with the outside world, took to rearranging the kitchen cupboards and even considered making banana bread. It was just like being in lockdown.

In fact it reminded me of that story of the Sun and the North Wind having a competition to see who could make a man take off his coat. All week we'd been regaled with stories of a seventeenth wave of Covid but we ignored them and went about our business. Until, one day, temperatures reached 40 degrees and you couldn't pay us to go outside. The sun won.

Almost back to normal now; it makes me happy that we are really not in lockdown.

And the winners are ...

Everyone thought it would be a competition between Love Island and the Tory Leadership debates. One is completely inane, heavily manipulated behind the scenes and designed to appeal to the lowest level of human intelligence ... and the other ...is (repeat after me).

Saved! Last night neither of these ridiculous sides won. The England women's football team not only triumphed over Sweden, they finally wrenched attention away from these other two, rather more pointless battles.

Merveilleux

Cycling is now about a million times more popular than it was before the pandemic. The Tour de France received more viewers than ever and this year, for the first year ever (barring a few half hearted, un-televised and poorly promoted versions) there is a Tour de France Femmes.

The views are just as stunning and, I'm reliably informed by my son, the cycling is just as skilful and slightly more exciting for being less predictable than the men's race.

This is progress. Though I doubt I'll make next year's team, despite being on the most gruelling training regime you could imagine, cooked up by the aforementioned son, who does not seem to appreciate I'm a bit older than him and his mates.

Metaverse in Reverse

Last month I deleted Facebook from all my devices. Don't use it, don't need it. I'm about to do the same with Instagram though I can't give up What'sApp. My teenage kids (one of whom is now 20 but I can't bring myself to admit that) rarely use either, preferring SnapChat, TikTok and YouTube. My son, I'm sad to say, also uses Twitter in a very focused way for updates and news on cycling.

Lo and behold revenues are falling in the Meta verse. This is going to be interesting ...

Pack your bags

I'm in heaven. Why did no-one tell me about this before? Packing cubes - as illustrated below - are a fabulous way of squishing your holiday packing down so that it takes up minimal space and is easy to access without making a mess of everything if you're making multiple stops. It's almost as satisfying as Marie Kondo telling me to throw out anything that didn't "give joy" and Kat Farmer advocating throwing away anything that couldn't met matched with at least three other things.

I could actually get away with just taking these three bags on my forthcoming holiday. Carry on it is. Happy days.

Until I realised I also had to pack shoes (beach, flats, these cute green terry towelling ones, ubiquitous white trainers and one pair of heels just in case .... actually two pairs of heels, one white, one black, obvs), toiletries, sun cream for me and seven other people because no-one else ever takes any, cycle gear, three posh dresses just in case and .... a bike. So not carry on then.

At least I don't need to take actual books anymore. Thank heavens for Audible.

Summer

I'm not talking about the season, I'm talking about the book. Summer is the fourth in the quartet of novels by Ali Smith named after the seasons. She began in 2017 with Autumn, promising one book a year for the next four years and persuading David Hockney to allow her to use his iPad drawings as covers. How confident must you be to make that level of commitment?

What's extraordinary is how she captures the zeitgeist in each novel, particularly as she had no idea what was coming. Autumn was published in 2017 and she is clearly angry/disappointed/despairing about Brexit. In Summer ... well, there's a nasty bug going around and there is a government who shuts down its own parliament when it doesn't get the result it wants.

You've got to love literature, and art, and theatre, and all things cultural for shining a light on our world.

Australians

Speaking of culture, my summer has also been made all the more pleasant by a seemingly endless stream of guests, many of whom hail from Australia. As well as being very jolly and appreciative of London, even when it was BOILING, they do make you realise that whilst it might be a hassle getting to Greece, France, Italy or Spain for your holidays, at least you don't have to travel to the other side of the world to get there.

Also, they are happy to join you for a beer/aperol/rosé/you name it at pretty much any time of the day. As long as it's sunny.

Time Off

Taking a break. Switching off. I really love my work but everyone needs to take a proper break from time to time and I'm no exception. So I'm switching off for a bit.

Reading recommendations greatly appreciated.

I'm reading: No idea. Waiting for your fabulous recommendations.

I'm watching: The Newsreader. Quite like it. Has Australians in it.

I'm listening to: The Long History of Argument .. . from Socrates to Social Media. Rory Stewart explores why proper argument is essential and where we're going wrong today. Thought provoking.