Monologues, Milestones, and Mofo Baked Goods...

No shade to anyone having one-sided 
conversations in coffee shops. I 
can't even imagine.

I totally get it. I get why, when you're a solo parent with a baby in a coffee shop, the conversation will be wholly one-sided. But the woman currently sitting to my left in Costa, is on a whole other level. I'm listening to a monologue worthy of Alan Bennet. With not a word uttered by her baby (I'm pretty sure they're asleep - and also a baby) she's giving anyone in earshot a detailed rundown of their morning so far. 'You love Costa, don't you? You were so good for the nurse when she did your jabs just now. Isn't it busy? We're lucky to get a table. Shall we look in Next after this? I'm going to ring Nanna in a bit...'  It seems all of life can be overhead if only you're willing to listen. Anyway, today's job in Costa was to write this week's opening paragraph. TICK.

Yeah I do!

Writing News

Back. On. Track. Yeah, baby! My little fingers have tippy-tappy-typed all week. I'm back to a work-life balance instead of the life-life one of recent times. Excitingly, a few small milestones have been reached. Firstly, I've been obsessed with reducing my word count to 60,000. It's a book for old children and young teens*. It needs to be manageable. Besides, rising printing costs mean every page counts. I want to keep the price sensible. This week I managed to tweak already-tweaked chapters to achieve that goal. Yay me. Now I just need the 60,000 words to be the right ones. The second mile stone is even better. For the first time during the process, I've started to think that this story's pretty good. I always get there eventually, but there's swathes of self-doubt and insecurity to work through first. It's great to finally reach this point.

Culture News

Ronald from Jury Duty. 

Here's a thoroughly brilliant recommendation from my brother Dom, who got it from his mate Ryan. (As soon as I know where Ryan heard about it, I'll be sure to pass it on.) Jury Duty on Amazon Freevee is wonderful. It was described to me as The US Office meets The Truman Show - that made no sense so I didn't bother. But after another nag from Dom, I gave the first episode a go. It's very funny and ultimately heartwarming. After I'd finished the series, I realised no one else I knew had watched it - it dropped in April - so this is a PSA from me. Give it a look, it's delightful. In other Cultural News, last week's Succession was neither funny nor heartwarming. The Roy family and their news channel have installed a fascist in the White House. It was perfectly done but incredibly scary. The real life parallels made for a devastatingly tense hour of TV. 

(£1 coin included for scale!)

Food and Drink 

A Saturday morning jaunt to town meant I came home with lunch from Rough Hand Made Bakery. Situated in the Albert Dock, I'd walked past it loads when I was Eurovisioning. Verdict? Well worth the carpark price. That's a huge recommendation right there. Pictured is the almond plait and it was delish. Also, absolutely massive!

Out and About
I've been vicariously out and about this week - via flight sites and Google maps. Friends of mine have just booked a spontaneous trip to Bruges. I was properly excited for them, then got straight online to see what cheap flights I could find for myself. I spent a very happy hour choosing all the city breaks I need to add to my bucket list. I don't want to jinx these future plans, but it's fair to say the chilly capitals of Scandinavia have not been overlooked. 

What do you say? Same time, same place, next week? Excellent stuff. See you then. And in the meantime...

...have a lovely week, folks.

*And for any fully grown human that wants a fabulous read. It reads even better as an adult.