July 2025 Newsletter

What’s been going on

In my head

I have become obsessed with my nails.

Before you press delete on this email or exit the page, can I make my case? I’m not a vain person. Well, maybe I am, but only as much as the next person. I don’t wear make-up very often, I rarely look in the mirror, my weight is a constant bind, trying to keep it down that is, but I don’t measure my waist and write the numbers in a little book (like I did in my teen years).

Oh God, I’m vain aren’t I?

Anyway, let’s move on to the important subject of nails and nail varnish. There’s become a pattern in my life that when things are falling apart, I become obsessed with a few things. One is sewing; making garments to be precise. And another is painting my nails. Now I just don’t have the capacity for sewing in this heat. The room my sewing machine lives in benefits from direct sunlight, which is a boon for the house plants, but not so much for my temper when trying to ‘ease’ in a sleeve. I hate that sleeves are given the verb ‘to ease’. There’s nothing easy or easing about trying to make a tunnel shaped piece of fabric fit into a different sized hole. Ergh. The sewists amongst us will understand my plight.

So, no sewing. Despite the volumes of second hand fabric looking at me and wanting to be used. Taking up SPACE. The other thing, that takes up almost no space, so tiny are their Borrower sized bottles, is nail varnish. Now my nails aren’t beautiful. In fact my hands are a bit big for my build. My knuckles are especially thick set, in a different century I might have been a farrier or a dry stone waller. Back in ‘95 when I took a summer school course in ‘modelling’ (ha!), I was given a C for my hands. This grading cut deep. Very deep. My face got a B. Can you even imagine grading a teenager on their face, their body, their hands, their hair? FFS, no wonder teenagers of the 90s are so messed up.

Chunky knuckles = scuppered hand model career.

A more aesthetically pleasing photo, knuckles hidden. Clearly the modelling course paid off. It’s all in the angles don’t you know.

Anyway, here I am 30 years later and my father is back in hospital with brain related issues, and one child is having a tricky old time and things are difficult, which I will write about at some point but I have to be careful ‘above the line’ here, because I know some people are reading who it might be best, well, if they didn’t. (Cryptic huh, or not). All the worry has led to my nails looking like they belong to a Playschool presenter from 1983. I would have loved to be a Playschool presenter. The round window. The square window. Humpty Dumpty. Big Ted. Little Ted. A simple world.

If you like knowing which varnish lasts, which doesn’t, which takes ages to dry and which doesn’t then I will reveal all in the shopping section.

This is reader supported, which means that the more of you who subscribe the more time I can spend writing. If that sounds like a good thing then there’s a handy button below. There are free and paid options. Paid means more Vinted nail varnish purchases for me, which may stave off any kind of stress related breakdown for another few weeks. No pressure:

In my basket

Okay, I’ve spent a lot of time applying and removing nail varnish from various brands so you don’t have to. I should state upfront that I absolutely won’t use any varnish that demands me to bust out a UV lamp. I just can’t. You must know by now that using nail lamps is associated with cancer. No? Google it. Then join me in my gel looking, but not UV cured, journey below.

Here’s the low down:

The BEST all rounder:

Essie gel couture RRP £10.99 - this is the good stuff. Comes in strange twisty bottles. You apply two thin layers of a colour - these say ‘1’ on the side. It goes on quite thick so you need to be careful it doesn’t pool on your nails and take ages to dry. I scraped quite a lot off on the side of the bottle to achieve this but then it can be a bit streaky. Look, I didn’t say it would be easy to avoid finger cancer did I? Once both layers are dry and not streaky you add a layer of any bottle with number ‘2’ on the side. This is the hard top coat that sets the colour and is supposed to last for a whole week. They have various options for the top coat. The white bottle is clear; perfect. They also have glittery golden ones, glittery silver ones, slightly silver sheens… loads of options.

After 7 days you need to apply a second coat of any number ‘2’ top coat, to give your manicure another week of life. Let’s be honest you’ll probably just change the colour at this point. I do. Us nail polish lovers are a fickle lot. Please note the top coat is so good you can use it with any other polish.

Barry M Gelly Hi Shine RRP £4.49 - average price, quite long lasting. Excellent colour choices. MUST apply in very thin layers, two maybe three. Darker colours do stain nails so use a clear base coat. Don’t forget the top coat - Essie Gel Couture 2.

Rimmel Super Gel £5 - this is being sold off at less than the RRP of £6.99 at the moment and I KNOW WHY. It’s crap. Well actually no, it’s lovely stuff. It’s thick and gloopy and if you have a spare 25 hours to let it dry then it looks epic. But it never bloody dries. It just sits and sits and looks like it’s dry and it isn’t and then you’re covered in nail polish. Or your clothes are. Or the dog. AVOID.

Primark Gel Effect £1 - cheap as chips, cheaper than chips actually. Amazingly good value and only in random colours but goes on like a dream, looks like gel, has a thick sheen and is fast drying. Seriously, Rimmel could learn a thing or two from Primark’s beauty team.

Chanel £30 - now obviously the price is astonishing. I only ever buy it in Rouge Noir because I am a teen of the 90’s and still hanker after nails the colour of deoxygenated blood. Now in terms of value for money, I’ve only ever bought two bottles of Rouge Noir, and my bottle from the late nineties has only just gone gloopy and unusable. I think that’s both gross on my part and impressive on the part of Chanel. It is also extremely hard wearing and lasts for over a week. Only Chanel make the colours the way they do, so I will be buying one bottle a decade until I die.

End of nail polish chat.

For the hay fever sufferers amongst you (my three sons for a start) these Treathay tablets are apparently the only thing that helps them. I have found a pack of 30 for £5.25 from this online pharmacy. I bulk buy them every year or so to get free postage. Of course I do! Postage, pah, who wants to pay for that?

I am fascinated by the concept of drops in terms of shopping. It feels like a swizz from a consumer point of view. Throwing everything into your basket and hurrying to check out to find half of it’s already sold out. From a business point of view it makes me VERY jealous. One of my boys loves slime so we treated him to some much coveted OG, Snoop and Emma B slime for his birthday. Luckily Emma B is UK based so no huge postage or import tax. Hurrah! The slime is also excellent I am reliably told.

Listening & Reading

I haven’t read much this month. I’ve not have the capacity for it. Listening, yes. I enjoyed Alastair Campbell on What’s My Age Again with Katherine Ryan. Years ago he was interviewed on Parenting Hell and he was hateful… so competitive and pretty stressful to listen to. Turns out he just needed the right interviewer. Ryan played him like a fiddle by pretending to be a simple soul. Amazing how much more she got from him by letting him feel superior.

Watching

Now I have a confession to make. You’re the first to know this. I snuck off to watch 28 Years Later at the cinema yesterday. I’d had one of the worst days I’ve ever experienced the day before (parental illness, special needs mothering etc) and was on the edge of what felt acceptable anxiety wise. Now some people go for a massage when they’re feeling a bit blerugh. Me? I watch apocalyptic films. Call it a trauma response, but I truly do come into my own when faced with life and death. So, a bit of zombie apocalypse was needed.

My verdict? If you’ve seen 28 Days and also Weeks Later you know the drill. This film depicts the UK 28 years after the outbreak. I loved it. There were weak parts. I’m not sure Ralph Fiennes was the right choice for the wild GP bone collector. I’m also not sure the help he provided to Jodie Comer was believable. But hey, I’ll let it go. Loved the Danny Boyle style directing complete with excellent soundtrack, quick cuts and characters that could be plucked straight from Trainspotting. Adding a little panache to the zombie genre. I salute you Sir Danny.

The good news is the ending left it open for another film. More please!

Visiting

I found Simran through a friend who sees her for Indian head massages and was excited to see she does the much celebrity revered buccal facial massage. For the uninitiated it’s essentially a massage of the chipmunk part of your cheeks from both the inside and outside of your mouth. Yes she does wear gloves and no it’s not relaxing. What can I say; it made my toes curl BUT I will be going back for more as I definitely felt it left my cheeks looking plumper. She’s based in Leicester if you want to try her - say I sent you! Warning - her availability is low at the moment as her buccal facial has quite a following. SKM Studio on facebook or on insta here.

Slightly cross eyed photo but let’s ignore than and give attention to the cheeks.

I took the older boys to Loughborough Uni open day which made me feel both young and old. All the usual it only seems 5 minutes ago since I was moving my crappy huge PC into halls feelings added to the how on earth has the cost increased to £200 a week just for accommodation without food shock.

Making and Mending

End of term = sports day outfits and props for the play. Goodness me I’ve used a lot of PVA glue of late.

These are rocks. Honest.

A Minecraft chicken.

Links you might like

1. I’m going to start you off with the most beautiful idea, involving the most altruistic group of people; the very idea makes me want to cry. The site is called Loose Ends and it’s a place where you can match up crafting volunteers to complete projects left unfinished when loved ones have died. Aren’t people grand?

2. This piece has the best click bait title I have ever read, We Cannot Be Fat, of course being a woman who has had a lot of variation in her weight led me to it like a rat up a drainpipe. Anyway, it’s not what you think, but it’s also very good.

3. I read Fear of Flying in my first year at Liverpool Uni and loved it so much I bought it for my pal C who was in a relationship with an extremely toxic young man called Will. I desperately wanted her to free herself from mashing his potatoes to a puree with a fork (yes really) and enjoy her life. She worried me. Anyway, she did eventually leave him but I’m not sure Erica Jong had anything to do with it. This interview with Jong’s daughter is sobering stuff. Turns out some people are better writers than mothers.

4. 101 effective rules of living. Have I shared this before? I can’t recall. Sorry if I have.

5. A festival for long hair. I have never managed to get mine beyond my mid back sadly.

On my table

One of the boys wanted to try KFC and it was not a huge success. Too oily, too greasy. Not his bag. So I set about making a baked version and turns out he liked it very much. Now look, it’s not as pretty as the bubbling, crackling skin of deep fried chicken, but it’s way healthier and still very tasty.

Baked KFC Dupe

Ingredients

• Chicken wings, drumsticks etc

• Milk

• 200g plain flour

• 1 tbsp sea salt, finely ground

• 2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper

• 2 tbsp smoked paprika

• 1 tbsp ground ginger

• 1 tbsp garlic powder

• 1 tbsp onion powder

• 1 tbsp dried thyme

• 1/2 tbsp dried oregano

• 1/2 tbsp dried basil

• 1/2 tsp chilli powder

• Olive oil

Okay this is super easy but you do need to be patient with the baking and turning.

Take the chicken and place in a large bowl. Pour milk over the top until just covered and refrigerate for 30 mins minimum. Can leave overnight. Make the dry rub by mixing all the other ingredients together, apart from the oil, in another large bowl. Be careful to break up any larger spice deposits. I used my hands.

Line a few baking sheets with non-stick parchment. Preheat the oven to 200c. Set up a production line and take one piece of chicken from the milk at a time and dip into the dry rub. Make sure it’s fully coated and then place on the baking tray. Once all the chicken has been coated and you’ve washed your hands well of any raw chicken (just me who freaks about raw chicken contamination?) drizzle olive oil over the chicken so each piece has a little on it. Extra points for using a spray bottle.

Bake for 20 minutes, then turn carefully trying not to lose any of the coating. Repeat every 10 - 15 minutes until the chicken is super crispy. Takes about an hour - you’ll need to change the trays up so that each tray gets a go at being on the top/bottom etc or some will be more crispy than others.

And now for a recipe that’s not on my table, but more in my dogs bowl. Behold, my recipe for… (drum roll)…

Pawsome (sorry) Liver, Egg and Banana Lollies

Ingredients

• 4 ripe bananas

• 2 tbsp wholefood peanut butter (no salt, palm oil etc)

• 1 tbsp of dog breath freshener powder (if you have it)

• 150g natural yoghurt

• 5 poached eggs

• 450g lambs liver, poached in water, cooled a little and finely chopped

Easy peasy. Wait until the liver is room temperature and then whizz the lot up in a blender. I used my nutribullet. Don’t be tempted to throw the liver in un-chopped. I’ve made that mistake and the fibres get stuck in the blade and it’s a bugger of a job to unwind it. If it’s too thick to pour, add a little water. Then carefully decant into lolly moulds, or ice cube bags, just store separately to your G & T ones. Freeze and then feed to your pooch.

You may have missed

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Last months posts have included:

1. A Dear Diary on houses, pooling resources (or not), being back on the Mounjaro jabs and fan girling.

2. It’s been a lot on my father having a stroke.

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My month in pictures

(Sorry this is behind a paywall but, well, they’re personal photos, not THAT kind, they’re my life and so they’re not for everyone and their dog).