Hot In The City
Revelling in how Summer in the city makes me feel, THAT article about Wagatha Christie and starting to highlight fabulous women over the age of 50 💪🏼💪🏾💪🏿
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Hot In The City
There is a certain heat in cities that I long for and dream about.
It doesn’t come often, in London, but when it’s here I feel like I’m in a movie.
I’m Carrie in her shorts and heels on his scooter in Times Square. I’m sweating the streets searching for an escape in Do The Right Thing. I’m Sandra Bullock in A Time to Kill.
It arrives after sunset when the air outside matches the air inside. Or when the air outside is hotter than the air inside.
The city provides something that is both unbearable and also truly delicious.
The countryside fails to compare. It just can’t. It’s too dark and uncrowded and sometimes a cool breeze can be felt. No, the heat I’m talking about is relentless. It makes your skin feel damp and sticky. Faces are dewy. Actions are slowed. You wish there was a breeze but you know that’s not possible because you’re in a humid hot box metropolis.
The light from bars contribute to your clammy skin. There’s warm, fragrant air pumping out of restaurants, cars and buses radiating even more heat. The proximity of multiple hot and sweaty bodies adds to the thick air around you.
The heat brings with it a youthfulness and the feeling of possibility. It makes me feel like I can make plans, take my time, enjoy the things I miss when it’s cold or wet or grey or cold and wet and grey. There’s no rush to go anywhere. It’s so hot the activities of the day have extended into the night and that night feels like it can go on forever. Wandering the city streets in flip flops, shorts, loose dresses. Legs out, Arms out. Warm limbs and sun kissed faces.
Dates are extended, walking home is slow and languid. Viewing the city at her prettiest. Lights on, ink dark skies, warm air. Sleeping can be tough in this heat. Climbing into bed a last resort. Sex is sticky. Bodies are glowing. Breathing is shallow.
But it’s rare. Here. In England. Temperatures mostly drop at night. Jackets are needed. Getting home feels a priority.
I long for the wander. The glow. The sticky.
Until next Summer my dear hot mess of city humidity. I can’t wait to feel you on my skin again.
London | September 2023
The Contents of My Consumption
~ Watching 📺~
Dreaming Whilst Black | BBC Iplayer
Aspiring filmmaker Kwabena wrestles with needing a day job to pay his way and wanting to live his dream as a creative in this fab new comedy written by and staring Adjani Salmon. Starting life as a Youtube series, that won him a BAFTA, I binged it in one day relating to some of his struggles as well as laughing out loud which is a rarity for me. It’s clever and relevant and funny. Spread the word, I say.
Great article on Salmon and the making of the show here. Thanks for the recommendation, Yinka!
In 2008 I would scour the London comedy circuit looking for female comedians to inspire me. I first saw Bridget Christie at a preview show of hers, with about 5 other people, introduced myself and eventually ended up running a collective comedy evening with her. She was so different and unapologetic and kind and most importantly funny. It’s taken her a while to get a series {She won the comedy award in Edinburgh 10 years ago} but The Change is finally here.
Experiencing the first stages of the menopause, Linda {played by Christie} heads off to find out who she is away from being a mother and a wife. It is whimsical, poignant, galvanising and empowering. Can’t wait for season 2.
~ Listening 🎧 ~
Loved listening to Grounded with Louis Theroux during lockdown and missed it when he stopped. Super chuffed to discover he’d slid across the podcast pond and started, essentially the same thing, over on Spotify. I’d seen Jeanette McCurdy’s book all over Waterstones {You can’t miss that title!} and was really interested in her story. It’s one of sadness and manipulation but out of that darkness she’s pulled herself up and is moving forward. Unbelievable that she’s sane considering what she endured at times. Can’t wait to read the book.
~ Reading 📖 ~
The Improbability of Love | Hannah Rothschild
Ignore the pure stilton mixed with gouda title, it’s not as cheesy as it sounds. Having dragged myself through two mediocre books recently I needed something easy and zippy to get me back into actually wanting to pick up a book. No idea how this one got into my ‘to read’ pile but I haven’t been able to put it down all week. Set in the art world, with a backdrop of masterpiece pilfering by the Nazi’s in WW2, as well as stomach rumble inducing depictions of fabulous food, it’s a great ‘holiday read’ that whips along and has grabbed my attention on the Northern line.
“It’s My Story To Tell”: Coleen Rooney Speaks Exclusively To Vogue About The Wagatha Christie Saga by Giles Hattersley | Vogue
If digitally possible I ran to this article. SCOOP of the year I’d say! And there’s a documentary coming out too. I’ve long been intrigued by Col Roo. Having known someone who was in the stage version of Wagatha Christie {YES. There was a Westend show about it. It was theatre verbatim of the court case} I’d heard that Rooney came out as a clever beast. It’s a great read and gives an emotional voice to a woman who is the only one who hasn’t spoken about what happened to her.
With nothing but the distant hum of her gardeners’ strimming to disturb us, she places some pastel-coloured macarons and what I swear is a plate of M&S mini Swiss rolls between us, then says six magic words in her most delicious of Scouse accents: “Go on then, ask me anything.”
I see you, Ladies🔎
Highlighting extraordinary, hardworking, fabulous women over the age of 50. Regardless of how society has previously treated women past a certain age I am looking to be inspired by generations before me and refuse to fade away anytime soon. I see you, Ladies….I see you.
Martha Lane Fox, well, Baroness Martha Lane Fox of Soho CBE as she’s now known, is the co-founder of Lastminute.com. When she launched the company in 1998, at the height of the dotcom boom, she was touted as the face of the internet at just 25 years old. In 2005 she sold the company for £557 million.
Ever since she has constantly pushed to have the internet available for all helping to improve lives for citizens, consumers, educators and patients. She’s also a champion for equality and parity across the tech sector which she says is still largely unchanged for women since she broke into the scene in the 1990s.
In 2004 Lane Fox was involved in a car crash in Morocco that nearly killed her. She broke 28 bones in her body, had a stroke and spent 2 years in hospital recovering. She had to learn how to walk, eat and stand again. To this day she walks with a stick and has no sensation in the lower part of her body.
Nevertheless, She is president of the British Chambers of Commerce, chancellor of the Open University and sits on multiple boards including WeTransfer and Chanel {She stepped down from Twitter when Elon Musk arrived Oh…..and she’s the co-founder of Lucky Voice
She was also the youngest woman to become a cross bencher in The House of Lords in 2013.
Trailblazer, fighter, pioneer ~ 50 years young.
We see you, Martha Lane Fox…..We see you.