There's a sprinkling of stardust in your Heyday Friday newsletter this week
Not just one, but several celebrities appear in this week's newsletter, along with wise words from a very well known bear, plus a mouth-watering vegetarian snack, and an adorable video clip.
An interview with no less than the great Barbara Streisand was the trigger for this week’s blog.
In it, she admitted that something that I consider so fundamental to life had been missing from hers, that it positively shocked me.
Find out what that is, and the ways it has been such an important part of my life by CLICKING HERE.
There’s a clue to the subject of THE BLOG in these
WORDS OF WISDOM
from one of my favourite, and unapologetically regularly quoted, philosophers
WHAT’S MADE ME HAPPY THIS WEEK
Last week’s happy entry needed quite a lot of setting up. This week’s needs none at all. Other than to say how could you watch this and NOT feel happy? (And what a brilliant scheme, both for the children and the seniors)
THIS WEEK I’VE BEEN…..LISTENING TO
Jo is someone I know from my days in the magazine world. An award winning editor of titles such as Glamour and You magazine, she’s had more than her fair share of encounters - and experiences - with famous people in her working life. And that gives the episodes of this podcast and the conversations she has with her interviewees, a particularly rewarding and enjoyable insider feel.
The premise of the podcast and those conversations is to explore what it really feels like to be famous. How fame impacts and affects the daily lives, the psyche and the expectations of the people who experience it. The celebrities who we imagine are living lives of unchecked glamour, access and wealth. But are they? What are the day-to-day realities of being famous? What are the benefits? And the disadvantages? How does fame affect your relationships and your interactions with the people around you?
Jo talks to guests who have experienced various degrees of fame and for various reasons. They include Tracy-Ann Oberman, who was a successful if not widely known, actress when she shot to overnight fame by joining the cast of Eastenders and being involved in one of its most sensational story lines. And the formidable Jackie Weaver who became accidentally famous after her handling of a parish council meeting went viral. Then there’s Hollywood fame, which she explores with actress and comedienne Amy Schumer, and fame that arrives when you’re just a teenager which Amanda de Cadanet describes with powerful openness.
Each episode rounds off with a number of Fame Fails - stories of encounters with famous people that have gone rather less well than they might - from Jo herself and sent in by listeners.
It all adds up to a revealing, at times surprising, at others moving and amusing, insight into fame and what it’s like to live in the eye of the celebrity storm.
Listen to FAME with Jo Elvin wherever you find your podcasts, including Spotify
If you’re looking for a lip-smacking, veggie snack, then look no further, because these
MELTED TOMATOES ON TOASTED SOURDOUGH
are absurdly delicious and absurdly easy.
This will make enough for a couple of heaped slices of toast
Preheat the oven to 190C
Dice 4 large tomatoes, tip on a baking tray with 2 cloves of garlic, crushed. Season with salt and pepper and a good glug of olive oil. Mix it all together with your hands spread out the tomatoes and put the tray into the oven for 20-25 mins or until the tomatoes have softened and gone slightly caramelised.
Towards the end of the cooking time, toast two slices of sourdough (or whatever your bread of choice is). Once they’re toasted to your preferred shade of brown drizzle with a little olive oil
Sprinkle over some chopped parsley over the tomatoes, spoon over the toast and enjoy!
I wonder if this
FRIDAY FUNNY
strikes any agonising chords with you
I’m off in search of the missing link glasses now (and yes, I have checked they’re not on top of my head, since you ask). Hopefully by next week I’ll have tracked them down.
See you then (see what I did there?)