Your remarkably random Heyday Friday newsletter
There's something rather irregular going on in your newsletter this week. But plenty that's familiar too.
I think of these newsletters as a weekly chat between me and you, and it’s fair to say it’s rare that I can’t think of anything to say when I sit down to write them, even if some of what I share can sometimes seem a bit random.
There are times in face-to-face communication when injecting something random into a conversation can take it off in all kinds of unexpected, interesting and revealing directions.
This week’s blog explores the ways random questions can bring surprise, joy and discovery to your conversations, whether they’re with people you know well or hardly at all. In it I reveal how I’ve used them in interviews over the years and share ten of my favourite random questions.
To see what those are, and add your own, CLICK HERE. And if you feel like sharing the answers to any, either here or on the post, I’d love that!
I thought it would be fun to continue the theme for the rest of this week’s newsletter, and give you lovely subscribers some bonus random questions - and my answers to them - along the way. So here goes:
What’s the most random thing you’ve ever taken part in?
Probably being part of the team at Woman’s Weekly, brilliantly led by our amazing Marketing Manager Mary Bird, who put together the bid to create the world’s longest length of knitted bunting as part of our celebrations for the magazine’s centenary year ten years ago. This is a rather grainy pic of me photographing the official measuring process.
You can see the whole story (and more glimpses of me looking so much younger), which I talked about in my regular slot on Boom Radio on Thursday morning this week (it’s at 1130 every week, so do feel free to tune in and listen), and discover whether we managed to get into the Guinness Book of World Records, in the video below
Who or what always makes you laugh?
Rosie Made a Thing are the best and funniest cards on the market. I never fail to laugh out loud at so many of them. It’s why they so often put in an appearance in the Friday Funny slot. (This one’s in belated honour of Valentine’s Day)
What would you have as your last meal?
Whatever it was it would have to include these. They’re absolutely my favourite thing to eat and SO easy to make. This is the Jamie Oliver recipe I use to get perfect results every time
YORKSHIRE PUDDING
This takes about 30 minutes and makes 12 yorkies (which you obviously couldn’t possibly eat in one go. Which is not to say I haven’t tried. Ahem….)
Preheat the oven to 225°C/425°F/gas 9.
Add a tiny splash of vegetable oil into each of the 12 compartments of a cupcake tin and put into the oven for 10-15 mins so the oil gets really hot
Meanwhile beat 2 large eggs, 100g plain flour and 100ml milk and a pinch of salt and pepper together in a jug until light and smooth.
Carefully take the tray out of the oven then pour the batter evenly into the compartments
Put the tray back in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until the yorkies are risen and golden. Do NOT open the oven until they’re fully done otherwise you risk not getting the all-important rise.
What’s the most recent thing you’ve watched on television?
I read, loved - and sobbed at - the book and sat through the hugely disappointing film, so I was keen to know whether the new Netflix series of One Day would be as good as its uniformly enthusiastic reviews suggested.
I’m delighted to report that it is. Although with the slight qualification that as enjoyable as I found it, it didn’t quite move me in the way the book did. There’s no doubt that Ambika Mod as smart, funny, self-deprecating Emma and Leo Woodall as charming, privileged, golden-boy Leo do a tremendous job of believably inhabiting their characters over the 20 year span of the story and their relationship, which begins with a one-night stand which doesn’t go entirely according to expectations, on their final day as students at Edinburgh University.
Joining the pair at exactly yearly intervals is both a brilliant literary and on-screen device which enables us to discover their lives and relationships without seeing anything of what has happened in the interim 12 months. Sometimes events in-between are just hinted at, sometimes they’re more explicitly referred to, sometimes they become apparent from the situation we find each of them in.
What threads through each of the annual encounters is the powerful bond between the couple, even when they are separated by place or circumstance, and how much they mean to each other in spite of their differences. One Day is rife with ‘what if’ moments, and the pain of missed opportunities. But also with the life-affirming power of friendship and love, and the potential we each have to challenge and change the path of our lives even through the deepest grief.
The evocative sound track of late 80s and early 90s music and the way so many relatable touchpoint moments - a golden evening drinking wine in a park, the re-connection after a period of estrangement, the stumbling start of new relationships and dreams and the bitter end to others - makes One Day a wonderfully well-rounded and poignant watch.
And the fact that none of the 14 episodes is more than 40 minutes long (the shortest is just 18 minutes) makes it manageably binge-worthy in just two evenings.
You can watch ONE DAY on Netflix
And see the trailer HERE
What makes you happy?
This week, the answer is - this, because I think it’s so clever funny!
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
I would so love to know what your answers to any - or all - of those random questions are. Please do share them in the comments.
And do let me know what happens if you pitch any of them, or the ones in THE BLOG in to a conversation you have this week.
See you next time.