Last Week's Latest

Thanks for reading my first newsletter.

I was inspired to start a weekly newsletter by the absolute gent Ali Abdaal.

The newsletter will be a short way for me to communicate what I'm up to in the world, and what I'm engaging with, and maybe a little bit of some thoughts.

This is my first newsletter and I'm drafting it during my last few days in the Philippines visiting my husband. Time has flown by, and it's sad that it's so near the end now.

The Philippines is a place that I find the greatest relief and also the greatest frustration. I love it because I'm here on holiday, I have no responsibility, my mother-in-law feeds me and does my laundry, and not forgetting I get to be with my husband who is currently living here. The frustrations come from things including the abundance of traffic, the extreme heat for my pale white skin, and my bank cards not working in many places. I'm sad to leave, I'm happy to get home, and I'm conflicted as you can tell. But I'll be back.

What have I been up to this week?

📚 Reading - The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson. I picked this book up at a bookstore in the Philippines, having known about it for a long time but feeling it was going to be a bit too laddish for me to enjoy. I was wrong. This book challenged me in so many ways and even helped inspire this newsletter and website. Go read it and be inspired about the right things to give a f*ck about.

🎙️Listening - Go Love Yourself with Laura Adlington (of GBBO fame) and Lauren Smith. I've been listening to this podcast for a while, and now it's the end of season 3 which is hard to believe. I, being a skinny, gay man, am definitely not the target audience for this podcast. This podcast is aimed at plus-sized women, but damn these two are so funny and insightful they are a joy to listen to. And I love getting their perspectives on life which I just couldn't possibly start to understand. This podcast has made me a better person and more sympathetic to the stigma plus-sized people face in society.

📱App - Todoist. I usually scorn 'productivity' apps and advice because I find they don't often live up to the hype. Indeed, I already have Reminders in my phone, so why would I need another app to remind me to do things? Well, this app goes further, and has actually proved quite useful. What I love most about it is organisation of different project groupings and the digital in-tray system it uses. Very functional and cross platform which is great. Very happy I gave this go, and will continue to use it.

📺Watching - The Little Mermaid. The live action remake definitely exceeded my expectations. The story is virtually the same as the animated movie, but it was still a great remake and not the copy-paste remake of The Lion King. The underwater scenes even stood up to Avatar: The Way of Water, it was that good. And the music, wow. Rather looking forward to the Snow White remake now.

Aaron