Deborah's Monthly Inspirations for March 24 - Easy Like Sunday Morning...
All the recommendations you'll ever need...
Firstly, welcome if you have recently subscribed to my writing. I am trying to be more consistent, so since I got my act together approximately two weeks ago and stopped drifting into teatime/everybody has left the office time/gone to the pub time, you can expect to receive a piece of writing (on whatever topic has won the battle in my head) on a Friday afternoon sometime between 3pm and 4pm (I don’t like to be held to tight deadlines but thank you to the person who checked if I was ok around 1.40pm last Friday because they hadn’t received it yet).
In addition, I also produce this monthly newsletter/monthly inspirations where I gather together what I have been writing about over the previous month and include recommendations to things I have been enjoying or plan to enjoy (books, articles, podcasts, films, culture, travel etc). This monthly update has had no fixed publishing schedule until now when I am trialling it on a Sunday morning at 8am. Basically, I am interested in what people do on Sunday mornings. Are you a bit Lionel Richie? Are your mornings easy? How does me popping into your inbox fit with your Sunday routine? Do you exercise, go to church, lie in bed until lunchtime, catch up on the housework, dutifully visit relatives, start checking your calendar and panicking about the week ahead? Please do let me know because since I gave up striving/guilt/conforming/being good/being productive, I thoroughly enjoy my Sundays. They are a perfect mix of worship and rest with a G&T and some roast potatoes thrown in. Maybe I’ll tell you about my new-found appreciation of Sundays some time if you are interested?
Secondly, a big thank you to all those who responded to my call to find out more about who my audience is. I have loved hearing more about you beyond your email address. My PR advisor will be delighted to know that I have conducted some market research and that my readers don’t have an awful lot in common with each other. Everyone is very different – age, gender, background, location, interests, circumstances which I think means some weeks my writing might appeal to you more than others but hang on in there as it’s all about the Friday afternoon surprise! It would be awfully boring if I wrote about validation every week or motherhood or leaving a career or God or yoga pants1. But, if you haven’t been in touch and would like to tell me more about you and why you are reading my writing, I can still be found at contact@deborahsloan.co.uk.
Important Things to Know About…
Just a final reminder about the Pop-Up Book Club. Here’s the details…
Pop-Up Book Club on 21 March
The next Pop-Up Book Club will be on Thursday 21 March (at 7.30pm) at my house in Belfast (get in touch if you need the address) and we’ll be discussing So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan. I don’t want to spoil it by giving you a summary of the plot as it’s really just a short story, only 47 pages long, but it focuses on a relationship between a man and a woman, told from the man’s perspective. Please do let me know if you are thinking of coming for catering purposes as I hope to hand you a slice of homemade cake and a glass of something chilled. To find out more about Claire Keegan and So Late in the Day, have a listen to this Irish Times Women’s Podcast episode.
Please also make a note of another Pop-Up Book Club before the summer. This will be on Thursday 30 May and we’ll be discussing Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy.
More Than This (with Deborah Sloan) Podcast
Since the last newsletter, I have recorded a couple more podcast episodes. In the latest episode, I confess that I’m not sure that what I am doing even constitutes being called a podcast as it is basically me having a conversation with me. The latest episodes are:
The Episode on Disappointment or Resilience or Anger…
The Episode on The Women Load…
The easiest way to access all the episodes to date and choose your listening platform is on Pod.link.
So, what have I been writing about recently?
In case you missed any of these, here’s a round-up of what I wrote over the last month:
How Are All The Other Women Getting On?
I also re-shared a piece I wrote last February (2023) called ‘After Children, There Is Marriage Again’.
What else have I been up to?
“And February was so long, it lasted into March,” I said in my last newsletter but really it hasn’t been long at all. I’ve hardly done anything. I managed a trip to London for my 22nd wedding anniversary which you can read about in ‘It’s a Love Story?’ but apart from that it’s been a quiet month bar my usual eating out. Someone recently asked me for restaurant recommendations because I can normally be found trying a different one in Belfast/North Down on a Saturday evening plus committing the cardinal sin of posting photos of what I eat on Instagram. Here are my current favourites in case this is in any way useful to those who live in my neighbourhood or who happen to be visiting Belfast anytime soon…
Also, as a complete aside, at the end of March, we will be visiting Prague. The last time I was there was minus children in 2000 so I imagine it’s changed a bit. If you’ve any Prague recommendations, please let me know. And if you are interested in what to do on a three-day break to Prague and other European cities, I’d be keen to know as I’ve always considered writing up travel guides to the places we visit but I’ve never been sure if anyone would be interested….
What am I planning to read in March?
Here are my March reading plans. I’ve included the blurbs as well as the front covers so you can get more of an idea as to whether any of these might appeal to you.
What am I enjoying?
Something to listen to…and watch
I’ve been catching up on BBC Radio 2’s Piano Room. Obviously these are originally broadcast on the radio, but there is something about watching the videos of the performances. My favourite so far is Bruce Hornsby and The Way It Is.
Something to read…
This may not appeal to everyone, but I’ve been sharing this article called ‘The Sin of Wasting Time’ with a lot of people as it links to my changed approach to Sundays/Sabbath rest. Whilst I still attend church as regularly as I can, I have cast off a lot of the burden I carried about all the things I should be involved in and I am much more careful about the time I give and spend there.
Deborah’s List
For those who aren’t yet familiar with this, Deborah’s list is (usually) five memories from the month that’s been and gone. I look back through my camera roll and find five things that have made me feel good. From February, we have six photos - a pile of books ordered from a small independent book shop, an array of sweet goods from Vittle Bakeshop in Portstewart, an orange lamp which I took a risk ordering from Urban Outfitters in the US, my ABBA boots (!), a vesper martini in the Dorchester in London (a bucket list moment for me) and some lovely anniversary tulips from our daughter.
Thank you for reading this and I hope you got some inspiration! You can get in touch with me at contact@deborahsloan.co.uk.
Have a lovely March and we’ll catch up again in April!
Deborah
This is not relevant to many people but if you are a fan of Sweaty Betty Gary yoga pants, I need to inform you that they have been discontinued and replaced with Gaia yoga pants which are infinitely inferior – funny material, too high waist band, generally yuck. I have been tempted to start a ‘bring back Gary campaign’ …
Never been to Prague Deborah, now on the bucket list!! Been to Ephesus, amazing architecture, did an Eastern Med cruise years ago, sailed past Stromboli, whitewashed houses on the flanks of an active volcano!!