vibe check #34: the kindness of strangers, last one laughing and the soft toy adoption agency
a dose of joy and motivation to get you through the week.
vibe check: noun | an act of finding out how someone is feeling or how they make you feel, or what the mood in a particular place or situation is.
Welcome to The Vibe Check – a dose of joy and motivation to get you through the week featuring a (ever-changing) combination of things to read, things to listen to, things to laugh at, things to buy, things I’ve saved over the last week and more.
Hiya. How are things and how are you?
Last night was still light at 7:15pm in London. 7:15pm!!! I looked out of the window, turned to my husband and said, ‘Do you want to do something after dinner?’ and he looked at me like I was insane. But longer days are back! The feeling of possibility is back! I forgot how much more I enjoy life when it’s lit up by sunlight. It is astonishing just how much of a difference it makes to us all.
I know that so many of us are experiencing the same annual realisation right now, and are calling for Daylight Savings to be scrapped. But I can’t help but think that if we scrapped it, we might just miss it. That feeling of spring finally arriving. A little kick up your arse to get outside and make the most of the lighter days, before they slip away again.
I think if we scrapped it, we’d just adjust to it, and lose another thing to look forward to. And I think it’s good to miss things sometimes. It means we aren’t taking things for granted and appreciating them while we have them. And when we do miss them, it’s always all the better when we’re reunited with them again.
Anyway, now onto the good stuff. Scroll down for this week’s Vibe Check recommendations, here to deliver a dose of joy and motivation to get you through the week.
Enjoy!
SOMETHING TO WATCH
Last One Laughing UK had me crying laughing last week, as Joe Wilkinson took stage to attempt to make the other comedians laugh (the point of the show, for those who haven’t seen it) by dedicating a performance to the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution). It is just so silly, so funny – and watching Bob Mortimer try not to laugh is equally as funny as the bit, tbh. Watch here.
SOMETHING TO READ
The Kindness of Strangers series in the Guardian is completely gorgeous, and is worth reading through if you need a little extra dose of hope in humanity this week. My favourite story is about a woman who wrote a memoir, then had a reader relate to it so much that she offered to lend her her holiday home. They met in person and became friends. Gorgeous. Read here.
SOMETHING TO BUY
I came across this website when looking for a present for a friend who is about to have a baby. It’s called Loved Before and it’s a ‘soft toy adoption agency’ that was born to revolutionise our perspective on sustainable toys.
After working at charity shops for years, Charlotte, the founder, said she found that there were so many toys ‘handed over with cherished memories and sentimental significance, were carelessly cast aside, sometimes relegated to becoming dog toys or, even more dishearteningly, destined for landfill.’ It became evident to her how ‘the love, the vibrant life, and the stories of these eco toys were at risk of being lost and forgotten in an instant,’ so she decided to do something about it. I cried scrolling through all the toys, reminiscing about all my own. Adopt one here.
THINGS I SAVED LAST WEEK
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
where did my accent go?
When I first moved out of South Wales in 2015, I squeezed myself, along with all my belongings, into my little white Peugeot 107 (Phoebe) and cried all the way to the Severn Bridge. For 45 minutes, my windscreen wipers wiped the rain off my window, and my sleeve wiped the tears (and snot) from m…
That’s all for now. See you next week!
Em