Faffing Friday Edition #15

Sharing the Substack love, female sexual fantasies, the careers in decline debacle & a bit of Brad & George oh and not leaving out Colin.

Before we get down to the business of Faffing I’d like to welcome the flurry of new subscribers that have found their way here this week. And I’m pleased to report I now have 5 of you who are paying subscribers now, too.

I am over the moon about every new reader that finds their way to me. Most of my posts are free but their will be extras to say thankyou for paid members including you might remember I said I’d open the private chat when I reached 10. I’m halfway to my target 🎯

Here’s a recap of my 10 reasons why I want you here in my community …

My Faffing Friday ‘Stacks are basically a curation of my week - what I’ve been doing, reading, watching, eating, buying IRL or faffing about on the interweb.

All archives here.

While we’re talking about the power and kindness of growing a like minded community … I had a lovely mention in a ‘Stack by Jane at

Britishbeautyblogger

earlier in the week. It was about 3 key takeaways she’s learned from being here on Substack so far. To have my writing mentioned alongside the likes of

Jenni Baden Howard

,

India Knight

,

Sali Hughes

,

Sarah Ditum

and

Polly Vernon

.. well what bloody esteemed company. That’s given me an all time high to keep persevering. I must also share with you my friend,

Catherine Summers

because without her support years ago I probably wouldn’t even have kept my original blog going.

READING 📚 Not strictly reading yet but wanted to share with you my new book that arrived mid week that I’d pre-ordered from Waterstones; Want by Gillian Anderson - she has a website dedicated to it.

“A collection of fantasies from women around the world, Want is a revelatory, sensational and game-changing exploration of women's sexuality that asks, and answers: How do women feel about sex when they have the freedom to be totally anonymous?”

In true ADHD style it’s now in my book pile which is in strict order rotation of what to read next … I daren’t show you a picture of that 🙈

AGEISM 🤬 Why Indeed's View On Career Decline Is So Wrong - If you’re active like me on LinkedIn you’ll have no doubt seen the debacle that played out about the job search giant, Indeed and the ad they placed. How did they manage to miss the mark with this? It definitely is a myth that 55-65+ is career decline era. Lazy and out of touch. Boo!!!!

STREAMING 🍿 Netflix’s KAOS has a stellar cast plus I’m all over anything that has Jeff Goldblum in it. I’ve always loved Greek Mythology ever since I was a young kid. Think I can blame Jason and The Argonauts movie for that which came out the year I was born. The Children of Hydra’s teeth scene kept me glued to the TV screen and the Cyclops. Legendary! I could never get enough of the repeats.

If you’re into Mythology like me I can highly recommend the Mythos and Heroes books by Stephen Fry.

8 episodes of KAOS is decidedly over the top. It’s a tale of what it would look like if King of the Gods, Zeus and his family were in charge of us all right now today. Up to about episode 3 I was like oh I don’t think I like this .. it’s cringingly over the top and corny but then something flipped and I was hooked. It’s actually really clever and I love, love Janet McTeer as his wife/ sister, Hera. David Thewlis as the henpecked, tired and downtrodden Hades, God of Death is more epic casting.

Roll on Season 2 is all I say.

And talking about TV I love one of my all time favourite programmes came back this week; Season 4 of the spy thriller, Slow Horses. If you haven’t seen this yet you’re missing a trick. I loved a review I say online that described Gary Oldman as ‘ like a bear dipped in chip fat’ 😆 How can you unsee that?

Kristen Scott Thomas can do no wrong in my eyes, either. Here’s a really old post on my old blog where I quoted her. She’s fabulous. The first episode was just as enthralling as I expected.

Good old fashioned, stylishly grown up TV.

FRIENDSHIP 👨‍❤️‍👨 Just over a year ago I wrote this ‘Stack about male friendships ..

This week I came across a really interesting article worth a read that ties in so well to how lonely so many married men are in the Western World and how it’s important to to teach boys to cherish and form friendships. Although, I’m not sure of the author’s Darby & Joan semi insult but it’s an interesting perspective from the man whose written it.

And while I’m on the subject of how men make and stay friends let me just drop a little bit of Brad and George in for your delectation. I could watch these two together clowning around looking gorgeous all day long. Here they were at the Venice Film Festival this week.

It’s even more interesting how you never read anything about them looking old or being too old for their careers isn’t it? Not like female actors and entertainers. Actually female everything 🤷‍♀️

Blunders like Indeed made makes me even more interested in this whole idea around why age should be a people strategy in businesses and organisations worldwide. Can you tell I’m prepping for my Ted Talk? Eek .. it’s getting closer .. October 16th to be precise.

I had a shot at manifesting and it worked!!

CULTURE 🌎 I suppose this sits under culture - it’s a really interesting read.

‘We didn’t worry about a few dirty laughs!’ The Carry On women on playing nags, bra-burners and ‘crumpet’

This is for those of us who were brought up on the Carry On comedy films in the 70s. Painful to even consider the innuendo now but interesting what Sheila Hancock said in the interview; “I think they would be good things for youngsters to study, and talk about why they’re unacceptable and silly now, and see how they think differently about it.”

Image Credit: Studiocanal Films Ltd/Alamy via TheGuradian.com

SUBSTACK NOTES 📝 Using them yet ? Get stuck in!! For those of you who might be new to the Substack platform I just wanted to mention the ‘Notes’ function. I hang out in there almost everyday and chat to people. It’s a bit like writing a Tweet /Thread/Facebook post. I’d encourage everyone to use Notes as you discover all sorts of interesting things and people. Even if you don’t write here on Substack you really should get into Notes. Honestly, for me this platform replaces everything. It’s so cool.

A very large proportion of my faffing about this week has been all about choosing kitchen taps and island lighting and decor colours. We are deep in kitchen renovation mode at the minute. Maybe I should write about that? Let me know dear Faffers if you’d enjoy a kitchen renovation post.

It’s Mr B’s 61st birthday on Sunday and as we have no kitchen that gets me out of having to worry what wondrous celebratory dinner I need to rustle up for him. Sunday lunch out and Colin the Caterpillar birthday cake it is. Colin is a tradition in our house even for the kid that no longer lives at home.

Woe betide I forget the COLIN 🎂

As always, ciao for now and don’t forget …

Hitting the Like 💗 button and re-stacking is the most massive help in getting the word out on Substack about my Faffing Fridays.

ANNNNDDD .. I love conversations so the comments is good place to start a chat with me.