The Paradox of Now #5

What Do You Think?

Shwmae pawb! (Hello everyone! - in Welsh)

This week’s newsletter has a slightly different style. As I mentioned when I first started, I’m embracing experimentation - being a novice and figuring things out as I go.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you prefer this approach or the storytelling style? Let me know in the feedback section or drop me a message on socials.

Your support and feedback mean the world - diolch in advance!

Now let me give you a taste of what's coming:

• My favourite food-themed brand

• A controversial take on kitchen appliances

• The most useless life hack

🥚Eggstra News🥚

Your weekly dose of some fascinating and fun finds:

• Quite Nice – A food-themed brand I love, especially their t-shirt designs. Definitely a dream collaboration for the future.

• Mark Manson – Best known for The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, but his newsletter and Instagram are just as insightful.

• Journal Notebook – My go-to for journaling. The B5 size is perfect.

The Paradox of Now

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Message me on socials if you’d like to feature in this section. 🙂

Is a Bread Roll as Soft as a Mattress? 🍞 🛏️ 

Here's a fact that surprises most people I meet as a food fanatic and ex-chef... I don't own an air fryer.

WTF, I know right?

Call me a traditionalist, but the sound of a microwave ping or the kettle climaxing is far superior to the Gen Z 'beep beep' symphony of an air fryer.

I know I might lose followers for being so contentious, but I'm willing to stick my neck out on this one.

This segues me nicely onto a life hack that I feel is so important that I have to share it in the main body of my newsletter.

You know the part where I usually make people cry? Well, yeah, it’s that important.

The life hack is.

(drumroll please 🥁)

Put your potato waffles in your toaster to cook them.

Putting anything inside a toaster that isn't a standard slice of bread is thrilling – we all know this.

But isn't it wild how pure joy, excitement, and adrenaline are just one potato waffle away?

The closest comparison to watching a potato waffle pop out of a toaster is that magical moment in primary school when you brought your fossil collection for show and tell, and everyone was absolutely obsessed, all crowding around to touch your ammonites.

Or perhaps even better: that feeling when you step up to bat in rounders on the school field, and all the fielders take a collective step back.

Enjoy the simple thrills of life, people.

Those who don't know me well might think I'm making this up, but this is genuinely how excited I get about lots of things.

Just ask my colleagues – the other week, I got so thrilled about how soft my lunch roll was that I made the boldest declaration of my life: proclaiming I had the softest roll in the entire department.

I then proceeded to compare it to various mattresses and admitted to doing the roll a disservice with its lacklustre fillings, but we won't go into that…

*(BBQ sauce - m8 you're grim)

What I'm trying to say is: choose to look at life through the lens of joy, play, and wonder. It doesn't have to be as whimsical and weird as my approach, but I think the least we could all do is be grateful for one thing each day.

Gratitude is a lifelong practice, and I'm speaking from experience.

My first journals were gratitude journals, and initially, I found them incredibly difficult to write in because I was down and depressed.

But I persevered, and gratitude has become one of the most beautiful things in my world.

To quote one of the most influential people of this generation:

Or the modern twist:

It doesn't have to be all the time. I get it – some days you just want to put your middle fingers up to the world.

Choose a constant time in the day where you could start. It would be when you are brushing your teeth, driving to work, waiting for a kettle to boil or just before you go to sleep.

I ask that you try to be grateful for something at least:

Once a year.

Once a month.

Once a week.

Once a day.

It's infectious, and it makes some of the seconds within these 920 months we have on this planet a little more bearable and fun.

Yes, we're all destined to be forgotten in two generations – so what does any of it matter I hear you ask?

Well, I'd rather be remembered for that infinitesimal sliver of time as the person who found pure joy in potato waffles popping out of toasters, than as the one who spent their precious moments ranting about paying 20p for ketchup packets at McDonald's.

What choice are you going to make?

The potato waffle of joy, or the sauce packet of perpetual complaint?

Haiku’s Haiku 🐥

Haiku’s feeling a little peckish after all this waffle talk.

It’s a shame that he looks as though he’s growing a double chin.

Maybe that’s all the bread people are feeding him.

Remember, ducks love peas, sweetcorn and oats. Never bread…

Even if your rolls are softer than the mattress on my bed!

Palm Tree Euphoria 🌴

Keeping it simple and following on from the potato waffle life hack.

Question of the week:

I think there are some people out there that have some absolute gems and I cannot wait to hear about them and try them for myself!

One potentially useless lifehack could be telling people to subscribe to this newsletter or follow my socials. Spread the love, as I’ve just paid a yearly subscription to post these newsletters for free to you guys 😅

p.s. Did anyone notice the little poem before the haiku?

See you dashing ducks over there! 🐥 

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