Nice Things: January Edition

What to read, watch and listen to as well as my reflections on nature I'm noticing, questions I’m asking and answers I’ve found.

Oh, January. It’s dark outside and I feel like I’ve had a hot water bottle permanently attached to me, but there’s still joy to be found. It’s warm in the cinema, The Traitors was wonderful and I found a really good shell on Camber Sands. Here are some nice things for the month.

• I’ve just finished reading Sarvat Hasin’s Strange Girls which will be out in May. It perfectly captures our desire to be seen—through friendship, through writing, through life. Pre-ordering really helps authors out and it means future you gets a book in the post from past you. If you haven’t read The Giant Dark by Sarvat I’d really recommend it. It’s a haunting tale of fame and first love told between London and Karachi. There’s something really mythic about Sarvat’s writing that pulls me in every time.

• This week I’ve been re-reading Arrangements in Blue ahead of an event I’m doing next week with Amy Key. If you’re a member of The Ned (lucky you) I’ll be interviewed by Amy about The Tidal Year and there’ll be a moonlit swim after which is going to be gorge. You can register for the event in the Members app.

• I also revisited some of Amy’s poetry and this one stirs my insides every time at the bit about shells. This one is beautiful too. I love the line “I am dying to be written about in your diary”, because that’s just me all over.

• Speaking of shells, I enjoyed Dolly Alderton’s recent column about social media use and her comparison to our desire to collect and display.

• I wrote a feature about how wild swimming retreats became a haven for women seeking deeper connections for Condé Nast Traveller. Those of you that read The Tidal Year will know one of my greatest love stories (with my best friend) began at a swimming retreat, so this was a joy to write. I included a round up of the UK’s best swim stays, so check them out if you’re yearning for an adventure (and maybe even a new friend) this year.

• Nice things I saw, coveted and bought this month include this darling fish pendant by Alba Jewellery. Every painting by Vivien McDermid via Blue Shop Gallery and this is the best lip balm you’ll ever own.

• On the first weekend of Jan I went to see Nosferatu at The Ritzy. What a fun Friday communal experience the cinema is! We all gasped. We all laughed. I didn’t love it as much as The Witch, but was totally swept up in the gothic romance of it, and I simply must get my hands on Lily-Rose Depp’s blue dress! My new cinema thing is a pint of mochi balls instead of popcorn.

• But… if you are having popcorn it should really be Drum & Kernel because it’s simply the best (Richard Ayoade agrees). You can pick it up at North Cross Road market on Saturdays.

• This Substack about the gothic sexuality of Nosferatu is worth a read and asks if “the popularity of Eggers’ melodramatically Gothic, Romantic, sex-horror Nosferatu signify a rising interest in a return to Gothic Romanticism more widely?” Very excited for the upcoming films she mentions, and the vibe of the art included.

• The following week I went to see We Live in Time. It was lovely to see local Herne Hill. I think it’s important to romanticise where you live and I loved seeing them walk through Brockwell park. Will this film change your life? No. Will you have a lovely time and a nice big cry? Yes.

• Not only did I go and see The Brutalist in 70mm film (yes, I’m that girl) but I’ve also been listening to the soundtrack at work. It’s by Daniel Blumberg of Cajun Dance Party. What a throwback! What a revelation! And a lovely reminder that careers are long, you can do anything and we all can (and should) regularly reinvent ourselves creatively.

• I went to a lot of comedy this month, including John Kearns not once but twice. I’ve said it here before but he truly is the funniest man alive. He doesn’t really update his website, but there are usually tour tickets on Dice so go see him if you can.

• I also saw Abby Wamburgh at Soho Theatre. The show was silly, full of accents and her spinning around the stage on a wheelie chair screaming ‘SCARE THE BANANA’ then all of a sudden Abby says: sometimes the beginning of something is the whole thing. The air was sucked from the room. I was winded. Someone in the front row wipes a tear and I’m pleased to be in a dark room of strangers, sharing this together, like we’re all holding one another in this moment. That’s what it’s all about.

• Tim Key has a new WIP show and I can confirm it’s very funny. He’s also got a new film coming out set on a remote island and as someone who’s spent the last two (is it three?) years writing a book set on an English island I can’t wait to watch it. He really does make me laugh my socks off.

• After all that comedy I was thinking about Edinburgh Fringe and enjoyed listening to this episode of Elfonomics podcast between a comedian daughter and economist dad discussing the finances of Fringe.

• I’m writing a short feature on hot & cold therapy right now, so do comment below if you’ve been to an amazing sauna! Tonight I’m going to my local Sauna Social. It’s tucked away beneath the railway arches in Peckham and I feel very lucky something so hip and trendy is in my neighbourhood.

Nature I’m noticing…

Shells on Camber Sands stuck together like a closed fist. Learned these are Chittons! How strange you can never see something from the sea for years, then see hundreds on a beach one day.

Shells have different footprints. Play and make your own.

The Japanese Quince blooming blood-red is back on my street. Day made whenever I pass it.

Questions I’m asking…

Am I vitamin D deficient? What do I do about it?

If I visited myself in Jan 2026 and Freya thanked me for one thing I did this year. What would it be?

Did my therapist have a go at me as an experiment or is she really annoyed?

Answers I’ve found…

Doing nothing with your favourite people is really good for you. This article says so.

Take a chance on new friends. Maybe even play a cheesy card game. You’ll be glad you did.

We all must embrace our inner winter.