Chapter 1: Setting high-yet-achievable goals

You may surprise yourself!

Goooooooooooood morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you might happen to be!

I’m happy to report that my start-of-the-day and end-of-the-day calendar check routine is working beautifully! I really like the quick look at the day ahead and the day that follows, so I’m going to stick with it. And I’ll need to, because February is going to be a crazy month.

Bonkers

As I mentioned on Twitter the other week, I’ve set myself some ambitious goals for February:

• draft a 25,000-word proposal for a new book (which will include a sample chapter!)

• revise and submit the final manuscript of the LFB

Oh, and I forgot to mention I’ll need to do teaching prep, too!!

Am I bonkers for aiming this high? Maybe! But I’ve surprised myself in the past. Sometimes, a sliiiiiiiightly ambitious goal gives me just the nudge I need, and even if I don’t always reach my goals I’m often surprised by how much I manage to get done.

Sometimes, you fail

You all know by now that I love a cooking challenge. My latest? Mini passionfruit meringue tarts! I’ve long been a fan of the ones in the windows of Ottolenghi outposts in London, but Mr Ottolenghi has thus far failed to include the recipe in any of his cookbooks!! Could someone please let him know he needs to fix that asap?

In the meantime, I’ve been forced to cobble together recipes and techniques into one multi-day experiment, and it’s going…not badly, but meh? I’m going to attempt the toasted meringue part tomorrow, so maybe it’ll all come together then, but I’m reminding myself that this is my first attempt, and it’s absolutely fine if I fail! [Update: I didn’t fail—they turned out to be very tasty!!]

A good laugh

Usually, I share written humour on here, but this week I’m sharing a hilarious sketch from Saturday Night Live spoofing the State Farm commercials so many Americans have stuck in their heads (Like a good neighbour, State Farm is theeeeeeeere!). I love the way they’ve taken that familiar jingle to absurd extremes! Plus, it features Michael B. Jordan, and he is always, always worth watching.

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VB,

M