Has the pandemic changed your relationship? (Make sure you scroll down, cos there’s real gold in the comments)
The NY Times has been doing some stellar stuff recently, including this “Joy Of…” series, where different writers talk about what’s bringing them joy right now. We’ve particularly loved reading The Joy of Jogging Very, Very Slowly, The Joy of the Hate-Watch, and The Joy of Having Plans Cancel Themselves by the wonderful Taffy Brodesser-Akner
This Twitter thread will be one of the most important things you read this week
The Guardian has published lockdown playlists from a bunch of artists, and this “optimistic playlist” from Bat for Lashes’ Natasha Khan has been on constant rotation in Slice HQ this week (they also have playlists from Mike Skinner, Norah Jones, Haim, and others, if they’re more your cup of tea)
“I sent a message to my ex. I blame the pandemic – and Normal People.”
This story of a woman who travelled to Greece to embark on solo IVF at the beginning of the pandemic is some of the loveliest, most atmospheric writing we’ve read this year (“On the day I get a negative pregnancy test, 717 people die of coronavirus in the UK. For a long while, I sit on the edge of my bed and try to balance rationality and sorrow. I look at pictures from Italian hospitals, follow the upward curves of the latest graphs. Friends have lost loved ones, I tell myself; I have lost someone who barely ever existed. And yet I walk out into the cool sun of my courtyard and cry.”)
If you’re getting to the stage where it feels like you’ve watched literally everything on the internet, may we direct your eyes to this excellent Twitter thread? Filmmaker Judd Apatow asked his followers for recommendations on “what to watch – any medium” and the responses could literally keep you entertaining for decades (some celebs have even weighed in with their current faves)
Drooling over the art and pops of primary colour in this Melbourne weatherboard house
J.K. Rowling has announced she’s publishing a new fairy tale called The Ickabog online for freeeee. A new chapter will be released in instalments over the next seven weeks right here, and a book version will be published in November with all royalties going to Covid-19 relief. And sorry HP fans, but this one is completely unrelated to the Wizarding World
Tiny love stories
In early April, the journalist Michael Shulman started following the story of six flatmates in Brooklyn who suddenly found themselves quarantining together. Of course, he turned it into an EPIC story for the New Yorker that reads like a soap opera, complete with dirty dishes, passive-aggressive notes, kitchen hogging, cleaning arguments and drug dealing. Honestly, it made us feel very glad not to be in our 20s anymore
Vanessa’s baking challenge this weekend is these gruyere, zucchini and chilli buns from Sydney bakery legends Flour Stone (the cheese ooze looks sooo good 🧀 ). Lizzie’s baking challenge this weekend is mastering pasteis de nata (aka Portuguese custard tarts). Watch this space (or our Instagrams: Vanessa is here; Lizzie is here)
Vanessa’s other weekend plans include savouring Curtis Sittenfeld’s new book Rodham, which imagines what Hilary Clinton’s life would have been like if she refused to marry Bill (the Guardian’s review is a rave)
From the same guy that brought us the glitter package bomb, comes another GENIUS work of art: the squirrel obstacle course (thanks to our friend Sophia for this one)
