Mind the rentrée
Don't come crashing back to reality after summer; glide in with the pace of a brown, crispy leaf falling off a tree
September signals the start of the new school year in the northern hemisphere, but this life shift doesn’t resonate with me at all because I grew up in Australia, where our school year starts in January, with the year changing, obviously.
But this doesn’t mean I don’t like to replicate some of the same changes and updates for a new season after summer in September.
Summer consisted of weeks and weeks of amazing, delightful, joyous events, mixed in with a few sweltering heatwaves and a football championship (very 2018). But did it also consist of drinking a glass of chilled, dry white wine every day with lunch and dinner? Yes it did. Was there aperitivo every day? Yes. Campari and soda in case you are wondering. Almost no water drunk? For sure. Skin parched from the sun and sea? You get the idea.
In France, they say à la rentrée which not literally means ‘see you in September for back to school/work after a long summer break’ and continuing the non-literal translation, rentrée kind of sounds like reentry, and like Apollo 13, I desperately need to mind the reentry back into real life after swanning around in the sun all summer.
My rentrée is all about getting my house and life in order to handle the winter season. Every year I am shocked that winter follows summer. Like leaves falling off trees is brand new. But not this year! This is my fifth London winter, and I am going in prepared.
I like to stave off the darkening nights by lighting candles. Not revolutionary, but my preference at the moment is for unscented candles which provide light but not fragrance, particularly important at dinner time when cooking or eating. Please practice good fire safety and don’t light them near curtains, dried flowers or on an uneven or flammable surface. Also don’t leave candles unattended.
Summer in London means visitors and eating out which I love, but my gut health is practically non-existent right now from all the delicious restaurant foods. I have tried nearly all the supplements and I have no idea idea if any of them work because I simply forget and don’t take them for long enough. So, this time I’m skipping supplements and choosing macrobiotic foods instead. Think yogurt (look for no fillers, with the only ingredient milk. No gums or stablisers), fermented foods like kimchi, sourdough, miso, dark leafy greens, brown rice, fish and soup. Also warm water, not cold, for your qi.
I’m going to dry out a bit. Not all the way, but it’s a sticky place to be going into winter if your tolerance is already quite high. Between summer aperols and cosy winter pints is a soft, dry space to land in autumn. My face immediately shows how much alcohol I’ve been drinking and right now it is puffy, irritated, spotty and dull. Not hard to fix those things topically, but actually what will make the most difference is no alcohol (and all the extra things that come with drinking).
I started doing lillördag in January this year, but fell off it over summer as the evenings stayed light. Time to bring it back for a little bit of mid-week cheer. Lillördag is a Nordic concept where you celebrate a ‘little Saturday’ on a Wednesday. Seeing friends, going out for dinner, maybe a little party. I practice lillördag by trying a new local pub each week.
The title for this newsletter is a tribute to my new favourite podcast: The Deep Dive with Jessica St. Clair and June Diane Raphael, about two friends trying to survive adult womanhood. This image sums it up well.
What’s a good eye cream? No, you don’t have to use an eye cream, but maybe you should?