Enjoy my recommendations below and find out a little of what’s been tickling my senses this week while we’ve been away up the coast.

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Sound:

Driving the Sydney to Byron Bay route is a long one so I had been storing up podcasts for the road. One that absolutely tickled my partner and I was ‘Grounded by Louis Theroux’ in his interview with Mariam Margolyes. She’s a little wicked, hysterically funny and infectiously candid and Theroux is kept on his toes throughout the entire interview. She talks about her sexuality, her working career and living in L.A. as a British actress and there are more than a handful of laugh out loud moments. I would highly recommend Theroux’s podcast in general for its wit and whimsy but this one in particular was so entertaining. Warning though – if you are prudish, you won’t dig it!

 I listen to mine on the podcast app: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/7-miriam-margolyes/id1508985962?i=1000477131607

Smell:

We’ve been staying a stone’s throw from the ocean here in Kingscliff and I can never get past this as my favourite smell: the mix of the ocean, coconut-scented sunscreen and sea-salt. There is something about the smell of sunscreen that conjures up the feeling of holidays, beach sessions and long summer nights. I’m pretty conscious about the sunscreen we use on our bodies and making sure they aren’t tested on animals etc. but after that, a lot of my choice is based around the smell. For clean sunscreens, great brands to look at are: Ultra Violette and We Are Feel Good Inc.

Taste:

Each night up here, we sit around the dinner table and chat over a few wines. We are away with my partner’s family and it’s been so wonderful to all have time together. Once the nieces and nephews have gone to sleep, the chocolate comes out. I’ve stumbled across a very reasonable, very yummy dark chocolate that is hugely underrated. Link below. Thank me later.

 https://www.aldi.com.au/en/groceries/pantry/just-organic/just-organic-detail/ps/p/just-organic-dark-chocolate-100g/

Touch:

This year, my style has completely revolutionised. Not necessarily in terms of my look but how I come to acquire clothes. As many of us were, at the beginning of the year I was planning a holiday. I had made a pact with myself that to save money and space in my wardrobe, I wouldn’t buy a single new piece from the date of my birthday until we departed unless it was pre-loved and pre-owned or vintage. Well, as you’re all aware, the travel industry imploded and none of us went anywhere. But I decided my challenge should remain. I dove deep into the conversations happening within and outside of the fashion industry to do with fast fashion, vintage pieces and what’s driving trends. And it really struck a chord… more than a chord, perhaps. As someone who works in fashion now, I am super conscious about where my clothes are coming from and how they are being made, in addition to the impact their production has on the environment and what’s driving my desire for that particular piece. I now know the pieces I want to add to my wardrobe, rather than guessing or following an endless stream of cheaper products. When we got up here to the top of NSW, I had exactly the type of dress in mind that I wanted to add and funnily enough, a girl on Facebook marketplace was selling that exact piece only minutes from our place up here! So I bought the much coveted piece off her second hand! However, the brand itself is one that I can absolutely get behind. Their ethos, attitude towards sustainability and simple designs make them exactly the kind of brand I feel comfortable supporting. They are a Byron based business called The Silk Co and their pieces are made of beautiful raw silk! I feel like myself in my new Belle dress and that’s a good buy as far as I’m concerned.

 https://thesilkco.com/

Sight:

I am absolutely enchanted by Jessie Burton’s writing. I know, I know…her books have been around for a while now but I was being a contrarian and didn’t want to hop on the bandwagon. More fool me. I just finished one of her pieces of work and jumped straight onto the next one! I’m flying through the pages of The Muse each day and filling the spine with sand. Burton’s follow up novel to The Miniaturist, The Muse is a beautifully interwoven story of family, love, identity and authenticity across two different eras, linked by an intriguing piece of art. I’m 200 pages in and I am desperate to turn each page and simultaneously don’t want it to end. It’s the kind of writing I had been missing – and I’m very much enjoying being absorbed by a story again!

 I bought my copy second hand at a bookstore in Mullumbimby but Jessie Burton’s books can be found in all good bookstores.