#19: Change Comes Slow
all of the things I want you to know about this week
So far, March has been… a lot. I have been knee deep in RosaceaCon planning and organising and barely had a moment to breathe. And then a week ago, I developed sciatica and have been forced to stop and take things easy. There’s probably a lesson there…
I am slowly but surely starting to feel better (with the help of drugs, ice packs, sleeping tablets, very specific sleeping positions, stretching, and regular but gentle movement). It’s such a cliché, but experiencing sudden pain that limits your movement really does remind you that your health and mobility is precious and fragile. I’m making a promise to myself to be more active and look after myself better to reduce the likelihood of this happening again.
In more positive news, I’m just so excited about RosaceaCon and cannot wait to share more about the day with you after the event. I just need to somehow find an extra week somewhere between now and then to get everything done!
This newsletter has: a song, lots of interesting articles, recommendations for a book, a TV programme, a beauty product, and an update about next month…
If you’d like to catch up on my recent newsletters, you can find them all HERE.
Listening: My song of the moment, and title of this newsletter, is Change Comes Slow by Humming House.
I’ve also created a playlist with all of my newsletter song recommendations, in case you fancy listening to them all. You can find it (and save it) HERE.
Reading: I really enjoyed THIS ARTICLE by
- ‘Fascism thrives on women’s self doubt’. It may be one of the most interesting articles I’ve read on Substack and is an example of the wonderful writing I stumble across on here.“Fascism does not need to tell women to submit. It simply creates conditions where submission looks like self-improvement. And so, beauty is transformed into duty. Thinness becomes discipline. Grooming becomes morality. Aging becomes failure. We have been told that beauty is a personal pursuit, a harmless aspiration, a choice. But when an entire society is structured around the relentless demand for women to strive toward an ever-moving standard, it ceases to be a choice at all.
Beauty has never just been about attractiveness. It has always been about legitimacy. About who is allowed to take up space without hesitation. About who gets to be seen, who gets to be heard, and who is forced to shrink themselves in the hopes of being accepted. About who is granted ease, protection, desirability, and ultimately, humanity.”
Since joining Substack, I’ve found myself replacing my social media doom-scrolling with my Substack feed. I highly recommend it. Intelligent writing like this, positive stories, people being vulnerable, none of the nasty viral ragebait you get elsewhere. It’s a great place to spend time.
Travelling: When this newsletter pops up in your inbox, I will be on the Eurostar on my way to Paris. We’re having a long weekend there with some friends and I cannot wait (even my sciatica is not going to stop me from enjoying myself!) I can’t wait to be sat outside a café, drinking a glass of wine and people-watching.
Reading: I read a lot of psychological thriller books and this week I finished one of the best books I’ve read in that genre. Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister starts with a murder, after which the protagonist wakes up each day further back in time, trying to find a way to stop the murder before it happens. It’s really clever and had some twists I didn’t see coming.
Watching: We’ve watched the whole first season of Paradise (Disney+) in the past week and I’m absolutely furious that I now have to wait for a second season. I didn’t know much about it going in and I highly recommend that. Don’t google it, don’t read up on it, just give the first episode a try and I think by the end you’ll be hooked.
Reading: THIS ARTICLE from
about beauty, overconsumption, and the spirit of Ramadan.
Using: A few weeks ago I got a tattoo (my first one for nearly 20 years!) and I have been using La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5 religiously to help with the healing. It’s really helped with the itchy feeling and stopped it ever getting to that dry, scabby stage.
I have banged on about Cicaplast so many times and have converted so many of my friends and family to it. I think everyone should have a tube in their house as it comes in handy for so many things: burns, scrapes, nappy rash, dry skin, post-rosacea flares, tattoos… it’s ridiculously good.
I included it in this recent post, about products I’ve used for years (I think I first mentioned it on my blog 12 years ago!)
Reading: I wanted to share THIS Grazia article by
(who you should definitely follow to keep up with her work), about the horrible chubby/skinny AI filters that have gone viral on TikTok. I will never understand the mentality of the people who make these and those who use them. I really admire the way that Chloe writes so eloquently about awful topics like these. I think I find it particularly commendable, because when I see things like this I just want to scream until I throw up.Reading: I think you’ll enjoy THIS ARTICLE by Becca Caddy (who is also here on Substack -
- writing really fascinating things about tech and its impact on our lives). What is AI slop? What is it doing to our feeds? And how can you spot it?Personally, I think Facebook is now completely unusable due to the sheer amount of AI garbage in my feed. No matter how many times I block, report, mark as uninterested, it’s instantly replaced by 3 other images, like some horrible additional-fingered, uncanny-valley AI hydra.
Preparing: The next few weeks are going to be a whirlwind of RosaceaCon and Rosacea Awareness Month preparation.
I will be posting a little more than usual during Rosacea Awareness Month - both here on Substack and on Instagram. So make sure you’re subscribed here and following me over there if you want to keep up with everything.
What are you reading? What are you watching? What content would you like to see from me during Rosacea Awareness Month? Let me know!
