Saturday 28 November
It’s still November but the Christmas music is on as we sit down to write this week’s post. As we near the end of another lockdown, and with less than a month until Christmas, we hope everyone is staying well and keeping sane.
It’s been a long week in the NERANO house but we have found motivation in taking some time out every week to do the couch to 5k programme. It’s been getting us all outside and hitting the tarmac together this month. We are at different levels of fitness in our family so we all take it at our own pace but we do come back through the door feeling better than we left it!
After some frustrating but understandable Covid-related delays in our supply chain, we can finally say our Alpine Collection is in stock and ready to deliver from today. Thank you so much to everyone who pre-ordered - the puzzles are in the post and on their way to you.
While you wait, here are the things we have been loving over the past week…
Feeling Festive..
CRIMES AGAINST CHRISTMAS
Trust us, this is going to be the Christmas show we all need in our lives! Alexandra’s friends, Heather Westwell and Fergus Woods Dunlop run the brilliant comedy theatre company New Old Friends. Normally, they would doing their Christmas Show, but Covid has scuppered those plans this year, so instead they have recorded their 2016 show - Crimes Against Christmas - as a comedy audio drama, part audio book, part radio play.
Loosely inspired by Agatha Christie’s Then There Were None, we will follow a group of strangers gathered together on an island for a festive celebration. The hero is art investigator Peter Artridge, who thought he was there to solve the case of the Fabergé Bauble, but things take a sinister turn when his fellow guests begin to be bumped off in mysteriously Christmassy ways..
They will release a chapter a day from the 1 - 24 December. We will be following this one closely to get our daily Christmas hit! Let us know if you tune in! Subscribe now via Youtube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Supporting Small Businesses..
THE CHEESE COLLECTIVE
We don’t need any excuse to buy copious amounts of cheese but if you do, look no further than The Cheese Collective. They find the most delicious local and artisan cheeses, which were going to waste due to Covid, and delivers them to your door the next day to make a banging cheeseboard. What is even better is that for every cheese box purchased, they donate a meal to a local food bank on your behalf in partnership with The Trussell Trust.
BOOKSHOP
If you are planning on stocking up your bookshelf but don’t want to top up Amazon’s eye-watering profits in the process, then you should check out Bookshop. They are on a mission to create an easy, convenient way for you to buy your books online and support independent bookshops at the same time. You can even choose which local bookshop you want the full profit for each sale to go too.
We’re watching..
ESCAPE TO THE CHATEAU
The new series of ‘Escape to the Chateau’ is back on Sunday evenings giving us a much-needed hit of gentle, sugar-coated French chateau life to end the week. We have followed Dick and Angel’s renovation of Chateau de La Motte Husson from the beginning, over 5 years ago, so feel pretty invested in this show now!
We bought into their French dream so much, Alexandra actually bought tickets when she was 29 to their live show at The Palladium for March this year as a birthday treat but it was postponed. We’re hoping to eventually see them in 2021 - when she’s 31! Two years late but we hope it’ll be worth the wait.
We’re listening to..
THE HIGH LOW
The sad end of an era. A four year era to be exact! I’ve been a dedicated listener to journalists Dolly Alderton and Pandora Syke’s podcast, The High Low, from the start and they are sadly wrapping it up and leaving the party on a high. The grand finale will be a live festive show in aid of Blood Cancer UK next week, you can subscribe to watch via Fane Productions (a brilliant site to bookmark for live productions).
Just Loving..
LUKE MILLINGTON DRAKE
This week, we have been obsessed with this Instagram account from actor Luke Millington-Drake, who has been filming short comedy skits in his flat to pass the time. His impressions of Kiera Knightley going to the park and having AD look round her flat are genius. You may be a few episodes into the new series of The Crown by now but this is the only 60 second summary you need...
Thank you for reading and see you next week! We always love to hear your recommendations for the week ahead.