So Long, London

Pals! I am writing to you from Gatwick airport, waiting for my flight back to Ireland after five weeks in London. It has been delayed (boo!) and my backpack was pulled for searching so it’s shaping up to be an annoying travel day all round. Apparently the wire binding of my diary registered as “something sharp” which necessitated the nice man at security to go through its pages with a forensic eye. I hope he enjoyed my Morning Pages and my stream of consciousness musings on how long I can last without getting a gel manicure (two months and counting after reading Angela Scanlon’s v good piece on why she was quitting Shellac!!) and wondering how all the dogs in London are SO well behaved and if I should buy Cooper a little waistcoat and monocle so he fits in.

So, I’m at the airport and I’m sitting in a Gail’s, eating a strawberry and pistachio quinoa pudding, and listening to the three women next to me discuss how difficult it is to dress for this heat. It has been very, very hot in London this last week, did you know? No one has talked much about it so I feel like it’s my duty to tell you. Despite the REVOLTING heat - will no one think of the pasty amongst us - I am feeling very sad to leave London. I’ve been splitting my time between here and West Cork for 18 months now, but this was the longest stint so far. I wasn’t sure how I would get on, or how I would feel by the end of the five weeks. I presumed I would be gasping for Ireland and yes, I am craving the sea in every inch of my being and I want to see my family and friends and cuddle Cooper and ask him if he missed me and then say to him, over and over, “are you a dog? Or are you a baby?” because I am my most annoying self around that poor creatúr. But I have felt so at home in London too. I have been trying to build community here, to cement friendships, and it seems to be paying off. There are people here that genuinely feel like My People now, and that’s exciting. A huge component of writing my memoir was trying to figure out what it would be like to live a bigger life; for me, that meant shaping my life into something that felt fulfilling and joyful and fun and free, surrounded by people who made me laugh and whom I felt safe around.

I think it’s working.

Anyway, here are some fun things I did this week!

A Bigger Life - Dinner Party

The publisher of A Bigger Life threw an intimate dinner party for me this week, to launch the proofs into the world, and when I looked around at the group of women I had gathered that night, cool, interesting, fun, kind, warm women, women who had seen me at my lowest in 2023 and who offered nothing but comfort and support in return, I felt so lucky and grateful. The love and goodwill in that room should be studied. And the merch!! I’ve always wanted merch!! On Instagram, I wrote that while this memoir is about desire and dating and heartbreak, it’s also an ode to the many forms love can take. If A Bigger Life if about searching for love, that party was a reminder that I’ve been surrounded by it all along.

On that note, Joanne McNally asked me to the launch of Casillero del Diablo Rosé and while I don’t drink, everyone else said it was delicious so go fill your boots. This was a funny one because when I walked in by myself, I felt a bit nervous if it would be a bit cliquey. But everyone was so nice and inclusive and I was sitting next to a gorgeous influencer called Georgia who gave me a crash course on not taking mean comments on the internet personally (she started her YouTube channel when she was SIXTEEN and attending an ALL GIRLS SCHOOL – she knows what she’s talking about). A reminder that most people just want to chat and connect, no matter how glam they look on the outside. As said in another post, I do really love the women.

The Yellow Bittern

How else do you celebrate your nine-year recovery anniversary from an eating disorder except with a five-course lunch? I had heard many great things about this restaurant from my very chic gaeilgeoir friend, Traolach, and then my other very chic gaeilgeoir friend, Doireann Ní Ghlacáin, invited me to go with her. I had heard rumours that being Irish is considered terribly cool in London now* – I’d well believe it – and The Yellow Bittern is confirmation of that. Apparently it’s one of Nigella Lawson’s favourite restaurants in London, the food was amazing, and it was so unapologetically Irish… hard recommend if you’re in the form for an indulgent lunch. The owner asked Doireann to sing at the end of our meal and the whole place was RAPT. Go, go, go.

Romeo & Juliet

This is the Sadie Sink version of R&J, the one that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce went to see when they were in town. That’s… not why I went. I went because a very good friend from LA was in London for a week and she had a spare ticket.

Okay, first things first. I went with three Americans who all wept at the end. I did not. I don’t know if that’s because of their Americanness or because I – spoiler alert! – was aware the main characters die at the end so I wasn’t too shocked. I found the ending a little sentimental for my taste tbh but I loved how this production really emphasises how young the characters are (Sadie Sink literally looks about fifteen years old) and how that plays into their impulsiveness, their poor decision making, the speed at which they become infatuated with each other. On a side note, I really enjoyed the actor’s interpretation of Mercutio. It’s the first time I’ve ever actively wanted him to die, he was so annoying lol.

Anish Kapoor

This exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in the Southbank Centre blew me away. Apparently, the artist is controversial because in 2016, he acquired the exclusive artistic rights to Vantablack, “an ultra-black material that absorbs 99.96% of visible light”. It prevented any other artist from using it – god, I live for petty art world gossip like this. All that being said, the pieces are incredible. The ones using Vantablack are, to put it bluntly, fucking trippy; they feel unfathomably deep, like you could walk into them and fall straight through to the centre of the earth. He also has these large scale sculptures that are so large, they take up an entire room and are awe-inspiring. It’s running until October.

Frida Kahlo

I was at the Tate Modern the first day this opened and I have no idea how it’s been reviewed so I could be about to be humbled… but I was underwhelmed. I had gone to the V&A’s Frida Kahlo exhibition in 2018 and adored it; it felt forensic in its level of detail, I was utterly absorbed and felt like I was immersed in Frida’s world. The Tate’s show is focused more on Kahlo’s influence, how her work shaped other artists, both her contemporaries and those who came afterwards, which was interesting but didn’t capture my imagination in the same way. If you’ve seen it, please comment below and give me your thoughts! Did I completely miss the mark?

Relics

I have – somehow! – gotten onto the press list for The Lyric in Hammersmith which is SO nice and I’m afraid they’ll kick me off if they see I’ve given a less than glowing review here. Please keep in mind I went to see it with my friend Niamh on the hottest day of the year and my brain was pure MELTED which could very well have impacted my enjoyment of it. The play is about four siblings who are sorting through their recently deceased mother’s house when they make an unexpected discovery that changes everything… dun dun dun. I thought this was a superb cast, the set was stunning, but the humour and more serious themes didn’t quite gel for me in the way I hoped it would. Again – very possibly could have been the heat. Please keep asking me to things, Lyric!

That’s all for this week, my friends. I am back in Ireland for a few weeks as I am speaking at multiple festivals. You can see me at the West Cork Literary festival with Liz Nugent (tickets here), the Skibbereen Arts Festival (tickets here) or in Tralee at the Anam Arts Festival (tickets here). Lots of love xxx

*Speaking of the Irish in London, I did an event at the London Irish centre for Bloomsday with Oisín McKenna and Sarvat Hasin, and they both spoke SO beautifully and their books sound superb. I bought both and can’t wait to read x