Books I wish I’d written
Stewart Lee’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate
Niki Segnit’s The Flavour Thesaurus
Jonathan Coe’s The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim
Things that made me laugh
Stewart Lee: his book (above) and live show Vegetable Stew (extra dates in Jan!)
The Real Thing at the Old Vic
Things that made me cry
The Trip (ep 6)
Rev (ep 6)
my hard drive dying
Toy Story 3
Things that have distracted me from doing more productive things
Bill Nighy’s voice in the Charles Paris Mysteries on BBC Radio 7/4
Downton Abbey
The Archers’ SATTC build up
Armistead Maupin’s Mary Ann in Autumn
Lumosity’s Word Bubble game
Sherlock
Mad Men
Wallander
That not-very-good-but-strangely-addictive tv cop show with Toby Stephens in it that was panned by critics
Reasons I’m not a size 10
Blackbird Bakery mince pies
Indian Mystery masala dosas
Jacks’ lattes
cheese, generally
churros from Richard Lenoir/Bastille Sunday market
pints at the Herne
Japanese grape flavour chews from Soho or the korean deli under Centre Point
Paul A Young sea salted caramels
Sally Clarke eccles cakes (from the East Dulwich Deli)
Things I bought that I probably couldn’t really afford but that have contributed to my general happiness and well being and which are cheaper than therapy
Most of the above, plus…
Jo Malone perfume (30cl bottle)
a super-soft hand-knitted snood (avail Greenwich mkt, Sundays)
Laura Mercier tinted moisturiser
French notebooks
Bodum Fyrkat charcoal bbq grill
People who have been good to me (Thank You!)
Audiogo – the BBC’s audiobook arm who send me audiobooks to review and sent shortbread at Christmas
The Apple store’s genius bar who gave me a new hard drive for free
The state education system
Tibor Jones for pep talks and confidence boosters
My husband for buying me Camper slippers – every homeworker should have some
Anyone who put work my way (kind friends and former colleagues)
Anyone who took me out to lunch or bought me a coffee
Everyone who bought The Midlife Manual
Everyone who has read, commented on and contributed to this blog
HOW TO BE UNEMPLOYED 
What a great post! Happy new year.