Finally, a morning routine

Hello there and happy Monday!

Long time readers may recall my decades-long quest to have a morning routine. It seems I finally have the bones of one, and it’s all thanks to Wordle.

Nearly every morning this year has started with Wordle, sometimes even before I take my thimble-sized bladder to the loo. I cross my legs and guess quickly.

The next step in the routine is to text Gareth the result, whether he’s away at work or sitting beside me. That’s three subjects we text about now: 1) dinner 2) cat 3) Wordle.

We’re very competitive about it, but have completely different approaches.

If it's going badly after two guesses, I tend to say “Ahh, F*CK IT!” and start hurling random nouns, because I struggle to tolerate a morsel of discomfort and want it to be over immediately.

Gareth takes a slow and methodical approach, pondering for ages and ages and bloody ages. He’s perfectly happy to walk away from it, sometimes for ten hours, before making his next move!

File under: “How you do one thing is how you do everything”.

(We recently discovered that his parents solve the Wordle together. Honestly, that just feels like a missed opportunity. Where’s the spice?!)

The next phase of the morning routine is:

  • Worldle - guess the country from its silhouette. This is pure joy for my inner geography nerd, last seen in 1985 playing Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? on an Apple II school computer.

  • Heardle - guess the song from a second-long snippet. I’ve been training all my life for that one!

  • Byrdle - for the days I really want to prolong the return to reality. It’s like Wordle, but choral music terms only. Minutes of fun to be had!

After that, I put the coffee on.

Are you into Wordle or any of its many variants? Would love to hear about your routine!

Wishing you a magnificent May ahead.

Until next time,

Shauna

P.S. A mega thank you to everyone who wrote after the last newsletter. What a treat! You've given me loads of new obsession ideas to explore. If you’ve not received a reply it’s down to user error, so let me know if I missed you!

Current Obsessions

Eight Famous Poems Rewritten by Your Asshole Cat
I want you to know
one thing.
If suddenly
you forget to feed me,
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

Luxe Listings Sydney
Not my usual genre, but I gobbled up two seasons! I’m totally overthinking a reality show about Sydney real estate agents, where a $10 million pad is a bargain, but I loved the first season for the human and witty moments amidst the ridiculous prices, like D’Leanne’s backstory and the Cohen’s jolly Shabbat dinner.

The second season felt more like the standard scripted reality. More tedious manufactured conflict, less heart! I’m not sure it was the best use of life minutes, but at least I’ve learned that with those prices if I want to live in Oz again I’ll need to be The Mothership’s butler and hope her chooks don’t mind me joining them on the perch! 🐔

Music for writing
I usually prefer monastic silence when writing but this playlist was great company while cooking up some case studies last week.

Barry Evans
The Instagram account of tuxedo cat called Barry Evans, featuring nothing but photos of Barry Evans sprawled out on a deck, snoozing in the sun with his paws stretched over his head. I’m hooked!

Barry Evans the Cat