Doomscrolling, Kombucha Classes, and Fake Buildings
02 - 09 February 2025
Hello you,
January is over, thank god, whoever made that month must have a particular preference for watching paint dry because JEEZE 31 DAYS?!
This week has been eventful for me because I learnt a new skill, got out of the house, saw a few movies and read a few books. I was reminded of the truly evil nature of my favouite apps. What more could a person wish for. I’ve also included a little recipe for you that you might like … you’ll have to read on to see what.
Happy reading!
Now That I Think About It…
Now that TikTok is back, I feel that I should be overjoyed. My American pals were subjected to me screaming and crying when it was about to be taken down - “BUT THE MEMES!” I said, as if the app was my own library of Alexandria. Yet now it is back, the turmoil of the past few weeks has left a strange taste in my mouth.
I’ve always been the biggest advocate for social media. It brings me a deep sense of joy to connect with thousands if not millions of different types of people right at my fingertips. I even wrote my masters dissertation on how it’s a powerful tool for political participation, but recently I’ve been reminded of what I concluded my research with - that social media cannot function for good while it is under corporate interests.
As the owners of these platforms care less and less about true representation, it’s starting to get harder for me to feel comfortable using them.
Read the full article on Medium for free (or click here if you are a member).
Big News - I Can Make Kombucha Now!
There’s a super cute centre in a town near me called The Haven where you can go for meditations and dance classes and therapy. Recently, their heating bills went up and they needed a way to raise money to keep the centre going, so they decided to start running classes.
My sister got me a kombucha one for Christmas. Kombucha is fermented tea (black, green, red, earl gray, darjeeling, anything) which has great health benefits due the bacteria that’s used to create it. The scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) eats the sugar in the tea and gives it a probiotic quality. As someone who is weak of body (can’t have gluten or dairy) I need all the help my stomach can get, so this was very up my street. We got to create our own flavourings using fresh ingredients - I picked basil, raspberry and strawberry and it was GOOOOOOOD.
She also let us go home with a scoby of our own so we start making our own kombucha at home. What I loved about having my own scoby was the fact it will have come from a generation of scobies, passed down from person to person. Just a like a sourdough culture, it’s come from years of people trying to support their health and make things from scratch.
Kombucha Recipe
Steep two of your preferred tea bags in 1l of water for 10 minutes
Add 200g caster sugar and mix until dissolved
Leave to cool
Top up with 1.3l of cold water
Add your scoby (scoby will come with a ‘starter’ tea mixture approx 350ml)
Leave for 2-3 weeks
Distribute into plastic bottles and add your preferred flavourings
Leave for 1-3 days (the tea will start to ferment so remember to let out the gas!)
Drink! (when you are happy with the flavour)
Consumption Corner
Good news! No spoilers this week
The Brutalist (2025) ☆☆☆☆
Got absolutely bamboozed. Left the cinema 100% sure I’d seen that church he built and a book about Laszlo Toth in a London museum gift shop. Turns out you can film-snob yourself too close to the sun, because HE WASN’T A REAL GUY!! It’s was all fiction!!
Adrien Brody was so good he reminded me of old movies star from the 40s. Timmy is cooked for the Oscar, unfortunately.
Oldboy, Park Chan-wook (2003) ☆☆
Truly exactly what I expected. Film bros will say the movie is great because it shows all the corners of the human psyche, women will understand this is an average day during the luteal phase. So obscenly, unnecessarily harrowing. Had to go for a walk afterwards. Tarantino liked it. That’s all you need to know.
Heir of Fire, Sarah J. Mass ☆☆☆
One day I will write a very long and deep analysis of the way SJM books affect me. There is something so edgy about them and I felt constantly edged by this one. I was only partially satisfied by the end but at least there are another 5 books to satiate my needs.
Giovanni’s Room, James Bladwin (1956) ☆☆☆
(Look out for next week’s newsletter for more on this one)
Close, Lukas Dhont (2023) ☆☆☆☆
(Same as above, I gotta keep you guessing)
Weekly Stats
New music artists discovered: 1 (Sierra Ferrell)
Learnt that you can put pesto in soup
Average daily step count: 6,000
Piles of unfolded clothes currently on my bed: 3
Cats seen: still 0 :(
Daily screentime hours: obscene
What to expect from the rickleverse week 3
Next week, I will tell you about a light show I went to see, my first time trying Venezuelan food, and a very good book and film that had BIG THEMES.
See you then!
Love,
Rachael
