Dawn - Episode 2 - NEW DAWN

Join The Simple Things’ Wellbeing Editor Rebecca Frank and Contributing Editor Jo Tinsley as they discuss why this is a good time of year to get started with new projects, the brain-boosting benefits of learning a new skill and the science behind creating habits.

If you are in the UK, you can try an immediate start subscription to the The Simple Things and receive the current issue straight away. We can send subscriptions anywhere in the world. Or buy current and back issues here

 Editing & music by Arthur Cosslett. 

Thanks to our supporter for Season 9, Friends of Glass, an organisation that celebrates and supports glass packaging for food, drink and cosmetics. Find out more about why glass is better for health, taste and the environment and follow them on instagram @friendsofglassuk

On the blog

Match your creative itch to a new class here

Projects using glass on instagram @friendsofglassuk

Making a jam jar garden

Ways with rosemary: 

Rosemary and ginger hinny herbal tipple

Olive oil, rosemary and apricot cake

A guide to rosemary pairings 

In the February issue (164) on sale now, available to buy here

My Living - we chat to Catherine Mugonyi, founder of community arts space Aunty Social in Blackpool

Tarot for therapy – using the cards to help unlock thoughts, feelings and emotions

Tea & Tarot – an afternoon tea with a wellbeing twist

In the March issue (165) available to order here (on sale in shops from 27 March)

More than words – why learning a language is good for our brains and our communities. Find out more at Sign Language Week (16-22 March) 

My City Malaga – a local’s guide to this sunny city in spring

In Flourish (Volume 4), available to buy here

Growing habits – if you want to change anything, start small and let it grow 

Heart, body and soul – rosemary recipes and a soothing rosemary and lemon scalp rub

Transcript

Lisa Sykes 0:17

Hello, welcome to the Small Ways to Live Well podcast from the Simple Things magazine. I'm Bex Frank, the Wellbeing Editor, and you're listening to the second episode in our new season, which will accompany you over the coming weeks as we transition from winter into spring. We're always extra impatient for spring to arrive in this country. Well, I know I am anyway, and it's a lot to do with the increasing daylight, but also the promise of new life and beginnings. And if you look out the window, you can already see it happening out there. So in this episode, which we're calling New Dawn, Joe Tinsley, regular co-host and author of The Slow Traveller, and I are going to be talking about getting started, creating new habits, and suggesting some different activities, brain-boosting, thought-provoking things that you might want to try. And we're going to give them a go too. So hey Joe, how are you? Are you ready to start acting on some of those kind of new year plans yet?

Becs Frank 1:07

Yeah, yeah. No, I'm good. I feel so ready for spring now. It feels like it's been a very long winter. So yeah, and I think we've come up with some good ideas for how to lean into that kind of springy feeling. So yeah, I think it should be good.

Lisa Sykes 1:18

Yes, exactly. I know we're a little bit premature, but I mean, why not? Let's lean into spring because there are signs of it out there.

Becs Frank 1:25

Definitely.

Lisa Sykes 1:25

But before we do that, um, I must mention that this season is supported by Friends of Glass. Friends of Glass are an organization that celebrates and supports glass packaging for food, for drink, cosmetics, household products. And there are lots of reasons why glass is a better choice for the environment, for our health, and also the taste of our food. And Friends of Glass celebrate different brands and retailers that choose glass as their primary packaging. You can find much more about what they do over on their Instagram, which is at Friends of Glassuk. And if you search for Glass Champions online, you'll discover some of those brands that we've been talking about. There's all sorts of things from rum to peanut butter. You'll probably recognise some that you're already using. So I'm like, I'm really itching to get my teeth into something. It's that I've kind of I've enjoyed my slow hibernation period, and I've got now, I've got lots of ideas whirring around in my head suddenly. But as we say at the start of New Year, it's it's better to start small, isn't it, than launch yourself headfirst into a into a new project or routine.

Becs Frank 2:26

I think so, yeah. I feel like having smaller sort of changes and smaller new habits is an easier way to do it, right? Than having big intentions and big rash resolutions.

Lisa Sykes 2:36

Yeah, it's definitely what's proven to work. It's actually funnily enough, this kind of time around six, seven weeks after Christmas, or after the new year, sorry, is a classic drop-off time for uh those kind of grand, ambitious resolutions that many of us start at the at the beginning of the year. I wrote this feature once and we've put it into our Flourish book asine, the new edition, Flourish, the fourth edition, which is actually available to buy now, and we'll put notes on how to do that in the show notes. But it's a great piece about how to get started on anything new, any change in behaviour, and why and the science behind creating habits.

Becs Frank 3:12

Yeah, because it's really interesting, isn't it?

Lisa Sykes 3:14

Yeah, because all the research shows that by making starting small, just like growing a little seed, you're letting a behaviour take root and grow into a habit. Have you had any had experience of that? I I definitely have.

Becs Frank 3:25

Yeah, I mean I find it really interesting how to make a habit stick and when habits don't stick and the motivation behind them. So I started strength training at the gym about 18 months ago. And I've never been into the gym before. Like I'm a hiker and outdoor swimmer, so you you can imagine like the gym is not my in my comfort zone.

Lisa Sykes 3:40

Yeah, so what was the motivation to to do that then to make that change for you?

Becs Frank 3:44

Yeah, it's it's interesting because if the motivation is aesthetic, so you know, if the motivation is to lose a few pounds, like I don't stick to it because it's you know, it's just it's just not something that is that important to me. But I went for mental well-being reasons. I'd had a difficult year, I felt like I'd kind of lost myself a bit, and that was the motivation behind going. So it wasn't about a physical thing. That's very interesting, yeah. But then you know, that is something that I can get behind. And I think you know, the thing about lifting weights and getting stronger is it feels like it's like mental resilience disguised as physical resilience, like it fosters this real mindset shift.

Lisa Sykes 4:16

And so So you're improving your mental resilience.

Becs Frank 4:20

Yeah, through doing physical stuff. So you get into this kind of like this growth mindset, you know, failure is a big part of it. Like you always push yourself to failure, and that's always like a necessary part of your journey, like in your mental journey as well. But you also, you know, you start fueling your body, you're not replacing restrictions on it, you're not cutting things, you know, you don't die anyway.

Lisa Sykes 4:37

But like you have to eat well in order to be able to You're adding good stuff in rather than taking things out.

Becs Frank 4:43

And you persevere through discomfort, you have to be patient, you know, all of these things, and you have to be really present in your body when you do it because otherwise you're gonna hurt yourself, you're gonna injure yourself.

Lisa Sykes 4:53

Yeah, you have to there's so many things to think about, aren't there, when while you're doing it, about your form and your mind just naturally becomes completely focused on on what you're doing.

Becs Frank 5:01

You get really in the flow. Like, yeah, when I go, I'm I you know, I sort of chat to people for the first sort of like 10 minutes or something, and then after that, I just kind of like get in the zone and all I'm doing is the exercises, and that's such a relief. And then once you kind of like once you get into these things, like it's such a fully ingrained habit now. Like when I don't get to do it, I feel really out of sorts. So I'm never forcing myself to go to the gym, you know?

Lisa Sykes 5:23

Yeah, and you so you have formed a uh formed a new habit in that way that um and that's that's so interesting what you said because uh apparently one of the big mistakes that we all make when it comes to trying to kind of set a new behaviour and new new change is is by making something too either too general or too hard. So, like you said, if your motivation was maybe losing half a stone, then that's just so gener, it's really general, isn't it? Because there's so many ways you could do that. And you know, whereas actually having quite a specific goal um is it makes it a lot more achievable. And also I'm guessing, you know, you you didn't start by going five times a week and trying to lift the heaviest weights you could, you know, you started and you've built up.

Becs Frank 6:04

Yeah, just literally started with the basics.

Lisa Sykes 6:06

Yeah, yeah. They also say that obviously we do so many things subconsciously. We have so many habits that we don't even don't even notice. Before we even kind of probably go down, get out of our house in the morning or whatever we do for the day. We've probably done about 20 things without even thinking about them, from brushing our teeth to opening the back door and letting our pets out to having a making a coffee. So it's kind of maybe about adding also adding things into the into the things that you do automatically. Yeah, isn't that called a habit stacking? Habit stacking, yeah.

Becs Frank 6:37

Yeah, yeah, I've heard of this. It's it feels like it's it's much easier, like you say, to add things than to remove a bad habit.

Speaker 1 6:44

Yeah.

Becs Frank 6:45

Because it actually, you know, it focuses on creating new neural pathways uh rather than fighting existing ones. When you're trying to not do something, it's actually quite hard. Yes, exactly.

Lisa Sykes 6:54

So I started um uh just a really small, simple, exactly not difficult change at all, but deciding when to eat an apple every day. It does keep the doctor away, doesn't it? It totally does. This is one of those things it does keep the doctor away because it's the pectin, which is this soluble fibre in the apple that's really good for your gut, it's really good for your heart, it also fills you up. I didn't know that.

Becs Frank 7:13

I thought it was just about the vitamins.

Lisa Sykes 7:15

Okay. No, there's no reason why I can't eat an apple every day. Um, you know, so I'm going to do that. And it's actually what it's done as well, is really kind of helped curb some of my sugar cravings and keep me keep me out of the biscuit tin, which you know, there's nothing wrong, we know we never say no biscuits, but you know, that has actually been a good healthy habit for me that's weeded out some of my less healthy habits as well, I think.

Becs Frank 7:37

I think that's yeah, because I was thinking in the similar way of adding an Apple Day, like rather than saying stop scrolling on your phone.

Lisa Sykes 7:44

Oh, well, that's a bad one for me as well. Yeah.

Becs Frank 7:46

Yeah, yeah. Say once I plug my phone into charge, I'll read a chapter of my book. Do you know what I mean? It's like it's like changing it or adding it rather than taking something away.

Lisa Sykes 7:55

Yes, exactly. And I think if I just don't have my phone by my bed, so I plug it into charge somewhere that's not close to my bed, then I will naturally just reach for my book rather than my phone. But how many times do I say I'm gonna do that? And then I think, oh, I'll just check something, and then half an hour later I've gone down a rabbit hole and I'm too tired to read my book.

Becs Frank 8:14

Yeah.

Lisa Sykes 8:15

For me as well, from working from home, it's about having something that separates work from relaxation time. And um, I'm finding now that going for a walk at the point that I stop working and before I start my evening, then really just helps me to kind of split that time and and set boundaries. But I also find another way of motivating myself to do something is by doing it with other people.

Speaker 1 8:39

Yeah.

Lisa Sykes 8:40

Do you do you know what I mean? Yeah, I get that. And there's obviously there's the accountability. So if you if you're going with someone else you're or doing something with someone else, you're less likely. You don't want to let them down. You don't want to let them down. Um, but it's also the sociability that's obviously so good for us and great for mental and physical health, which we know, and maybe some for validation and support in there, depending depending on what you're doing. I just love a class. I like if I'm engaged to exercise, I like going to an exercise class in a group, even you know, what with people I do or don't know, tried lots of different types of craft cooking classes. I just I think I just like learning things with others.

Becs Frank 9:17

Have you always got one for go?

Lisa Sykes 9:19

No, I don't at the moment. Yeah, I've got lots of sort of ideas and things. And I was really inspired actually, because I I like trying out different crafts and by your My Living feature and the February issue. Which was actually, we should just say the February issue uh is still on sale and you've got a a little bit longer. Well, you can always buy it over at our website at pixininc.com. But um the issue should still be on sale for a few more days. So grab it if you haven't got one already. So tell us about my living, Jo, and this wonderful woman.

Becs Frank 9:48

I really enjoy doing these features um because you just get to speak to such inspiring people, such inspiring women. So this was an interview with Catherine, the founding director of a community art space called Antisocial in Blackpool.

Lisa Sykes 10:00

Such a great name, Antisocial.

Becs Frank 10:02

Yeah. I know it's fantastic, isn't it? So they wanted to start something fun, affordable, and social to do locally that wasn't, you know, going to the pub or spending money or you know, and and drinking. So it's people who get together to do to do crafts. So there's all kinds of different crafts or to watch films, or you know, it's kind of evolved over many, many years. It's in Blackpool, right? It's in Blackpool, yeah.

Lisa Sykes 10:22

Yeah.

Becs Frank 10:23

But what stayed with me was like how the art space was it was much more about the people than the crafting. Yeah. So it was about doing something and having interesting conversations. It was about creating a sanctuary where you can start ideas and get giddy about stuff. Yeah. You know, it's that kind of feeling that you come back with. But also, you know, there's that individual kind of feeling of inspiration and being seen and being heard. But you know, they were also building networks. Yeah. It was inspiring positive change within the community, and that was like a really big mission behind it. So challenging narratives of division, organizing communities. And she said something which links back to what we were saying about habits. She was like, she keeps asking herself, like, what's my mission? And do the activities I'm planning fit in with this core mission? You know, how to keep everything flowing in the right direction. Because when you're running a business, you can just be like, Oh, here, there's a nice idea, there's a fun idea, you know, and then you just kind of follow it.

Lisa Sykes 11:16

Yeah, I'm sure that's a really key thing.

Becs Frank 11:18

Yeah, and I think that's good in your in your personal motivation, you know, like I was saying about the gym, like what is the mission? And keep coming back to that. So, no, I think it was a really, really interesting conversation.

Lisa Sykes 11:27

Yeah, it links back to what we were saying at New Year as well about your kind of intentions for the for the year ahead. But um, I I I completely relate to that what you were saying about the people coming together over craft. And I did a class just with a group of friends uh just before Christmas, and it was actually with uh a lady that we featured in the magazine called Zosha, who runs these fantastic, often nature-inspired craft classes in in Bath. We will give you the link to that as well. I was very interested talking to her and hearing about the people that come into her room and all kinds of different people, all different walks of life, some with friends, some with people they don't know, and it's and the conversations that come about when people are just doing things with their hands and and and also the the way that she sees people relax in that time because often you come in and you feel a little bit maybe nervous or self-conscious about perhaps what you're going to do or whether you're as good as the person next to you.

Becs Frank 12:22

That's how I feel is like I'm not gonna be able to do this as well as other people, yeah.

Lisa Sykes 12:25

Yeah, same here. And I think that that goes right back to my art classes at school. I used to feel this exactly the same looking over my shoulder and thinking, you know, what's that what are the people doing? Mine's awful. But um, I've got over that and I and what I love about it, and it's not anything really to do with what I bring home at the end of it. It's all about the process of just having that time.

Becs Frank 12:46

It's nice to remind yourself that when you're thinking, Do I, you know, do I want to push myself out of my social comfort to kind of go to one of these classes, is to know that you can get that feeling. Because it it happens nearly every time.

Lisa Sykes 12:56

Yeah, it does happen nearly every time. But obviously, people will come with different motivations, don't they? And um actually there's a great blog post um over on our blog at the moment, which is about matching your creative itch to a class, the type of class that you choose to do. Because people obviously go with different motivations. So some people just really want to get something that's gonna really absorb them and get you know, not clear their head, not have to think about anything else. And for that, maybe you know, be something a bit more complex that requires a lot of concentration, like suggestion of jewelry making, silversmithing. So, you know, you're doing quite different, different specialist things like soldiering and riveting and hammering and that require concentration.

Becs Frank 13:34

Yeah, because you can you can get it wrong, because I I did that, I did that recently. I went along to a class. Did you? And it was a really good class. I don't regret it, but like I went along for the chat. And it was sewing. I really like sewing, but I'm not very good at it. And I was just like, I was I had to focus so hard. I had no space in my head for chat. I was like, this isn't what I wanted. Yeah.

Lisa Sykes 13:54

So you would have been better with something a bit less, maybe something that you felt more comfortable with or something that you can pick up quite easily. Yeah. And say maybe, and then also say the clue's often in the name of the class. So, you know, look for something like sip and paint or knit and matter, or you know that the expectations of what you produce won't be won't be too high. So sometimes you just want to get outdoors, and you know, soon the weather will be getting better, and we'll be you know, really wanting to get out, and you can get into a forest location, try something like whittling or willow weaving, or yeah, there's different types of class, aren't there, to to suit your mood. But I do find that that commitment of doing a course really kind of makes you just get it gives you a bit of a chance to get more into something and also to stick with something. I did a creative writing, fiction writing um course once, which is something that's always on my always on my new year intention list. I will do more creative writing. This is the year I'm gonna write my novel. Yeah, exactly. Or just enjoy it and want to do more of it for freedom and and you know, there's no there's no deadline on it, there's no brief, but uh it always falls to the bottom of my list. But when I did this course, it was over six months, and it's the only time in my life that I have kept to that. And every week, two or three times a week, sat down and done some creative writing. So yeah, it's it was um a really good inspiration. But also, you can do you don't have to go to a class, and there's loads of things you can do at home if you want to if you feel itchy to kind of get going with a project. We've got lots and lots of projects over on our website that we've featured in the magazine because we have a weekend project every month. We like the idea of something you can begin over a weekend, but we do have some some longer ones too, and actually, I should mention that over on the Friends of Glass Instagram, which is at Friends of Glass UK, there's a great project which really caught my eye this month, which is creating these beautiful little hanging glass, little uh plant holders. So when you if you're propagating, if you're dying to get out in the garden, you could propagate some some of your plants, like the nice hanging plants like the devil's ivy or the philodendrons, and just pop these into any of your jars that you've collected and just pop a bit of water in.

Becs Frank 16:05

It's nice to have a reason to use them, isn't it? Yeah.

Lisa Sykes 16:08

Yeah, and and they and then the project they've hung it on um a wooden stick or branch and um with some twine. It looks it looks really pretty.

Becs Frank 16:15

That looks really nice, yeah.

Lisa Sykes 16:17

Yeah, because of course it's it's great to just um uh recycle, but it's also repurposing is another obviously great reason to to choose glass. And we're gonna we were gonna talk about another fun thing to do with friends that was in uh February issue, Joe. And you've had experience of this, haven't you? Taro.

Becs Frank 16:35

Tarot, yeah. So we should say this is this is using tarot cards to kind of spark conversations, reflect, explore emotions, and you know, hang out with friends rather than predicting the future. Yeah, yeah. Fortune telling.

Lisa Sykes 16:47

Yes, exactly. That's an important distinction because I think people do have their opinions and and conceptions of tarot and understandably, but you know, we're we were interested in writing about this because we kept hearing more and more about people using it.

Becs Frank 17:01

This was just our take on it, wasn't it?

Lisa Sykes 17:03

Yeah. Even and one of our writers who's also a therapist has talked about how she uses it in the therapy room, but also just friends using it together to explore their emotions and and get talking.

Becs Frank 17:14

Yeah, because we had um like a gathering with an afternoon tea with tarot there and some sort of ideas for things to to make. And I really like that. So I've I've I've only had my tarot read twice by the s by the same person. And um I just thought it was it changed the dynamic of sort of catching up with a friend, and I really enjoyed it.

Lisa Sykes 17:30

There was a friend that was doing it for you.

Becs Frank 17:32

Right. Yeah. And I went around to her house and had a cup of tea, and we just talked, and it felt really generous, like she was giving me the time to to talk and reflect and listen. So it's like shifts the dynamic from just catching up in the pub. It just felt like there was permission.

Lisa Sykes 17:46

And probably talk about things that you wouldn't necessarily think to bring up or feel was the right opportunity to bring up.

Becs Frank 17:52

Yeah, it's just like sparks these conversations and different sort of avenues to talk about. So yeah, I'd uh love to do that.

Lisa Sykes 17:58

And you don't need to be an expert, do you, to do that? And we've got some suggestions within the within the feature, but I mean we should probably talk a little bit about where tarot is, and I mean people might not know anything about it and what a deck of tarot cards looks like because it was quite new to me, to be honest.

Becs Frank 18:13

Yeah, so the origins of tarot are a bit lost to the mists of time. So um yeah, we know that the oldest existing decks date back to Italy in the early 1400s, and they were used as parlour games across most of Western Europe.

Speaker 1 18:25

Yes.

Becs Frank 18:26

And then it was it wasn't until the late 18th century that French occultists got hold of it and turned it into the kind of 78 card set uh that we have today, which is the the lovers, the wheel of fortune, the fool. So it's kind of you know evolved over that time.

Lisa Sykes 18:41

There are major and minor cards, aren't there?

Becs Frank 18:44

Yeah, you've got your archetypal themes, so they're the major cards like the fool, deaf, the world, things like that. And then you've got your minor cards, which are in four suits, uh, which touch on different things like passions, relationships, communication, creativity. And you know, there's we're no experts in this, but it's like the way that I did it was you kind of ground yourself and you ask an open-ended question of the card and then you shuffle the tarot deck while focusing on that question, and then you lay out a spread. So a really simple three-card spread might be your past, present, and future. So you lay out three cards, or it could be situation obstacle advice. Um, or you know, you can lay out a spread of up to like 12 cards in a different way. But once you lay them down, you then can reflect on how they make you feel, what that's bringing up for you, and then you've got this sort of guidebook or or the knowledge if you've you've learned it bring to it.

Lisa Sykes 19:32

Yeah, all sets of cards tend to come with a a guide, don't they? And we I like those sort of ways of just just introducing yourself to it with with some of these like simple little prompts. So I I had to go with this actually, and because I I have this deck and um I hadn't really ever I think I I sent it a while ago and I've not I didn't I looked at it, thought, oh yeah, beautiful cards, but I've never actually done anything with it. So I decided to do the emotional check-in. It's been quite an emotional time for me recently. Both my girls have left home, we've had a bereavement in the family. So it's been a bit this year so far has been quite an emotional roller coaster. So I was quite interested to see what this might might bring up or in me, really. I did the shuffling, and actually, apart from realizing I'm an awful shuffler of cards, that was quite nice just spending that time, just like feeling the cards and looking at them. And then without looking, I just chose one and turned it over. And um, I actually turned over the Wheel of Fortune, which is one of the major arcana, is that how you say? Yeah. But so I looked in in the book and it says actually, if you turn over one of the major cards, it's uh pay extra attention to it because this can indicate some powerful issues at play. And this card represents cycles, so everything you know from the rising and setting of the sun to the seasons of the year. Actually, this was so kind of it really spoke to me. It said we can't control life's roller coaster, we can adjust our focus and ride it with more grace. Hold moments of joy lightly and don't despair in times of suffering because everything is temporary. And I just thought, actually, what great advice. And you know, it did speak to me. So why I chose that card or whether that was a jug, who knows, but made me have a think about things and it actually made me feel a bit kind of you know soothed. So yeah, I enjoyed it. And um, I'll I'll do it again. And there are some there are there are some good little uh prompts for doing for doing with friends, as we say. So I think I think that could be could be a fun thing to try. Food for thought anyway, isn't it? Yeah, and that's probably a good time to go into our story. Our short story this episode is about someone embarking on a new chapter herself. So hope you enjoy it. Notice pinned to the Brampton Village Hall notice board. Second World War sing along Tuesday evening at 7 pm. Marigold biscuit. I put the notice up gingerly. Who knew how everyone would react, or if anyone would turn up at all? It's worth a try, I told myself. Opening the door out into the frosty night, I took a deep breath of fresh air. It doesn't matter if no one comes after all. Once I got into the warmth of my little sitting room, I took out my mother's song sheets. I'd found them in the attic clearing out last week. We'll meet again. Don't sit under the apple tree, the boogie-woogie boogle boy, and the white cliffs of Dover. My mother had sung in the choir during the war, the women pulling together to get through the horrors of Dunkirk, then Battle of Britain and the Blitz. It was all about keeping spirits up, she told me. We weren't going to let Hitler see that he was getting us down. She taught me how to play the piano to all these old tunes. Her favourite was the White Cliffs of Dover, and she'd tell me how she imagined she was one of the bluebirds, soaring high over the cliffs and fields in the radiant sunshine after the war. It was only a few months ago that she died, older, but still with that essence of magic. I found it difficult to be here in her place and moving to the village. I had a sense of displacement, a feeling that everyone else knew each other except me. What was I thinking? Starting a singing group. Of course no one would come. Tuesday evening arrived and I marched down to the hall ten minutes early, determined to put up a good front. The hall was empty, although someone had left the heating on, so at least it was warm. And once the lights were on, it looked rather friendly, with the piano in one corner. I sat down and put a finger on middle C, listening to the sound reverberate around the empty space. It wasn't too badly out of tune. Lifting the music out of my bag, I decided to give myself a bit of a warm-up, placing We'll Meet Again carefully on the music rest. There were one or two mistakes because of my nerves, but I soon became immersed in the tune. Memories of childhood came flooding back, the family get togethers, all of us standing around the piano at parties, the merry sound of mum singing in the kitchen. It's almost magical how a song can bring everything back to life inside you, like it was there all along, just waiting to be relived. Suddenly a voice ran out behind me, a woman's voice, young and clear, singing along with the music. Hope rose inside me, and I kept playing as an older woman's voice joined in. Still following the tune I knew so well, I turned to see three more women come in, one of them elderly and being helped along by the younger two. By the time I reached the final chorus, several more people had arrived, and although we were not more than a dozen, we were certainly a happy little group. Do you have the white cliffs of Dover? someone called. I brought it out, thinking of the bluebirds and my mother, and as I played the first soaring notes, I suddenly felt as light as a bird. Home at last. So I wrote this in feature on learning languages and why it's good for us in the March issue. Our March issue, which is going to be landing with subscribers within a few days, I would say. The word on the issue is peak, and that's because we're taking a peek at the signs of spring and what's around the corner, discovering new things. And so I wrote about why learning languages at any age is a really good thing to do because it's so good for our brain, for our cognitive function, but it's also great for understanding different cultures, communicating with people, having empathy with people. And the act of learning it increases our confidence because it's hard. And as we get older, it gets even harder. It does feel like one of the hardest things to do, doesn't it? Yeah. I am a great lover of languages anyway. So um I I did feel quite passionate about this. And I was inspired to write it because I was I was kind of saddened, really saddened to see and experience something with my children as well. The decline in in languages being taken up in schools and universities.

Becs Frank 26:20

Well, especially now people assume they can rely on technology to translate a menu, for instance, or something like that. Exactly. And I would think that's such a shame. Do you know what I mean? Like you're in a beautiful place and you're getting your phone out and you're not interacting with people. Right. Yeah, I think it's a bit of a shame.

unknown 26:34

Yeah.

Lisa Sykes 26:34

And interestingly, the skills that learning a language gives you, this linguistic mindset, which is all these different ways that you're kind of using the brain, actually can't be replaced by technology or AI. Um, so really while it might seem easy to do that, it's using a very different function. And also you're you are going to a different country and being able to just communicate with the people there, even in a very small way, is about connection. And we live in these very diverse societies where you know it's it's it's very important to realise what it's like to learn a second language and be living somewhere or uh trying to work somewhere where English isn't your first language. So loads of loads of good reasons to do it. Do you speak uh any languages, Jo?

Becs Frank 27:22

Yeah, so I know I know French pretty well, but I don't always feel that confident speaking it because I never had that immersion other than travelling, holidays and things like that. I've never had the living abroad kind of thing that you need to do to get that. But I can I can read it pretty well and I can understand it pretty well. But what yeah, what I really enjoyed growing up, because it made me think I really enjoyed this feature, and it made me think about all the other types of languages that we that we learn, which have the same kind of benefits. So I really loved learning computer languages when I was growing up. So I designed these simple games in Q Basic with my brother. It was back in the 80s and 90s.

Lisa Sykes 27:57

I was so impressed by this. I I didn't do this at all. Yeah. And why did you learn? Did you teach yourself to do that?

Becs Frank 28:02

Just had a book. Literally, just had like these these books of coding. And you know, this is really simple stuff. Like we were designing games at the level of kind of snake, which I was really gutted about when Snake came out. It was like, I designed something like that. Yes. But you know, it was like literally moving a really simple block around the screen, but it was really fun, and I really liked the logic of it. Do you know what I mean? It's like it's which is very different from a normal language which has so much nuance to it. This was very, you get it, you get it right, and it does the thing.

Lisa Sykes 28:29

And it's using the same skills and the same part of the brain as when you're when you're learning a spoken language. Yeah. So actually, you know, if you're despairing at, I guess, children for not picking up languages, foreign languages, they are hopefully learning languages in in other ways, like with like with computer coding. And also it's a good thing to learn as as adults because you know in this kind of world, digital world, it's uh it's a really a really good skill to have.

Becs Frank 28:55

Yeah. And I think the the other language that I have touched upon maybe three times now is um sign language. So I learned BSL British Sign Language in Brownies.

Lisa Sykes 29:03

Yeah, well, like the alphabet.

Becs Frank 29:05

Yeah, I can still do it really fast. Like that never never left me. I'd like to see that one day.

unknown 29:10

Yeah.

Becs Frank 29:11

And then I learned it uh well learned it, I I picked up a few bits and bobs. I was living with a woman who was dating a deaf guy. And so, like, to to be able to just like keep up with conversations, I learned learned a little bit. But then the most recent time is, you know, with my daughter, right? Like, we were learning it when she was two, because it's a really good kind of pre-talking way to communicate. And now she comes back with it from school.

Lisa Sykes 29:31

So I wonder if that's Macaton, which is a different type of communication system.

Becs Frank 29:35

I'd imagine so, because she's doing it at the same time.

Lisa Sykes 29:38

Yeah.

Becs Frank 29:39

Yeah. So I think I was teaching her BSL and now she's probably doing Macathon. Yeah. I find sign language really interesting. I find it interesting that there's regional dialects of it. Like there's 22 different signs for the colour purple across the UK.

Lisa Sykes 29:51

No way. Really? I didn't know that. I knew that there were differences between, so for example, British Sign Language and American Sign Language is completely different, apparently. And even British and Irish is completely different. It's a whole language, BSL, we should say. It has grammar, it's a, you know, uh Macathon, for example, is is is more of a communication system of symbols and and speech combined. But BSL is a whole language and very, you know, widely used. The regionality, that's fascinating.

Becs Frank 30:18

Yeah, it actually inspired me to do a little test for you, Bex. Because I was gonna do we're gonna do accents in BS. Yeah. Well, I was gonna do I was gonna do animals because it's really easy and sort of get you to guess the animals. But then yeah, I got I got look into this and like place names I find are so interesting. And it's you know, often because people call different places, they use different signs depending where they're from, so that's interesting. But also a lot of place names are just variations of of letters. Yeah. But some of them come down to the heritage and the stories behind those places. Okay. So I thought I would give you three different, three different cities in the UK. These are all cities that we have lived in, you or you or I have lived in. So they're they're cities that we know. Oh, okay. So I'm gonna do the sign and then I'll tell you about it and see if you can guess what it is.

Lisa Sykes 31:06

Okay. This sounds quite hard, but I'm up for it.

Becs Frank 31:09

It it is really hard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the the animals would have been easy. Um, so the first one is Did you see that? Yeah, so you're crossing your fingers and then sort of spreading them wide. So I'm crossing my first two fingers with both hands and a knife-cutting motion referencing the city's historic steel and cutlery industry.

Speaker 1 31:31

Oh well, this is surely Sheffield. Sheffield.

Becs Frank 31:34

Yay, my home city. Thanks for that, Joe. Good start. Exactly. So we're starting with an easy one. This second one has two different signs. And so the first one, let me just see if I'm getting this right. Nobody can see me, so it's fine. So the first one is this.

Lisa Sykes 31:50

Okay, you're kind of rubbing your hands onto your chest.

Becs Frank 31:54

Yeah.

Lisa Sykes 31:55

Like I can't really see your can you stand up a bit? Oh, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.

Becs Frank 31:59

Yeah, so I'm rubbing my hands on my shoulder and my chest to show drying myself with a towel. Okay. And that it also has um this is even harder, it also has this one. This is means the same thing. Which is um a thumb flicking out of your hand, of your clothes list. Right. So the drying yourself represents the history's bathing and thermal water heritage. So are we in bath? We're in bath. And there's also, so this one is just because there's a lot of buskers in bath. So it's flicking a coin to a busker. You're kidding. No, but the two ways of saying bath. Okay. And then the last one, which is one that I learnt when I was living in Brighton. Oh my god, I just said it. The last one back in the day. Um, the last one is this. Can you see that? Okay, yeah. So you're kind of shaking your hand, you're not gonna guess it because I always just gave it away. This is the sign for expensive. So the sign for Brighton is the same as the sign for expensive because it's a spendy kind of place. That's so funny.

Speaker 1 33:03

That's brilliant. Yeah, great. It's so fascinating. Yeah. Oh, I enjoyed that. Thank you. I don't know if that translated for the listeners at home.

Lisa Sykes 33:13

I think what yeah, well, what is so interesting is that gosh, that there can be so many variations. And what a what a great thing to learn. If we're learning a foreign language, you know, perhaps perhaps if you're more of a visual learner and learning a foreign language just, you know, perhaps isn't your thing, then picking up some some BSL would be um, yeah, uh a great thing to do. But I suppose what's inspired my love of languages isn't only that I like talking a lot, it it's travel. And you know, I I I've always really enjoyed travel and it's a really important part of my life. So I want to be able to try to speak to people in the language, even if I only learn a few words. I always do try. And this time of year, I is is the time for starting to plan trips, isn't it? And think about where we can venture this year. In our March issue, we have if you're feeling the kind of need to seek out some warmth, we've got a My City feature on Malaga, which I've been hearing so much about recently, and I haven't actually been, and I've travelled to Spain a lot and do actually speak some Spanish. And I would love to go to Malaga. It seems to be one of those places that people come in and out of but don't tend to stay. And it looks I think that's the thing.

Becs Frank 34:23

People it's the sort of place that people land into and then go straight out, but it's it's a gorgeous city, yeah.

Lisa Sykes 34:28

Yeah, 300 days of sunshine a year, and we those pictures we've got, you can just see the blue sky. Um, and also obviously spring is a really good time to go because it's warm but not too hot yet, because it does get obviously very hot down in the south of Spain.

Becs Frank 34:43

It's got fantastic food as well, fantastic markets.

Lisa Sykes 34:46

Yeah, and this time and at Easter, actually, if you're thinking about an Easter break, going to Spain can be it can be so interesting to go during Semana Santa, which is their holy week, which is the week leading up to Easter Sunday. And I was once in Seville for this. Oh god, it was incredible, incredible processions. So all these the different brotherhoods, the different Catholic brotherhoods from around the sit town or city, each come out in in their own costume and have their own kind of sculpture that they parade through through the town, and it's quite kind of eerie. They wear these long cloaks with these kind of pointy hats, and and it's quite traitors, like you know, but uh yeah, it's it's an incredible spectacle. So I would yeah, I would I would definitely recommend that. You got any thoughts on getting out and about or away at all yet?

Becs Frank 35:34

Yeah, I don't have any plans yet for like you know, abroad sunny climbs, but uh I'm gonna take my daughter in Easter on a tour de north. Oh brilliant! I realise she's five and she's only ever spent one day in the north of England, which was on our way to Scotland. And every time she says bath instead of bath or lunch instead of dinner, like a little bit of me dies inside. So yeah, we're gonna go up and um get her up north, you know. I mean it's only gonna be like a week. I don't know how much change we'll make, but like and you're doing that at Easter. At Easter, yeah, yeah. So we're gonna see the Yorkshire Dales and the lakes.

Lisa Sykes 36:04

Yeah, that sounds great.

Becs Frank 36:06

Go to some proper pubs.

Lisa Sykes 36:07

Yeah, and of course you can kind of get a feel for kind of holiday and get closer to home, can't you? I did a I did a um a trip to a Spanish kind of influenced hotel in Cardiff last year called Parador 44. You literally are in the middle of Cardiff opposite the stadium, kind of you nothing much from the outside, and then you go inside and you it's like literally like you have stepped into a a Spanish Paradox, and and the food, the tapas, the Andalusian sherry and the steak, all those flavours, it it felt like being on holiday, and we were there in awful weather in in the middle of winter, and it was great. So you can you can can try and recreate it if you're not quite there yet, can't you?

Becs Frank 36:47

Yeah. I think that's the thing, isn't it, about about travel is that you know food food can often make us think of these sunnier places. Because we we had this feature is in is it in Flourish, the latest flourish about rosemary.

Lisa Sykes 36:59

Yes, it's also in the latest, the one on rosemary.

Becs Frank 37:02

Yeah, yeah.

Lisa Sykes 37:03

It's an all things, it's part of the um heart, body and soul series. And so it picks one ingredient, and this this time it was rosemary, and kind of about obviously we think of it as a as a winter herb and it is often used, and but also then obviously there's the association, it's it's the only herb in our garden that's kind of flourishing at the moment and has been through winter. And then there's the association with with lamb and spring lamb, but it's also there's so many uses beyond that.

Becs Frank 37:28

It makes me think, it makes me think of Spain, though. It makes me think of being outdoors in kind of really warm places, even though it's available all year round, so it's a perfect sort of thing for this this time. But there was this, what was the recipe in there?

Lisa Sykes 37:39

Well, there's a really there's a couple of there's a recipe, I mean, could it be about that using it in a kind of lighter way? Um, so there's a rosemary and lemon breadcrumb Tagliatelli, which you know is really got a kind of a feel of spring with that sort of lemon and light flavour, and there's also a garlic and rosemary croccia, love that, it's a real favourite, and making it is so nice as well, getting your hands kind of stuck in and making the making all the kind of little indents for the for the rosemary and the salt. And then there was also um, because we always include in these in these pieces some kind of remedy or something that you can make, and there's a rosemary, peppermint and lemon scalp rub, which I thought sounded great. My daughter always puts rosemary oil in her hair, and she says it makes it thicker. She smells incredible. So, and this is kind of using the same with coconut oil and some peppermint um and lemon essential oils and some few sprugs of rosemary, and then it's this very kind of cooling, lovely scalp treatment. But there's loads of also recipes on the blog. There's loads of tipples, isn't there? Did you see that rosemary and ginger one?

Becs Frank 38:43

Yeah, rosemary and ginger hiney.

Lisa Sykes 38:45

Yeah, that's a non-alcoholic tipple, we should say. We've done a whole series of those. It's quite you you make your own ginger ale tonic, which you then mix with lime, juice, rosemary, sparkling water. It's kind of like a twist on a on a mule drink. So yeah, lovely. So I think, Joe, we've had a great chat about leaning into spring, starting new things. But one thing that we are doing throughout this episode is looking back on intentions that we made last year and talking about whether we actually did them because it is I love this.

Becs Frank 39:22

I love the accountability that you that you read it, the listeners are holding us to.

Lisa Sykes 39:26

Exactly. Well, it was because somebody in the office said, We keep hearing you say you're gonna do these things. Do you actually do them?

Becs Frank 39:32

The list is now very long.

Lisa Sykes 39:36

But whether well, actually, we so I look back on our episode from this time last year, and you and I were talking about things that we were gonna do. Yours, Joe, was allowing yourself some fallow time, permission to have time off. And I think you'll need this at the moment. But how how have you done with that generally in the in the last year?

Becs Frank 39:54

Yeah, so it's time to not be productive, isn't it? Because I always find that that when you have time, you're like, oh, I need to go and I don't know, fold some clothes, put some things on printed, like you know, always filling it. I think I'm doing all right at it. I mean it's a practice, like there'll always be days when it's trickier than others. How have you managed it? Reading. Reading helps because reading feels like this perfect sort of mixture bit between being productive and and doing something that is just for yourself. So uh yeah, replacing scrolling or doing stuff with sitting down and reading. So yeah, I feel like I'm I feel like I'm doing all right at that. Good.

Lisa Sykes 40:26

And that's an important thing to remember when you because things start to get busier again in spring, I always think. And um, so an important thing to to remember. Mine, funnily enough, was being braver with cold water and cold dips. Oh, I like that one, yeah. Which was inspired by you, I think, I'm sure. But we have done this, haven't we?

Becs Frank 40:44

We did it for a meeting, didn't we?

Lisa Sykes 40:46

Yeah, inspired by all the research into how good this is for you in so many ways, the hot and the cold therapy. So we've done it as a team on our planning days, like two or three times now, haven't we? We've been to Lido's, we've been to Saunas, and it's sparked lots of good ideas, hasn't it? I think so. Yeah, yeah. Are you finding it easier? Yeah, yes, I am. Definitely finding it easier. And I did it with my husband recently, and he didn't like it at all. And um, and I was really trying to encourage him saying, I I didn't like it. And and Lisa was a kind of yeah, she's kind of a bit of a convert as well and wasn't so sure. So it's definitely worth sticking at. And um, I'm going to uh go joined a swimming club last year, which I haven't I haven't been swimming outdoors at a wild swimming club, and I've not been going through the winter. It was just too cold for me, but I am going to do a long season of of that this year. It was a good exercise to look back on that, actually. So thank you, Joe, and thanks to everyone for listening. Also to our sponsor, of course, Friends of Glass, for supporting this dawn season of fresh ideas. Don't forget, you can find out more about how to choose, use, recycle all your glass packaging on the Friends of Glass Instagram, which is at Friendsofglass UK. So Joe and I are going to be back next Sunday, episode three.

Becs Frank 41:56

Yeah, we're going to be calling it new life. So it's about bringing new life to maybe old routines, gently sprucing up your homes, your wardrobes, things like that.

Lisa Sykes 42:03

That sounds good. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm feeling the need to sort of sort out my wardrobe, definitely. Also, don't forget you can still buy our February issue, the heel issue of the Simple Things, and our March will be landing with you anytime now. And if you want to take out an immediate start subscription, you'll get a copy of the new March issue straight away. Links for all this and everything we've mentioned will be in our show notes as always. So bye from us, and thank you very much for listening.