A Gummy Called Life
Random elation, a new hair routine, affordable summer sandals and your new fav rom-com.
Highly Enthused is a newsletter, once a podcast, concerning all the best things to consume in life. It’s written twice per month by Sophie McComas-Williams and Sophie Roberts, and today’s dispatch is written by SoMo! The majority of each newsletter is free, but there are five extra recs in each for paid subscribers. That’s often where the gold nuggets lie. Thanks for being here!
I had a ~moment~ on Thursday evening as I walked through the city on the way to meet a friend. It was dusk and all the Christmas decorations were lit in Martin Place – coloured lights and a skyscraper-high conical tree strung with baubles as big as ocean buoys. My dress was short, I had plenty of time to get where I was going and the air was balmy but not muggy like Sydney can be this time of year, so no boob sweat. There were people everywhere and as I walked quickly among them this Prince song beat through my AirPods. Something about the combo of all these things - beauty, warmth, a happy crowd, Prince, the lack of sweat - caused a wave to overcome me that I can only describe as absolute elation. Elation at being out and on the way to dinner and the promise of a cocktail. Of it being summer and December. It felt like the end of something and the start of something. Like joy and youth and freedom and like all the mini fires we’ve been fighting lately would turn out fine. Like life had slipped me an MDMA-laced gummy to get me to the finish line, but it hadn’t! It was just life! Ah! I felt so buoyant I took a photo of my face and sent it to my sister in law, who had sent me the song. Cringe but too good not to share.
The end of the year is wild and exhausting, but I hope you get delivered a sudden burst of this feeling too, and I hope it lasts. And if not, I bet it’ll come when you least expect it. I have so many things to recommend this month I can hardly fit them all in, please enjoy!
I could eat Greek food every day of the fucking week, forever, subsisting entirely on taramasalata, pita, saganaki and lamb. Until I can move to Athens and make this want a reality, I’ll plant myself at Olympus, the new restaurant by The Apollo Group in Redfern. Walking into this beautiful restaurant is a lesson in awe. Shaped like an amphitheatre, a central bougainvillea tree reaches its tendrils up towards an oculus ceiling which opens and closes with the weather. By day it’s bright and dappled, by night it’s lamp-lit and beguiling. Truly nothing like this restaurant exists in Sydney or anywhere I’ve ever been. If you go, get the thin, crisp spanakopita, the golden fried nuggets of crumbed lamb brains with hot sauce, the lobster rice, the frozen Greek yoghurt puddled with green olive oil. It’s the perfect place for a date or a party or any occasion, really. Dreamy, dreamy, dreamy. Book here.
The feeling of a friend releasing their first novel is kind of like watching a reality TV show when you know one of the contestants. You’re desperate for them to win the whole thing and emerge victorious and unscathed but it’s nerve wracking and you can’t look away! What if they get hurt on national TV! However, I can confidently say victory is the only outcome for my mate Leesa Ronald, who’s just released her debut rom-com (with two more to come), Special Delivery! Quite literally the perfect holiday read, it’s an enemies-to-lovers romp about a single mum named Poppy in the Central West town of Orange, who falls for the brusk yet firmly muscled male midwife, James, who delivers her daughter. It’s FUNNY, packed with so many millennial references that if you’re aged somewhere in your 30s you’ll be cackling and nodding at every second page. There’s friendship and motherhood and sex up against a washing machine and a late-night kebab scene that truly had me laughing out loud. I’m so proud of Leesa, what an absolute talented weapon she is (and I know she reads this newsletter so, hello friend!). Buy it for your sister, your best friend, your mum, your neighbour and of course yourself. It’s available everywhere but fastest online delivery is obviously found here.
Ok let me sit you down to tell you about my new hair journey!! Please see proof of new-found excellence above! I’ve completely overhauled my routine recently, overtly inspired by Kate Lancaster’s post on her Substack, The Vanity.
I’ve been a Pantene girlie for years, nay decades, and I’d bloody had enough. I wanted to grow up, I wanted body in my hair, consistent texture, I wanted bounce, baby! I also want to grow out my bob, a task which felt like it required some attention and care, or at least something up from the absolute bare minimum which was the current vibe. Upon Kate’s recommendation I ditched the Pantene for the Lengthening shampoo and conditioner and leave-in treatment by Robe, a brand founded by Australian hairstylist Lauren Mackeller (you can find all of these products sold together in a bundle here). I’ve bought the Christopher Robin purifying sea salt scrub the world is obsessed with and have been using it once a week. Guys the results have been amazing! My hair feels light but shiny, and it bounces when styled the right way! I’m a convert. I’ll update you again in 6 months when hopefully it’s long and healthy and has grown down past my nips.
A quick-fire rundown of the miscellaneous finds we’ve loved this month. In this edition: A pair of low-cost but expensive-looking sandals, a purifying face serum to get rid of those forehead bumps, my new Christmas ornament obsession, a string of dainty pearls and a candle that burns down to become a massage oil. Sexy.