Have you ever wondered what Rhubarb does from Monday to Friday? Well, now you know
Happy Sunday, everyone! Today, I’ve decided to try a slightly different format. It has officially been over a month since this newsletter first launched, so I felt it was about time I tried something new. I will still be covering all the usual topics, but instead, they will be woven into this issue in a more personal way through a digital diary, talking about a few things I did (or lack thereof in this case) during the week. As always, I encourage and appreciate your feedback, so please let me know your thoughts. Hate the format? Love the format? Want to see a different feature altogether? General suggestions? Leave a comment below, respond directly to this email, or drop me a DM. I’m also happy to say that the chaotic Rhubarb Society Playlist now has over 300 songs, so thank you to everyone who contributed. I should probably block some of you for your choices, but I will be the bigger person and try not to judge. With that, let’s begin…
MONDAY
learning how it feels to be the oldest person on a boat
So, on Sunday, I decided that if I didn’t have a massage very soon, I would simply pass away. I also didn’t want to have to go anywhere on Monday morning to get this remedied, so I made a last-minute panic booking with Ruuby, and by 10 am, I was face down, on a table in my sitting room with a stranger in my home. I try and treat Mondays like Sundays, and I use it as a day to complete my house admin and reset as a human. I’m the sort of person where a messy environment = a messy mind, so I need everything to be in order, especially at the start of a new week. I usually hoover the house, unstack and restack the dishwasher, empty the bins, separate the recycling, wash my delicates (so they can air dry before I do my regular washing), top up our insanely large Brita filter and bleach the sinks and bathrooms before I’ve even had breakfast. I also can’t think until I’ve found a home for any of the random bits and pieces Henry has decided to leave out before rushing off to work (or his empty wine glasses/discarded sweet wrappers from the night before). During the middle of my chores, I had a delivery of the sample stickers I’d ordered for The Rhubarb Society (how cute are these?? I still can’t decide whether I prefer clear-backed or white-backed) and immediately stuck them onto everything I owned.
For lunch, I had a smoothie (current recipe: oat milk, frozen banana, frozen mango, a scoop of this prebiotic powder, a scoop of this He Shou Wu powder, and a drizzle of peanut butter) as I had the PT at 2 pm and I didn’t want to potentially throw up a perfectly good lunch. After taking a million different pictures of my new bag (a recent Christmas present from me to me) before her first outing, Rhubarb and I finally left for the gym. I fucking hate exercising, particularly if it requires intense cardio, but I’ve been seeing the PT for around three months, and so far, I’ve found that having the 1-1 training has kept me accountable (mainly because I don’t like letting people down) and therefore, I’ve actually stuck with it. It also helps that they let me take Rhubarb, and they are genuinely just very nice people. The walk to the gym is around 25 minutes away, and it’s a pleasant stroll through Mayfair, which also helps.
In the above image, my puffer is Uniqlo (they no longer do this exact one as it was part of a collab, but you can find something similar), my leggings are lululemon aligns and my trainers are these APLs (they randomly gifted me two pairs and I nearly keeled over when I saw the price)
On the walk home, I decided to detour a bit and have a look in a few stores, which was mainly an excuse to warm up. I was then peer pressured by myself into buying this Johnstons of Elgin Rollneck before I headed to ByRotation to pick up a suit I was renting for an event on Tuesday. However, my main concern for Monday was attempting to find an outfit for a podcast launch on a boat with 99% Gen Z influencers, which some of you may have already seen in my Tiktok video. The boat was supposed to leave at 9 pm and dock at 11 pm, but in typical influencer fashion, this was severely delayed due to people turning up late, so we didn’t actually dock until midnight.
At that point, I’d had so much to drink to try and warm myself up that I decided to carry on partying and didn’t get home until 4 am. The last image on my phone was me taking a picture of my coat check ticket in case I lost it. Stunning. Since leaving Finance and joining this industry, it’s been a weird thing to get my head around the fact that I am usually the oldest person at the event at any given time, but maybe I’ll talk more about my experiences as an ‘influencer’ in another newsletter.
TUESDAY
the day my body humbled me
I do my fair share of late nights and partying, but for some reason, the combination of being on a boat, drinking with young people and coming home late just finished me off. The hangover was biblical, and this is coming from someone who fell asleep on a loo floor a few weeks prior after too much tequila at another podcast launch (and I managed to bounce back from that surprisingly quickly). In hindsight, I think part of the reason why I felt so bad was because I was actually coming down with something, but more on that later. I ordered a hearty brunch from EggSlut (it tastes like a gourmet Mcdonald’s breakfast), washed it down with orange juice, diarolyte and some green tea, and lay on the sofa trying not to die. To be fair, lying very still in one position was a great time to edit some videos I had due for brands. However, as a dog mum, I knew I would have to eventually get up and out and give Rhubarb a proper walk…despite my decaying body.
My puffer is Uniqlo (again), my jeans are Djerf Avenue, my trainers are Reebok Club C in Chalk, and my sunglasses are Celine
I do think one of the best things to cure a hangover is movement and fresh air, so we went on a very long, leisurely walk whilst the wind smacked me back to life. As always, we stopped for Rhubarb’s favourite pot of ‘dog sausages’, which she waits eagerly for on every long walk. I met a few lovely people who stopped me by saying, ‘is that Rhubarb??’. When I stop and reflect on the fact that my life is at a point where people stop and recognise Rhubarb in the street whilst she has no idea how iconic and loved she is, it really bemuses me. Two of the girls I ran into were wearing these really cute, green Patagonia jackets (which I can only find online in Men’s??), so if either of you happens to be reading this, can you please let me know if yours were men’s/thank you for hashtag influencing me.
I came home, had a second shower to try and revive myself a little more, and then chugged some Liver Juice in the hopes that it would cure me. I would have loved nothing more than to drag the duvet onto the sofa and watch JLo films on rotation, but I had to go to my management’s Christmas dinner. I have also developed a weird anxiety around not being ‘productive’ since becoming a ‘content creator’. If I’m not working on different content, editing, filming or writing, working on this newsletter, or anything related to social media, I feel like I’m failing. Even more so if the house is in ‘disarray’ because I haven’t managed to hoover, wipe, clean, or tidy to whatever standard I find acceptable, so, on days like this when I feel useless for doing very little, I tend to be in a pretty foul mood. After spending so long in a corporate environment with so much structure, being self-employed is still a huge learning curve. The reality is that I work 10x more now than I ever did in Finance or my previous roles, but because they were still ‘traditional’ jobs, I never felt guilty for not giving 100%, whereas to my surprise, I currently experience the total opposite as a content creator. I got ready for the event regardless whilst listening to my pre-party mix to try and perk myself up. I wore a Racil Purple suit, rented from ByRotation, and my sparkly Amazon bag (which is so useful for these events). I went to a friend’s house for drinks (water for me) with a few other people on the roster, and then we all headed to the Christmas event together. There seemed to be an insane amount of traffic, to the point where we had to get out of the Uber and take the tube so that we didn’t end up being late. I was the only one wearing silly heels, so navigating the underground in those with a hangover was not ideal. Of course, we were still late because, if you haven’t learned from the ‘Mondays’ section, this is par for the course for a group of influencers. Dinner was at Inca London, which was actually really fun. The restaurant is underground and has a really cool atmosphere. The food is delicious, and they have shows and performances throughout the meal, which keeps it entertaining. I nursed two glasses of wine, and plenty of water and made it home for a very respectable 11 pm bedtime.
WEDNESDAY
who would have thought that prince charles (sorry, king charles) would flood my DMs
I’ve lived in London my whole life (well, from 2 years old onwards) and I’d never been to Balham. So, around 11 am, I headed down with Rhubarb in tow for an event. For some reason, I will never get over how different sides of London can take so long to get to. The drive to Balham took nearly an hour from home, and for some reason, in my head, I’ve gaslit myself into thinking anywhere in London is reachable within half an hour. Tampax was hosting a cute little winter wonderland lunch, discussing their social media strategy and mission to continue educating young women about tampons and destigmatising them. The lunch was supposed to start at 12, but in true influencer fashion (please refer to ‘Monday’ and ‘Tuesday’ for reference), a few were nearly an hour late, which meant the whole thing was pushed back. Usually, this wouldn’t be a major issue but, A) the whole event was outside, and Wednesday in London was a crisp 0 degrees, and B) I was not only early but sat on the other side of the table to the main heater which meant I was sat doing nothing in zero degree weather for 3 hours. I also wrapped Rhubarb up in the blanket I was given because I felt bad for her, so that left me pretty exposed. I’m very in tune with my body, so halfway through, I turned to my manager and told her I could feel myself getting violently ill. I could feel it in my bones and I knew it was going to hit me quickly. I don’t know if anyone is similar to me in this respect, but I barely get sick, however, when I do, even though it doesn’t last long, it is very intense.
After the nearly hour commute home, I had 20 minutes to take Rhubarb for a very quick spin and warm her back up before dragging my frozen bones to a 4 pm appointment with Dyson. I could feel the sickness-induced delirium kicking in, but I wasn’t about to miss an appointment with Dyson, so I warmed up with a tea whilst the lovely lady in the store gave me a demo on how to use their airwrap. I’d only ever used my friend’s one before, and I realised I had been using it completely wrong, which kind of explained a lot. They then ended up gifting me their special edition airwrap (screaming, crying, throwing up), and I merrily shuffled my way back home with it before meeting Henry, where we both decided that the temperature drop meant Rhubarb was in desperate need of a puffer coat. We bought her one from By Jott (for some reason, they don’t have them online, but they seem to in the store).
I then went home, and the delirium had fully set in as I was posting Instagram stories recapping my day. Between the ‘tastiest tampon ever’ cookies, and the Tampax cap (where I told you guys to keep ‘Prince’ Charles out of my DMs), I still had my inbox flooded with Charles and Camilla jokes. I was then hit with a full-on fever, chest and throat pains, and a head-to-toe body ache. On the rare occasion, this happens, I have a pretty precise action plan. I get into the hottest bath I can handle, layer up, cover my chest, neck and temples with red tiger balm, and alternate between drinking water, bone broth and lemsip. To finish off, I eat as much spice as my stomach will allow, and in this case, that meant dipping pizza crust in Nando’s hot sauce at 10 pm. Whilst I was surgically attached to the sofa, we watched Louis Theroux's Interviews. We started with Stormzy and then Bear Grylls. I already knew a bit about Bear prior, but I knew very little about Stormzy, so I was pleasantly surprised to learn more about him and to see how he’s stayed so grounded and humble through his success.
THURSDAY
doing the complete opposite of everything I should have done
I woke up feeling marginally better and finally had the ability to move, which is always a plus. With the week’s combination of being hungover/sleep deprived/sick, I was expecting my skin to be disgusting, but it surprisingly looked really good?? I’m going to attribute it to two recent changes in my skincare routine. The first was reintroducing the Paula’s Choice BHA after getting it in my Space NK calendar and forgetting how great it was. The second was the fact I’d switched out my evening moisturiser for a serum (currently, I’m using the Perricone MD Plasma Plus) after the intimidating Russian woman who did my buccal facial massage told me to do it to help my skin. I wanted to take the day to rest and recover fully from whatever weird illness I had that had suddenly manifested a new set of symptoms, but I was doing a partnership with Mejuri and was booked in to visit one of their stores to film and cancelling at the last minute felt entirely unprofessional. After going to ByRotation to return my suit, I went to Mejuri to get a piercing at their new studio and film some content. I was getting a second piercing in my right ear to match my left and ended up with this stud (I had no clue how much it was until I received the email confirmation later, thank god it was free as part of the partnership). I couldn’t stop talking about how sparkly the stud was, which makes sense now I know they used actual diamonds for it. Rhubarb was obviously there to oversee the whole thing and help me pick wisely. They even had a pot of organic chicken treats that they fed her.
You may or may not have seen my latest Christmas tree debacle on Tiktok, but long story short, Henry bought an actual normal-sized and reasonably priced tree after we got rid of the monstrosity that was the £60 one from Patch Plants (that was barely a shrub). So, instead of resting, as I should have done, we got to work rearranging the sitting room to fit the tree before I had fun decorating it. I also have this strange need to deep clean things that have no business being deep cleaned when I am either unwell or hungover, so I scrubbed a few things here and there and hoovered for the third time this week before finally sitting down to do some work whilst playing Harry & Meghan in the background. I was a fan of Meghan for years and was excited when she joined the RF, but my opinion of her started to sour over time. I loved hearing about some of Harry’s experiences growing up and thought it was interesting to hear his perspectives on life as part of the RF in a more unfiltered way than we’d heard before. I only managed to watch two episodes before going to bed, but there were moments where I genuinely felt for them. I could kind of understand where they were coming from, and I could empathise with some of their issues, but these were swiftly undone as the documentary went on, especially when I saw footage of intimate moments like the phone call to a friend before the proposal and the blurry images of Harry on one knee. It felt contradictory to me that a couple who craved privacy so badly not only had cameras ready for so many personal moments but were also willing to share them with the world in exchange for cash for a Netflix doc. On top of that, Meghan’s ‘ignorance’ and ‘confusion’ over certain royal protocols felt disingenuous to me as a clearly very bright and well-read woman.
FRIDAY
the day I finally decided to stop being an idiot
Can you believe that I finally took my own advice?? I knew my weekend was packed with commitments that I couldn’t cancel (some work, some personal), so I woke up and cancelled all of my plans and meetings for the day (including my PT, not that I needed an excuse) and referred back to my ‘Self Care Sundays’ issue for a little TLC. I started my morning with an Eggnog Latte, some cheese and ham egg bites and a turmeric and ginger shot from Starbucks whilst watching episode 3 of Harry & Meghan. I still can’t believe that not a single person didn’t edit out Meghan’s passionate speech about ‘turtling’. I’m kind of glad they didn’t, though, because aside from it making me feel better, it has brilliant meme potential. After Rhubarb was fed, we spent some time stretching (I stretched, and Rhubarb tried to sit on me as I stretched) and then I thought about what would make me happy. Obviously, the answer was to rewatch Desperate Housewives for the umpteenth time. I applied my Elemis mask, plonked myself down with a large cup of green tea and worked on this newsletter whilst Wisteria Lane did its thing in the background.
I had one of my favourite types of PR package arrive (it was film related), and it was for ‘Decision to Leave’, a film by Park Chan-wook which I had the pleasure of seeing at the London Film Festival at the BFI in October. I love Park’s work, and this film is one of my favourites this year (you can finally stream the film on MUBI, and I urge everyone to watch it! it’s beautiful, unexpected, and devastating, as many of Park’s films are). One of the best parts of the delivery for me was the storyboard book of the whole film (albeit in Korean…I can always learn). I took Rhubarb for a nice, long walk and then came home and made some ramen with bone broth and a ton of veggies. After numerous reminders from both my accountant and HMRC, I finally started on my tax return and then after two hours, decided I had already suffered enough. For dinner, I ordered from Cocotte, which I would describe as a boujie Nando’s. While waiting for it to arrive, I applied my Christophe Robin Regenerating Mask (you can still use ‘Tamsin’ for 20% off) and attempted to use my new airwrap. When I removed it from the box, I realised they’d put my initials on the case, which was very sweet! Whilst Henry and I had dinner, we started watching ‘The Patient’, a psychological thriller starring Steve Carrell. I love seeing Steve in more serious roles, especially after Beautiful Boy and Foxcatcher, so I look forward to seeing how this mini-series develops.
By the time you’re reading this, I will probably be on a boat, freezing my arse off with a bunch of Gen Z influencers for the second time this week (my life is certainly odd), so I apologise if I don’t get back to your comments and questions until tomorrow as the event I’m attending means I am out from 3pm-11:30pm(ish) to ! If you’ve made it this far and read everything in full, firstly, thank you, and secondly, I apologise for the turn this newsletter took midweek when I became ill and whiny, but I’d already committed to this format, so I had to see it through. If you’re keen to get ahead of next week’s segment of ‘The Club Corner’, please feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments below, via email or in my DMs. If there’s anyone you think would be an excellent fit for The Rhubarb Society, please do extend the invitation below.
With love,
Tamsin & Rhubarb
xoxo
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