Things I think are cool at 32

a time capsule into my mind in 2025

Beautiful Deal!

This week it was my birthday and I turned 32!

How exciting!!

I’m truly just a Gemini girlie milking essentially the whole second week of June (and asking my loved ones for a tiiiiiny bit of their annual leave) to celebrate- can you blame me! We spent a couple of days by the beautiful coast in Deal (more on this soon) and today I am concluding my week of celebrations with rounders in the park; which, much to my friends disappointment, is becoming somewhat of a tradition (imagine having a special Italian restaurant that you go to annually with your friends rather than make them play primary school sports? It could never be me)!

Anyway; much like New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, the start of a new school term in September and the beginning of spring (so, erm, most of the year actually)- my birthday always feels like a bit of a time of reflection (which I appreciate reads like I am naval gazing for most of the year, which I promise I am not). There’s just something about birthdays, isn’t there?

“In two days it's my birthday and I'll be thirty-three
That doesn't really matter next to eternity
But I like a double number, and I like an odd one too
And everything I see from now on will be somethin' new”

Big Thief, Incomprehensible

So, it will come as no surprise to hear that I was very close to writing a deep and meaningful ‘everything I’ve learnt at 32’ post. It’s something I’ve done previously on my blog (and seems to be a favourite thing to do on NYE, but by and large most of the big things I’ve learnt (or am persisting with) remain the same as they have in the years that I’ve previously written them for the first time. Although I’m constantly learning and shape shifting in the little blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-ways that we all are, most of these things are practises that stay consistent year upon year (with a few of my favourites below)…

So instead, over the last couple of weeks, I’ve put together a little time capsule into everything I think is cool at the ripe, young age of 32. Strangely (or not at all) I still feel like I’m 24, and although my shoe choices have shifted slightly from Topshop heels that look like this to jelly-like gardening shoes, and it remains to be seen what the true definition of cool actually is (answers on a postcard!) most things remain the same…

• Listening to Radio 2. This isn’t necessarily over 6 Music (which I call Radio 6) (even though 6 is great! I’m young and cool ok! Trust me!) But sometimes just quietly accepting that you need to hear Oklahoma played randomly on the radio instead of listening to the Freak Zone is fine too.

• Seeing women who look their age. Lines!!! Grey hairs! Soft arms! Creases and joy! This is normal and beautiful! We are not meant to look like we are 22 until we are in our fifties. I have so much else to say on this and it’s far more nuanced than a one liner (I have nothing against anyone choosing to alter their appearance in any way; being a woman is hard and choice is another very, very cool thing). But a couple of weeks ago I saw Pulp play, and seeing Candida in sequins on keys at 60 in the band was THE COOLEST. The women in the band didn’t look 21, but they were beautiful and talented and their appearance was the least interesting thing about them on stage playing their instruments in brilliant clothes. I want more of this.

• Crocs and gardening clogs. Sorry but I could chat about these for a long time. I am sliding into my clog shoe era and what a time it is! Although we have to ask the question of when will the STRAW ONES COME BACK IN TO STOCK!

• Flares. Horseshoe, boyfriend, low rise, mid-rise, all rise? (sorry, Blue joke there) all great jeans! But wearing flares and plimsols will always be the best. Flares truly are the jeans I will never take off. I have gone to the wide leg, and I’m never going back.