L is for Languorous
Languorous: characterised by tiredness or inactivity, especially of a pleasurable kind.
Lately, I’ve been feeling lazy. I could blame school and our triple week early starts or the soporific weather. There are two things that you can do when this feeling rolls around; lean into or, or leg it.
Leaning into it
Accepting the laziness is to lean into the languorousness of summer. Lie-ins and long lunches would both be fine examples of leaning in.
Sleep is both the cure and cause of this lazy feeling but when in full embrace, sleep when you feel as if you need it. An afternoon doze with a twenty minute timer can revive the lowest of moods and if it doesn’t, then take another twenty. Waking up early to make a cup of tea or a cold coffee and returning to a sunspilt bed to sleep a little bit more is a weekend or weekday (no judgement) indulgence that should be repeated.
A long lunch, whether at home, in the park, or au resto, is definitely an acceptable way to pass your inactive hours. The sole activity taking place being the fork lifting to mouth and back to plate and repeated with wine glass. If going for the restaurant option, you must choose wisely, slow service is key. You need to be almost forgotten about as you lounge, Roman-style, enjoying post-prandial, drawn-out conversations. (Recs: Grand Coeur for a fancy long lunch, or Cave Saint Gilles for tapas {read: order one plate at a time to lengthen}). Picnic style lunch is easy to be lazy about. It is also easy to spend too much time thinking about. The recipe for the perfect park/beach/hillside picnic is: baguette x 2, some form of charcuterie that you won’t be upset if it gets sweaty, a dip that isn’t hummus, hummus, breadsticks and crudités, some fun fruit like peaches. Nothing requiring any prep more than an en-route visit to supermarket.
For a homestyle long lunch, a little, light prep is allowed and this could consist of roasting trayfuls of veg on a lazy Sunday and using them generously throughout the week. Veg with a grain, some cheese and a dressing can make quite a show-stopping lunch with little to no effort. This annoyingly useful Times article showcases 13 salad dressings with ideas of how to serve them.
Loose fitting clothing is leaning as you are allowing yourself the highest level of comfort. This Arket shirt is the winner of this category but if you hang out with me I will be wearing it (in one of three colours) so let’s try not to be matching.
Love (is the sweetest thing) and when it’s as warm as summer and as bright as the sunshine, it can be gloriously easy and easy is the lazy that we like.
Legging it
By legging it from the laziness, you are denying its luxury but each to their own in our democracy, I suppose. Ways to do this would include; hiking (or really any form of forced exercise), running errands (namely doing the big shop), and cooking and eating things that have more than three steps of preparation. Hot and cold food don’t come into this argument, as I would allow a roast chicken as a leaning in meal with some fresh sides to accompany, but an elaborate salad involving too much peeling or chopping is legging it.
Logistics — planning, prepping, or being generally pro-active is legging it behaviour. Trying to avoid the heat by simply ignoring that it exists does work from time to time and this is a good tactic for a short period of time before you have to allow yourself to lean in.
Langoustines - foods that come with admin, although we love them, are sometimes too much work. I love peeling a prawn as much as the next person but sometimes you want the prawn to be pre-peeled (and fed to you) and that is fine.
Heels / uncomfortable shoes for style definitely constitutes as legging it, although in an emergency you won’t actually be able to leg it, so think carefully when you get dressed in the morning.
Lengthy conversation - taking too much brain power to chew the fat with someone. Choose your languorous friends wisely.
Love (is a battlefield) and when it feels like combat, you’re working too hard and that’s that.
Shopping list for you
I’ve forgiven U2 for the automatic download mishap of 2014 and have been rediscovering The Joshua Tree album.
Jamie T album - British Hell feels quite apt.
A grammar joke that reminds me of my sister.
Stolen from Haley Nahman’s newsletter but a fantastic productivity tool - Google Chrome extension “Delayed Gratification” for anyone who has an automatic Instagram instinct.
One episode in and hooked to The Bear but will it put me off working in a kitchen? Quite possibly.
A hark back to retro River Cottage with Julius Roberts’ A Taste of the Country on Channel 5.