The April R.E.P.O.R.T.

A whole load of new recommendations.

This is the Salad Days R.E.P.O.R.T. It’s the thing that started this whole Substack!

We know you love recommendations, want to discover more independent brands and are keen to hear about cool things to do in London, so we started writing our monthly R.E.P.O.R.T. It covers everything we’re reading, eating, playing, obsessing over, recommending and treating ourselves to. We hope it will make for useful and interesting reading, and we send it out once a month.

This content is exclusively for you, our gorgeous subscribers, and we’ll strive to fill it full of top tier suggestions every time. It will always remain free and all past issues are available here. Thank you so much for being here 🌷

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READING: BAD NATURE BY ARIEL COURAGE

Are you a fiction girlie, or a non-fiction girlie? Most of what I read falls into the category of unbelievable true life stories BUT! I have an incredible exception to share with you this month that has really got me back into the fiction section: Bad Nature by Ariel Courage.

When Hester is diagnosed with terminal cancer on her 40th birthday she doesn’t spend any time feeling sorry for herself. Instead she immediately decides to enact a plan she’s had since childhood: killing her dad. With nothing to lose and only a few months to live she becomes chaotically annihilistic and embarks on a road trip to find him, which sets the book up nicely to be extremely fast-paced and also gives it a kind of hilarious caper vibe. As the protagonist Hester is vengeful, blunt and full to the brim of acerbic wit which is such a pleasure to read. I was surprised the author is American as she gives pure dry British humour, very Emily from The Devil Wears Prada. Sharply chic and comically cut throat.

I know it seems like it would be really sad, but honestly it hasn’t been so far. In all truthfulness I haven’t quite finished the book yet so I don’t know how it ends, and I’m sure there’s a darker side to the story that is revealed later on. But as it’s released a few days ago it was too good to not include here.

For transparency: Susie at @susiemerryceramics, a small biz we work with at the market, also works for Vintage Books and so got in touch to see if I wanted an early read of some books they're releasing this season. I jumped at the chance, and this was one of them. I was sent this book as a gift. There was no expectation for me to share anything about it and I wasn't paid to do so, but loved it so much I wanted to include it here.

EATING: AT AGA’S LITTLE DELI IN FOREST HILL

We found ourselves in Forest Hill last week and no sooner had we wished for a little toastie and an iced coffee than the highstreet delivered Aga’s Little Deli to us. Don’t you love it when that happens?

I was diagnosed with PCOS last year and advised to steer away from carbs, so against my will have now become someone who orders salads. Spending £20 on a bowl of acidic balsamic glazed rocket can be an angering, humbling and all too common experience, so it was a real joy to pay £12 for one of the most well stacked and delish salads I’ve had in ages. It had loads of different elements with soft salad leaves, sharp pickles, zesty guac, unctuous hummus, juicy tomatoes, crunchy red cabbage, salty olives and five large pieces of soft grilled halloumi.

It’s so uptight middle aged person at a garden centre of me to have counted the pieces of halloumi but I was really impressed! A lovely South London gem.

A reason to visit Forest Hill.

PLAYING: THE RACHEL ZOE PROJECT

Is there any greater joy in life than 1) reliving something that makes you feel like it’s 2008 again and 2) finding a new programme with multiple seasons you can smash your way through? If you also had a teenage obsession with that niche moment in time when it felt like the whole of popular culture revolved around a tiny group of extremely thin and privileged women in L.A. then you are also going to “die” (I’ve watched so much I’m starting to sound like the woman) for The Rachel Zoe Project.

Following the it-girl celebrity stylist at the height of her fame, the show tracks her glittering journey from relatively humble beginnings to global multi-faceted fashion brand, with her long suffering husband Roger along for the ride. It really captures that extremely nostalgic (to me, anyway) moment in time, when indie L.A. style ruled and the queen bees all wore towering heels, ginormous sunglasses, Chanel bags that were bigger than their body, and had a massive Starbucks permanently attached to their hand. Uh!

17 year old me only had a pink Dell laptop and an unreliable streaming site to feed her addiction to American exports like 90210, The Hills and Laguna Beach so I never got to watch this the first time around. As you can imagine my 33 year old self was overjoyed to find there was 5 seasons to catch up on, just a mere 15 years after it was originally aired.

The fashion, the celebrity cameos (they go on and on and on and on about Demi Moore or just “Demi” as they call her) the scenes where Rachel runs around in 8 inch heels after her tiny son who’s wearing an even tinier trilby hat. It’s so good. I watched the lot in two days flat and will be rewatching immediately.

So much of the show is just Rachel stalking around her own wardrobe rifling through racks and racks and racks of plastic-covered clothing deciding what to wear, which is invariably always some combination of a long dress, giant black designer Chanel accessories and 8 inch heels. It’s addictive.

OBSESSING OVER: TULIPS

The tulip, with its instantly recognisable half cracked-egg shape, is a symbol I always feel drawn back to. This spring more than ever. So it was funny that Instagram showed me these two gorge products one after the other, including this absolutely spectacular handmade tulip lamp from Peckham design studio BplusMplusB and these fab handmade tiles produced in a collaboration between MIMMO Studios and Studio Alice Johnson. There’s honestly something almost addictive about them to me, I feel a deep urge to own both.

RECOMMENDING: BEAVERBROOK SPA

If you’re looking for a way to blow a serious amount of money on being extremely relaxed for a day, and don’t want to travel too far outside of South London, we cannot recommend Beaverbrook Spa highly enough. We took a day trip there last weekend with our two besties as a joint mega amalgamated celebration of weddings, engagements, pregnancies, birthdays, and generally surviving/ thriving our way through the past few years, and so splashed out with a bigger than normal spend. The pennies were defo worth it!

First thing to talk about is the interiors - I wasn’t expecting them to be so good! They must have thrown some serious cash at a fancy interior designer who has in turn thrown some serious cash at a load of very talented artists because every element of the space is unexpected and creative. I genuinely said the word “wow” out loud. Every wall, every corner, every chair here is so lovely. It felt so nice to be surrounded by such beauty for a few hours.

The facilities are extensive and well thought out, meaning you can spend a whole day going from indoor pool to outdoor pool to lunch to gift shop to sauna to dinner with just a short shuffle in a soft dressing gown (or as we discovered, in a short golf buggy drive!!! Yes they have golf buggies and will drive you around the grounds as there are a couple of different restaurants on site!!!)

And the team! Every single team member greeted us by name, they all knew we were there for a big celebration and made us feel like guests of honour. My spa therapist literally lifted my legs up and carefully rested them on a pouffe, so I didn’t have to engage my own stomach muscles, for god’s sake! As no doubt the least important and least rich people there (we literally swam alongside an A list celebrity) I half expected us to be completely ignored but the total opposite was true. We were made to feel so so so welcome. The service was impeccable.

The whole thing added up to a genuinely special and unforgettable experience. I don’t think another visit is in my near future, but if ever I’ve got some cash on the hip and a penchant to feel swaddled and coddled, I will defo go back.

This picture doesn’t even do the tiles justice! There are multiple corridors letting natural light in that makes the colours almost glow. I couldn’t stop staring at the stained glass ceiling.

TREATING OURSELVES TO: A CUSTOM COLLAGE FROM LYDIA SOUTHGATE

If documenting memories in the cutest way possible is a passion of yours too, then I know you’re going to love these. The gorgeous Lydia Southgate will be at our next market on Sunday 4th May where she’ll be creating custom mini collages live in front of you!! She’ll have her mini printer with her, ready to print, cut, stick and adorn your own photo, to create your very own bespoke little artwork. A perfect way to treasure a special picci forever; either to hang on your wall or stick in your journal. Each one will be completely handmade by Lydia on the day, so will be totally unique and full of creativity. These aren’t something she usually makes, so you’ll have to be there to get yours.