So as I lay there feeling guilty with my long-dead mother’s voice ringing in my ear saying ‘you’ll regret this in the morning’ a wonderful thought occurred to me.

“Tricia”, I said to myself “you are living through a pandemic. You’ve hardly been out for months. You have carried the burden of fear of this horrible virus for nearly a year and the weather is cold and miserable. For goodness sake give yourself a break. Indulge in your guilty pleasure and politely but firmly tell your mother to mind her own business.”

At the beginning of lockdown in my very first video of ‘Teatime at the Ritz with Tricia’, I suggested that it would be a nice idea to create a ‘treat box’ with some pleasing goodies to turn to on the difficult days. For once I did follow my own advice and, as we’d just had Mother’s Day, I put some of the goodies my daughters had given me into a box. A lovely fragrant hand cream, a bar of delicious chocolate, some expensive bath oil and a scented candle. Not guilty pleasures exactly but tokens of indulgence to lift morale as and when needed. A year on and I realise that these small indulgences were very small beer. Lockdown has released something in me that I didn’t even know was there. I’ve started to rebel against old norms of behaviour and rules by which I have lived my life for 73 years. I’m not talking about robbing a bank, just a few guilty pleasures that I now give myself permission to fully indulge. 

Guilty Pleasure Number One: Getting up late

My mother was the ultimate ‘lark’. I am full-on ‘owl’. It was drilled into me as a child that lying in bed past a certain time (6 a.m in my mother’s case) was decadent, lazy and spoke of a lack of moral fibre and backbone. Before lockdown I just about managed to drag myself out of bed most weekday mornings by eight o’clock. As time has gone on, more often than not I am turning off my alarm and allowing myself an extra hour in that glorious half awake/half dreaming state of reverie which is so comforting. On weekends I have even been known to sleep until mid morning and when I come to and see the time I immediately feel very guilty until I realise that no-one knows, still least cares what time I get up.

Guilty Pleasure Number Two: Watching Daytime TV

Or, for some people, watching any television at all. There’s enormous snobbery about television as a cultural pursuit. If there is a hierarchy, the apex would probably be reading War and Peace in the original Russian or maybe attending a performance of Wagner’s Ring Cycle and the nadir would be watching ‘Tenable’ on ITV at three o’clock on a weekday afternoon. To the uninitiated, ‘Tenable’ is a quiz show hosted by Warwick Davis and contestants have to come up with things like ‘name the ten capital cities in the EU with six letters (clue: starts with Berlin and ends with Zagreb) for a monetary reward. I often watch it as a break between doing some work for LFF and hosting a Zoom session and I love it, but some part of my brain tells me that I really shouldn't either love it or be watching it. 

Guilty Pleasure Number Three: Boxsets on Digital Platforms

Before lockdown I think the only boxset I had watched was The Crown on Netflix which was the sole reason I had subscribed in the first place. I loved those series with recurring characters but tended to watch them every week at the same time, like the brilliant French cop series ‘Spiral’ on BBC Four at 9 pm on a Saturday evening, or ‘Line of Duty’ on whichever evening it would air. Now I’ve become hooked on various multiple-series box sets and instead of a weekly drip feed, I can find myself watching three or four in one sitting. How decadent that feels as the ‘watch the next episode’ rolls across and instead of going to bed, I think ‘just one more’ like an extremely moreish box of rich and satisfyingly indulgent chocolates. My latest one is ‘The Man in the High Castle’ on Amazon Prime and I’m on series three. It has the gorgeous Rufus Sewel as a lead character and enough plot, jeopardy, drama, excitement and young eye candy to keep me happy. My excuse is that it takes me to another world at a time when travel is currently illegal (just think of that!)

Guilty Pleasure Number Four: Not Keeping Clothes For Best

In between lockdowns when the shops were briefly open again I went into our local posh department store, Ely’s, and bought a cashmere jumper from the Jaeger concession. Navy at the top and pale pink at the bottom, It was expensive and I will admit to a sense of indulgence in the first place, justified by ‘I’ve hardly bought any new clothes whatsoever this year, so I’m going to treat myself’. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve always tended to keep new clothes ‘for best’. In the past I would have put my new jumper into my wardrobe and waited for an occasion when I wanted to look especially nice. Cashmere is lovely to wear but it’s a so-and-so to wash, so I would have been worried about ‘spoiling it’, especially the delicate lower pale pink part of it. No more. When there are no special occasions, every day is a special occasion. I have worn my new jumper a lot. I have enjoyed wearing it just for me and I have learnt that saving clothes ‘for best’ is a ridiculous convention that I no longer need to follow.

Will I keep indulging all my guilty pleasures as life resumes some level of post-vaccinated pandemic normality? Well, sorry Mum if that’s you I can hear spinning in your grave, yes I most definitely will. My list of guilty lockdown pleasures is littered with words like ‘indulgence, temptation, moreish, treats, goodies, deliciousness.’ It speaks of listening to your own needs more than those voices which drummed into you that pleasing yourself betokened a kind of moral degeneracy. Well so far, so good! My life feels richer, happier and more satisfying and, this morning after the wild night before of metaphorically taking their Graces, the Duke and Duchess of Hastings to bed with me I can report that I feel absolutely fine and dandy and remarkably guilt-free!

 

Tricia x

 

Image at the top from VOUGE. CREDIT - Photo: Liam Daniel / Netflix. See here

Look Fabulous Forever do not own all of the images used in this blog. Please note that all images and copyrights belong to their original owners. No copyright infringement intended.

 

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Here is the Bright Spots Programme and links for this week:

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Makeup Magic with Tricia and Sally Deung 

How To Have Fabulous Skin

Day: Monday 22nd February

Time: 11am

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89245905309?pwd=TFpObm9mc3BGSmpmYU9ZVnNxdzBaQT09

Meeting ID (if needed): 892 4590 5309

Password (if needed): LOOKFAB

ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) Last week Sally and Tricia talked about special occasion makeup: https://youtu.be/3fTOj-nwQzA 

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All About Me: Wendy Jackson-Hill

My Life in Ministry

Day: Tuesday 23rd February

Time: 4pm

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81060857836?pwd=

WHI3N0E4QzFENSsrc1BxdWFLUG5BZz09

Meeting ID (if needed): 810 6085 7836

Password (if needed): LOOKFAB

ICYMI Last week's Virtual Teatime with Tricia and Leonie Wright: https://youtu.be/JbLmOCcCLwE 

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Eatwright cookery demo with Leonie Wright

Apple and Oat Muffins and Chicken Pie

Day: Wednesday 24th February

Time: 2pm

Pre- Recorded Session

Link: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR8OlPIRimpaUWFkAqVY-GIlhgvC19K9a

ICYMI Last week Leonie and Tricia talked about exciting vegetables and chocolate mousse: https://youtu.be/Tmw7-JA8ALs 

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Tone up with Tricia and Lindsay Burrows

No Dowager's Hump.

Day: Thursday 25th February

Time: 4pm

Pre- Recorded Session

Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR8OlPIRimpZPa0oq1dqNAzRagrY02Ump 

ICYMI Last week Lindsay and Tricia focused on increasing flexibility: https://youtu.be/vWanqmO3SXA 

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Film Club: Varda by Agnes

Available on Curzon Home Cinema

Day: Friday 26th February

Time: 4pm

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83649104699?pwd=

UW1rbUN6VmdwUjRXL3ZKY2N3QTBjUT09

Meeting ID (if needed): 836 4910 4699

Password (if needed): LOOKFAB

You can also keep an eye on the weekly schedule of Events which will be updated every Friday at 5pm (GMT) here: https://www.lookfabulousforever.com/a-bright-spot-for-your-day