Friday Night Chats but on a Saturday morning???

Emily Writes Weekly

Kia ora! I’m so sorry I’m in Christchurch and I’ve been having major internet problems! This was meant to post and it didn’t. So have some Saturday morning chats. So sorry friends!! Xx

(Last night was super fun tho ——)

Welcome to Friday Night Chats! Probably, by the time you read this I’ll be on stage in Christchurch. I’m very nervous! I always get very nervous! I use lots of exclamation marks when I’m nervous! Tonight’s event is live streamed so maybe some of you will watch it. And it will be like we are together.

I’m listening to How We Love by Clementine Ford on Audible and have been alternating between sobbing and screeching with laughter. Truly, you should absolutely listen. I am not a huge fan of audiobooks but Ronnie loves them. And while I was waiting for my paperback copy of the book to arrive, I decided to just use one of my credits to get it.

I am actually really enjoying it. It makes me feel a little less lonely while I’m at home writing. I am now something like 30,000 words into Book 3. I feel like I am miles and miles away from finishing. This hot weather is not helping me stay on task…

Today while writing I got a call from my husband (who was at work) who yelled down the phone “Where’s Twinkle?! I just got a text saying she’s on the road!”

So I jumped up and ran to the gate, saw it was open and began running down the drive. And there was Twinkle - sitting by our letterbox watching people walk past. She saw me and immediately looked very guilty and bolted past me, back up the drive into the house. I think she thought if she beat me inside it wouldn’t count. She really is a strange dog. The reason why people get so worried when greyhounds get out is because they can run very fast in a short amount of time and they are quite stupid.

But Twinkle is obviously not like that. She was just like a teenager testing her boundaries. In any case, it feels like my whole street is on watch for her so she won’t get to explore too much.

Moving on - THANK YOU.

Thank you for telling me to watch Ted Lasso. It is so great! Just so super lovely. You were all exactly right. I think you’re wrong about Succession, but that’s OK.

Thank you for your kind words after my last post. I had a big cry on my husband’s shoulder and I am feeling less heavy. All of your lovely messages helped a lot.

I have been avoiding the news this week and trying to stay focused on Awhi Ngā Mātua. It’s my baby and I’m hopeful the app will be finished so we can start inviting parents into the community by next month.

I haven’t really read much to pass on to you except -

What lies beneath: the secrets of France’s top serial killer expert - An intrepid expert with dozens of books to his name, Stéphane Bourgoin was a bestselling author, famous in France for having interviewed more than 70 notorious murderers. Then an anonymous collective began to investigate his past.

Cresting the Wave - A surfer comes to grips with a dark family secret born from the swells near Bob Hall Pier

Oh and of course Dwayne The Rock Johnson continues to be entirely unproblematic.

The only news I haven’t been avoiding is celebrity fluff. Do you know how obsessed I am with the fact that Jose Canseco has a daughter called Josie Canseco and she went out for dinner with him in a completely see-through (I’m talking full nips) mesh top? Look sorry for the link to Page Six but literally no other media is trash enough to cover that.

Can you imagine eating food with your breasts out in front of your dad?????????????

Can you imagine being a dad called Jose Canseco and naming your child Josie Canseco?

Did you know George Foreman of the George Foreman Grill (and maybe boxing) has 12 children and his sons are called:

• George Jr.

• George III

• George IV,

• George V

• George VI

Did you know that??? He has a daughter called Georgetta (was Georgia not an option?) but the rest of his daughters are not-George-names.

It got me thinking - did you have a name you wanted for your child (or future child, or imaginary child) and when they were born they just didn’t suit their name? Or any that you knew you shouldn’t saddle them with so you didn’t?

We were going to call Eddie “Wolf”. I don’t think Wolf is a bad name, I still really like it. But Eddie is like the least Wolf-like child. I was going to be called Daisy and I am very not a Daisy. Daisy is also a name I really like, but it’s not my name. We also almost called Ham “Maui” (it’s a family name) - but I still like that name so it doesn’t really count. I think I’ve said this before but both of my kids have the middle names James as I was really out of it after Ham’s birth and I just weirdly insisted on it???????????

I mean, I was never going to go the way of Elon Musk and Grimes and call my kid X Æ A-Xii - mainly because I’m not a massive asshole. But I’m always intrigued by the names people give kids.

You may not know this, but a long time ago I changed my name (by deed poll) to Emily because I didn’t like my given name as nobody ever pronounced it properly and I was sick of having to pronounce it all the time. I really enjoy the fact that everyone can say the name Emily and that I no longer have to use my husband’s name when I order coffee. It 100% feels like my name, and I always forget I had any other name.

So here are your Friday Night Chat questions:

• Did you want to name your child any tragique names?

• What do you think is the worst, most ridiculous celebrity child name? (This is a hard one for me but I think it’s Kevin Smith naming his kid Harley Quinn Smith, like surely just Harley or just Quinn was enough?)

• What’s a celebrity baby name you secretly love? (OK mine is Birdie - Busy Phillips’ kid).

• Do you like your name? Would you ever change it?

Also the usual - what are you reading? Watching? Listening to?

And watch this:

Ben McKay @benmackey

exceptionally kiwi areas: anti-mandate protesters knock down a fence … but put it back up again 😇 great package from @TovaOBrien