Treasure Hunter | September 2020

Welcome to Autumn :) Is it me, or September just flew by? The weather is starting to turn ever so slightly and the Christmas chats are beginning to ring around.

1. Comedy | Katherine Ryan

The first time I heard about Katherine Ryan was on Netflix series The Dutchess, where a story very similar to her personal life is portrayed. Katherine is Canadian, living in London with her 9 year old daughter and she is a proud single mom. Her Netflix comedy special addresses the stigma about being a single mother and how the society should stop playing women small. Here is a quick sketch of Katherin’s during James Corden show
(3mins).

2. On Relationships | Esther Perel

I first saw Esther Perel in SWSX a couple of years back. I didn’t know who she was before then, but her research topics interested me. She works with couples and investigates around relationships. This particular TED talk focuses on “The Secret to Desire in a long term relationship” and don’t we all want an answer to that :) It’s a eye-opening perspective and more of a reminder that we shouldn’t expect everything from the one that we love.
(15 mins)

3. Documentary | The Social Dilemma (2020)

This documentary helped me to understand many questions currently that is coming up around our behaviour in social media and how this might be manipulating us. How we might not be aware of what the tech giants are doing with the current behaviour of ours. It’s quite an eye-opening documentary that makes me question if I should be deleting all my social media accounts.

Directed by Jeff Orlowski, The Social Dilemma explores the effect of smartphones and social networks on human behaviour. the film presents itself as an urgent warning about our modern condition. It’s evident that social media companies are trying to make their users be engaged in the platform to give a chance for advertisers to make more money.

There are only two industries that refer to their customers as ‘users’: illegal drugs and software. “ — Edward Tufte
(1hour 20mins)

4. The Future? | How China Tracks Everyone

In addition to The Social Dilemma documentary, this month I was learning about how China is starting to track their citizens, rate them and control them. China ranks ‘good’ and ‘bad’ citizens with ‘social credit’ system. Video scevalange and artificial intelligence helps to identify these individuals and explore them publicly. Is this our future?
(5 mins)

5. Film | Tenet (2020)

Let’s talk about Tenet. But where do we begin? At the start, at the end, in the middle? As the movie has not been seen by many people yet, I won’t get into the details here. All I can say is that this movie kept me on my toes to try and understand how the time aspect worked. I think I kept on track till the end, but have I? Still processing the movie :) Highly recommended.

6. Documentary | This is Paris (2020)

This is YouTube Original that came out this month with a title The Real Story of Paris Hilton. As with any character piece, it’s interesting to get an insight into a different side to a story, and this is what it seemed to be like. A young girl, trying to process her childhood trauma and to help others not to go through it as well. I salute Paris for speaking up about her personal traumas because as I’m sure she hopes as well, I hope that this helps someone out there to know they are not alone. Paris’s mother in the documentary said that Fear is the strongest emotion out there, but is it true that only Love can tear it apart? I guess we will only find out by living this life in the best way we can :)
(1 hour 10 mins)

7. Interior Design

AD is a great show. They visit homes and explore interiors. It’s an interest of mine that is growing and I cannot wait until i’ll have a home of our own to start decorating and interior designing. Will I be any good at it? Time will tell, but for now, I’ve enjoyed watching the interior design of Hillary Duff and appreciating her style.
(5 mins)

8. Film: Breakfast at Tiffanies

I read the book this month and I wanted to watch the movie. This scene was just priceless! The dialogue is so elegant.

9. Cultural | Diversity

This dance routine was created by Diversity group from England. Their message to Black Live Matters and what’s the story of Pandemic.

10. In Lisbon

Here is a fun exploration from September in Lisbon

• Creatives: Video Mapping here., created by Oskar and Gaspar.
• Experience: Under the stars in Lisbon @Sep 2, 2020
• Restaurant: Bloom and Riviera Beach in Costa Caparica.
• Fitness: Ebody eletro fitness, The Circle — augmented fitness, Matchbox Crossfit.

Other Treasures from September

• Film: Enola (2020) — Netflix original about Sherlock Holmes sister.
• Film: Black Panther (Sep 4) — in honor of a great actor.
• Film: 42 (Sep 13) — great legendary story of a baseball player.
• Film: Good Boys (2019)@Sep 5 — funny and light film.
• Film: Love Guaranteed (2020) — for those in the mood for a romcom.
• Film: The war with the grandpa (2020)- Deniro. Light movie.
• Film: Ad Astra — Brad Pitt heading for Jupiter.
• Recipe: The Happy Pear, sticky toffee pudding.
• Series: The Dutchess — light series from Katherine Ryan.
• Book: Breakfast at Tiffanies— The classic.
• Book: The Artist Way. Notes
• Fitness: Psycle launched online classes. I used to go to this spin class 5 years ago when I lived in London. It was a joy to hear that they are launching online classes. This is normally the energy in the classes :)

This month I also want to give a shoutout to a month filled with my dear friends birthdays: Ruth, Orhan, Matt, Luke, Ines, Stephanie, Anna. I love you guys.

Until October, where we will start celebrating Autumn, for real this time :)