Songbook #2: Pork Sausage Pasta

Marinade, Born To Run and Carry On

Me, Jules, Mary and Sean in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley

Welcome to the second weekly edition of The Songbook. There are 20 new subscribers this week. Join the 46 subscribers of this newsletter by signing up below:

The Songbook is a personal compilation where I share my writing, as well as content that is significant to me in some way. Similar to how music punctuates our days, I’ll use songs I love as writing prompts (and will include a Spotify link to each song). You can read the first edition here.

Marinade

Jules’ sister Mary is the best cook I know. Even when she’s not donning the apron herself, she’s keeping the performance standards high across the family’s kitchens. She does this in a really nice way: she cooks several exceptional meals and you really just want to repay the favour. When the chance comes your way, you need to seize it with both hands as you seek her approval.

When Mary was in South Africa for an extended time last year from London (COVID work from home times, remember), she brought a recipe into our lives: a pork sausage and fennel ragu. It’s the perfect slow cooked sauce that you can pair with any pasta you desire, and you just can’t beat it.

When we feel quite far away from her, we cook either that ragu or another dish we’ve shared (we have a few). It’s a surprisingly good way to feel connected, and we’ll often simply share a pic of the sauce bubbling away on the stove top, to discuss on the next call.

We have Jules’ mom staying with us in Cape Town this week ahead of the baby boy’s arrival, and Mary has taken this theme one step further. She’s curated and edited a mini cook-book of her favourite easy-to-cook recipes for us to enjoy and share at a time that she’d really love to be with us. 

Next time you’re feeling like you want to be a bit closer to someone far away, send them a picture of their favourite meal bubbling away. Or send me a picture of you enjoying the sausage and fennel ragu (recipe here)!

Marinade on that for a while

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Born To Run

This week I published a post about a workout with my brother, Matt. We did the workout a few months back, just before he went back to Hong Kong. I’m really missing having Matt, Kim, Sawyer and Summer in town and this was a fun evening to reflect on when pushing the publish button. It feels a bit like I’m submitting my assignment late, with hat in hand. That’s okay though, isn’t it?

Blockhouse #3: A workout in Cape Town with Matt Rosslee

When I started this substack newsletter at the end of last year, I initially called it The Blockhouse. I wanted to write about workouts and walks, in and around Cape Town, with interesting people. I created a home gym in our garage in Vredehoek, and think it got off to a great start with workouts I did with Nic Groom and Blake Pengelly. 

In that I wanted to create a little playground for my writing, it worked. But I think two things slowed my momentum down: (1) the theme was a little too narrow for me to consistently publish on, and (2) we decided to move, which meant boxing up the home gym.

With a bit more flexibility on what I write about in this space, I should be able to draw inspiration from a number of sources to create writing I am proud of. I also plan to keep the Blockhouse feature running. Anyone keen for a hike?

'Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to run

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Carry On

A couple of years ago, I signed up for David Perell’s newsletter, and this has had a profoundly positive effect on my life. Each week his emails have exposed me to new ways of thinking (and thinkers), and I have wanted to enrol in his online course, Write of Passage, pretty much since I learnt about it.

From what I've seen, David’s vision to create "the business school of the future", is well on track. You just have to look at the alumni from the course to see the tremendous impact that he is having on the world. I’ve just submitted my application to enrol in Write of Passage.

He's got one night, he's got one life
And one thing on his mind, and that's the fire

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Thanks for reading the second edition of The Songbook. If you enjoyed it, please feel free to like, comment, or share. You can also respond directly to this email. I’d love to hear from you.

- Nic