Last week was one of the most overwhelming lockdown weeks I’ve had so far. Nothing particularly bad happened and I’m still gratefully aware of how lucky I am. It was just one of those weeks where, no matter what, things looked gloomy. So, come Sunday night, I was in the mood for nothing less than pure comfort food and a Disney film.
If you’ve ever been a uni student in the UK, it’s highly likely that pesto pasta is in your top list of makeshift comfort meals. Sure, it doesn’t quite hit the spot like your mum’s famous Sunday Roast, but it’s a close second. Pesto pasta was virtually the only meal I cooked for myself during my final year of uni. Whenever I have it now, it takes me right back to my own messy little kitchen in halls. Having lived at home for the duration of the pandemic, I’ve been missing my independence. It turns out that even the little things, like cooking myself a portion of wildly under-nutritious pasta and eating it in bed, are things that I now long for.
Having trawled the supermarket shelves earlier in the week, I’d finally found a vegan-friendly pesto (yes – amazingly, I survived to the end of Veganuary!) and triumphantly placed it in my trolley. I’d been saving it all week for a night when I really couldn’t be bothered to cook. As I desperately searched the cupboard for options on Sunday night, feeling well and truly defeated by the week, my eyes fell on that little jar and my heart leapt. I knew my night was made.
There’s just something about real simple comfort food which never fails to lighten your mood. Couple that with a childhood film (and a glass of wine if you fancy)? Match made in heaven.
Disney Pixar’s Soul has been on my watchlist for a while. But I’ve been putting off watching it till I was in the right mood to ‘have a bit of a cry’. While it was less emotional than I’d been anticipating, it didn’t fail to deliver. It’s stunning imagery, gentle narrative and uplifting message offered an escape I’d been so desperately looking for. Curled up in my room with a glass of wine, a cereal bowl full of pasta and a blanket, I couldn’t have been happier.
Following on from my recent post on rest and guilt, I’m still struggling to find moments like this where I can truly let go and relax. Getting lost in an hour and a half of Pixar dreaminess, with a bowl full of pasta, it turns out, was a one-way ticket to proper, switched off relaxation. While we’re working, studying, or simply surviving from home, moments of proper self-care and comfort like this, however rare or difficult to pin down, are essential. I’ll never again underestimate the power of a jar of pesto and the nostalgic calm of Pixar.
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