Actually having some leisure time to browse other blogs and magazines feels like an amazing gift at the moment- October was probably the most stressful month I’ve experienced in the last 3-4 years workwise, no contest. Trying to prepare for Christmas is ridiculously intense- behind all those lovely yuletide sets and pretty decorations, I can assure you that there is an office full of people teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown. It got me thinking about the enormous efforts which lie behind setting up and establishing all these household-name organisations that we buy from every day. Not to plug a competitor’s goods but as I unwrapped a bar of Floris’ Fleur soap today, I was struck anew by the allure of simple pleasures: a fabulous scent, crisp tissue paper, a beautiful box. As a soap nut (away with your shower gels, they are a poor second), I know that of which I speak. Floris, you are scent-genuises, no doubt about it. Lately what seems like my snails-pace progress has been getting me down. Then I remembered the famous speech that Winston Churchill gave to the Leavers at Harrow School, particularly the portion regarding perseverance: Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” Or even more succinctly, to quote the Bobster (Marley, not the Builder), ‘Don’t let them change ya, or even rearrange ya’.

As you look at the pics of products I’m crushing on at the moment (and I can’t even ride a motorbike. But O, isn’t it beautiful?), don’t forget the effort that has gone into these seemingly everyday products. That Capsule Lamp is supposed to be for children but I want one. In fact, I demand it!

In other news, I’m going to print a column from The Daily Mash here. Generally, I make a point of not pasting from other blogs but this is just so funny. The Daily Mash is fabulous. Just imagine it, an unpackaged politician who just says what he means. It’s enough to cause sheer terror in the heart of any politico. It’s the same reason Boris and Trump terrify everyone- the menace of the unpredictable. As a fan of the Moggster (please don’t write in. I just like the fact that he does his own thing, swimming against the tide, rightly or wrongly. Just looking at him makes me smile 🙂 ), I think it’s a valuable addition to all things Jacob. Have a lovely weekend.

TORY MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has claimed Brexit Britain will be a ‘roaring success’ as long as the country ‘gives no quarter to assorted rapscallions’.

Mr Rees-Mogg said that unless the British constabulary, or ‘peelers’ as they are more commonly known, kept their eyes skinned especially in the low areas of London such as Covent Garden, Lambeth and Westminster North, that ordinary everyday people, from costermongers to governesses could find themselves at the mercy of cutpurses, dippers and sundry impudent wastrels. He added: “It seems that as we approach the 20th century, with all its attendant garters, ragtime, hooch and good time gaiety, that there is a danger that in our urge for wassails, we put ourselves at risk of vulnerability to the baser elements of society, remittance men, cracksmen and all manner of assorted blackguards. “The only way to guard against such infiltration is to be wary of social undesirables – the backslider, the rogue, even the flibbertigibbet – the all too willing handmaiden of the bounder.

Photos: Capsule Lamp, DesignSystems Ltd: V9 Bobber Sport, Moto Guzzi; Martine earrings, STVDIO