Blogs about Break-Ups – Page 3

Break-Up Club on Tour! First stop: Venice Beach, CA

Published on May 18, 2016May 19, 2016 by loreleimathiasLeave a comment

Howdi!

A quick missive from the Land of La La, where I’ve come to live for a short while, having just gone on a year-long sabbatical from my ‘day-job’ in Advertising. Hurrah. Feeling very lucky! I’ll keep the smug-posts to an absolute minimum but this is just to say that in my first week I’ve ticked off a number of important Californian Cliches:

Making friends with a plastic surgeon in a coffee shop
Being told we have ‘cute accents’ about 457 times
Going on a midnight drive to find the Hollywood sign, and not being able to find it – instead, getting into jetlag-fuelled delerium in our attempts to pronounce Griffith Observatory without laughing. Just try and say it without sounding like you have a speech-impediment. It’s nigh-on-impossible. But maybe it’s the jetlag.
Going for a jog around the canals followed by an EXTREMELY green juice.
Yoga on the beach daily
Falling over while in Eagle pose, daily. Yoga on soft sand is very hard.
Being offered the chance to look at a turtle with two heads. Politely declining said offer.
Making lots of new friends because you can’t not, when everyone is this friendly.
Meeting two drunk men in a bar having a homo-erotic fumble – one who turns out to be an actor from Sex and the City.
Making friends with our Lyft driver who turns out to be an AMAZING musician called Slark. His latest track – of course – is called ‘Break Up’ which he wrote about his recent conscious uncoupling. It’s going in the BUC soundtrack as soon as it’s on Spotify!
Realising Netflix is so, so much better here. They have The Wonder Years! Which was pretty much the defining show of mine and my roomie’s childhood. So now we watch an episode a day, and I have so far cried at Every Single One. Kevin&Winnie4Eva.

That’s all really. Except that, my book comes out on Thursday, so I might say a few words then! ‘Til then, here’s some wise words from a wall in Venice Beach – good to remember in a break-up, but also in life. Have a really, really really nice day y’all.

INTERVIEW ON HOXTON RADIO ABOUT BREAK-UPS AND LIDOS

Published on April 20, 2016June 7, 2022 by loreleimathiasLeave a comment

I recently had a serendipitous encounter at my local lido with a friendly stranger. He was stood loitering by the swim-suit dryer, recording the sound of it on his phone. Like you do. We got chatting. I quickly unleashed my lido geekery on him (when I’m not writing novels, I’m a nutcase about outdoor swimming and lidos)… and before I knew it, I’d agreed to co-host on his show all about London Fields Lido, on Hoxton.FM.

It was insane amounts of fun. I’m going back on again this Saturday (23rd April), at 3pm to talk all about Break Up Club and its mega-therapeutic sound-track. We’re after recommendations – if you’ve got a song that’s saved your broken-hearted ass – let me know and we might play it.

‘Til then, here’s a handy link to listen to my goofy radio debut here:

If you don’t have two hours spare and you fancy dipping your toe in to some of it, here’s what we chat about and when…

Break Up Club and my novels: 10 mins 33 to 11

My next book after Break Up Club, and Lidos and their history, and : 12 mins & 46 mins

Peckham Rye Lido and Thames Baths: 15 mins

Darren Hayman, London Fields Lido and Thames Baths: 33- 36 mins

Brockwell Lido: 50 mins and 1 min 50

The Salad Spinner: 52 mins

Lido love, and literature and swimming: 1 min 8- 11

Lucy Blakstad and her film Lido:1 min 11, and 1 min 50

Heavy Petting: 1 min 16

HOW TO SET UP YOUR OWN ‘BUC’… BECAUSE A BREAK-UP SHARED IS A BREAK-UP HALVED.

Published on March 1, 2016December 17, 2016 by loreleimathiasLeave a comment

I wouldn’t wish a break-up on anyone. But if you do happen to find yourselves in a similar position to the characters in my book; or if like Ally Sheedy’s character in The Breakfast Club, you have nothing better to do, then here’s a rough guide to creating your own warm, fuzzy and prosperous BUC…It feels pressing to point out that ‘The Real BUC’ was nothing like this um, regimented – these are based on the fictional one! Here goes.

Find at least one other poor sod that has just had a break-up, or is thinking about it. Your dream scenario is finding someone in the ‘love him/love him not’ limbo like yourself. Then you can both agree to perform what’s known as a synchronised dump. Hurrah! You’re in.

Once assembled, the main thing is to colonise your Sundays. It’s the saddest day of the week, so make sure you’re never alone, even for a minute. Where possible, congregate in time for brunch (see Rule No.5) with a view to staying over at a co-member’s house. Leave a ‘Boyfriend Pack’* there, of duplicate toiletries, undies and a toothbrush.

Not to sound like I’m encouraging self-destructive behaviour, but booze really, truly is an integral part of any high-functioning Break Up Club. Stock up well on Prosecco, beer, ale and vodka.

You’ll want all the members of the Carbohydrate family represented. Stock up pasta, garlic bread, pizza, popcorn. And cheese. All of the cheese.

(here’s Mark, one of our Co-founders, and Lauren, foraging.)

Also, have lemsip, paracetamols and ginger standing by for when your inevitable a bout of break-up flu strikes. It happened to all of us, during each break-up cycle. It’s cold-hard medicinal fact – something to do with your white blood cells working extra hard to clear all the ex-toxins out of your body? So prepare well.

You’ll need a soundtrack involving lots of New Romantic songs, and this track by The 6ixths, called ‘Falling Out of Love with you’ which my friend Gaz first got me in to. It’s that perplexing combo of euphoric yet melancholic. The tone is happy and gay; the lyrics stick a knife through your heart. Then you’ll need the other kind of cheese jump around to – and ideally an old, non-precious sofa like the one in the book. To make life easier for you, I curated a Spotify Playlist for #breakupclub. But I’ll be walking you through the peaks and troughs of that at another stop on my blog tour…

Keep a notepad, paper and blue-tac to hand. Just in case one member needs to list out everything they don’t like about their ex, to remind them they weren’t right for them after all.

Keep a laptop or ipad to hand, for deletion ceremonies (see rule No. 6).

Keep box-sets of Girls, Sex and the City, Catastrophe to hand – for when your co-members’ funny-bones are out and you need the professionals.

Get a large duvet with a good amount of togs.

While it’s good to take it in turns to ‘host’ at each others houses, it’s also sensible to have a few bars or pubs as regular venues. Just so you can practice being ‘out’ in public, from within the warm supportive bosom. You’ll need places that are small and cosy enough that you can have the odd shoulder sob without being stared at. For us, the main BUC HQ was The BreakFast Club in Camden Passage, Angel, London.

Sod Disneyland: this is the happiest place on earth. You cannot be depressed about having had your heart ripped through your bum – in here, while surrounded by all the warm eightees nostalgia and pancakes with bacon, banana and maple syrup. It’s so wonderful that I had my 30th here and even once interviewed the rather lovely BC founder, Jonathan (aka Ferris)

Since then, there are now about a hundred branches of The BC all over London, so those living in the capital can have their pick. The Angel one’s the cosiest and most fun. So much so that ‘The Real BUC’ and I are going back there tonight for dinner! There’s a bunch of other places to go but I’ll be exploring them in another post called the ‘Heartbreak Guide to London’, coming soon to the internets.

Lastly, you’ll want to get away from it all at least once a year for your ‘AGM’. Take an excursion somewhere really, really bleak, preferably involving camping in the rain in a badly equipped tent from Lidl. But more on that on this guest post I wrote here!

*More on Boyfriend Packs in another blog