Nut butters and Making Friends

Observer, Guardian, Oxford

I was in Oxford for most of last week recording a new podcast for Series 10 of Conversations with Annalisa Barbieri [available wherever you get your podcasts]. The series will drop here, first, exclusively and ad free for paid subscribers (so far that’s the only content I charge for) before going on general release.

I interviewed the neuroscientist Professor Morten Kringelbach who is the director of the Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing (I know, who knew such a place existed, in Oxford). I’m going to be writing up where I stayed in my “For Me” section as it’s fantastic, the sort of place you don’t really want to share, but kinda have to if you’re a generous soul.

Which I am.

Professor Sarah Knott lent us her room to record the podcast in, but before we did that, she, Morten, my producer Hester and I all sat in what I think was the senior common room and chatted over buns from Hamblin bread (cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla and a rather lovely looking strawberry and custard one).

It was - for someone like me who never went to university - such a buzz to be amongst such big brains. It’s not that I’m not amongst big brains in newspapers. Au contraire, I’m hugely lucky. But journalist brains, in my experience, are very different to academics’ brains. Journalists are curious but their knowledge - with exceptions of course for the special correspondents - is broad, cast wide like a fishing net. Academics are laser focused on one very particular subject in a way I find both daunting and awe-inspiring.

Anyway. This past week’s columns. First: apologies that my Observer chocolate column is so hard to find some weeks, it foxed even me this week and I’m really good at finding things. This week I actually ended up recommending something which isn’t even chocolate. Not a bit of it. But this Almond and Espresso butter from London Bruncher was so good I had to write about it.

(I actually bought mine - yes paid for it myself - from Delli which also has tons of other nut butters.)

Anyway do try it if you can. I really want to try the cashew and vanilla one next.

What nut butter do you like? I’m also very keen on Manilife Peanut butter but their almond butter isn’t my favourite (Pip and Nut’s is much better if we’re talking a more every day almond butter).

Saturday’s Guardian column looked at making friends. This is a subject which is coming up more and more, often from my younger readers who are struggling to make friends. So much so I’m going to do a podcast on it in a few weeks for Series 10. It’s not a problem I’ve ever had, which is hard to say without sounding like an arse. But I have lots of other problems, making friends just wasn’t, or hasn’t been, one of them. I think this is in part because growing up, my friends became really important to me for all sorts of complicated reasons. My best friends are still those I made at eleven.

Do you have any tips for making friends? Do you find it easy or difficult? Do drop me a comment and I can include it for background in my podcast.

Huge thanks if you do.