welcome (back) to clipboard
a reintroduction
Hello and welcome to clipboard, a new and improved newsletter about trying to do better, by me, Reilly, now based in London! This morning, a reintroduction to me and this newsletter.
Just over a month ago now, my wife and I moved across the world. Following in the footsteps of my parents and grandparents and thousands of New Zealanders before us, we packed up our things into the number of suitcases allowed on an Economy flight, and flew over a day to London, the home of my beloved Arsenal Football Club, the West End and Paddington Bear.
It's the biggest, scariest thing I've ever done, and has so far been filled with anxieties, stresses and worry, but also sheer wonder, amazing experiences and plenty of reminders of why we did this in the first place.
A month or so into this experience, I have finally had enough clear mental space to think again of clipboard, the on-and-off-again newsletter project I started during Covid lockdown in Auckland, and what this little corner of the internet might look like from a new perspective, over 18,000 kilometres away from the life I had been building since high school. I'm starting over, so clipboard should, too.
Most of you reading this will already be familiar with clipboard 1.0 (read the back catalogue on a different platform here), and I hope you'll stick around. The local insights will be gone, but the philosophy stays the same, and hopefully there will be plenty of interesting reading whether you first subscribed for menswear recommendations, thoughts on coffee orders, or to keep track of me because you're in my extended family.
If you're new here, I'm Reilly - a current full-time employee at the email factory, former barista, student radio newsreader and lover of beautiful clothing, delicious food and print media. I'm hopelessly addicted to media consumption: my podcast feed, Substack app and email inbox are packed with content and I love sharing the good stuff I find. I read the Financial Times and GQ, but also Feed Me and Sprezza and The Fence; I watch movies and real TV but also whatever the YouTube or TikTok algorithms are serving today, and I try to make sense of all of it while maintaining a healthy relationship with the firehose of content we are all greeted with every day.
My plan for this new era of clipboard is to build something I want to exist in my inbox: a lifestyle publication with a conscience, for people who like nice things and care about the world we live in. It's about the balance, and tension, between building a world that we can all live and thrive in, and building a life that brings joy, fun and connection, all while acknowledging the compromise that comes with existing in the modern world. The format is simple, going back to a mostly weekly cadence, with a short (or long!) section with thoughts on whatever's on my mind, followed by clips: a selection of quick recommendations and links out to cool stuff.
Here's a taster of what to expect, depending on the week: a breakdown of my spring/summer work wardrobe, an ode to egg and chips for breakfast, a Tube footwear scene report, travel dispatches, book and movie reviews, anything that's on my mind, exciting or bothering me. I'm looking for pockets of positivity in what is an overwhelmingly troubling time to be alive, but I won't pretend that it's all good news in the world, that individual choices don't have impact, or that stevia tastes good (just use less sugar, folks!). It's going to be free, but if this takes off, I might look into ways to monetise - my champagne lifestyle won't pay for itself!
Next week, we get into things for real. For now, clips!
clips
One of the more exciting things for a nerd like me moving to a new country is exploring all of the online services that never made it down to little old New Zealand. No doubt I'll share a bunch of these over the coming weeks, but first up is Apple News+. I'm a sucker for the walled garden so I already pay for the Apple One bundle, and News+ has been an amazing addition. Full editions of your favourite magazines, a peek behind the Wall St Journal paywall, and a pretty good overview of the news of the day without needing to open X or BlueSky? Absolutely fantastic stuff.
Speaking of great online content, one of my only regular pieces of can't-miss viewing is Jet Lag the Game, which is sort of YouTube's answer to the Amazing Race, with a strong bent of urbanism and public transport detail. The newest season, where contestants race to go to as many of the countries in Europe's schengen borderless area (a modern miracle) as they can over the course of a few days, is fantastic: funny, tense, even educational at times. Watch this season, and then go back to watch all of the others.
I've been both a public transport commuter and a coffee snob since long before I moved to London, and since starting my new job I've been experimenting with different routes into the office (there are three or four tube stations around). The journey I have landed on gives me a slightly longer walk on the other end, but it takes me past a really excellent coffee shop. I highly recommend building a little treat into your commute, to start or end your day on the perfect note. I'm now nearly at the point where the baristas remember my name, wish me luck!
We're living in a sublet at the moment, and the TV has Amazon Prime Video, one of the few streaming services I've never paid for (The Lord of the Rings show didn't last past the free trial). Mostly, it's filled with Guy Ritchie stuff, but it also has Last One Laughing, which is the funniest show I've watched since Taskmaster. The format is simple: 10 comedians in a room for 6 hours, and if you laugh, you're out. It's excellent, and once you finish the UK version you'll discover that there are heaps of other countries that have done it already as well!
Because I've been unemployed until recently, my shopping habit has had to go on the backburner. The one thing I have bought since finishing my job in New Zealand was a pair of Salomon X-Alp hiking sneakers. I picked them up on my second day in London, having left almost all of my shoes behind me, and have since clocked hundreds of thousands of steps in them, without breaking a sweat. A bit different to the XT-6s that everyone in East London (and Grey Lynn, Fitzroy, wherever) has, although they are already getting memed, and they go just as nicely with your jeans as beat up Dickies or even a pair of shorts.
That’s all for clipboard this time, thanks for reading! If you enjoy clipboard you can make my day by sharing it with a cool friend. I’ll be back shortly with regular service, and in the meantime you can find clipboard on Instagram, and get in touch there or in the comments on the Substack app.