Anyone fancy a cuppa?

Thursday, January 23rd, 2014

I love flavoured tea. Look, this is my tea cupboard, filled to the rafters with Twinings specialities (or maybe that should be special-teas).

I've got Cranberry and Blood Orange (for when I'm feeling a little vampiric), Summer Berries, Mango and Cinnamon, Mango and Strawberry (any food or drink with strawberry in gets bought by me), Blackcurrant and Vanilla, even Strawberry and Raspberry (told you).

There are a few others tucked to the sides and on top too, squirreled away for a rainy day. I can't be without my Clippers "sleepy tea" either, stuffed as it is with valerian to help me sleep at night. Only trouble is, that tea is very powerful and I take about half a day to wake up properly from its after-effects next day.

There's also my little ceramic bowl of "hotel teas", sealed teabags taken from hotels I stay in. They're not usually very exciting or flavoursome - just your average breakfast or Tetley tea - but they're free so why shouldn't I take them away?

Always does me when I don't fancy a strawberry flavoured tea (this very rarely happens).

My first ever shelfie

Monday, January 20th, 2014

If you think you've seen something odd, you probably have

Never has one man been so proud of a set of new bookshelves. Well, that's probably not true, but it's close.
Over the weekend I helped my Dad (for "helped", read "watched and sometimes helped") put together the new Ikea shelves which had been lying dormant and untouched in a pile of boxes behind my sofa since before Christmas.
The shelves have transformed my front room. Beautiful floor to (almost) ceiling structures which house all of the books which were on the shelves previously, plus more (you will notice some empty shelves. Well, I need to get some more books out of storage to fill the space, it's not staying like that!).
The organisation and layout of the shelves is a work in progress but the basic fact remains - they look great. Or at least they do in comparison to what we had before, and sadly I didn't think to take a "before" pic to demonstrate. But trust me, these are better.
I never want to go out now, because I keep admiring my bookshelves, rearranging them or thinking of ideas for what to put on them. Sad, I know, but we're all bewitched by the mundane from time to time.
I'm sure it'll wear off...

EDIT: Some readers have expressed confusion over exactly whose shelves these are. They are mine, my Dad put them together in my house for me. And I watched.

Back to school

Thursday, January 9th, 2014

My new church

New year, new start, so they say, and it certainly has been for me.
I was signed off work for four weeks during December, a little longer than I could have anticipated, but you have to do what the doctor thinks best. And I am glad I did.
But it gave me lots of thinking time; time - as my doctor put it - to "reconnect" with myself. And it was during this time that I decided I wanted to do a college course, get back into learning again after 16 years out of academia.
I wouldn't say I was ever a keen learner. I enjoyed school, less so college, and even less so again university, but the reasons behind that are complex and not for here and now.
So I was quite pleased to leave university and enter into gainful (and well-earned) employment at the age of 21. But all these years later I feel it is time to start learning again, and learn something new. I've never wanted to go back into education before now, but I have come to realise that it is a mystery why we stop actively educating ourselves at 18 or 21 - why should education be reserved for the young (it's kind of wasted on them!).
Anyway, I signed up for my course on Monday lunchtime, and the first session was last night, so it was a quick turnaround.
I won't pretend that I wasn't impossibly nervous. It's quite scary going into an academic environment when you're not used to it, surrounded by spotty youths who you can't really relate to (or they you). I did wonder whether I was doing the right thing, whether the course would be full of 17-year-olds and I'd be the oldest there, old enough to be their father (god, that's depressing beyond words).
But it was OK, you know. I always say that nothing is as bad as the fear of it, and it's true. There were 15 people on the course, all sitting in a semi-circle in a room and all complete strangers. We were all in the same boat, although some were more confident in the environment than others.

Workbook and learning journal

After three hours we all felt much more relaxed, both with the course and each other, and there are nine more weeks to go yet. I have my "learning journal" (nowadays you have to write about your learning experiences, as well as about the topic itself!) and my workbook.
I have no idea whether this is the right course for me, but so far it feels like it can be. It's something new, different, refreshing and challenging, all things I need in my life right now.
As I said last time, 2014 is going to be a very good year, and this is the first step in a long but important journey.
I almost never went through with this course, almost talked myself out of it, almost never got out of the car before going in. But I found I was not alone, and making a journey with others is the best type of travel there is.