I think as busy human beings, we forget the little things that make us happy. While I’d love some Irregular Choice shoes, I can’t afford them. But looking at Howie, my boyfriend’s three-legged cat (actual truth!) sleeping, makes me just as happy.

So VERY cute!

 It’s not only Howie sleeping that makes me smile. My lovely boy asleep is also quite a nice thing to see. However, under no circumstances can I post a pic of him asleep, I think he’d get his own back by snapping me sadly not looking SO good in rerurn. Eyes a bit open, mouth wide open combined with dribble, it’s just not a look I wish to share. For your own sake, forget about it.

A teapot I've wanted for AGES!

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

 The most perfect think time comes from just walking and listening to the sea. It also makes me realise I’m just one small tiny dot in relation.

I seem to love anything sea related. And I love Maroon 5, so combination of the two? Can I handle it? Just about! My favourite Maroon 5 song is Runaway. Which, unfortunately is lacking the naked-ness- and in fact any sighting, of Adam Levine. Sigh.

Keeping with the nature ideas, I love the smell of freshly cut grass! Nothing tells you it’s  Summer (my fave season!) like waking up to a neighbour cutting grass. Such a lovely Summery smell.

 

 

My winter injection of my favourite smell!

 

I don’t like it when shop keepers come and talk to me though, especially when I’m ill. It normally just makes me leave the shop. I just want to be left alone to think about things in my own time but they make me feel rushed into buying. But this tea is nice and pomegranate flavour. I’m also trying to use it to steam my cold out by having my face over it while it brews except I dislike having steam in my face nearly as much as I dislike having a cold and I keep forgetting to breathe…

As for waist training, I’m not wearing my corset because when I got back from lectures I just wanted to sit on my bed and watch TV which isn’t very easy in a corset. I watched birdsong on BBC iplayer and I definitely recommend it and keep watching even when something happens where if you’re like me you will just want to give up because its kinda annoying. Food today was some leftover chocolate raisins and some cream of chicken soup. I really like this soup despite it being so basic. I also added a little mango chutney to it which was definitely a big improvement. I don’t know what I will have for dinner later. I might just sleep because I’m going to a meeting at half 6 and don’t think I will feel like cooking when I get back. Or microwave the other half of the can of soup.

I feel I ought to do some work but I really don’t want to. That sentence pretty much describes my entire university life so far I guess and I do the work eventually. It’s just so boring! Even when I think an essay topic will be interesting like that time I decided to write about how children learn to count it turns out to be boring. The one I’m working on at the moment is the biological bases of schizophrenia which I thought would be really easy because I did it at A level. Turns out its not that easy to write 2000 words on though (yes I know its a tiny word count but my friend who does Spanish has to write like 200 word essays – if you can call them that!).

My posts probably seem very disjointed and I’m concerned I’m coming across as uneducated. I swear I’m not, I just write these quickly and don’t plan them so they are more like streams of consciousness than coherent thoughts. Don’t judge me for it. I can write better if I try.

Coffee…ugh!! Much as I have tried to appreciate its distinctive flavour over the years I just can’t. I am a tea drinker through and through, from leaf to bag…my preference is fresh leaf, in particular Fortnum and Masons ‘Fountain’ Blend:

‘Northern India’s contrasting styles of tea – dark, malty Assam and the lighter Darjeeling – are not usually combined, but in the spirit of the innovative traditions of Fortnum’s Fountain restaurant, they have been united here to great effect. Light, yet stimulating, this is ideal after lunch as a post-prandial refresher’.

Taste and Strength
Light and bright, an unusual combination 

When to Drink
Best in the afternoon 

Origin
Assam and Darjeeling, India 

Brewing Information
Use boiling water and brew for 3-5 minutes depending on taste. Serve with milk or brew lighter and drink without milk. 

Storage advice
Airtight container, preferably a tea caddy

and for later the cold dark winter nights I would certainly recommned ‘Spice Imperial’ by Whittard of Chelsea.

Producer: 
Whittard of Chelsea, 184 Kings Road, London, England

Tea Type: 
Black – a blend of oriental teas with spice and orange

Tea Packing: 
Loose tea

Net Weight: 
125g

Remark: 
Flavoured Tea

Collection Number: 
1760

Both of these are from old well established Tea Houses, these are my favourites along with many other great blends and Fortnum and Masons is well worth a visit for the decor alone.

However Tea was first referenced in a London newspaper, The ‘Mercurius Politicus’ in an advert from September 1658.

The ‘China Drink’ as it was described was called ‘Tcha’ by the Chinese which soon became Tea but it was the marriage of Charles II to Portuguese princess and lover of tea Catherine of Braganza. She made the drink a very fashionable beverage first at court, and then among the wealthy classes as a whole. It was then that the East India Company began to import tea into Britain, its first order for 100lbs of China from Java being placed in 1664.

Tea is traditionally classified based on the techniques with which it is produced and processed.

White tea:Wilted and unoxidized
Yellow tea: Unwilted and unoxidized, but allowed to yellow
Green tea: Unwilted and unoxidized
Oolong: Wilted, bruised, and partially oxidized
Black tea: Wilted, sometimes crushed, and fully oxidized
Post-fermented tea: Green tea that has been allowed to ferment/compos

Since the 18th century Great Britain has been the largest per capita tea consumers in the world, with each person consuming on average 2.5 kg per year.

preparing for High Tea!

As tea spread though all classes in the 19th century, people started to lay out tea gardens and hold tea dances such was the Victorian fondness for the superior blend.

Afternoon Tea for the Victorians was held to be an upper class past time, even today if you have £55 spare you can experience a wonderful afternoon tea at Harrods but there are quite a few other venues in and around the capital that are a little cheaper if that is a little too rich for your taste.

Today drink 165 million cups a day and each year import around 144 thousand tons of tea. Tea in Britain is traditionally brewed in a warmed china teapot, I have a Brown Betty which was considered excellent in the Victorian era due to the design of the pot which allowed the tea leaves more freedom to swirl around as the water was poured into the pot, releasing more flavour. My grans advice was to heat the pot first and then add one spoonful of tea per person and one for the pot. Milk is usually added to the cups first to avoid any cracking of the porcelain.

And we finish with advice from the UK Tea Council on how to make the perfect cup of tea:

Use a good quality loose leaf or bagged tea
This must be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature
Always use freshly drawn boiling water
In order to draw the best flavour out of the tea the water must contain oxygen, this is reduced if the water is boiled more than once.
Measure the tea carefully
Use 1 tea bag or 1 rounded teaspoon of loose tea for each cup to be served
Allow the tea to brew for the recommended time before pouring
Brewing tea from a bag in a mug? Milk in last is best

Tea               From          Type                                      Brew           Milk

WANT WANT WANT.

LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Whittard is UK based high street retailer of Tea, Coffee and related products that was founded in 1886. The packaging for their latest range of teas ‘Whittard’s B Teas’ were designed by Cheshire based design agency Nick and Carole and are based around a colourful and playful B utilising negative space.

The simplicity of this packaging is a significant change in direction for Whittard standing it apart from their more exclusive (and visually detailed) ranges. The key ‘B’ identity, built around the use of negative space, sets a playful relaxed tone suitably delivering an informal everyday tea theme. The colour choices are fun, modern and work really well against the white while the die cut detail creates a nice level of shading on the ‘B’. Each illustration contained in the character is simple and well-considered representing the varieties while forming the right amount of white space with only the ‘Dreamy’ variety appearing a bit cluttered. This is a nice addition to Whittard’s range delivering a new casual and accessible brand proposition.

So this drunken tale  I am going to tell, did not end well. ( Me and the Geek had a fight because he thought I was far too drunk, and I thought he was being a dick for one reason or another). But once the morning came we did have a huge laugh at the silliness of it all.

So I wandered from my work friends from Oxford Circus, and pissed as hell, walked down to find my final destination which was a pub near Picadilly Circus. I toddled down Regent Street, with absolute purpose, until I came across a Whittards that was still open. I, who although I was very drunk, was completely devoted, decided to by him a present.

Now hold onto your hats for this one…I bought him a tub of  freeze-dried coffee.And got the assistant to wrap it up as I told her it was a present. Then when she looked at me strangely, I tried to slur explain to her that it wasnt a big present, but just a little gesture to show him how much I loved him. And that I had bought him other stuff other than coffee before.

Obviously looked totally mental. The geek laughed in the morning, but thought it was sweet that after all the fall-out, I had actually bought him a present on my way. But totally crap-he doesnt even drink instant coffee. He is a coffee snob, and has always preferred the beans.

The ritualistic way in which he drinks his coffee is quite funny in itself. In our first flat together, (a flat share, which consisted of a room with all of stuff.But the consistency of the coffee machine has always been there.I should have seen it coming really, ( his family have a Vente love of coffee of different kinds) and he received a coffee machine for his birthday. Then came the discovery of Whittards, and the coffee bean grinder. Every morning, in our little room at the early hour of 5am, I would hear the coffee machine go off and start to make his morning wakeup.We barely had room for ourselves, yet now we had to find spare for the heavy, (unfriendly) machinery. When we moved, he had the space to play a little, and so he got the flavours and the area next to the toaster-which would have been my blender space if we had one! And so sits with all this the little pot of Costa Rican freeze-dried. Its playing a game of, “Which one of these is not like the other?” If anything, I think I was trying to be a nice girlfriend, and give him a token of my love.

Maybe next time, I will buy him some pyramid tea bags to go with.

Today my short blog will be about tea. I bloody love tea. I tend to go through phases of only drinking a particular type of tea, usually because I’ve drank a particularly fantastic cup of that form of preparation at some sophisticated event. I went through a bout of only drinking Chai after experiencing the majesty of Chai Wallahs at Glastonbury Festival and once I drank rooibos a lot after visiting South Africa (where the regular black tea doesn’t taste quite right).

Tea, prepared in my insulating mug to keep my tea hot while teaching. Knock over-proof lid not shown.

Right now I am enjoying a fine cup of PG Tips pyramid bag. The box of tea itself was brought over to Korea by Jon’s parents as a Christmas present (I think, maybe they just like giving people tea), also I asked for it. At the same time I also got some fine Whittards Breakfast tea –  thank you Laura.

Anyway, finding good tea in Korea is a bit of a bugger. Koreans are very fond of brown rice tea, which I find utterly foul. It comes in the form of green tea in bags containing, that’s right, brown rice. They must also put something else in the mix because I don’t quite see how mere rice could contain that much distate.

A surprising revelation about Korea was that tea in general is quite expensive, far more than at home. I tried to buy a box of loose green tealeaves in our local supermarket. I thought it was a bit pricy until I found out that actually, it was a box of about 10 bags. I was so outraged that I literally refuse to drink it. I might feed it to my hermit crabs.

I would have thought that I could pick up some green tea super-cheep given my proximity to China on 75% of the boarders (closer than England anyway). However it’s impossible, even though there are plenty of flower tea balls and other types of interesting herbal teas at Lotte Department Store in Jamsil, they are all pretty damn expensive. So I am now looking at importing loose tea from China to Korea VIA England where it is a fraction of the price. Apparently England is world renowned for cheep tea, I just thought that was the going rate.

Just for now though, I’m satisfied with my nice, strong black tea, curtosy of anyone who cares to post me some.

So the VAT goes up in January (much to everyone’s dislike) which is ridiculous in itself, is it really necessary? I really don’t think so. And I’m one of these guilty people that are trying to snap up a few bargains in the sales before the VAT goes up and makes everything more – if only a little bit – expensive.

I really wanted to go to Bluewater, but I really couldn’t face it. I’ve got a little bit of my voice back but it sounds like I’ve been smoking for 40 years and I really couldn’t be bothered to fight my way through the monstrous crowds,  so I decided to go to Dockside Shopping Centre, a retail outlet. It took us about 30 mins to park because everyone was at the cinema. At this point I was angry and was thinking “oh god, it’s going to be insane” but to my surprise, it wasn’t. It was dead. Problem: every shop had really crap stuff.

I toddled into a shop that sells make up for cheap and that’s when I saw It. About a year or so ago, a friend of mine had a load of perfume testers from Debenhams and there was this one perfume that I was obsessed with called Gaultier2 and when I tried looking for it to buy, it had been discontinued. And today…I saw it. And it was reduced from £52 to £29.95…I couldn’t believe it. It really made my day. Gaultier 2 is a beautiful mixture of vanilla, amber and musk, moulded in unison to form a sensual second skin. These seductive tones are blended through a smoke screen of incense and myrhh. Yes, I copied and pasted it from amazon.co.uk, so sue me.

I now officially have a few too many perfumes. It’s a little bit mad. But today, I bought this awesome mirrored plate with a baroque-style pattern for them and it looks B-E-A-utiful.

I then bought the most awesome thing ever:

NOMNOMNOM.

I then proceeded to Maidstone high street where it was scarily un-busy too. My nose piercing has been driving me mad ever since I lost my titanium stud on Christmas Day so I’ve had a Claire’s Accessories one in, and it’s got all inflamed and gross. So I had to have it re-pierced coz the new one didn’t fit. Boy, did I feel faint. When I first had it pierced, I passed out in the middle of the high street. Twice. Luckily, this time I didn’t because I’d eaten previous but I still felt like I was going to pass out. Thank God I missed another embarrassing incident like that. I now have a really nice black metal coated diamonte thing in it. Looks really nice.

I shall end this little blog with a really awesome quote I just found:

If you’re skinny, people will call you anorexic. If you’re intelligent, people will call you a smart ass or intimidating. If you’re pretty, people will call you fake. If you’re overweight, people will call you obese. Regardless of who you are, what you look like or where you come from; people will always find something wrong with you in order to make themselves feel more comfortable within their own insecurities. the trick; just don’t give a fuck! - by littleteaspoon.tumblr.com

God I love this stuff!

I reckon if I was smackhead in rehab I would go cold turkey easy if I had a constant supply of this!

I’ve tried shitloads of those Whittards flavours but Turkish Apple gets my vote.

You like my fancy Polish style glass?

I like to drink it using the Stiff Little Finger method … Not the Band! … I saw them live once …

Utter shite.

Diese beiden Schätze habe ich in York gekauft (bei Whittards of Chelsea). Der Löffel ist mir mal bei irgendeiner Entrümpelungsaktion in die Hände gefallen und ich fand ihn viel zu toll für den Sperrmüll.

Mehr gibt es bei ihr zu sehen!

Viele Grüße
von der Kaffee- und Kaffeetassenliebenden Sommerschwester

Struggling tea and coffee merchant Whittard of Chelsea has been placed in administration.

The 122-year-old company is the latest to be hit by the downturn in consumer spending following the recent collapse of retail icons Woolworths and MFI.

The Whittard name will remain on the high street after administrator Ernst & Young sold the firm to private equity company Epic in a rescue deal.

Whittard has around 130 stores in the UK, employing around 950 staff. It has a head office in London and a warehouse facility in Northampton.

Ernst & Young was also appointed administrator of coffee wholesaler Boaters, which is part of the Whittard group. This was also sold to Epic.

But the administrator said both businesses would continue to operate as going concerns and remain open for trading as usual.

Joint administrator Angela Swarbrick said the firms had been suffering trading difficulties due to the “uncertain economic conditions”.

“Fortunately a deal was able to be done that sees the businesses of the companies able to continue to trade and the Whittard of Chelsea name, with its 122-year heritage, remain on the high street,” she added.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.

The end for Zavvi

However, I must say, there weren’t many deals on. I asked one of the people working there how long it would be until the store closes for good, and he, quite annoyed, said within a few weeks. I would have thought that maybe with such short notice, they would be trying to get rid of their stock as soon as possible, thus reducing their prices further. I did manage to find one bargain, which was House season 4, for £15! So, if you’re a House addict, purchase in Zavvi now, for I am sure you won’t find such prices for a while!

It’s a shame that so many stores are closing down. Zavvi is not the only company to go into administration lately. Whittards and The Officers Club have both joined in recent days, soon no doubt to start closing their stores. Woolworths have finally shut down, cutting supplies to Zavvi, which was it’s main source for products. Many people will be out of jobs, and the demand for jobs will become high. This is indeed a bleak start for the economy in 2009.

My last post for a while – Christmas Eve is already here to kick off a few days of celebration and then, on Saturday, Lady Shark’s Meniere’s permitting, off for a week in Normandy to see the New Year in.

Also the ‘last post’, as it were, for Woolworths, Whittards (almost, anyway) and now Zavvi.

Who’s next?

Not wishing any business any ill will, but I’m afraid we’re looking at the tip of an iceberg of indeterminate size because if banks can go under, then anyone can…

I think we’re in for a very eventful 2009 but I hope that anyone reading this manages to get through it all right.

So, in the true spirit of the season – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year or whatever gets you through the night.