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– 7 – all the tea in China

Monica Dunkley

January 20, 2017

Mr M arrived back from his business trip to China early this morning which is possibly the worst time to arrive in this house ever. Bed heads, grumpiness, cries of ‘I don’t have a shirt’ for school’ or ‘we need more cereals’, me telling everyone to hurry up. Not good.

He sat through all this with grace (and jet lag, I’m sure the jet lag helped immensely) and then unpacked his bags.

Tea. A lot of tea.

I had asked him to bring me home some ‘normal’ tea. (when in … China… and all that). I was after the local PG tips and hopefully the packages in the photo above contain just that from the local shop.

THEN he unpacked a lot of ‘gift tea’.

Oh boy.

The cute tin (hands off, they’re mine) only say it’s ‘Chinese Tea Gift’. When you open them:

they’re packed full of dried green tea leaves.

I probably shouldn’t have used a tea strainer… apologies to the tea purists…

Then there was this fascinating object:

This is (according to Google…) ‘puerh’ tea, packaged in a traditional patty/cake shape of exactly 357g, and it is a variety of fermented tea (who knew). A quick search revealed lots of interesting facts… (you can read more about it here if you’re interested)… it can take decades, hundreds of years to make, the process continues over time and apparently not two brews are ever the same because the tea continue to evolve thanks to the microorganism in it… people collect it, like wine… and my favourite… it can help you lose weight. We’ll see about this one!

It’s very dark and intense.

Taste test? Go on then…

It’s hard to say if I have a favourite because they’re so different.

The green tea is ‘very’ green. Fresh and young. Good if you’re thirsty…

The Puerh has a weird smell at first, but the taste is really good, warming and calming.

I haven’t investigated what’s in the vacuum packed little parcels in the first photos so… I’ll be back, as someone said once, and report on those. In the meantime…

cup of tea, anyone?

– 6 –

Monica Dunkley

2 comments

January 18, 2017

… when you ask your teenage son to write the shopping list…

– 5 – a simple tee

Monica Dunkley

5 comments

January 17, 2017

(I’ve started keeping my scissors and a yarn needle in this little rose gold pouch from The Future Kept in my knitting bag. Why didn’t I think of that before? I think it’s supposed to be a keyring… but hey…)

Now that things are starting to quiet down a little (they quiet before the storm no doubt) I ran out of excused to myself about not finishing this project.

I hereby give you – drum roll, please – the first finish item of 2017.

Simple Tee, a Churchmouse pattern knitted in Quince and Co Chickadee.

(let’s just say the colour is… beige, could be ‘Chanterelle’, alas I’ve lost the bands so I have no idea of how many skeins I’ve used either… maybe 4? not many).

It’s not an earth shattering pattern but deceptively clever in its constructions and for once it fits really well. I tend to knit things waaaaay too big for me and then pass them onto my sister .

Not this one.

This one is mine, all mine.

Useful little number.

What are you knitting? what’s on your needle/hook? Do share.

– 4 – A is for Atwood, Margaret Atwood

Monica Dunkley

3 comments

January 15, 2017

This is a picture of a screenshot of a photograph of a book cover.

Still with me? Good because I’m barely hanging in there too… Sunday night and all that…

Anyway in a case of platform cross-pollination I’ve decided to jump on the Instagram bandwagon of bookmusings and join the AtoZ Book Challenge. I’m sure it’s nothing new and it’s most certainly been done before but I haven’t soooooo…. AND I have a lot of books piling up by my bed and god only knows how many in my kindle and this might just be the thing to get me going and help me staying out of bookstores.

It’s my only New Year Resolution. C’mon. I need some encouragement here folks.

First up was Margaret Atwood ‘The heart goes last’. On the Kindle. (And on the phone, great for when I’m out waiting for a child or another).

Mmmmhhh.

What do I think of this book…. well…

It was a quick and easy read, I didn’t struggle to finish it, so that’s a plus. (It’s another one of her dystopian society stories – although not as weird as Oryx and Crake’s)

BUT… it never got going fully. I was always waiting to be swept away and kidnapped by the book… you know that feeling? When a book grabs you and don’t want to turn the light off at night because you want to read ‘just one more page’?

Never got that feeling. She writes beautifully and clearly and skilfully… but it felt ‘flimsy’ and all the great ideas and clever insights never seemed explored enough… and at times it seemed flippant and superficial and the characters could have been more ‘real’.

Clever. Annoying. Rushed. That’s what I was left with. I can see it as a movie…. is that what she was anchoring for?

Anyway, sorry Margaret, you’re still one of my favourite authors… just not for this book.

So, what will you read? A is for…..

– 3 – photo books

Monica Dunkley

1 comment

January 13, 2017

How do you keep your photographs? Do you print them out? store them in a box? On a memory stick?

I used to print them out and put them into albums. Religiously. Compulsively some might say. Then with the advance of digital photography paper albums got quite hard to get by and expensive too. So I started printing less photos but I wasn’t very happy with this edited version of my life. Not happy with storing photos on an external hard drive… I mean, who ever goes and look at things stored on an external memory? And THEN my laptop got stolen and I lost everything that was on it and hadn’t got around to save/print whatever.

(My brand new Orla Kiely bag got stolen too and that still stings).

Wake up call, peeps.

I started making photo books. Easy to do and they take up no space whatsoever. Yes, they’re not cheap BUT if you pounce on the discount offers they become very affordable.

I’ve been using Photobox and find it very easy. The books are very customisable, you can choose different sizes/shapes/colours/page layouts/add text, frames, pictures etc. etc.

They make great presents too. And then when you die you can leave them all to your kids to make a great big bonfire at your wake. If they so wish.

And the best thing? the memories are all preserved and you never get tired to go through them. Never.

Even when your proof-reading skills are rubbish and consistency goes out of the window. (Those brackets will annoy me FOREVER).

– 2 – party time!

Monica Dunkley

3 comments

January 12, 2017

Let’s get down to business and try to catch up on all the going-ons around here.

This past weekend was a mad one. It so happened that Mr M had reached a particularly significant mid-century landmark and had to be celebrated. No matter how in denial one is, certain events must be acknowledged. Right?

We had to buy extra chairs and extra crockery and cutlery… but all Mr M oldest friends squeezed around the tables till the wee small hours and it was a fabulous night.

It strikes me as somewhat funny that when you’re young and you’re having a party you always try to be older and grown-up… and then we’re you get ‘there’ you reverse the trend and play silly party games and let fire to indoor fireworks that burn the tablecloth… (I’m saying nothing…).

The 50 balloons dangled photos from Mr M’s full life and made the room all festive.

And there were streamers everywhere. I love streamers. Do you love streamers? They remind me of being a a child in Italy and throwing them around in the streets at ‘Carnevale‘.

We also had a fabulous chef cooking for us (and who left the kitchen cleaner than we he’d arrived… bliss). Galllimore Catering… if you’re in the area I highly recommend him.

On Saturday I got up early to hide the number of empties from the children (…ahem…) and bake the three (THREE!!) cakes that had been requested. Thank god for Mary Berry.

From left to right I give you: sticky ginger and orange cake, crunchy lemon cake and the ultimate chocolate fudge cake.

They were good.

And Sunday we had another meal that lasted all afternoon with other friends.

Exhausting, let me tell you.

The recovery time gets longer with each year that swishes by….

– 1 – new home

Monica Dunkley

6 comments

January 11, 2017

… welcome! welcome to my new home… come in, sit down, grab a drink… oh be patient too… I’m still… ‘unpacking’ so to speak and it might be a while before things start functioning as they should.

Why did I move?

After ‘living’ for ten years in Typed-ville I felt the need of a change… a change of scenery, a new challenge. I’m still trying to ‘decorate’ this place how I like it… it turns out I’m rubbish at this sort of things. (Things keep disappearing on me? and what on earth is a widget? sounds like a Harry Potter creature, which might as well be as far as I understand it)

Sigh.

Things will settle down. Just be patient with me.

Have another cup of tea.

(you can find my old blog here: http://www.quiltwhileyoureahead.wordpress.com)