My Day in Cups Of Tea

Disclaimer: The idea for this post is entirely plagarised from my favourite magazine, The Simple Things. I heartily recommend you go out and read it.

First Tea of the Day: 06.45

The 'Is it really the morning AGAIN?' tea.

The first tea of the day is always made in the teapot. It makes 3 teas. One is mine, the other two are for my mum. The last cup gets decanted into the flask in the background to keep toasty until my mum is ready for it. 

My morning tea is (almost) always drunk from my gardening mug. It's proper china so it's nice to drink from and it holds just the right amount of tea to fit into my a morning routine.

Second Tea: 08.30

The 'I can't start work without a brew' tea.

Ah, we've moved locations now to the office and so we have a change of mug. This is a less classy mug but nonetheless one of my favourites. If I ever leave my current job I will be taking it with me. Despite the fact that I commandeered it from a colleague because frankly, it suited me more than it did him.

Don't worry he already had a new mug before I stole it.

Third Tea: 10.15

The 'Before I start on this new spreadsheet, I'll need a new tea' tea.

Nestling next to the phone, you can see that my purple mug has a decapitated giraffe on it. Don't worry, the head will make an appearance further down.

It is at this point in the morning that I start to fantasise about my lunch break, and what exciting things I could do with it. And how else are you supposed to daydream about buying new jeans than with a cup of tea?

Fourth Tea: 11.00
The 'Does anyone want a drink?' tea.

Ah, mid morning. I have actually moved onto hot chocolate as I feel it's more like food and at this point I'm trying to tide myself over until lunch. 

The other three mugs belong to my lovely IT boys. As you can see, they are classy guys - someone's mug is chipped.

Fifth Tea: 14.20
The 'It's actually really warm in the office, I'll have a Pepsi instead' tea.

So this is a bit of a cheat because obviously the above beverage is not a tea. But it is technically in a mug. My super cute Guiness mug that I use specifically for cold drinks in the office.

Some of my colleagues seem to think this is a bit weird.

Sixth Tea: 15.00
The 'Afternoon tea a biscuit' tea.

It's 3pm. I'm tired. I remember I have a KitKat. The afternoon is saved!

Ps. There's the cheeky chappy's little face. 

The Seventh Tea: 16.00

The 'It should nearly be home time' Chai.

My working hours have changed this week. From 8.30 - 4.30 to 9.00 - 5.00.

I'm not thrilled about it, normally at 4pm we are on the home straight. Now there's still an hour to go. So to cheer myself up I treated myself to a nice cup of Chai. Mmmmmm. Cinnamon goodness.

Sometimes, I'll have a tea when I get home but today I felt like I'd had plenty during the day. If I ever had to give up tea though I'm not sure what I'd do.

It punctuates my day and I use to medicate my mood. 

It's social. 

It's calming. 

It's energising.

It's necessary.

Cheery-Bye, Charlotte x

In Five Years Time

I might not know you.

Thanks, Noah and the Whale for that cheery thought.

Hello! 

I actually really like that song. It reminds me of one of my very best friends. Why is she one of my very best friends? Because potentially in 5 years time, I might not know her. But if that happened, if we drifted apart, I know we could pick back up exactly as we are.

I know this, because we've done this. Admittedly, only for a two year span, but we drifted nonetheless. And then we got back together. She's a friend for life. 

The funny thing about life though is it gets in the way. We currently can accidentally go for months without seeing each other. Sometimes without even a text message. We live in different cities. We do different things. We are different people. 

But one of us will always pick up the phone and make contact. And then we meet up, and catch up and everything is good.

I don't know what will be happening in five years time. I certainly couldn't answer the question 'Where do you see yourself...' in an interview. 

Five years feels both ages away and scarily close. It's been almost four since I left university. Where the hell did they go? 

It is that feeling that makes me panic a little bit. I should have a plan. An ambition. A vague sense of direction as to where I want to go and how to get there. 

As it is, I don't have the foggiest. I fell into my job and it turned out I am fairly good at it. But there's not a lot of options in terms of progression. 

Do I want progression?

Should I want progression?

Or is it okay to just bumble along knowing I'm fairly happy and in a secure position? 

Will I regret it if in five years time I'm still here?

I don't know. All I know is that I don't have a plan or a grand ambition. I never have and I know deep down that I probably never will. But I do have a lot of very small ambitions. Things that probably shouldn't even be ambitions. Like to own a chest freezer. (I do have slightly grander ideas but that is genuinely something I want). 

If I can keep these in mind; focus on them, then maybe it doesn't matter that I don't know where I will be in five years. I can work it out as I go along and I reckon I'll still have a good friend to call up if it's all gone wrong. 

Pip pip, Charlotte x

Throwback Thursday: OMG

Apparently, 25 is old enough to be saying 'back in my day'. In fact I've probably been saying that for a good few years which is enough to make anyone feel old. But if I'm going to reminisce, I want to share my memories with you.

I wasn't a cool kid. When my school chums were watching Friends on Channel 4 I was over on the Beeb watching Ready Steady Cook, Home Front, Gardeners' World and Changing Rooms. Oh yeah... Homebody / Housewife me was well and truely rooted by the age of about 8.

What really stands out in my memory though is the reveal on Changing Rooms. For those of you who are too young to remember or were too cool to watch let me summarise the show for you:

Two pairs of neighbours who wanted a room decorating would swap houses, be given an interior designer, a budget and a weekend to make over their neighbours room. 

If you were lucky, your neighbours got Linda Barker and you were most likely to get a nice enough job with nothing too 'out there'.

If you were unlucky, your neighbours were teamed up with Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen and you were in with a chance of black walls, red furniture and Georgian chandeliers. * 

At the end of the two days the couples would be blindfolded and the delightful Carol Smiley would do the big reveal. 

Quite understandably, when the unsuspecting people removed the aforementioned blindfolded they would utter the phrase so common today it has it's own acronym: Oh. My. God. Nowadays you'd probably just hear people saying OMG. Or maybe OMFG because swearing is much more common parlance than in the 90s in my experience.

And this is what stands out in my memory. They used to bleep the word God. I distinctly remember when they stopped doing it. It was strange. And I think this is where the slippery slope started.

I'm not particularly against swearing, although I do think the vast expanse of vocabulary out there is underutilised in favour of ten or so 'stand-bys'. I am against every other word being a vulagarity; it makes you sound lazy and stupid. And I am against swearing in front of young children. The world is nasty enough as it it, let's try and let them enjoy the nice bits for as long as possible shall we?

Today, films carefully choose when to drop their only F-Bomb so as to sneak into the coveted 12A rating. Any more than that and suddenly you slash your potential audience by 15 years. But that's the thing. Anyone can watch a 12A providing there's an adult with them. So that means anyone can hear the F-Word. When I was a kid, you couldn't use the word God before the watershed.

I'm not trying to make a point about the normalisation of swearing and it's effects on society and culture. I could, but I'm not. I'm merely pointing out that at the grand old age of 25, some things really have changed enough to merit a 'back in my day' conversation.

Toddle pip, Charlotte x

* I am doing Laurence a dis-service here. He only did black walls once to my memory. But he was a bit flamboyant for some people's tastes.

Early Mornings

When you open the blind, the sun pours in.

Get up and put the kettle on.

Make the tea in a proper tea pot, not straight in the mug.

Make a packed lunch. It'll taste better than the shop bought stuff.

Pour the tea. Milk in first or milk in second, I don't mind - just do what makes you happy.

Unlock the door.

Hear that?

No?

That's because no one else is up yet.

It's quiet.

Enjoy it.

Relish it.

The world is a loud place.

Cut some fresh herbs for your that packed lunch you started. It adds something special.

Take 5. Take 10. Sit down and drink the tea. 

You made tea in a pot, pour another cup while you make some toast. 

Put some jam on that. Treat yourself.

This is your time. 

Before the rest of the world wakes up. Before it starts making a noise. Demanding your attention.

This is why I love mornings.

Love Charlotte xx

Train Stalking

I am a commuter. At the start of the year I fork out for my annual train pass. I take two trains a day and go through four sets of ticket barriers. I do this about 330 days out of the year. And I have been doing this for about 3.5 years.

If my maths serves me correctly that is 2310 trains.

Wow.

That is a little depressing seeing that number there. And that doesn't even include all the trains I took to and from my daily university commute for the 3 years prior to that. I take the train a lot.

Obviously, half those train journeys are the morning commute in and half are the evening commute back home. The evening journey time varies depending on how busy I am at work, if I need to go shopping or if I am meeting a friend. The morning commute however varies by a very minimal margin.

I arrive at the station at the same time time every day. Stand in the same place every day. Get on the same train every day. And look at the same people. Monday to Friday it's always the same.

I can't be the only one that makes up stories about my fellow travellers can I?

There's Barry and Pauline. The strange couple who never held hands in my home town but always left the station at the other end arm in arm. I used to wonder if they didn't want people to know they were together but they have since had a baby and Pauline has been off on maternity leave with the little one leaving Barry to make the commute solo. 

There's Gok. The most style conscious gent I see of a morning. His hair is always coiffed, his shoes are shiny, his glasses appear to be designer (I haven't gotten close enough to see the brand) and he wears a very smart military style jacket. He carries a briefcase. His walk is purposeful. He means business. I have seen him reading a very scientific book about eyes and one time I saw him in vision express. I have therefore concluded that he wants to move to London and open his own designer opticians.

Sandwich Man is one of my personal favourites. A slightly older gentleman, he can be seen each morning pulling a sandwich (wrapped in a bag of course) from his jacket pocket. He then precedes to eat it on the train. Very normal you might think. Loads of people stop off at the local cafe to grab a bacon butty on the way to work. Except that never once have I seen anything that resembles a breakfast sandwich. It always seems to be a meat paste or something. Myself and a friend have concluded that his wife lovingly makes him the sandwich each morning for him to take to the office. But everyone else in the office goes out to buy lunch. Sandwich Man clearly doesn't want to be left out of the group so he eats his sandwich for breakfast. This way, his wife is happy, he is happy, everyone is happy.

Then we have 'No-Train-Pass' guy. Now, I actually haven't travelled on the same carriage as this guy for a while so he may have caved in and forked out for at least a weekly pass, but for months, every morning me and my friend would watch him buy his ticket from the train guard. The train guard would then recommend getting a weekly pass as he would save money. NTPG would then nod along, say he would look into it and then do the same thing the next day. Recently I have started seeing him outside the station more often than in it. I almost said hi to him in the pub the other week, momentarily forgetting that I don't actually know him.

Every time I see him nowadays though he seems to be with the same woman. But they never seem to hold hands or anything so I can only assume they are just friends or maybe she is his sister. But they seem to spend a lot of time together. On the train, walking home, at the pub where I thought I knew them but then realised he was just that guy from the train.

I need to know what is going on. But I never will because you don't speak to strangers on the commuter train.

What one guy does like to do though is smile. Constantly. And stare. It's weird. He's always there. Being far too happy. I'm a morning person, so I'm pretty happy on in the early hours of the day but this guy takes it to a whole new slightly psychotic level. I always used to see him with his lady friend. Occasionally he would be seen with a tweenage child. I assume he was some sort of illegitimate son. For a while the Mrs seemed to be getting a different train or at least sitting in another carriage but now she is nowhere to be found. Logic says that she has just moved or gotten a new job. Train stalking says he bumped her off and is scouting out the commuters for his next victims. He stares at me and my friend a lot. I really hope we're not next!

Pip pip Charlotte x

My First and Probably Only Beauty Related Post

I'm not much of a girly girl. I'm not a tomboy, although I did used to enjoy climbing trees as a child. I just never really got into that whole hair / make up / beauty thing.

About two years ago, I chopped my hair off into a pixie crop. Bold move you might say. My friends certainly did, especially since I didn't tell anyone I was going to do it! So did I do this to make a fashion statement? Was I inspired by some celebrity magazine? 

No... The real reason I did it? I was fed up of standing next to my friends on the train station platform and feeling like I looked a mess. But was I going to start getting up earlier to straighten and style my hair? 

No... Because I can't. I don't know how and I can't be bothered spending the time to learn.

The logical answer (for me at any rate) was to chop it all off. It would take less time to dry and I could just get up in the morning and not even have to brush it if I took it short enough. I've never looked back.

I'm not better when it come to my face. I wash it with warm water and a flannel and I don't wear make up unless it's a special event. Again, some people I know think this is brave on my part. "Oh, I couldn't face the world without my make up on". 

No I'm not. I'm lazy. I'd rather drink tea and read twitter on a morning than paint my face.

This is what I look like. If you don't like it, I don't care. 

Plus, I won't lie, I'm just not very good with make up. Even for a special occasion my attempts are minimal. I'm sure I could learn, I just can't be bothered to practise. 

I am a fan of fashion and that might be a direction this blog heads at some point but it is highly unlikely there will ever be make up haul or beauty product review. That's just not who I am.

However. One thing I can recommend is an aloe vera hair rinse. It is particularly good if you have dandruff or an itchy scalp, but also it's just quite nice for adding a bit of shine. It's really easy to make and best of all, once you get yourself an aloe plant, it is free!

Meet my Jungle.

That entire massive tangle of spikey leaves was grown from three tiny shoots that a very kind person once sent me through the post. If you have an aloe, you'll always have an aloe. They just multiply.

All you need to do this is a chopping board, a serrated knife a bowl and a sieve. I am aware there is a stick blender in the picture. It turned out I didn't need it. The second bowl was to put all the left over bits to keep them out of the way.

Extracting The Gel.

Take a leaf.

Slice in half.

Place in the sieve. You then basically use the sieve like a grater to smush the gel through into the bowl below. 

Repeat.

It will take a while to drain through because it is so thick. My mum tastefully describes it as the texture of snot. Might be fun for the kids to play with though!

Super Gloopy

See, fun to play with. If you keep going for enough leaves you will end up with a pale green gel. Obviously if you use bigger leaves it will take a lot less time!

Package and Storage.

Finally, all that is left to do is decant into some sort of tub and store in the fridge. I'm not 100% sure of the shelf life what with it being a natural product but it will probably do at least a week if you don't use it all up. Use your noggin, if it still seems fresh keep it. If it's gone a bit funny, tip it down the sink.

I hope you find this helpful if you're looking to improve your hair, or just want something to do with your monster aloe vera plant to help thin it out!

Loves, Charlotte x

Baking Bread and Eddie Izzard

Happy Easter Sunday to you all.

As is traditional for Easter, it has been a miserable day weather wise so there was sitting out in the garden listening to music today. So instead, I have chosen to make bread.

I do not claim to be a bread making expert. I don't claim to be a expert in any thing for that matter. There is probably a rule saying that you don't even attempt to make bread on a drizzly day but the people in my household like a brown bread so that is what I am attempting today.

The recipe I have used can be found here. I chose it specifically because it didn't have a lot of ingredients and it sounded nice and straight forward. 

First thing's first. The Ingredients!

This recipe called for brown flour, sugar, salt, yeast, oil and warm water.

Chuck it in a bowl and mix.

Now I don't really understand why, when you're just going to mix everything up anyway, but them telly chefs always tell you to add the salt and yeast separately. So that's what I did. The sugar was added separately aswell so as not to make one othe other ingredients feel lonely.

The Bread Is Thirsty. 

I made a well and started by just adding a bit of the water. You don't want to chuck it all in at once and end up with a sloppy mess that can't be fixed. Just add a bit at a time and keep mixing.

Top tip: just use one hand to mix. That way you've got one hand clean for picking up utensils (or taking photos for a blog post)!

Once you've added enough water for a lumpy mix, the recipe says it's time to add the oil and then start kneading.

How a Lazy Girl Kneads.

I like to make my bread in the oven. But I admit right now to using the bread machine to do the kneading for me. My arms are scrawny and I can be getting on with something else if the machine puts the elbow grease in on my behalf. I have no idea how long I was meant to knead it for so I stuck it in for 7 minutes as that seemed like a good amount of time.

Nap Time!

Once you have finished your kneading (whether by hand or by mechanical friend) it's time to tuck your little ball of dough up for a snooze. A good alternative to the damp teatowel is shower cap. 

Set a timer!

The recipe says to leave in a warm place for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size. It is a miserable day in April so nowhere in my house is really 'warm'. I had to leave it a bit longer after the timer had gone off. 

Lazy Girl Puts Some Effort In.

Once the dough has proved it needs to be kneaded again. (Lovely example of a homophone there). You start by knocking the air out. This is otherwise known as punching it flat. I have no kneading technique other than smash it about a bit, bring it into the middle (as in the bottom left pic) and then smash it about a bit more. 

Now is a great time to get any internal rage out. Manger being a ball ache? Mother-in-Law complaining about the dusting you haven't done? Bank manager refusing you a loan? Just take it out in the bread. 

Again, I wasn't really sure how much kneading to do, so I stopped when I was bored. I made it into a vague torpedo shape and tucked it back in for another 30 minutes. Now is an excellent time to preheat the oven.

Hairstyling and Blowdrying (We have a fan oven).

The recipe didn't say anything about giving the bread a jazzy haircut but I thought it would be fun to take the scissors to it and give it a bit of a hedgehog 'do. 

40 minutes under the blowdryer to set the style and then we are ready to roll!

Oh. My. Goodness. 

Well would you look at that. A loaf actually came out of the oven. It's still a little bit doughy inside but in no way I edible. It's actually rather tasty. HOORAY FOR BAKING YOUR OWN BREAD!

If you have done any Easter baking I would be thrilled to hear about it! 

Pip pip, Charlotte x

You might be wondering about why this post is titled Baking Bread and Eddie Izzard. Eddie hasn't even had a look in. The recipe wasn't his and he definitely didn't come round to be my soux chef. 

The reason is, I can't think about brown bread without thinking about this Eddie Izzard joke. Fortunately there isn't a queue of murders lining up at my kitchen door to get at my loaf!

Sunny Days and Good Company

Some people have favourite haunts. Places they go to time and time again. The familiar favourite location where the good times are practically guaranteed. 

Think Central Perk in Friends or Cheers in... um... well, Cheers!

It's the idea of the third location. Home, work and some place else. Somewhere you automatically go because you love love it there so much. A place you share with friends and family. You meet someone new and you want to take them there and so they can be a part of it too.

I suppose in a way I have some these. There is a Caffe Nero in Leeds which is the designated tea meet up spot for me and a friend. And the local pub which is always a good fall back options when we can't think of anywhere else to meet. Oh and the ever faithful Pagoda where we've been so many times we've given practically all the staff their own secret code names. But they're not places that I love. Not places that I would say are 'mine'. 

I know people that have locations that they are truely passionate about. Places that they enthuse over. Places that feel like they are a part of them.

The thing is, I don't really mind where I am as long as who I'm with is good company. Today I spent a couple of hours sitting on a park bench in the sun with one of my favourite people. It's not a glamorous location.There were geese milling by every 5 minutes. Much to the annoyance of my companion. I'm not saying it wasn't a gorgeous location, it was but I couldn't go exactly back there as I wasn't paying attention to which bench we were sitting on. And it wouldn't be half as good if it hadn't been so sunny. Terrible had it been raining!

I am quite happy to go where ever as long as I'm with someone I like. Ideally there will be some sort of seating and it will be quiet enough for us to hold a conversation without shouting but I can cope without.

I don't think that's much to ask. 

Cheery Bye, Charlotte x

Jumping on the Creme Egg Bandwagon

You know when the guy that fixes your iPod* is recommending you make creme egg brownies that you really should give them a go.

They sounded magically delicious and nicely themed for an Easter bake sale in the office. The recipe I used was from Cath Kidston. It was nice and easy to follow all though I admit to going slightly off piste in terms of method and by adding slightly more chocolate and creme eggs than in the original recipe! 

Here's how it went.

Ingredients

You may notice that I don't use butter in my baking. Never really have and everyone always says how tasty things are. I like to think that using an olive oil spread makes it healthier!

Melting the Chocolate!

Cath tells you to melt the chocolate and butter in bowl over a pan of simmering water. I melted my chocolate in the microwave, softened the marg so it was nearly melted (also in the microwave) and then mixed them together.

Beating the Eggs and Sugar

You need to whisk the eggs and sugar together unti they are SUPER FLUFFY.

DO NOT BE A HERO. USE AN ELECTRIC WHISK. 

(A Kitchen Aid or similar would be even better because even with an electric whisk my arm ached after a couple of minutes).

Two Become One: Yes that is a Spice Girls song. No I'm not ashamed.

Mix the chocolate with the eggs. Please use a spatula or a big metal spoon. You didn't just make your arm ache getting all that air into the eggs to knock it back out again. Besides, this is a plain flour recipe. If you don't keep the air in these are going to be some HEAVY brownies.

Sift or Sieve?

I'm pretty sure the verb is To Sift. Not To Sieve. Anyway... As before, try not to bash the air out and don't over mix. Once it's all one uniform colour - STOP! 

Time to Bake!

It is important to grease the tin. I've used a piece of lining paper as well for safety! Set a timer for 20 minutes and stick in the oven at 180c.

The Hard Bit

It turns out that slicing creme eggs in half is really difficult. I popped mine in the freezer for a bit but even then as you can see, quite a few of mine broke up. I did find out that using a NON-SERRATED knife worked much better though.

The Home Straight

Once the timer has gone off, take the brownie out of the oven and with as much haste as you can muster, pop the creme egg halves on top. They will sink in a bit, but that's the idea. Get it back in the oven ASAP for 10 more minutes.

Ta-Daaaaah!

Mmm... Oozy.

Now when it came to slicing up my brownies the ones in the middle were especially gooey. I think this is down to the extra few squares of chocolate I chucked in. If you follow Cath's recipe properly they probably turn out better. If you like a more cakey brownie then it might be worth keeping them in for an extra 5 or so minutes.

This post certainly wasn't sponsored by Cath Kidston! If it were I'd have been using fancier bowls. 

I'd love to see your attempts at creme egg brownies. Or any other cake / bake. I love cake.

Toodleoo. Charlotte x

*You may also say that if you have a guy that fixes your iPod maybe it's time to get a new one. I disagree. Special sneaky mention to Chris from iPatch (also not sponsored!) for giving me the idea and for keeping my 10 year old brick pod in good shape.

Making Plans

I have this friend. Let's call her Sam. We like a lot of the same things. TV shows, music, reading the horoscopes in the Metro (and choosing to believe or disregard them depending on how we feel about them that day). But there is one thing we definitely do not agree on and that is making plans.

I like to make plans. Sam doesn't. She says they never work out. You set yourself up for failure by making a plan because the likelihood is it won't work out the way you thought it would. You're better off being spontaneous and just taking things as they come. 

You can't deny she has a point. Some of the most fun things are those that just happen. When you just decide to call someone up and do something. And she certainly has a point when it comes to work. How many times have I rounded off my day by planning what needs to happen tomorrow only to have it torn to pieces by unforeseen circumstances?

Nevertheless though. I love a good plan. And I need plans. My main friendship group consists of 4 women. Three 9-5 office workers and one shift pattern customer service guru in a retail establishment. Three of us live at home. One of us has recently bought a house with her boyfriend. Two of us like to go Out Out. Two of us like to Stay In. One of us likes going to the gym after work. One of us runs up and down the stairs enough during the working day that she counts that as the same thing. You can see how it might be tricky for us to get together when we're all doing different things.

Thanks to Easter, there is a four day weekend coming up. Excellent, two of us thought! A chance to go away for the day. We'll pack a picnic and head to the coast. Surely there will be one day out of the four we can all do. 

The answer? No. 

It just so happens that one person is already fully booked up and the other has two family members birthdays to attend. Without booking well in advance, we never all see each other at the same time.

I am also a fan of the far in advance plan. I like to have something in the distant horizon to look forward to. Something that I can have a proper countdown to on my phone. Last year it was a trip to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. I like the sense of excitement I get once something is booked. The sense of anticipation as the event draws nearer. Regressing the to mindset of a five year old when there is only 1 more sleep to go.

Admittedly, plans can have their downside. If they get cancelled you are left feeling disappointed or annoyed. And depending on the situation, waiting for a planned event can be more nerve-wracking than fun. The anticipation is more like butterflies. Butterflies that are angry and wake you up in the middle of the night to tell you that you are stupid and that this was a mistake.

But I will take the risk and continue making plans because I need to have something to look forward to. Something in the diary that can cheer me up during a long day at the office. Sam might say I'm being silly but she let slip today she is planning her first trip abroad with her sister. So who is being silly now?

Pip pip, Charlotte x

Either Or

Hello.

Since starting writing a blog I've also been reading a lot more too which is a really good way to spend some time. This guy in particular is one I look out for. I wholeheartedly suggest you check him out.

His most recent post is about either or questions as a way to get to know someone. I love an either or but I will admit now I am prone to refusing to answer and throwing in a curveball third answer.

In the interest of sharing here are my answers to his suggested list of questions:

Red or Blue?

Blue. It's calmer.

Miracle or Coincidence?

Coincidence. People use the word miracle too often.

Beef or Pork?

As a cut if meat? Neither. If forced to choose? Pork because I love pigs.

Duck or Swan?

Ducks.

Chinese or Indian?

Chinese. Noodles FTW.

Japan or America?

America. 

Vinyl or CD?

Vinyl. I don't see the point in CDs. You just put them on your computer anyway.

Apple or Android?

My phone is Android. My heart is Apple.

Banana or Orange?

Orange.

Strawberry or Blackcurrent?

For Ribena? Blackcurrent. For the fruit? Strawberry.

Car or Bike?

Car.

Karl Pilkington or Guy Martin?

Guy Martin. 

Scotland or Wales?

Wales.

Left or Right?

This answer is not political. Right.

CD or Radio?

Radio.

Radio 2 or Radio 1?

Radio 4.

Football or Rugby?

Rugby. There's less faffing around.

House or Flat?

House. I like to sit on the stairs.

Cat or Dog?

Dog. Cats think they're better than me. And they're not.

Ferrari or Aston Martin?

Aston.

Johnny Depp or Tom Hanks?

Tom Hanks.

Helena BC or Audrey Hepburn.

Audrey.

Robin Williams or Jim Carrey?

Robin Williams

Comedy or Horror.

Comedy. Every time.

Cider or beer

Cider. Preferably Mixed Fruit Jacques.

Wine or Alcopop?

Wine. White not Red.

Coke or j2o?

Full fat Coke. If it's a Pepsi, even better.

Cash or Card? 

Card.

Run or Cycle?

Cycle. Running is bad for your knees.

Night In or Night Out.

Night in. 

Talk or Listen?

It should be an equal measure of both.

Radio or TV?

TV.  Because you can also get the radio through it!

Race or Drive?

Drive.

Smile or Grin? 

Smile. 

Laugh or Cry.

Cry with laughter.

Quiet or Loud?

Quiet.

Up or Down?

Up.

Beach or Pool?

Beach.

Train or Bus?

Train. I don't really understand how buses work.

Sunshine or Snow?

I don't think these are exclusive in the same way that Summer or Winter would be. I love sunshine and snow together.

City or Countryside?

Honestly, with a heavy heart, I say... City. 

Play or Film?

Play. 

Lucky Item or Mascot?

Mascot.

Myth or Legend?

Myth.

Arthur or Lancelot?

Arthur.

Monkey or Lion?

Monkey.

Ricky Gervais or Jimmy Carr?

Jimmy Carr.

Me or You?

Us.

Us or Them?

Please see previous answer.

Enjoy It or Be Good At It?

Enjoy it.

Win or Finish Midtable?

Win.

Win or Lose?

Win.

Cock or Balls?

I feel it would be cruel to separate such close friends.

Happy or Sad?

Happy. Who is choosing sad?

Cheap or Expensive?

Whatever I feel is good value.

Quality or Quantity.

Quality.

Study or Learn on the Job?

Learn on the job.

Success or Room to Improve?

Room to improve. There's always something new to learn.

College or High School?

College.

Masters or Doctorate?

Doctorate. Only to create a non gender specific / marital stays related title.

Uni or Life?

Life.

Destination or Journey?

Journey.

Travel Far and Wide or Near and Close?

Thus far, near and close. In the future? Who knows!

Middle East or Far East?

Far East.

Oz or Nz?

New Zealand.

USA or Canada?

Canada.

Russia or China?

Russia. For the hats. 

Safe or Risky?

Safe.

All or Nothing?

All. 

Plane or Boat?

Boat. 

Green or Orange?

Green. Always green.

Fire or Water?

Water. 

Gas or Electric?

Gas. I don't like electric hobs. But I do like electric ovens... Oh dear.

Drift or Down Force?

Drift. Don't know why.

F1 or Rally?

F1.

If you've read this far thank you and now you know some random facts about me. Mostly that I don't answer Either Or questions very well. 

I'd love to know your answers because I am nosey like that. If my brain can cooperate, I may even come up with my own list.

Toddle pip, Charlotte x

It Could Be You!

But what if it actually was?

Hello and a Happy Saturday to you.

For some reason I bought a lottery ticket yesterday. I don't normally do this, that's £2 that could be better spent on food in my opinion! For whatever reason though, I am now technically in with a chance of winning £9m.

I'm sure you've had the clichéd 'what would you do with all that money' conversation. I know I have. Here are the main things that crop up in my experience:

Quit work

Buy a massive house

Buy a car

Buy a second house

Go on ALL the holidays

Get all the latest tech to fill the houses

I want to know though what is the VERY first thing you would do. I don't think the very first thing you would do is buy a new house because that's not how buying a house works. I reckon you'd go out and buy champagne. Or order a dominos because you could. 

Another interesting point is who would you tell? I will admit now that I look at those people holding the big cheques, telling the world that they are millionaires and think they are fools. There are MANY people I know that I wouldn't tell because I don't trust them not to change their opinion of me or not get jealous and scroungy. If I won the big jackpot I would probably tell them that I'd won a lot less.

I'm not saying that I want to hoard all the money for me, not even a little bit. If you're important to me then I will share the wealth with joy in my heart. I already know who I would spend the money on and why. There are small things (the word small is obviously context dependant) like buying someone the complete Louis Vuitton luggage set or paying off my friend's holiday that he is struggling to save for. There are bigger things, like having someone's garden landscaped or getting them their dream car. There is also one person in particular that I would want to help quit their job and peruse a dream.

Talking about quitting work though, I'm not sure that I would. I'd probably go part time but I don't think I'd full on quit. I've said it before, I don't love my job but I do love the people and I think I might just stay for them. It's alright saying you'd quit work but unless you pay for all your friends to quit too you'll end up spending quite a lot of time on your own (unless you go out and get new equally rich friends).

I had a week off recently and by Thursday afternoon I was lonely and missed people. I'm not designed to spend prolonged periods of time on my own. I don't like eating on my own and I like to watch TV with someone else in the room. We don't even have to talk. I just like having someone there.

After writing all this, I'm not even that sure I want to win the lottery...

That's totally not true, of course I do. But if I win, my friends and family will win too.

Loves Charlotte x

Saying yes

Hello! 

Is it just me or is the year running away with you too? It's already basically half way through April and I can remember Christmas Eve last year like it was about 2 minutes ago.

Part of why I remember Christmas Eve last year was because this was when I decided (at least to try) to start saying yes to things. 2013 was a write off for me. I didn't enjoy it and I actively choose not to try and remember it. It wasn't as horrible as that might make it sound but I wasn't happy. Of course there were a couple of highlights which I can look back on fondly but these are few and far between the other 360 odd days of feeling hopeless.

Like many offices, we have half day closing on Christmas Eve and one of the teams was going out for a few jars in the afternoon. Being a friendly bunch the organiser was happily going around inviting the rest of the building to join in. This is where I normally would politely decline and make my way home. For some reason though I didn't. I allowed myself to be persuaded into tagging along, the intention being to just have one and then leave. Except I didn't. I was having such a lovely time that I stayed. 

Two very good things came out of this. One, I think this is where a friendship started in earnest. It was later cemented by sitting in the basement of a tattoo studio for an hour waiting for him to have his ear pierced. That's what friends are for. 

The second good thing was that it showed me that saying while saying yes to something doesn't guarantee a good time, it certainly increases the chances more than saying no. I'm not going to do a full Danny Wallace* and say Yes to everything but I am definitely having a much better year so far since shifting my mindset. 

Recently I decided to take a chance and say yes to something I normally wouldn't. I would normally talk myself out of it, convincing myself it was a bad idea. That I would just be setting myself up for guaranteed disappointment / embarassment and that I would be better off just saying no and avoiding the whole thing.

I can honestly say that saying yes is possibly the best decision I have made this year. 

Don't be scared, say yes to something. I promise it won't be as bad as you think it will be. And if it is, chalk it up to experience and try something different next time.

Loves Charlotte x

*I read Yes Man many a year ago but it is still one if my favourite books. I highly recommended it.

Life Skills

The further away from my educational career find myself, the more I realise how little education actually teaches you.

There's no point denying it, I was a good student. I cope strangely well in an exam and for the most part could write an essay according to what the teacher wanted to read.

It hasn't actually taught me anything useful though. I'm not doing the whole university rant that people my age like to do after realising that uni should definitely be investigated by the advertising standards agency (that's a whole other blog post). I'm talking mostly about high school, maybe a bit about college. The run up years to becoming an adult.

My high school offered food tech and textiles but in neither did I learn how to make a proper meal or sew on a button. I think we did cakes and cushions instead. In my adult life I have made countless cakes and at least one cushion so I suppose you could say that those lessons have helped but it would've been far more beneficial to have learnt how to make a meal out of what is left in the fridge and how to turn up trousers. 

I've never needed to know about river tributaries but it would be helpful to be able to read a map. 

I've never had to use cosine or algebra but I am completely confused by my pension.

I made a hack saw in resistant materials but I don't have the foggiest idea how to put up a shelf. 

I spent countless weeks learning about the structure of plant cells and a single 45 minute lesson on how to wire a plug. Which seems a more useful life skill?

Imagine lessons on budgetting, home cooking, loading the washing machine and how to assemble ikea furniture without cursing at pitiful instructions and crying in a corner when you realise you've put the side of a wadrobe on upside down!

This is what people need to learn in life so why not get a head start. I would be a much more competent adult now I'm sure of it.

Loves Charlotte x

Techno Lovin'

I never thought that I was a techno addict. I like my tech, don't get me wrong, but I always had the idea of myself that I could cope perfectly well without technology thank you very much.

For example, one of my biggest bug bears is lateness, and the mobile phone (while a fantastic invention) had made being late seemingly acceptable. How many times have I been waiting at the agreed meeting point at the agreed meeting time to hear my phone go off and see something along the lines of: 'sorry, running late be there in 10'. Too many. Just because you've let me know doesn't mean I don't have to stand in the cold.

Another thing that saddens me about technology is how much young people are involved with it. Do kids even play scarecrow tig and climb trees any more or do they just play Candy Crush and Facebook each other (even if they are under 13 and shouldn't have accounts)? I know people whose toddlers know how to swipe an iPhone for crying out loud!

Yes I have an iPod, but it isn't in colour. Yes I have an ereader, but I only bought it because it was dirt cheap on offer. I could count on two hands how many books I have actually read on it whereas I literally couldn't count how many physical books I have read.

I always prefer to speak to people face to face rather than through a screen. At work I'd rather walk to someone's desk than send an email where possible.

Today however, I learnt something about myself. It turns out I am a techno addict after all.

My phone broke yesterday. Approximately 30 minutes before I was due to meet someone. No problem, quick switch up between mine and my mum's phone meant I didn't have to go out for the day without a method of contacting people. Except that I didn't have any of my numbers because I'm not smart enough to have them on my sim card. And because my phone remembers my numbers for me, the only numbers I actually know are my own and my house. Not very helpful.

This morning, it was still broken. And at lunch time, a lovely man took it away from me to send off for repair. And it was during today that I realised how much I look at my phone during a day. I check twitter several times a day and I will admit that I text people during office hours. I even text people I work with. Maybe I'll send them a snapchat of my cup of tea or broke photocopier because when you work in an office that is what passes as entertainment. And today I couldn't do this. I felt lost. 

It was a manic day full of issues and problems and stuff that needed fixing. All I wanted to do was tell someone external from the situation in order to relief some stress (and maybe cadge a bit of sympathy!) and I couldn't. It was horrible.

My only defense for myself is that what I missed was communication and not flappy bird. I hope that this makes it acceptable but I'm not really sure that it does. I am currently charging an old phone that I am really not really looking forward to using but at least I will be able to text people!

Loves Charlotte x

The Death of the Tea Round

In case I haven't mentioned it before I'm 25 years old. Other people I know my age listen to Radio 1. Or maybe something like Capital FM. I like to listen to podcasts and Radio 4. Each to their own eh? 

My absolute favourites are Just A Minute (with the darling Nicholas Parssons) and The News Quiz (with the marvellous Sandi Toksvig).

Last week's episode of The News Quiz involved a lovely segment where the panelists and host stopped for tea. While this sounds lovely, just stopping for tea probably wouldn't make very good radio, so in reality it was a clever little segue into a story that said that people in offices no longer do the tea round. They just make the one cup for themselves. Apparently people even make deliberately bad tea so as to never be asked to make tea for a colleague again. 

This upsets me. I work in an office and for the past year the layout was such that going and asking other people if they wanted a brew was highly impractical, so yes, I did just make lonesome cuppas for myself. Now, however we have moved to a new home and I am making it my mission to learn everyone's hot drinks order and perfect them. 

I might not be lucky enough to love the work I do, but I do love the people I work with so why wouldn't I want to make these people a tea or coffee or maybe even a cheeky hot chocolate? I have to spend a minimum of 8 hours a day in that office so anything that can cheer the place up is a priority in my opinion and tea certainly brings a smile to people's faces. 

My favourite people to make tea for are the IT guys because you have never seen such an adorably happy face as the face our IT manager pulls (incidentally, who certain members of staff are a bit scared of!) when you rock up at their door pointing at a mug. Heck, I'll even make a tea for people when I'm not even having one myself. Just to spread the happy. 

If you are the selfish person just making drinks for yourself I implore you to share the love. I think your working day will be improved no end and let's face it, the bigger the round, the more time spent away from your desk!

Loves Charlotte x

 

Tuesday Love

Well hello there.

Tuesday is usually my least favourite day of the week. Most people hate Mondays but not me. At least on a Monday you've just had two days off and you can gather around the clichéd water cooler and chat about what you did (or didn't do if you're lazy) over the weekend.

Wednesday is midweek, Thursday downhill slope and Friday speaks for itself. Tuesday offers nothing. I wake up on Tuesdays with a feeling of disappointment and dispondency.

Not this Tuesday. Maybe Tuesday has decided to put sone effort in this month because today was probably one of my favourite days of the year so far.

My day started with the nicest of surprises, I took an hour for lunch shopping with friends and got to look at these beauties all day long.

I am really hoping that Wednesday is able to follow such a top drawer act.

Loves Charlotte  x