What is your favorite drink?
I am one of those rare people who drinks hardly any coffee. Some years I don’t have a single cup. Last year I had two flavoured coffees just to see what they were like and decided I wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about! I will only drink tea, but of virtually every type.
In tthe morning I will have a tea in my Hufflepuff mug. Either a Twinings Everyday or a Thompson’s Irish Breakfast hit the spot for that first drink. I will have a couple of those along with an Earl Grey just to change things up a bit. These morning teas are my way of coming to my senses, such as they are, in order to meet the day! Once I get to my third cup I will stop there and move on to a range of different teas. Spiced Ginger, Camomile, Peppermint and Lemon and Ginger are my regular choices during the week. I will swap them around depending on how I am, with the ginger based teas excellent for a sore throat or a bad cold, the peppermint good for an unsettled stomach and the camomile excellent if I need help relaxing. Although they have small amounts of caffeine they don’t have the same impact as my morning teas, and too much caffeine is really bad for you. At the weekend, if Janet and I are at home I will often do a pot of green tea, invariably the Shizuoka Green Tea that we get from the Japan Centre in London, with a spoonful and a half of loose tea which makes very strong tea to start and nicely mild tea after you have had three brews with it.
Of a late afternoon or evening I go back to the black tea but the decaffeinated version of either traditional tea or Earl Grey. Then, my last drink is a Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time. It is a camomile based drink that we have had for about 25 years or more as the perfect bedtime drink.
As tea in all its forms is so central to my life I pay more for it than I would otherwise do. However, I always look for special offers and the best prices because there is no point in paying more than you have to. So, give me the leaf over the bean any day!
Who are your favorite people to be around?
I have written many times on this blog about my family and their centrality to my entire existence. Everything is built around them to the extent that I have really removed myself from other people outside except when I have to see them or occasionally choose to. This hasn’t always been the case, however, and it gives an interesting insight into the way that my attitude to company has changed over the course of my life.
When I was at Primary school, my friends were centred around it. I suppose it was because I loved my time there so much and I didn’t really feel as though the people I lived near had anything like the same importance. At Secondary school that reversed because pretty much everyone there was so unpleasant. I went through a couple of years where I went from school to home and bar Trevor, my best friend at the time who had been the person who volunteered to show me around St Andrew’s, and who joined me at the Maths School, I had no other friends. Luckily, when I was 13 my Dad started up a scout troop and I made a bunch of really good friends through that, most of whom I saw outside of scouts on a regular basis.
When I started work, I had one very good friend there, Steve Reid who started on the same day. We got on extremely well from the start and he made an otherwise difficult time in a job I was completely unequipped to do a lot of fun. Along with Steve was another Steve (Parrett) who used his house to host countless parties whilst his parents were away working in the Gulf! I have mentioned Gavin who became my best friend and best man in another blog, but suffice to say he was really the centre of my life until Janet came along.
I wwent to Staffordshire Polytechnic for 3 years and made a group of incredibly close friends. Although I was 5 years older than they were I fitted in with them straight away and we remained close for a number of years afterwards, especially with Arfur (as Andy Mullard referred to himself!) whose family were incredibly kind and open to us.
When wwe went to Japan, there was no one but us. We really had to count on each other in a way that we hadn’t before and that was when I started to look inward. I don’t suppose I ever really stopped. The people I got close to over the years all started to drift away and I just accepted that as normal, because my parents didn’t have many friends from the earlier parts of their lives. Looking back, I can see that I made an unconscious choice, partly because we were struggling for money and therefore couldn’t go to visit people, that I would rely only on my family unit for everything. From that point I saw every friendship that fell by the wayside as just a normal part of life. It was easier that way, I think, but it also removed any responsibility for the breakdown from either party, although I was sure that in many cases it was only me who had kept the friendship going by keeping in contact. Looking at it now I think that by turning my gaze inward, not going out and not trying to find other ways to keep the friendships going I was at least as much to blame if not more.
Life has a way of leading you in different directions and it makes you feel as though things are inevitable. What if they aren’t?
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who reads my posts. I have my regular readers who I see often on the comments board or the list of likes, I have my subscribers who are given updates whenever I post something new and I have the occasional readers who dip in for a particular post. All of you are much appreciated.
Late last night UK time, I reached a landmark that seems to me, a blogger who is at the lower end of the scale, almost unbelievable. One of my posts reached the 1000 mark! Memories of Singing Together was a labour of love and one of the posts I have most enjoyed writing. To date it only has 4 likes, so it’s not one that appears on my Jetpack app notifications, but it has been the constant fixture in the end of month figures which I pour over avidly!
It rreminds me, when I need reminding, that I can really engage with my audience and write posts that new readers will discover without the need to spend money on promotion. Now, I had better get back to writing new content!
Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes, and where they’ve taken you.
I have always had a difficult relationship with shoes. Every time I buy a new pair of shoes, boots or trainers, one thing is guaranteed, blisters! It’s happened with every single pair from my earliest memories, so I have always worn every pair to destruction to avoid the painful breaking in process.
I certainly haven’t had a favourite pair of shoes as they are merely a means to an end for me. If I could find a pair that I could settle in immediately they would be my favourite pair but it has never happened and never will as I have not got the money to have a pair especially made for me.
Share one of the best gifts you’ve ever received.
I can think of many gifts I have received in my life that stick out as being very special. They all shared one thing in common, the fact that the person buying the gift was thinking of me as a person. I know that sounds obvious, but how often have you received a generic gift from someone who you thought knew you very well? These gifts are bought with affection but without much thought, and we have all been guilty of buying those gifts. It could be that you don’t actually have much contact with the person, that it’s a ‘duty’ gift for someone you don’t particularly like or that things have been so hectic at work or at home that you’ve only had the chance to rush to the shops or buy a next day delivery gift online.
We can still appreciate the fact that the person has made an effort and that they are showing a connection to us, but in the end that gift may end up at the back of the cupboard, in a charity shop or regifted to someone else. I don’t actually dislike the idea of regifting because it shows a level of thought for the other person, as you are sure they would appreciate the gift more than you. In any case, the person who bought it doesn’t need to know what happened to it and honour is satisfied all round. I used to run Secret Santa gift exchanges in many of my jobs, partly due to my often mentioned love of Christmas, and partly because jobs are draining, demanding and often thankless these days and we all need something to look forward to. The Secret Santa worked for two reasons. First, because the forms I sent to people asked them for suggestions as to what the other person could buy them and second because we really liked each other and often went the extra mile. One of the great delights during present opening was seeing the faces of colleagues receiving completely unexpected and absolutely perfect gifts. Actually, there was a third reason. It was restricted to colleagues who weren’t in the upper management positions, because nothing kills the vibe more than your boss sitting in on the present opening!
Some of my favourite gifts have been the unexpected ones and, interestingly, gifts that initially I was not sure about. My wife is particularly adept at finding gifts I don’t know that I want and she is always spot on even if my initial reaction is one of bemusement. She has tried to encourage my creative side with various gifts and, after some initial internal reluctance, I have realised that she knows me better than I know myself! It is always amazing to reflect on gifts that have opened up new areas of interest, such as scrapbooking and organising photos, and how I could have thought for years and not come up with anything nearly as good for myself.
So, when you are buying a present, think of the person, think of their interests, think about an off the cuff comment they have made, replay conversations in your head. If you do all this and you give yourself enough time to get the present, I guarantee that you will make a difference to that person, either short term or long term. Happy present hunting!
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 