Rantings of a rather strange little beast

2. Tea.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Oh, tea.  Really, I adore tea.  My relationship with tea is very similar to that many people have with wine.  I love to try different teas and share them with everyone I know.  Each tea has unique qualities and the sources of tea really change the flavour.  I like the way different teas complement meals and how you have different teas for different times of the day. Both the extreme and subtle differences are endlessly fascinating and I love to have 'blind tastings' at tea shops to see if I can identify what they have available as samples. I have to admit, when I meet someone new and they mention they don't like tea, I always get a little pang of disappointment deep inside that makes my heart lurch a little.  Being able to share tea with someone makes me truly happy.  Tea is my ultimate relaxant, social lubricant and comforter.  I creates an environment where I feel completely comfortable.  Happy with either sitting in silence reflecting on the world or chatting merrily at a million miles per hour. Single origin teas are my new focus and I've really enjoyed tasting them and them comparing them to their blended counterparts.  Nothing beats having a cuppa.

 
3. Realistic, sensible approaches to parenting.                                                                                                                                                    Some days, I feel like a complete parental failure, but I remember that it's a perfectly normal part of having kids.  I think parents have had most of the common-sense, parental instincts crushed out of them by mass media, the perpetuation of the myth that nuclear-family units are the only way and consumerist culture.   Parenting is not something that can be done alone, kids need care, freedom and most of all unconditional love.  I think having Cara just before I turned 19 while studying education at Uni put a bit of a rebellious streak in my parental heart.  There was a general assumption that we would have a dragged/kicked up kid with no rules, bad beaviour who was fed crap food and ended up a loser because her parents were very young when she was born.  This was completely not the case and still isn't.  I was lucky to receive pragmatic advice from my mother who had five kids.  Her tips were: each pregnancy, birth and child is different.  The medical advice and best practice given changed so much with each of you so you can only do your best, listen to what people say and use your instincts to decide what is best for you, your child and your family.  You'll make mistakes and that's okay. My own bits of advice I like to give to new Mothers or Mothers feeling incompetent. Mothers need love and sleep too.  Babies require too much care for one person to give so take every offer of help you get.  I personally think sleep-deprivation is a huge cause of post natal depression and putting your new infant in a nursery where you've got to physically get out of bed all the time is asking for disaster.   

4. Bread making.                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Bread is one of my favourite foods.  It is a hands on practice that I do as much for the tactile experience as the taste.  I love kneading bread and feeling the yeast rising under my hands.  It's like a living, breathing entity that moves with you.   Taking a sticky mess that could easily become glue into a delicious food is amazing.  I love the variety that different flours and additions make to bread.  I hate bread makers, they take the fun out of it!  Bread making is also a great way to work off stress and to work on creating fluid movement with my hands.  It's a social food to create.  Simple, easy and a reminder that comes to those who wait.  The anticipation of watching bread rise, punching it down and kneading again and then having it rise in the tin for baking is satisfying.  Watching the girls become good bread kneaders really made me very proud.  They observed, experimented and created and now with the exclusion of wetting the yeast and putting it in a hot oven, they can make their own bread from scratch  Every single loaf/roll/langos made is unique, like people.  

5.  Having a brain and using it, especially in conversation                                                                                                                                  

 This one has surprised me.  I know I'm a total chatterbox.  I like to talk with people.  I enjoy knowing more about people, bouncing ideas off others and learning about the world through conversation.  It's a French thing, I think.  A good conversation  shows respect for the people around you.  It shows you value the intelligence of others by wanting to hear their opinions and thoughts.  I get inspired, excited and just exist in the moment during a good conversation, though often I fear people think I talk too much and should just shut up.  I like to make friends with people who like to talk to me.  Self-indulgent, I guess.  But really, how do you know people if you don't discuss things with them?  When people rely solely on the written word for their intellectual stimulation, they create a very 'concrete view' of their knowledge.  Conversation, however, is a state of flux.  You're able to make mental connections on the fly, review and revise your opinions in the light of the way someone says something.  It personalises different views and forces you to recognise that although you may not agree, there's a real person behind those thoughts.  It puts a human face to tolerance, humour and connection in a way that nothing else does.  Or, I'm just a chatterbox who likes the sound of her own voice.