Tea: bagged or loose?

If you know me, you'll also know I have a love for tea.

More specifically, Earl Grey.

Over the last year or so, I've been trying to get through my huge stock pile of teas, namely loose leaf teas.

There's another great debate: loose leaf Vs bagged.

Bagged is a lot more convenient, but you can't beat the taste of fresh loose leaf. (It can also be used for tea leaf reading! Which I'll be looking into soon!)

The tin I've been going through this weekend had been open before, for how long, I can't remember, and now having had my first bagged cup since Friday, I realise that the tin had lost some of its bergamot taste, but the bagged cup doesn't taste as fresh or earthy, which is what I love about loose leaf (apart from the tofty process of brewing it).
My parents were away for the weekend and brought me back 2 new mugs, one is glass from Whittards, with a glass infuser and lid (love it!!)  The other is a new nightmare before Christmas mug with Jack Skellington on it (another of my loves in NBC and all the mugs Disney do for them :) )

(copied from my other (now deleted) blog. So I've had those 2 mugs for about 8 months now, and neither gets much use to be perfectly honest! As the NBC one I find is too big most of the time, and I'm scared to break the glass one...)

Manga!!

After my mention of manga books in my last post about kindles, thought I'd give them their own little post :)

I love mangas :)  (Japanese cartoon books translated into English and read back to front to normal English books)

Annoyingly though, since most are imported, if you buy them in Waterstones or comic shops, like Forbidden Planet, they're generally £9-£15 each, and I generally can't justify that per book when I go through them in a day :/   what I generally do is check eBay, play.com, and Amazon, and make sure I'm maximum £4 per book (sometimes £5), wait until I have most of a series, then blitz them all in a week or so :)

But getting to see all the pictures and artwork instead of having to imagine it makes them so addictive :)

Black Butler and Fruits Basket are my 2 favourite series :)

Books: Physical Vs Electronic...

Physical books or electronic books.... the great debate...

I've always read since I was small, and it's always been physical books.

When my mums friend got a kindle and started bugging me to get one, I resisted (typical teenager attitude to any pressure), then mum got one and I occasionally stole/borrowed it to see what all it could do, then for my 20th birthday, mum bought me one too... I caved in and loved it! (The fact that she'd made me a personalised Jack Skellington cover from scratch didn't help either.)

I will admit that with both our kindle on the same Amazon account, we can share books easily, and there's so many (decent) free books out there!!

However, if I'd already started a series with physical books, I tend to continue them as physical ones, plus when I eventually build my dream house with a library, I'll need lot of books to fill up the shelves ;)
(I also like to frequent my local waterstones, so end up buying physical books there, and of course I've then got to continue with physical ones then.... ;) )

Kindles are so much lighter that books though, and it makes reading big books in bed or lying on the sofa so much easier. Also takes up less space than 4 books when you're traveling.

Sometimes you're cheaper searching around and getting the physical books rather than the kindle ones (Lord of the rings trilogy was an example, £15 for kindle, got the 3 books in a charity for shop a BOGOF offer (plus another random book) for £2), but more times than not, you're cheaper with the kindle version, (ASOIAF is another example, about £8 for all 7 books on kindle, and was looking about £35 to get them all second hand off play.com)

Another bonus with kindles is that no one can see what you're reading at a glace ;)

A down side with kindles is, you can't get manga books to work on them (boo hiss!) :'(

Kindles (and other e-readers) can make your eyesight worse (proven or not? I think they do, as mine has since I got my kindle...)

Physical books have better art work :D

But, really, both have their pros and cons, and it's all personal preference :)

Fell off the band wagon, again....

13 months since my last post.... I fall off this wagon more than I'm on it...

So last year:
Finished a temp job,
Unemployed for 12 days (you'd have thought I'd have had time to blog during that...)
Another temp job
Permanent at temp job
Moved house
Went on holibags with my mum
Sprained my knee...

That brings it about up to date, as the knee sprain was 3 weeks ago....

Funny story...

Was lying on my side, and tried to move round a bit more, and as I moved my leg, it went one way and my knee cap popped the other way....

It felt fine when I woke up the next day, I hadn't slept well that night to be fair, was a bit sore as I was getting ready. My mum told me it would "ease off" as I moved about that day,  by lunch time I was limping lots, loads of pain and had to leave work early to go to the Drs...

...and have been off work since...

Doesn't help I'd barely been in work for the previous 6 weeks before that....

I'd started another blog, which also didn't get kept up, but I'll copy over some of the better posts :)

I also got a hamster 2 weeks ago :)  He's super fluffy, and I called him Sebastian, normally gets called Bassy though ;)

Well that lasted....

I fell off the band wagon pretty quickly again....   have not done much if any yoga since giving up the challenge....  However,  after not having done any for a month or two, my back ache pains have come back.... looks like yoga was helping,  might have to get a pattern of posture yoga poses on the go :/ 

On a brighter note,  spent the weekend away on holiday up north in Orkney,   had no signal so couldn't use Facebook,  and I loved it.  Could get used to not using it :)  however it is rather handy when asking people about living dead dolls when google keeps popping up regular clubmez Penny instead of Hong Kong Penny :/

30 day yoga challenge day 5

Today's yoga session has left me frustrated and super annoyed at myself. It concentrated on side planks. Lots of wrist pressure. I have weak wrists, and that session just pointed out to me how weak they were so I was barely able to do any of it. Also didn't help that my hey fever decided to make its self know after a minute on the mat. Eyes itching and running,  nose running..... 

http://youtu.be/jn0ylCz3RxU

Tea, breakfast,  breathe, go to work, dinner with a friend tonight.

Days off are a killer for routine....

Well I've had a great 2 days off, got so much done yesterday and had such a great day with my other half. However, I've not gotten any of the yoga videos done since day 4 on Sunday :o had no time at all for the video on Monday due to an early start at work, but Tuesday I got so zoned out tidying up and clearing out (trying to take a minimalist approach to clearing out) that I didn't have time during the day to do any. I will also admit that since I was going to my ashtanga class that night I couldn't quite be bothered :p

Spent today with my other half,  and this evening will be spent crocheting (making a blanket and it's been side lined a bit) so will hopefully maybe get the next video done, but I might not :)

Monday morning rush

Well I didn't get time to do todays yoga this morning (barely time to post this) but abs are still sore from yesterday so maybe lack of time this morning is a good thing :)

Namaste

Owchie

Well that ab work this morning definitely did something, could feel it after I ate my lunch today, got a few nagging pains :) must be doing something :)  hope I can get day 5s video done before work tomorrow :) early start :) woop :p

Pesky emails

So you'll have noticed that I'm linking the 30 days of yoga via YouTube,  the website isn't sending me the emails, so YouTube is the easiest for me just now :) they sent me the first day at 2am 2 days ago, and day 3 at 2am this morning,  no day 2 however,  so YouTube and its links it is :)

30 day yoga challenge day 4

Day 4. Abs day. Owch. It was really good, hard but good :) didn't help though that my mum decided to watch me, making it harder. It reminded me that I miss ab work sometimes :/

http://youtu.be/T0hvEw9BBGE

Now for some porridge and get ready for work :) don't think I'll be able to lift much today, sore tummy thanks to that 12 minute video :)

And breathe.....

So much for yoga helping you destress. It does at the time (as in first thing this morning it helped) but by the time I eventually got to work I was a big ball of stress :(

Put the kettle on,  make tea and breathe....

Tea makes all the difference.

Tea is the life force.

Do you believe in life balance?  Ying yang? A balance between things?

I do.

Today was an example of it.  Once I got to work and had some tea,  I was fine. But someone I work with seemed to be having a bad day after that. Had the scales tipped happiness my way and taken it from them?  It seemed that way to me and I'm sorry to them for it.

Anyway,  yoga has helped me destress at times, through the breath. I take time to stop what I'm doing, close my eyes and ears and just breath.  It works wonders :) whether through doing this action tipped the scales or not, I took a day at work to be selfish and glad I was no longer in a bad mood and to be happy :)

Sleep (and watching The Help) calls

30 day yoga challenge day 3

Some yoga for posture this morning :) woke up and went right in to it :) back feels good now :) did a cheeky little sun salutation before I rolled the mat up ;) in the mood to do more yoga followed by some wool work, but alas I must get ready for work work :/

http://youtu.be/T227IRrH5ac
Today's video :) didn't get an email for any of them since the first one, so looks like it'll be good old YouTube searches :)

Forgot I made tea... again

I'm such a scatter brain when it comes to making tea and then forgetting I've made tea....   luckily,  as you can see, I remembered about the minty green tea I made before yoga so it'd be the right temp now :)  (picture featuring my yoga mat in the bag I made for it last week)

Mmmmm tea ^,^

30 day yoga challenge day 2

Well, parents asleep, the child will do yoga :)  just went ahead and you tubed day 2s video :) a good one for shoulders :) that down dog and taking 1 hand off back to the leg was a tough one :)

Note to self: don't do yoga in the sitting room when the fire has been on all evening and the door is shut. And you're wearing long sleeved and long trousered pjs :)

http://youtu.be/xtW2jrbFYeo

Day 3s video before work tomorrow morning I do believe :)

Mind like a sevie. ...

Had intended to add a photo to the last post, but here is all the wool I ended up buying today :)  got such a good deal on it all,  but it leaves me feeling bad and in an ethical conundrum :(

I'd much rather buy my craft items from little local shops. I'm pretty religious about buying all my fabric from my little local fabric shop Veroniques but when it comes to wool, I've been bad. Hobbycraft is a demon... and not a good one :(  they had a massive wool sale on today and all their wool is now always on a 3 for 2 offer..... it just makes it so much cheaper to buy it all from there :(  I do on occasion buy from one of my local wool shops,  but that tends to be some super cheap dk stuff, but when it comes to super chunky wool, hobbycraft sadly can't be beat for price :(

Hopefully I've stocked up on enough to get me through my blankets :)

That thing called life...

Well, there's this thing.  It's called life. It likes to get in the way of your plans. Ended up having a really pants morning followed by a really good afternoon trip to the Highland capital for wool and my newest LDD (I'm a crazy collector of these) so no yoga got done today.

How bad is that? Day 2 and I've skipped it already..... to be fair day 2s video never got emailed to me,  but that is a pathetic excuse.... but the evening is young yet,  so it will hopefully be done before bed.

Spoke to my friend Sam about it, apparently the website it quite bad for not sending the email links out... but luckily YouTube has all 30 days already loaded :)

Time for some crochet, tea and tv,  hopefully yoga later :)

Tidy room happy mind?

I couldn't help but notice while doing the first day yoga video how tidy Erins living room is! It's motivated me even more to get my room into shape.

I confess. I am a horder. It's genetic,  it's definitely affecting my granny and mum too....

But I want to kick this habit.  I want less clutter. Less stuff, less stressful on the eyes, less stress on the brain right?  Here's hoping.... but as motivated as I am now, typically I have to go to work :( and yet again when I have motivation I don't have the time to use my motivation :/  sods law

Nice cuppa tea

I've also been trying to drink more green tea, so what bettee time to drink some than after a short yoga session :)  green tea with orange and lotus ^,^  nom

30 day yoga challenge, day 1

I started ashtanga yoga about 6 months ago (where has the time gone?!?)  I haven't been religious about going every week, but I go as often as I can. It has helped me with back and rib pains and flexibility has definitely increased :)  (thank you Sam for introducing me to the practice :)  )

Anyway,  my friend Sam (who took me to my first class last November) has been posting on fb about this 30 day yoga challenge for the last week. I've not been able to go to class for a few weeks due to new job and going to see Jeff Dunham,  so I thought I'd give it a go :)

Signed up last night and started this morning.  Oh how I've missed yoga ^,^  a simple 20 minute session on hip opening, was good until I started getting pins and needles!!

I have very bad circulation in my feet, so sitting with a leg bent and hip bent caused my blood to protest.  I never noticed until now that the pins and needles had been getting better over the last 6 months,  but not doing yoga for a few weeks, it had started to get bad again.

Waa so nice to be doing some yoga first thing in the morning :) will try my hardest to keep it up for the 30 days or longer :)

http://www.doyouyoga.com/day-1-30-day-yoga-challenge/