Coffee Morning

I went out to coffee this morning.  There were six of us and, wanting to try somewhere different, we went to a local pub which is famous for its Christmas decorations.  We arranged to meet at 11am and after waiting out in the rain for 10 minutes for the pub to open the doors we entered a veritable grotto with walls and ceilings literally covered with gold, silver, red and green tinsel and sparkling garlands .......  and the coffee was pretty good too!

There’s something special about morning coffee, I’d much rather go to coffee with friends than go out to dinner; talking and eating is something of a skill that I haven’t quite acquired– I enjoy my food too much to let it go cold while holding a conversation.

Anyway, we were still there an hour later, deep in conversation.  Apart from our group there was one other table occupied by a small party, but that wasn’t good enough apparently.  As the waitress cleared the tables she asked if we would be ordering a meal, and when we said no, she replied that if we weren’t planning to order they would need the table.  We all left, leaving a totally empty pub behind us!  I wonder if they had the lunchtime rush they were obviously expecting?

Arty Breaks writing retreats

When I last wrote in my blog I was about to leave the security of a full-time job and I admit I was feeling more than a little trepidation; how I would pay the bills and what I would do with my time were firmly at the top of those concerns. In fact I never expected to stop working.  I could never understand why people who won the lottery always seemed to leave their job; I thought I would want to continue even in a voluntary capacity.  No-one was more surprised than me when I reached the decision to stop going out to work.

I’ve always really enjoy work, lots of it.  For the last three years, on top of the full-time job, I’ve been engaged in a distance learning degree with the University of Wales, I’m now on the last level of my BA in Voluntary Sector Studies and expect to graduate in June 2014, I’ve also been developing my writing and have had a couple of short fiction items published in print and online. So, you see, I really do like to be busy with lots of ongoing projects. 

It’s been three months now since I left the job and things have moved on; I’m still studying for my degree, I’m still writing – although no new published items to crow about yet.  In addition, I’m now volunteering for half a day each week in my MP’s constituency office, and, and this is what I’ve been leading up to:  I’m setting up my own business!  I’ve got a website and everything!  Good ol’ BT, however, is keeping me waiting until next Monday (26 November) for my phone line, and then I can print my stationery.  What’s the business?  What’s it called? ………

………Arty Breaks writing retreats will run weekend writing breaks in Eastbourne throughout the year and we’re currently taking reservations for January and February 2012.

For more information about Arty Breaks please check out the website, www.artybreaks.co.uk

So much for the question about what I am going to do with my time - sorted!

Bacon sandwiches

My husband and sons follow the Muslim faith and, while they don't follow all the rules strictly, they don’t eat pork.  This means that it’s easier for us all to never have pork in the house and when we eat out although I may eat sausages or bacon or ribs (yummy!) the rest of the family never do.  It’s not just a matter of not having pork or pork products on their plate, no pork must have been cooked with the utensils used to cook their food. 

This issue has caused some funny, some embarrassing and some very awkward moments.  Here are some examples:

Chinese restaurant

Me: “Does this special fried rice have any pork in it?”

Waitress: “No.  Just peas and ham.”

Market stall

Me: “Do these chicken sausages have any pork in them?”

Stallholder: “Only the skins.”

Me: “Pardon?”

Stallholder: “ONLY THE SKINS.”

Beach cafe in Corfu this summer

Me: “We’d like to share a pizza please.   We’d like all the toppings but no ham.”

Waitress: “No ham?”

Me: “That’s right.  Tomato, mushroom, onion, pepper but no ham.”

Waitress: “ok, no ham.”

She returns proudly carrying a large pizza for two to share and my heart sinks as she places it carefully on the table between me and my husband.

Waitress: “No ham.  Bacon!”

He settled for a Greek Salad and I had way more pizza than I really wanted!