Tea for Tribes - 2nd October 2010, midday onwards.

The basic premise is I cook vast quantities of cakes etc., you come over and eat said cakes accompanied by some of my many types of tea.

Tea and cake, pretty simple.

Now here's the slight complication - the tea and cake is in support of Survival International, a charity supporting tribal peoples world wide.
So now it goes, I bake, you come over, you donate some money, you have tea and cake.


Do you resent having to pay money for going round a friend's and eating cake? Tough. But to make it a less bitter pill to swallow here are the perks:

- There isn't just going to be a little bit of cake, there will be a whole array of cake, biscuits, cream teas and savory snacks. There will be so much cake.

- I am taking requests. Do you want a particular type of cake or biscuit? Let me know and I will do my best.

- I have over 50 different types of tea. That's a lot of tea for your money!

- I will also be running an ebay collection, got stuff you don't want but haven't got around to getting of, bring them along and I will ebay them and all the proceeds will go to Survival International.

- Plus, if any one wants to start knitting or spinning etc. I'd be happy to show you some basics.


I'm thinking a minimum of £3 donation, but preferably £5, but obviously you can donate more should you wish!


So yes, come for tea and cake and a warm fuzzy feeling inside! Tea will be located at SE1 3BN, a short walk from London Bridge Tube Station. Exact location can be found on facebook, or I can email you.

Anyone who has dietry requirements let me know and I'll do my best.

Oh dear god, I forget how much bad telephone systems anger me. The culprit this time is the Inland Revenue, who have so far this morning directed me to their line for Employers, then to a fax machine, then to a line that's just engaged constantly, and finally to an automated machine that instead of putting you on hold just cuts you off so you have to keep calling back and going through all the sodding menus again.

It's almost like they don't want to give me my tax back. Hmpfh.

It seems to be the done thing at the moment, plus embitteredpoet has requested it, so I thought I'd tell you about what's going on in my life atm.

Some things:

 - I now live in Bermondsey, London (in case any of you missed that). I like London, I love walking about London. Especially along the South Bank between Tower Bridge and the Tate. It's nothing special but it's a lovely stroll to the library.

I have only missed Oxford once.  I still, despite living away from home since 2004, get a bit home sick sometimes, but mostly in a good way.

 - I am in month 8 of 12 of my Ma in Environment, Politics and Globalisation. I am struggling to maintain motivation and this makes me feel like a complete failure (despite the fact I'm not failing it at all). I think it's because I always wanted to do a postgrad, and kind of labelled myself as an academic, and it turns out I'm not.

 - I work 12 hours a week for L'Occitane, a French smellies and cosmetic company on King's Road. If anyone wants a 40% discount I'm sure we can sort something out.

It provides enough money to pay my share of the bills and buy some food, but that's about it. I miss having money, more than I ever thought I would.

The work is easy, but I sometimes see someone from University walking by the shop and have to hide. I am still not comfortable with my successes and achievements, and cannot stop, despite trying, comparing myself to others, leading to more feelings of failure and Doom.

 - Andrzej and I will have been together 6 years in the Autumn. I am a great big cliche and love him more than ever, but have no desires to get married or have children. I feel like I'm wasting my youth enough already without wanting any of the organisational mayhem of either of those things. However, I do enjoy attending weddings, and not just for the free food.

- I'm not being very creative at the moment, not sewing, not cooking, not baking. It's a shame, but I know inspiration will return when I'm being more productive. I am going to make quiche this evening though, leek and bacon. Nom.

 - I need a holiday, luckily I have one planned :) At the end of May I will be spending a week near St David's fishing, walking, eating, drinking and swimming in a freezing cold sea.

 My favourite things at the moment:
 - Brakes
 - Tea (as always)
 - Board games (especially Citadel, Carcasonne and Pandemic). If anyone ever wants to come play awesome board games, let me know.
 - eBay
 - Free stuff
 - Avocados


My least favourite things:
 - The council pollarding the trees outside our flat. No more spring leaves for us :(
 - Some rotter stealing my parcel. Grrrr.

More good things than bad. Excellent.

Hmm, a nice meme bandwagon to jump upon. My residential history in pictorial form, how exciting.

( Read more... )

The obvious explanation behind crop circles

All is well here, although mighty hectic so apologies if I'm not as responsive as usual.

So... as some of you may be aware, I've been accepted on a Master at Kings in Environment, Policy and Globalisation. This is rather exciting.

This means that, come September, Andrzej* and I will be moving to London! This is also rather exciting, but is some what terrifying me as well.

I have no idea where to start looking for somewhere to live, and I'm frankly a little scared after hearing many a housing horror story. So, my dear friends list I was wondering if I could pick your brains.

I will be based at the Strand Campus, so would be looking for some where within about 30 minutes (max) journey of there, ideally closer... and we're looking for some where pretty cheap as I won't be having much of an income. Do you have any advice on areas to look at? What sort of rents you've experienced? Any rental agencies to recommend or avoid? Or, in fact, do you know of any rooms/flats that will be available come mid-September?

Or I'll settle for reassuring comments along the lines of 'it'll be Ok Rachel, we've all moved to London and its wonderful'.

* Who is currently delighting in eating slightly out of date Christmas Pudding from two years ago. I honestly cannot fathom how happy this is making him.

Things are going slow at the moment, but I suppose that's what happens when you book a holiday - time slows down and it seems to take forever to pass. It doesn't help that I've been covering colleagues shifts at Neal's Yard, meaning I've been working 13 days without a break a couple of times recently, and it kind of kills you after about 12 days.

Some interesting things have happened though. I spent quarter of an hour talking to Thom Yorke about massages and moisturiser the other week. He's still short.

I spent some time at home with my family. Watched the Chesterfield vintage hockey team loose badly, but it didn't matter because the away team brought two huge vats of curry with them and fed us all very generously. The curried kidney and liver was glorious, despite my normal dislike for offal.

Yesterday I got chucked in a swimming pool to learn all about how not to drown. Not drowning was suprisingly good fun as it mainly involved floating about in a heated pool, although the course was quite scary in parts, and the tea tasted like sewage water. I also baked Hot Cross Buns, but the oven was up to its dirty tricks and burnt their bottoms. Bah.

Curent favourite inspirations include:

( Snowdrops and Lichen )


( Mr brother is neither my favourite nor an inspiration to me, but he does look a bit like Peter Petrelli, which I suppose is a redeeming feature. )