Doh...

...well I *was* going to talk about baby swimming today, but my card reader seems to have stopped working, so I can't flickr any pictures...typical...so instead I'll just gloat that the Jubilee line is broken today (but I wasn't affected - heh) and that I *meant* to bring more tea bags in from home, but forgot, but it's okay because I had more than I expected when I got to my desk...so one bad, two good...can't really complain!

Milk Malaise

Still haven't really solved the whole milk issue, Flyingpops bought me a nice chrome flask to replace the expressing pot (too many funny looks from those in the know) however (inevitably) I either forget to fill it up or forget to wash it up, so more often than not I find myself in Tesco (Cabot Square) or Waitrose buying a pint in the morning...the problem with this is that I don't get through a whole pint a day (despite my enthusiasm), and it seems a real waste to pour what I don't use down the sink...

My last attempt at combating this was to write "Digital" (my department) on the side of the bottle and store it in one of the 'fridges in the office kitchen but (oh the cheek!) one morning I forgot that I still had some milk in there, so I popped the new, full, sealed bottle with it's little label in there to reclaim the next day, by the time I had got to it, not only had someone decided that it would be fine to open the bottle up, but had also helped themselves to half the milk!

So now I'm keeping the bottle on my desk...but actually I should probably persist with the kitchen storage, but instead of "Digital", write "Large bloke you definitely wouldn't want to discover you in the act of stealing his milk"...

What are people like??

Twelve cups of tea a day...

Prompted by my (soon to be ex) office manager, yesterday I kept a tally of how many cups of tea I drank during the course of the day...I don't know if, in a quantum way, by the very act of monitoring my behaviour I altered it in any way (I tried not to, but you never know) but the end result is that, on this occasion at least, I consumed twelve cups (with a spot of milk, no sugar, ta)...

This, slightly surprising figure, caused both he and I to raise our eyebrows a little...but is it actually bad?

From one point of view, no, it's actually quite the contrary - to quote Wikipedia -

"Tea leaves contain more than 700 chemicals, among which the compounds closely related to human health are flavanoides, amino acids, vitamins (C, E and K), caffeine and polysaccharides. Moreover, tea drinking has recently proven to be associated with cell-mediated immune function of the human body. Tea plays an important role in improving beneficial intestinal microflora, as well as providing immunity against intestinal disorders and in protecting cell membranes from oxidative damage. Tea also prevents dental caries due to the presence of fluorine. The role of tea is well established in normalizing blood pressure, lipid depressing activity, prevention of coronary heart diseases and diabetes by reducing the blood-glucose activity. Tea also possesses germicidal and germistatic activities against various gram-positive and gram negative human pathogenic bacteria. Both green and black tea infusions contain a number of antioxidants, mainly catechins that have anti-carcinogenic, anti-mutagenic and anti-tumoric properties".

- however, it does also contain quite a lot of caffeine...50mg per cup in fact...which means I am dosing (although spread out over 9-ish hours) on roughly 600mg of caffeine per day...this *seems* like a lot to me, even though (medically) there is "very little risk of harm" (see the note above the chart) - and (in my defence) - I barely touch a drop of tea outside the office (I go every week night and all weekend long without so much as a sniff, with no ill effects at all)...

But it's given me pause...What do you think? Is twelve cups of tea a day too much?

Oh NO!! Leaf!

So, the other day...(actually, lets just stop there a second - isn't it funny how many of my posts seem to start like that now, rather than "earlier today" or even "yesterday" - *guilty glance*)...anyway, the other day, running out of tea bags from my desk drawer (with a tut), I made a little trip during my lunch break to the slightly overpriced Tesco Metro store in Cabot Square (near the DLR), getting back to my desk just about on time (phew)...logging on with one hand and popping open the packet with the other I blindly reached inside to try and retrieve a tea bag (as I grasped my mouse) and suddenly let out an exclamation (specifically - "Oh No!" - a little too loudly) that made everyone on my bank of desks look over (with very concerned faces) to see what on earth was the matter...

All I could manage was to weakly point at the packet and say "Leaf..." in a sad voice...

*Everyone* laughed. A lot... Even they knew it was too much - through tears of mirth came more than one apology that it wasn't *that* funny, but the eye wiping and spontanious giggles kept on popping out for at least twenty minutes (as I sat there glaring at my empty mug)... >:(

It was with great ceremony, then, and with many a (Mr Bean-like) smug smile, that the next day I revealed from my bag my (Ardingly Tombola stall won) teaspoon-shaped tea infuser...

Ner ner ner ner ner! *Sound of Fink doing a Thomas-style short, sharp raspberry*

Devon Holiday - Day 3 (Dartmoor, Devonshire Cream Tea and Dartmeet)

So, on to day 3 - we cook up a nice breakfast and then (after the Grand Prix), headed off into Dartmoor -

...which is a serious climb uphill from Totnes, right the way to Becky Falls (which was closed thanks to an "accident")...

...so we reversed course past Hay Tor...

- climbing all the way until the 20 degree plunge to Widecombe-in-the-moor-

- where we stopped for traditional Devonshire Clotted Cream Tea (followed by ice cream with more clotted cream) -

- then, with the skies starting to threaten we took the tiny roads over to Princetown, the home of HM Prison Dartmoor -

- there were big signs saying "NO STOPPING - BY ORDER" and double yellow lines everywhere, so Al pulled up in the prison museum car park and we trotted down the road to get some shots of the imposing entrance...

- and I shot this one holding the camera over the wall -

- it was only when we got back that the owners of the campsite informed us that normally, if they see anyone taking a snap burley prison guards and police appear from nowhere and confiscate the camera equipment! Meep! Anyway, looks like we got away with it! Next stop was Dartmeet -

- which, because the weather wasn't great actually wasn't full of tourists for a change -

- so I hopped pretty much on my own over the rocks (carefully guarding my camera) which are normally heaving with screaming children -

- for supper we went to the pub just down from the campsite (but I'll talk about that in another post)...the evening was drinks in the awning as usual, punctuated only by another toilet trip, this time inturrupted by the (loud) shrieking of young girls from the shower block next door "'ere 'shell where are ya?", (mouth full of toothpaste) "mmm 'ooing my 'eeef", "Wot?", (louder) "mmm 'ooing my 'eeef!!!", "Why? You got crabs or summink?" (slight pause then sound of thrown object striking shower door) (crashing noise) (fading screams)...*fink raises his eyebrows and glances to heaven*...