100 words: Blank

I make myself a proper cup of tea and sit down at my desk, the blank Word document already open. I’m slowly sipping my tea and thinking; nothing funny or smart comes to my mind so the document remains blank. I open a new blank document in Pages, hoping that changing my writing tools will make a difference; it doesn’t. I finish my tea and go to bed, hoping that a relaxing atmosphere will make my mind burst with inspiration; it doesn’t. The documents stay blank and soon I give up, close them both and start watching a dull film.

A perfect set of cups

Yesterday Mr Starlights parents visited our apartment for the first time and they had the honour to be the first people who drank coffee from our new tea/coffee set, bought just a few hours before its first use.

When we first moved to this apartment, almost two years ago, we noticed that we didn’t own a set of cups; a proper set of cups with plates, for coffee and tea. We had plenty of lovely mugs though, but none of them matching each other. We agreed that we must have a set of cups and added it to our shopping list but there was always a good reason to delay this purchase.

The main reason why it took us so long to buy a set of cups is that we don’t really need them. We don’t get a lot of visitors and those who come by regularly like to have their tea or coffee in big mugs because they drink it with milk. We also like hot beverages with milk (and two teaspoons of sugar, please) and those cups we already had proved to be very useful.

Unlike us and all the other people we know, my in-laws drink espresso. Plain black coffee; no milk, no sugar. A shot of coffee one could say. They usually drink it from small espresso cups and we wanted to be good hosts and make an impression; the visit from my in-laws proved to be a good reason to finally buy that coffee/tea set.

Choosing the perfect set of cups proved to be a more challenging task than either of us expected. An even harder one since we didn’t have the slightest idea what we wanted. It took us quite awhile to pick out a set that we both really liked but we finally did it.

Photo was taken by my lovely friend Alja, you can find more of her magnificent photos here.

Volunteer

I enter the lift and press the button with the number four on it. I’m nervously thinking about how I will do, if there’s something I shouldn’t say and what I should say. Before I leave the lift I take one last look in the mirror, fix a strand of hair that was out of place and check my make-up. It all looks fine.

A few moments later I enter the office where three smiling faces are looking at me and when a cup of tea is offered most of my fears fade away. I feel welcome.

We sit down and start talking about their how the institute is organized. The director is explaining what they think I could do and which conferences they think would be interesting for me to attend with them. I’m a bit surprised since I didn’t expect all of this but at the same time I’m very happy and excited because I realise that this is a big and important opportunity for me and that I can gain a lot; not just a lot of working experience but also new acquaintances. We talk for an hour or so about all sorts of things regarding my voluntary work at their institute and then the director realises that it’s lunchtime and I’m invited to join them.

We enter the lift and someone presses the button with the letter P on it. I smile and they all smile back; I think I did well and they liked me.

100 words: Coffee

Some people love tea and some people love coffee; I, myself, find pleasure in both of them.

This morning I woke up craving coffee. I went to the kitchen and discovered that we ran out of ground coffee. I went to the storage room and found an unopened box of coffee beans. 

I slowly opened the box and enjoyed the perfect smell of fresh coffee beans for a long moment before I put it into the grinder.

The smell of fresh coffee overwhelmed the kitchen as I sat down and enjoyed a quiet morning with a fresh cup of coffee. 

Photo taken from here.

My perfect cup of tea

I sit on the sofa with a computer in my lap and a cup of my favourite tea in hand. Choco power is black tea with chocolate flavour and it’s perfect with a glimmer of milk. It smells wonderful and you can easily detect the chocolate scent which isn’t too strong despite the fact thatit is a chocolate tea.

But tea wasn’t always my favourite drink, not that I didn’t like it, I just didn’t drink it very often. As a child I usually only drank it when I was ill; my Mum would put a tea bag in the cup and pour boiling water over it. After a couple of minutes she would take out the tea bag and add four tea spoons of sugar; she knew that I wouldn’t drink it if it wasn’t sweet enough. Then she would put the cup on my night stand if I was in my room or on the coffee table in front of the sofa if I was in the living room. Usually I forgot about the fruit flavoured tea waiting for me and I would notice it when it was already cold.

When I was healthy I would drink cold cocoa; I drank hot cocoa only if I was visiting my late grandmother. She had a special recipe for my hot cocoa and she knew I wouldn’t drink it any other way; the way she made it for me was perfect. She removed the kettle from the stove just before the milk boiled and poured it in the cup with about five big spoons of cocoa already in it. Then she added three tea spoons of sugar and voila, there was my perfect hot cocoa.

In high school we would drink coffee. We weren’t children anymore so it was only appropriate for us to drink all sorts of coffee; usually it was cappuccino or caffè latte but on special occasions we went to a cafe where they served all sorts of flavoured coffees in huge glasses – you could have vanilla, coconut, chocolate, marzipan, you name it. Once a week I would go there with my girlfriends on our way from the train station; we would drink the delicious coffee, chat and laugh.  

I continued to drink coffee when I went to university but I realised that I drank way too much of the “black devil” when I had exams so I decided to stop drinking it. I started drinking black tea with milk and now I can’t imagine my day without it.

I enjoy going to the tea shop where they have a big wall covered with shelves, full of huge silver boxes that are filled with tea. I can choose between green tea, black tea, white tea and a lot of different flavours. I usually check out their website and decide on which flavours I want to try out. Then I smell the tea in the shop and each time I’m confronted with a hard decision - I would love to buy them all. Instead, I always buy my favourite Choco power and also choose a different tea with a new flavour which I haven’t had before. The last time I was there I chose hazelnut flavoured tea but when I came home I discovered that it smelled a bit too much like marzipan. I put on my brave face and prepared it; it wasn’t that bad but it was the only time I actually drank it.  

I enjoy preparing my tea; you have to follow a strict procedure for the tea to be perfect. I boil the water and put the bits of tea (I drink realtea) in a strainer. It usually takes me a couple of seconds to decide which cup I want to drink from and when I choose it I put the strainer in and pour the water over. After 7-8 minutes I take the strainer out, add two tea spoons of sugar and a little bit of milk. Then I sit down and enjoy drinking my perfect tea. 

100 words: Choco power

Something’s missing, I don’t feel complete.

I know what’s missing.

I go to the kitchen and boil the water. Meanwhile I fill the strainer with little brown bits. Two spoons are enough for the perfect taste.

The water is boiled. I take my favourite blue cup from the shelf and put the strainer in. I pour the water into the cup.

I wait for 8 minutes before I take the strainer out. Two spoons of brown sugar and a little bit of milk. Perfect.

I sit down with my favourite Choco power tea and nothing is missing. I feel complete.

Six Word Sunday II.

I have a very busy day today, so I don’t have time to write a long blog, but I have a need to write something about my day. Six Word Sunday it’s the best option, so here we go:

Brainstorming, reading literature, writing essay, tea

That’s my busy Sunday, if anyone else wrote a Six Word Sunday please let me know, I would love to read it.

A great day

I had a great day today! I woke up very slowly and then drank tea and chilled out. After recharging my batteries I read some literature for today’s lecture which was very interesting. The literature, not the lecture…

Before the lecture I met up with my colleague in a café to catch up. We had a great time. Talking about favourite tv series is always fun and getting some approval for watching tv series instead of studying is a big relief. It’s also always good to know that you’re not the only one doing that so you feel less guilty about it.

After this nice chit chat we had to go to the lecture where I felt like the stupidest person on Earth. I didn’t have a clue what the professor was talking about. We had to read an article about elections in Iran which was, as I already said, very interesting. But at the lecture I found out that this article had deeper meaning which I didn’t see. I felt a bit better when other colleagues told me that they were as confused as I was but I would still like to understand that article.

After this confusing lecture the day got better again. I met up with two of my oldest friends for lunch in a chic restaurant in the centre of the city. We haven’t seen each other for a couple of weeks so we had a lot to talk about. One of them was in Norway last week and she brought us a cute and useful little gift – bookmarkers (we both love to read) with a picture by the famous Norwegian painter Edvard Munch – Skrik (The Scream).

Time flew by and it was time to go home since we all have work to do.

Edvard Munch – Skrik (The Scream)

But before going home I had another stop – at a tea shop. I almost ran out of tea so I was in a desperate need of a new stash. I love the smell in there and usually I can hardly resist buying everything they have. After a hard decision I bought two black teas – Choco power and Vanilla and also two green teas – China gunpowder and Green red orange.

When I came home to my sweetheart we cuddled a bit, and now I’m writing my blog with a cup of tea (Green red orange) by my side.

What a perfect day!

A list of five things I enjoy doing every day

1. Cuddling with my boyfriend. My day without cuddling with him, even if just for a couple of minutes, is not perfect. If I have a bad day or anything goes wrong in my life, he is the one who makes me feel better. Just by hugging him I get to know that everything’s going to be all right.

2. Talking to my friends. I don’t see my girlfriends every day but I can call them anytime. I enjoy talking to them about different things whether it’s something important or just a chit chat.

3. Drinking tea. Lately I’ve been drinking a lot of tea, and I feel that something’s missing if I don’t get a cup of hot black tea with a bit of milk.

4. Sleeping. I love sleeping; I used to sleep ten or more hours a day. I don’t sleep as much anymore but I still enjoy being in the warm shelter of my blanket and it’s even better if my honey is hugging me. That makes my sleep perfect.

5. Writing a blog. I only started writing my blog about 2 weeks ago, but it became a big part of me and my life. Lately I didn’t have a hobby or anything I would do for my soul, I had (I still have…) a crisis in my life and writing a blog makes me feel better. Knowing that there are people out there who read it and write comments about it makes me feel even better and I thank you all for that from the bottom of my heart! :*

Six Word Sunday

This blog is inspired by Caterpillars blog and also by Loubas blog. Six words for this Sunday…

Sleeping, reading, making notes, tea, chocolate

I thought it was easier to write a six word blog. It’s not, but it’s easier than writing a 100 word blog. Try it yourself sometimes and tell me about it, I would love to read it :)