Musing on Coincidences and Cuppas

Up at 6am this morning, just as it is getting light. It is beautiful outside, and I took my first mug of tea and sat on the patio and listened to the dawn chorus. This time, and early evening are my favourite times outside, when the sun is mild and the air fresh. I sometimes wonder what I am doing living in the hottest part of one of the hottest countries in Europe! I seem to spend most of the day avoiding the sun!

Election fever seems to be hotting up and as I sat outside I mused.........this is something that has to be done at least once a day. My thoughts were all about coincidences, what strange things they are? It is easy to understand how some people think that there are external forces at work on our lives. Now who would have believed that actor Tony Booth, who was so funny as the Labour-supporting son-in-law of Alf Garnett in TV's 'Till Death Us Do Part', would end up being the Labour Prime Minister's father-in-law? And how come, when Neil yelled out 'What a Save!' at a football matchon the TV, I should just have placed 'Save' as my word for my computer scrabble game? Too many times to count, I would select a client's records on the computer at work (for no reason other than it was the next in line for routine checking) and that client would telephone, often for the first time in months. Weird! Sometimes I believe in a parallel universe that warps so close to our own sometimes that events cross over, other times I think this is just baloney and it is all just coincidence.

Another thing I mused on is the standard of tea-making amongst my family and friends. Now my sister and her husband believe that they make the best tea on the planet. So does my son. So does my husband. So do I. And we all make tea differently, using different types of tea and ways of making it. Neil and I went into a specialist tea restaurant in Dijon, early one morning when we were desperate for that first cuppa. From the 100's of teas on offer, we chose one most likely to suit......English Breakfast Tea. It arrived without milk, and even after prodding, was so weak it was almost a fortnight. It also came with delicate bone-china CUPS. We did the best we could, but I was tempted to inform the owner that no self-respecting English Tea-Drinker would drink this at breakfast. Breakfast tea should be a nice pleasing light-to-mid brown (kinda like beech furniture), should be served with milk and no sugar, and be in a MUG (bone china if you insist). This morning, I mused that this is only MY idea of a perfect morning cuppa, and that everyone I know probably has a different point of view. I am such a devoted tea-drinker that I enjoy a cuppa wherever, even gnat's in Dijon.

However, the drink-they-call-tea in Greece bears absolutely no resemblance to anything I recognise as such, and I avoid it. This leaves me in a quandary when it comes to selecting a hot drink when out and about, as I don't like coffee much and there isn't much else to choose. I tend to stick to cold drinks.. fruit juice or water mostly.

Time to get breakfast. Bye for now

Friday 22nd April 2005

Can't sleep. It's 05.40 and apart from me, the only other things awake here are the resident Geckos. When we first came here I would catch them and put them outside, but locals tell me they are a) harmless and
b) beneficial as they catch and eat mosquitos. Our Geckos are very small, probably no more than 4" head to tail, and they run and hide in the roof space when I put the light on.

Neil reckons he can hear them calling when all is quiet in here. However, I am not sure Geckos make a noise and can't find out. Anybody know of a decent website 'everything you wanted to know about Geckos but were afraid to ask'

Thursday 21st April 2005:- Starting Out

Having read my sister's Blog, I thought I would have a try at my own.

Why Sossij Sandwich I hear you ask? Well, Sossij is my internet identity, based on the nickname given to me by my dearest husband Neil. And I firmly believe that almost anything that is good to eat tastes better in a sandwich. The sandwich is quite probably the cure for anything that is wrong with the world, but it has yet to be put to the test. I mean, how can you harbour murderous thoughts whilst tucking in to a peanut butter and marmalade sandwich?