from somewhere in my imagination

...and I Cried

When it comes to crying, it generally takes a bit to make me well up.  I'm more likely to cry at fiction than actual real life....I think every single episode of Grey's Anatomy made me well up at some point last year.

When I was a kid my nickname at school was potato.  I hated it.  It made me cry.

When I was a little bit older I saw The Neverending Story at the cinema.  I started crying when Artex sank into the mud and didn't stop crying until the end.  There was snot everywhere.  I am not a pretty crier when I'm really upset.

I've been known to have the odd fit of the giggles and laugh until I cry.  Such a good feeling that is.

I had a manager tell me I was a bit of a hard arse once.  Ironically, it made me cry.  Even more ironically he was telling me that because I'd made someone else cry...not intentionally...I just have high expectations of myself and I translate that to anyone else working for me.  In reality I am tough but fair.  In a work situation I am the first to tell you when you have done something well but I won't leave you wondering if you need to pick up your game.  I am retrospectively proud of being called a hard arse.

On Wednesday night I was cooking dinner for the kids before I headed to the gym for some Tough Mudder training.  Lauren was looking after the kids for me.  I was standing at the stove, making fried rice, when she dropped the bombshell that our trainer had quit the gym.  A million thoughts started running through my head.  I screwed up my face and slowly but surely, unbidden tears started to roll down my face.

I have left the towns I lived in for eight and four years without so much as a single tear yet here I was with soundless tears streaming down my face.  I'd blame the onions if there had been any involved but unfortunately they weren't.

Next I started laughing at the absurdity of the fact I was crying about such a ridiculous thing, but the tears continued to flow.

Finally she told me she was actually joking, there was some elaborate story attached to the joke, I threw snow peas at her and I laughed.  I think I was just a little bit relieved.  I think I like lifting heavy things.

Are you much of a crier?  Are you more likely to cry at real life or fiction?  What is the most ridiculous thing that has made you cry recently?

Tatum xx

Coffee Confessions

I am a bit of a coffee snob.  Well, actually, snob probably isn't the right word, I just know what I like when it comes to coffee and I know the difference between a good one and a bad one.  There are a ridiculous number of coffee photos in my Instagram feed.

On my floor at work we have a fancy schmancy machine but unfortunately the beans supplied aren't that great and by afternoon the machine tends to run too hot and the coffee gets bitter and pretty much undrinkable, as far as I'm concerned.

I've resorted to making tea, and I can tell you that the T2 choc chip chai is delightful in the afternoons.  Madagascan Vanilla is my choice for a morning cuppa.  However, I digress, I was talking about coffee wasn't I?

When I started working in the city I would get a coffee on the way to work I stuck with what I know so Cibo on the corner of Grenfell and King William was my regular but it really wasn't cutting it.  Cibo in Pirie Street is en route to Joggers World and after stopping there a few times I discovered that the barista really does have a whole lot to do with how good your coffee is because the coffee in Pirie Street is a whole world better than on the corner of Grenfell.

Then, one morning whilst dashing up James Place, I spotted Fair Espresso out of the corner of my eye.  I was confused because I was sure that they hadn't always been there but I had been missing their coffee since the baseball ended back in February.  That weekend I discovered them at the footy, tucked under the northern grandstand at Aami Stadium.  When I fronted up for a coffee in James Place the following Monday morning they recognised me, my name often gives me away like that, and I have been visiting each day I'm on my way to work since.  Love the place, love the friendliness and warm atmosphere and love that what they serve is fair trade and organic.

However, there was one morning when I got coffee from the Coffee Branch.

The Coffee Branch is on Leigh Street and, semiregularly, on Friday mornings we head to work via Leigh Street to visit From Scratch Patisserie who set up their cute little cabinet selling their amazing pastries each Friday. 

A couple of weeks ago I decided to get a coffee to go with my almond croissant, there is a delectable array of pastries but I still haven't tried anything other than an almond croissant, call me a creature of habit.  Well, the coffee branch coffee is fantastic, but the atmosphere just made me want to pull up a stool and my laptop and just spend the entire day in there just sitting and writing and drinking coffee and eating the delicious things they have in their cabinet. Seriously.

Around the time Fair Espresso opened on Leigh Street so did Caparezza.  They sell the from scratch pastries everyday, thats what drew my attention to them in the first place.  So, I have my lunchtime coffee with the Italians (and often with Lauren).  I'm sure they secretly want to tell us off for drinking lattes after lunch, I'm so sure of it I think I might start having a macchiato in there instead...once I feel confident enough that I won't sound like a dick when I order one.

The baristas wear white shirts with skinny black ties and mandatory 5 o'clock shadows.  They talk to each other about the soccer in Italian and someone's Mamma makes the minestrone.  I love the place, it makes me happy.

Besides the pastries they also have some kick ass looking rolls and sandwiches but their cannoli are amazeballs.  I told Lauren they were a zillion times better than the ones from Cibo, I don't think she thought it was possible until she tried one and agreed it was probably closer to infinity times.

So there you have my Adelaide CBD coffee confessions.

Are you a coffee drinker or is tea more your thing?  Is there somewhere in the Adelaide CBD, or any other CBD for that matter, that makes a great latte that I just need to try?

Tatum xx

She Danced on Tables in Beautiful Shoes

My Nana loved beautiful shoes.  As she got older and her arthritis got worse she would often tell me about the beautiful shoes she used to wear, and how she danced on tables.

I miss my nana.

For a long time shoes weren't really my thing but then sometime in my mid twenties they started to capture my attention a bit more.  It may have had something to do with the number of times I was preganant and breastfeeding so shoes I could guarantee my shoe size far better than I could the size of my clothes.

In to my thirties my love of shoes seems to have amplified somewhat.  I do have some lovely pairs of shoes.  In the last six months I have slowly but surely actually learned to walk in most of them.  I'm more likely to be tearing my ballet flats from my feet when I walk through the door than most of my regular heels.

I've named quite a few of the pairs.  Does that make me strange?

Recently Steven had the day off with Jasmine when she was sick.  He took it upon himself to tidy my shoes and emailled me the above photo at work with the caption:

Did you know you have 41 pairs of shoes?

I replied with

Don't they look beautiful.  I need a red pair.

When I posted the photo on instagram most people couldn't quite get over the fact my husband had tidied my shoes.  41 is not that impressive a number when it comes to shoes, Super Kawaii Mama tweeted she was counting her red lipsticks and was up to 37.  In conversation she reassured me that 41 pairs of shoes was really not that bad compared to her 156 at last count.  That gorgeous lady has some seriously divine shoes.

Red heels and sneakers are the only things on my shoe shopping list when we go to the US at the end of the month...but if some others happen to slip in I won't be sad.

As for my most recent shoe purchase I could not leave this pair of AX heels in DJ's at their seriously reduced price.  They are a hot pair of shoes.  I've never had 'hot' shoes before.

Are you a shoe person?  Do you buy clothes especially to match your shoes?  Do you have names for any of your shoes or am I actually a bit crazy?

Tatum xx

Shoes in the picture are:

Top Shelf L-R: Nine West nude patent heels, Country Road black wedges, Country Road tan ankle boots, AX black cut out stiletto ankle boots, Country Road brown ankle boots, RM Williams cowboy boots

Bottom Shelf L-R: Black Country Road pumps, Black Country Road heels, Aldo orange heels 'Vegas wedding shoes', Jeffrey Campbell Hello Sunshine yellow wedges for ModCloth, Midas Wedges, Nine West blue heels 'High Tea shoes'