An Afternoon of Tea & Cake for the Soul

An Afternoon of Tea and Cake for the Soul is where I get to chat with other bloggers to find out their thoughts and experiences on all the subjects that I cover on my blog.  I decided to share my favourites to kick things off, but you can find links to all my other guests at the end of this post.

My favourite tea
I love Dorset English Breakfast Tea or Liptons when I’m in the USA and I take it black with a little bit of cold water in it.

My favourite cake
A good moist carrot cake is my favourite to eat but I’ve never made one. I have several recipes to try out though so watch this space.  Ones that I regularly make are sweet potato brownies (which are dairy and gluten free and surprisingly delicious) and fruity coconut squares.

Celebrity Afternoon Tea
I’m not one for celebrity culture and I’m very fortunate that I follow an underground music scene where everyone knows everyone. I have probably had tea or cake, or a chat at the bar, with everyone that I would have once considered “famous”.  But for the fun of this I’d chose the following:

Aimee Interrupter – a very cool lead singer in a ska/punk band from the USA – she’s the sort of rock chic popstar I’d love to be if I could sing. Watching or listening to her makes me feel like I did when I was a kid singing into my hairbrush pretending that I was Joan Jett, or Pink, but if I admitted to Pink then you would know that the wannabe rock chic feeling wasn’t just limited to my childhood, haha! She comes across as a real sweetie too, no ego or anything.

Lee Rocker – I have actually met him twice and will admit to being a little bit star struck. I almost had the chance to interview him for a vintage magazine that I was writing for, but sadly the mag shut down before that happened. Afternoon tea with him would be rather nice. I’d love to hear about his early days with the Stray Cats.

Robbie Williams – ok so maybe I am a little bit celebrity after all. He has always been a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. He was on the same flight as me recently and it has rekindled my crush on him a bit. You can read all about my encounter with Robbie Williams HERE But I’d definitely like him onboard for this tea party. I’m sure he’s a proper tea drinker.

Tyber Cranstoun – former busker but now frontman of the very successful Dualers who sell out gigs a year in advance. I’d like him there to sing a duet with Robbie.

Philip Schofield – I just love the old silver fox, he’s so funny but comes across as genuinely warm, and I think he’d settle any nerves that I’d have around Robbie and Lee.

And last but certainly not least, my best friend Ali so that we could pick the afternoon apart after all the celebs had gone. I couldn’t let her miss out on this, could I?

Soothing and lifting my soul
To soothe my soul I do Qi Gong. I have a favourite clip on YouTube that I do most days, it’s only about 10 mins long but I find the deep breathing instantly calms me and the stretches work out any aches and pains.

To lift my soul, I put on some loud music and have a dance around or go to a gig.

A craft project that I’m particularly proud of
I love repurposing things and my most favourite projects have been things that I’ve gifted on. I made a gold disc for a musician friend of mine for his birthday and personalised bistro candles as an alternative to Christmas cards one year. They were all so well received. God, I hope that doesn’t make me sound mean but I like to make personal things that I think people will really like knowing they’ve been well thought out and made with love. And I do love to receive those sorts of gifts too.

Best Tip
I think my most useful tip is the one I reshare on the first of every month as a reminder to self-examine for lumps and bumps and do some home maintenance checks such as testing smoke alarms and cleaning out the washing machine and dishwasher. It’s so easy to forget about things but if you do them on 1^st of every month you get a timely reminder.

My favourite travel destination
Seal Beach in Orange County California. We usually stay there when we fly in and out of LAX. It is my favourite place in the world. As soon as we arrive, we drop our bags at our hotel and walk straight to the beach. At the sight of the sea, my shoulders drop and I feel instantly calm and happy. I’d love to live there one day. We have hopes that we can have extended stays in the Winter when we retire. That’s the dream anyway.

Favourite reads
If you’re a regular visitor you will know that chick lit is my guilty pleasure. I know they have a bit of a bad press but they really aren’t all slushy romances. They often tell stories of empowered women, great friendships, families, and yes, they are often set at the seaside or in a little shop or a tea room which gets my vote. They are just a nice bit of escapism from the real world. But to give them additional credit they are written by some very talented authors. Favourites so far this year are Big Sexy Love by Kirsty Greenwood and Can’t Get You Out of my Head by Sue Shepherd.

Health tips
You will find loads of health tips throughout this blog, particularly on the subject of mental illness, but one thing I will share here is don’t bottle things up! Seek medical advice when necessary and reach out to friends or other sufferers for support.

My Blog goals
Ultimately, I write for two reasons. One is for myself because I enjoy it and I find writing therapeutic and two, because I want help people out with my subject matter whether it’s a how-to tutorial, a place to visit, a recipe or most importantly something that will help their soul. I certainly get a buzz when others say they enjoy my musings.

I’ve been working hard to try and spread the word but it’s not easy. I’m not worried about having lots of followers per se, but I would like to get the word out to as many people as possible. Long term I’d like to write something that is really well received and everyone loves it, comments on and shares.

Check out the afternoons I’ve had with previous blogger guests:

Diary of a Detour
Michelle from The Zebra Pit/Mykie Writes
Talyer Silfverduk
A Little Book Problem
There is Always Hope
The Chronic Traveller
Goth Girl Reads
Random Things Through My Letterbox
The MS Wire

If you would like to feature in An Afternoon of Tea and Cake for the Soul in the future then please contact me. It will be closed for now but back in autumn/winter 2019.

This post was shared for Blogtober 2018

* MORE ABOUT TEA & CAKE FOR THE SOUL
* FOLLOW
* VIEW ALL MY BLOGTOBER POSTS

@annecater @diaryofadetour @pamjessen @chronictravell @book_problem @TSilfverduk @TheMSWire