I live a complex life, like most people these days.
Here’s how Roger Waters explained this:
You wake up in the morning, get something for the pot
Wonder why the sun makes the rocks feel hot
Draw on the walls, eat, get laid
Back in the good old daysThen some damn fool invents the wheel
Listen to the whitewalls squeal
You spend all day looking for a parking spot
Nothing for the heart, nothing for the pot
(from Me or Him, which is from ‘Radio K.A.O.S.’ one of my favourite albums ever.)
So yes, life is more complex than when we were mucking about in caves a few millennia ago.
The tea business – well, our tea business – is a complicated undertaking – not least of all because it is part-time and we do other stuff.
We are in the process of realigning the other stuff. As part of the review of the aforementioned other stuff, we might decide to increase the amount of other stuff, or reduce it. Which will leave more or less time for The Devotea. And that involves a lot of thinking and planning.
We spent the weekend doing two markets.
The first was expected to be extremely busy for various reasons; but Fortune (as in the mythical force, not the famous botanist and tea pioneer) did not favour us. It was an extreme heat day, there was a ‘catastrophic’ level fire alert, and then an uncontrolled bushfire started nearby. We hung on for a while but eventually had to pack up and depart.
Sunday was a different story : a perfect day, a lovely location and yet not a lot of people. We did what we always did when that happens, which was to have a good percentage of success with the limited opportunity available.
The point with markets is that for us, it’s not about the money. Our measure of success is that we have a hard-core following of fans whom we see regularly, and we revel in the opportunity to meet new people and share our teas with them.
It’s easy for me when I’m making someone a 191o , whilst Lady Devotea shares the joy of Aussie Ginger Chai with an interested couple, to think “this is what we should do full time. Stuff anything else”.
Is it realistic? Perhaps not entirely. Is it unrealistic? Also not entirely.
It is definitely thinking time. Maybe that will lead to a big announcement. Maybe nothing will change. Time will tell.
I know what you mean.
Believe me.
For as long as the leaf has been the sustenance of many, who am I to give up at this juncture. As the leaves regenerate themselves with new blooms and buds, so must I.