Year of Living Boisterously

OK, I just made an important decision. And then remade it.

Last night, Daylight Saving ended here. And that magical hour was restored to us.

A few years ago in one of my other blogs I wrote about my son’s plans to use that hour to travel in time. It was a great idea and a great blog; but I can’t find it now so you’ll just have to wonder.

Every year, for years, something has gone wrong on this day. I remember being in a hospital waiting room one year, having a wild party up the street keeping us up, cat issues – all sorts. Every year it seemed that my quest to get my hour back – the one that was ruthlessly  stolen in November – met with disappointment,

But today I slept in to one hour longer than is my custom on a Sunday. I got up at 7a.m. And then found it was magically 6a.m. Woo-hoo!

So I had an hour I wasn’t planning on. Great!

Measuring in Australian Financial Years – July to June – this has been a fantastic one. Particularly when you consider that there were so many disasters in the previous three, starting from the time when I walked out of a well-paying, highly visible job as Operations Manager for a very impressive – at least on paper – Executive Recruitment Agency and embarked on a course of dream after dream turning to ashes.

The journey that Lady Devotea and I have been on since 2007 has been a real uphill battle, to say the least, but it all fell into place around July last tear.

So, with the way the last nine months has gone, we are extremely busy and a free hour is nothing to sneeze at.

So, I decided to pack my stuff for today’s event.

Today’s event? I’m glad you asked!

Today is a really important day, as for the first time, a tea room will be stocking The Devotea Teas – a limited selection comprising Lord Petersham, Lady Devotea, The Duchess and Finbarr’s Revenge, the latter being our Irish Breakfast Blend that is not yet commercially available.

We’ll be heading up into the Adelaide Hills to stand out in their courtyard, offering free tiny tea samples to passers-by and encouraging them to enter.

The venue – Antiquteas–  has the most amazing little cakes and is a lovely place to have High Tea. Quite the best place in South Australia, we believe.

So, I just spent an hour packing for that. That’s the decision I made to get the most out of my hour.

WAIT – I hear you say – weren’t you going to do that anyway? That’s not really using your bonus hour!

And you’re right!

So, I decided to write this blog. That’s a use of an hour that surely no-one can object to, right?

It’s such an exciting time for us. We are about to announce a commencement day for our US operation. Soon, we will also announce one for our UK operation. I have two books in the pipeline and a third in collaboration with some others. Our on-line store here on Tea Trade is something we are very proud of. Some events in the UK later this year. And there is an exciting event in the US we will be a part of, though by remote control. All seemingly out of reach about 10 months ago.

I think back to 2009 and a friend suggested I create a character to be in some videos about tea. That character was “The Devotea” and as he got better, I liked him more and then eventually became him. That single decision has filtered through to this point in time.

FY11/12 (as Australian accountants romantically describe this time we are living in) is our Year of Living Boisterously – a time to be loud, and active, and daring, and love it.

So that extra hour was the perfect time to document it.