Starbucks makes me happy

I love Starbucks. An easy deduction, but today i am writing about the delicious Mocha Cookie Crumble frapaccino.

I went to university today (one lecture left and then I'm done) which was brilliant and terrible in waves. Only two of us turned up, and the other girl annoys me to say the least. At several stages during the lecture i considered whether i should, 'social work' her to demonstrate my person skills to the lecturer, (whom i love and have decided i want to work for in the future). Often the lecture seemed like a visit at work. The best conversation was as follows (remember this is 6 months into the social work course):

teacher: '...now this is a skill that you will need a lot as a social worker'
Annoying girl: 'oh. No. I don't want to be a social worker'.
Teacher: 'so what do you want to be?'
Annoying girl: 'a teacher'.
moment of silence as social work class grounds to a halt.
Me: ' So why are you doing a social work degree?'
Annoying girl: 'because a teacher i know told me i needed to get a degree, any degree, and then do a PGCE conversion course to become a teacher'.
amazing.

We then had a long, slow drawn out conversation about how if you wanted to be a teacher, perhaps a teaching degree was the best option, and the quickest. She asked a couple of times if she has just wasted a year doing the first year of a social work degree. It seems likely but neither I, nor the tutor had the heart to admit it.

She then refused to do any work, whenever she was asked a question answered with, 'i don't know', 'i've got a headache' or 'ask someone else'. When eventually i got really annoyed i asked her why she had come, to which she replied that she wanted to learn. Its amazing how you can never see whats in front of your face. She was refusing to learn AND hindering me from doing so. Eventually she left after saying 'Bye Kelly' and when i corrected her, she stated, 'i thought your name was Kelly' in such a way that it felt like a challenge that perhaps i had secretly changed my name over the course of the 6 months she has known me. cheers love.

Anyways once she left i got my geek on and got to chat social work politics and theory one on one with my idol. sorry. lecturer.

Following this annoyance, i felt like she ruined my lecture, i got trapped in the hell that was Gay Pride. I've never realised how illogical it is to let people march down oxford street and not have ANY WAY TO CROSS IT. There were crowds of terribly slow walking people all trying to hit me with their big yellow Selfridges bags thrown over their shoulders. The police had no information on where to direct people and I got very lost of backstreets looking for a way to get to ANY TUBE STATION. I found my way to Starbucks.

Option: drink Starbucks or sit on the pavement and cry (and i never cry). Starbucks won. I became more rational, called Honestly who was sitting at her laptop and directed me out of the mess via phone. I really need an I-Phone. not only would it help me navigate unfamiliar streets, it could mark out all the Starbucks for me :)

2/52 Happy? Starbucks Mocha Cookie Crumble Frapaccino!

52 Weeks of HAPPY.

I often struggle to know what to write on here. Although I love writing, I also want to write something that people want to read, not something they read the first two sentences of and then move on.

Are you still here?

Great.

So thanks to Spinster's idea, I am going to try to blog 52 weeks of happy. Reasons to be happy, things that make me happy. Glorious good stuff. That's not to say I wont mention my unprofessional conduct at work (latest exploits around not being allowed to attend court due to my trainers and having people struggle to understand that in normal life you only need one pair of shoes for one pair of feet, and that in the world of trainers- the bigger the better is the rule) or stories about Starbucks latest exploits (recent ability to walk in slow motion acquired).

So todays happy? The spa. This weekend I was lucky enough to attend York hall Spa in Bethnal green. There is something glorious about being near naked and warm. On top of this I went with my best friend, True. The overlooked aspect of a spa is that when you attend for a session, that is all that you do for those 3 hours. No mobile phones. No list of chores. No other agenda than chatting and relaxing. How often does this happen in modern day life. A few hours of being still.

The bible mentions quite frequently 'being still', and I think its an art. One that yoga and meditation enthusiasts might be able to champion better than myself. But being in a moment, complete and with no forward facing agenda, no baggage of history, but just being alive in a moment is a powerful place to be.

This is also what I like about the culture of having a cup of tea. A moment around a table with a friend, both holding a mug, that is the activity, nothing more. Just you two and an activity you need not think to do.

We didn't have any treatments at the spa, just enjoyed the sauna, steam rooms, tepiderium, bucket shower, plunge pool etc. Brilliant. Did you know it feels like an achievement to stand under a bucket of cold water and pull it over you, or to submerge yourself in an icy pool? Why cant you write things like this on your CV? you'd get a much clearer picture of what sort of person you were.

1/52 Happy? Going to the Spa with an interesting person.