It was a memorable year! Unfortunately, I didn’t have the luck to get to visit Japan before the world ground to a halt. I don’t think I’ve ever spent as much time thinking about how I’ve spent my time. Looking back, I put it to good use.
The year kicked off with me getting to try a really special flavor: Cloudberry. When we were doing our Christmas shopping in 2019 I picked up a book called ‘Edible and Medicinal Plants of Canada’ and came across a fruit called Cloudberry that grows in the Eastern provinces and most of Scandinavia. $40 later, in the middle of January, my little jar from across the world (Sweden) arrived and I had a chance to eat it with homemade bread. It seems we don’t make our own over here, and that is sad because it’s probably the best jam I’ve ever had. Well worth the $40.
In February my most memorable days revolved around drinks… Updating the whiskey menu for Q was fun, I drank some great tea too. How was Valentine’s day? I don’t recall? It’s too bad that I lost the whiskey menu file to history, I spent a lot of time on it.
In March, I got to sit in an empty Golden Inn with Manuel and Marcello at 11 pm on a Saturday Night (surely that is one of the few times in the past decade anyone could say that) — U&Me was closed completely. Later in the month, I had probably the best bite of the year, a seared scallop from The Big Catch. I fucked up the undercarriage of my car, and had that repaired along with my brakes. I also ate a bunch of croissants this month because my repair shop is right next to an amazing bakery.
In April things went crazy… As it was getting warm enough to have tea outside, all of a sudden I wanted to have a tea house. A few days later started going up, I invented the ‘Mochi Omurice’ on a lunch break. It has that weird blue color because Alice and May add food coloring to make it fun.
In May I got my first shipment of fresh green tea from China, around the same time I could start doing flower arrangements again thanks to a friend of mine Llyn. I started reading a book called The Tale of Tea. I had a pretty good mustache too! We spent some time at Elliston park, and Alice and May were getting into Animal Crossing New Horizons.
In June I went hiking with my friends… but there was a miscommunication and I ended up going hiking alone! Prarie Mountain was pretty difficult for a guy who only hikes once a year… I had some phoenix oolong tea at the top though, that was nice. More tea tasting at the restaurant, and good times in the backyard.
In July my life turned upside down, my employment for 8 years suddenly came to an end, we had a couple of tornado warnings. We went to the mountains a few times this month seeing as now I had an abundance of time off. I started setting up the tea room in my house for guests to come to drink tea with me. It was in July that I started pumping out content for sommerier.com, guides on how to brew tea, judge quality, etc. I started designing the logos, and my friends with proper skills helped me finalize them. Stuart and I put some good working hours into getting the tea house into a better aesthetic. Staining, plexi glass roofing, a door, etc.
In August there were some gangster nights for wine and tea. I commissioned some pottery cups from Bizen Japan to sell in my shop and started a new serving job at Carino a couple of days a week. I got some good cigar time in too while I was brushing up on my Italian wine knowledge. I made little edible teacups out of matcha flavored marzipan and royal icing (another great invention of 2020 I must say). I got the rock garden going for the tea house, and spent some days and nights in there reading, drinking tea, playing pokemon cards with my Alice, even camping once!
September was more hiking, reading, and tea in the mountains. I got more into mapping areas of the world related to tea and tried at this time to get my website in better condition. My boxes came in, my UV jars came in.
October, even more of that. But this time the trees were golden. I put out more content no one will ever watch, did some flower arrangement and inkbrush painting. Then with the snow, my commissioned cups from months prior arrived. Halloween, of course, was great.
November seemed to be the month of sunsets! It was mostly work-related and I did my big push of holiday-oriented tea stuff. I did a lot of reading and, fixing up the house where I could. I felt my skill level as a server was improving, I got up to 32 people in 1 night alone (basically 8 tables at once) Drank some great wines this month too. We got a pet rabbit named Binky, but we changed it to Carrots, then Carrot… and while that is officially still his name, we all call him Kero.
December, well, I drank a lot of tea. I got a covid test (negative), I made a quiz about astronomy for Alice, had a zoom Christmas with my family. It snowed a lot. We roasted some marshmallows in our fireplace. And then it ended.
All things considered, I don’t think it was a bad year by any means. Life changed a lot, not necessarily for the best, but there were some great memories made along the way. I know my opinion on many things changed a great deal thanks to reading the books I did. The compound knowledge of other people, who knew how much impact it could have?
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