Summer Plans

For the first time in years, I’ve got a completely open summer. Which kinda means I don’t know what to do with myself. Usually I’m either working in the field or taking a field-based summer class for at least part of the break, or filling it with a geography class or two. But I’ve got nothing. I am still keeping my options open on the off-chance I do still end up with a summer job, but all the interviews I’ve had so far have gone nowhere. Which sucks because I got a few really cool ones.

So I’m working more retail, and saving for tuition in the fall. Unfortunately I don’t get the buspass offered to credited students, which means paying a lot out of pocket just to use public transit everywhere. It also means that I can’t check any more books out of my school library, since I’m not a credited student this term. I’ve still got a pile of unread books I own, and a massive public library and archive to dig through.

I’ve had a little bit going on–I helped out at the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo (and picked up a few games for myself…). I realized too late that Startropic’s cartridge is cracked under the sticker. It seems superficial; I think if I open it up, I can ‘pop’ the crack back into place–maybe add a bit of glue to the inside to make sure it doesn’t pop back out, and the line should be absolutely invisible, since it doesn’t rip through the label.

I’m currently finishing up the World Atlas of Tea; it’s all right, I’ve got a few issues with it, and I feel like it needed at least one more run through the editor. I’ll talk more on it in a separate post.

So with all this free time, I’ve been spending even more of it in the library, tea shops, and used bookstores. While visiting Macleod’s the other day (picking up some tea books), I learned that apparently teabooks are in high demand. They are a great place to get them (a good turnover; there’s always a couple new ones whenever I visit), so I can see why (although now I wonder how many good books I’ve missed out on simply because I don’t visit enough).

Macleod’s Purchases

Picked up one from my wishlist and another just for the heck of it. They’ve got a few pricier art books on teaware that I’ve always managed to pass on.

My main motivation for going downtown this week though was to grab a dvd from the public library (and maybe a short book…).

My second motivation was to keep up the hunt for a new mini gaiwan. Unfortunately, I broke the lid to mine. It was part of a matching set as well (pictured in this post), making it even more tragic. I always tended to lean towards using it over my larger, single gaiwan, since it was a more convenient size for me (and my bladder).

There are a few sellers online that sell replacement lids, but they’re all for larger gaiwans. I could buy an entirely new set for pretty cheap, but.

It’s especially unfortunate as I’ve been using my travel set to serve tea to the tea club I attend; since they tend towards full English pots, they haven’t got a gongfu set of their own. My travel set is the perfect size to pack along.

At any rate, I’ve been looking into possibly fixing it, but have also been on the hunt for a new 60ml gaiwan for myself anyhow. I’m surprised at how difficult it is to find gaiwans under 100ml. I’ve thought of kintsugi, to add a bit of Japanese wabi-sabi to my Chinese tea, but it would be expensive to buy a kit myself and learn ($100); I know a friend of a friend who might do it, but that would require… Asking.

I might simply pick up some foodsafe silicone adhesive and fixing it that way. We’ll see. It broke pretty cleanly except for the extra chip below the orange koi (little tragic it had to break right through the image).

In other news, I hear Romance of Tea is getting a republish with a forward from Pratt. I’m actually a little excited, because even though I was able to find Ukers’ All About Tea, both volumes, in pdf, I was never able to find Romance of Tea. The price looks downright affordable too. Another book for the wishlist… It would be interesting if the Vancouver Tea Festival were able to invite Pratt up north, but I feel it probably doesn’t quite have the budget of the larger conventions in the states.