Friday 31 December 2021

Teeline Month

January is always going to be a quiet month, more so with Omicron raging across the country. Hence, it’s the perfect time to set myself a staying-in project. 

Throughout January, I’m going to brush up on Teeline shorthand. Back in March, I found a PDF copy of Teeline Fast by Ann Dix, a guide teeline shorthand. It’s been my plan since then to set aside a month to focus on the workbook, which is full of explanations and practice tasks. I’ve even booked off a couple of weeks to solidly work on this. 

Why this skill? I’ve been to many a book signing and convention over the years. There’s been times when I’ve been listening to a talk with an author or movie star, and they’re telling stories of things that happened to them when they’re researching a book or filming a scene. I’m sat in some darkened auditorium frantically scribbling down as much detail as I can in some feeble attempt at semi-Teeline. The next day, when I’m piecing together a blog post, I’m looking over these notes thinking, what was I trying to write there? Are there parts of this story missing? Every time, I think, I really must brush up on Teeline. 

But, during lockdown I’ve been busy reading, and as lockdown eased, I was preparing for the Santa Dash that I missed due to illness. Then it was Christmas, which is always a busy month. 

Now’s the perfect time. I’ll review at the end of the month.

Tuesday 28 December 2021

Donated Beermats: 88

This week, fellow collector NE Beer Matters made a kind gesture and sent me a few mats. He has all my doubles now, so I couldn’t reciprocate! Check out the excellent artwork on these recently-designed mats. I’ve found that keeping the flash off prevents the washing out of the colours, and holding the camera way a little meant that the phone’s shadow was off to the side of the mats. Zooming in in Instagram meant I could cut out the shadow.