For the love of mugs…

Now if your coffee mug drawer is anything like mine, it’s packed with those darn mugs that just seem to keep multiplying!

Even after adding my least favourite specimens to the collection at work, I still struggle to squeeze the remaining mugs into that one drawer!

Emptying the dishwasher becomes like a child’s game, trying to work out which way to position each mug so as to find room for each and every one. And let’s not mention all my precious fine bone china teacups – that’s another story altogether!

So about the coffee mugs… I can hear you saying “just get rid of some!”, but it’s just not that easy!

You see, the mugs that I’ve accumulated over the years all have sentimental meanings to me. Opening my mug drawer is like opening a story book, a photo album, the door to a friend’s place or a glimpse back to how life used to be. So when I sit quietly and sip my tea or coffee, and though I might be sitting alone in my kitchen, I never really feel alone. In fact, I enjoy that quiet time when I can recall the origins of whichever mug I have chosen.

Each year, for the past ten years I have attended a Think Pink morning tea, started by a friend who, at the time, was fighting her own battle with breast cancer.

Each year the cost of our ticket included a beautiful mug which we took home as a memento of the morning. Sadly, my friend is no longer with us but I have ten pretty mugs from those morning teas, so it is often with her that I share my cuppa.

Then there’s the “World’s Greatest Mum” mug, given to me by my son when he was just a little fella. What Mum wouldn’t treasure that one?!

Those who know me well know I’m rather fond of cows and therefore I also have a few cow mugs that will never be put out to pasture!

Beautiful red roses adorn yet another mug which reminds me of the kindness of a client. I was taking a group of elderly clients on a bus trip one day and decided to take some of my own coffee mugs rather than use those horrible foam cups. Our bus driver had cause to brake suddenly during the trip and you guessed it… several of my favourites were broken as they hit the floor of the bus!

The next day this particular client presented me with a wrapped gift and a note saying that this was to replace one of the broken mugs. The new mug was beautiful but the kind gesture meant the world to me as this was a woman who said little and rarely showed emotion.

Of course there’s a souvenir mug from a holiday too! Last year my hubby and I travelled along the Great Ocean Road and through the High Country of Victoria. What a fabulous trip that was!

I was completely captivated by the little blue wrens that flitted and hopped all over the place. Yes, you guessed it, I have the coffee mug!

When my job was recently made redundant, two of my lovely oldies presented me with very pretty mugs that will always hold special memories of a job and a very special group of people that I loved.

Then of course there are the mugs given to me by family and friend over the years for special occasions, each with its own memory.

And last but not least is the most precious of all mugs! When, as a little girl, I visited my Grandma and Grandad’s house, I had my own special mug to sip my milk from. Made from fine china it had a little bird sitting on the handle.

If you blew really hard through the bird’s tail feathers (somehow this sounds wrong as an adult but was so cool when I was little!) you could make it whistle!

My grandad was a real tease and used to hide out of sight and return the bird’s whistle, much to the delight of one little girl.

Grandma’s lovely brown eyes would dance and her kitchen was alive with fun, priceless memories!

Now I’m really not a hoarder, in fact some may call me a “chucker”. However, sentimentality will be my downfall here. Guess you could say that from where I’m sitting, clearing out my mug drawer is indeed “a mug’s game”!