Made in Roath 2015

 Hello I’m Dai and I’m one of the new MiR bloggers for this year. I’m really excited and feel quite privileged to be writing for MiR, especially after having so many fantastic writers blog in past years. There’s a lot of thrilling up coming things, such as the second Merthyr to Roath Red Route March, which starts at the Red house in Merthyr on the 2nd, then the next day the fantastic Made In Spring. Not to mention all the other exciting events and activities MiR get up to throughout the year to write about. But before all that starts, I do have a critical and important choice to make. This is a decision that cannot be taken lightly, in fact this decision could very well define and influence my time as an MiR typer. It is the critical, crucial, nay essential decision of what should my new office work mug be?  

You may very well be laughing and scoffing at my agonising over this decision, but the choice of office mug is not something to be taken lightly. It’s a vital choice that involves key issues such as style, text, colour, patterns, material. All these elements must be considered before the choice of new office mug can be made, even more so in a visual arts organisation when the aesthetic nature of the mug will be studied.

After all the office mug is an important life choice. It speaks a great deal about a person, giving an impression of them long after they have left the room. It could leave a cold mocking stare from the draining board as it sits there looking into the room, or it could bring a bright, cheerful shine to a place as it squats on the sink board side, gazing charmingly into the MiR imagination kitchen.

It is a conversation starter too with new co-workers, an object to avoid those awkward tricky moments of silence and panic. Those points where upon meeting a new person when your mind decides to go completely blank and supply you with a total lack of anything remotely interesting or witty to say. You could be reading Oscar Wild moments before, write his charming remarks upon your arm “I am too old to know everything” “a person can never be too well educated or too well dressed” and then you meet that new person and your mind, when moments earlier held and retained the wisdom and knowledge of smart thoughts suddenly, without warning goes blank and gives you nothing but “ummmmmmmm you sit on chairs”. What good is this I ask you? You sit on chairs? Everybody knows that. It’s what chairs are for. No one has ever gone into a room and met a person for the first time and gone “Hi, did you know you sit on chairs?” and that person has reacted with “OH MY GOSH REALLY, I HAD NO IDEA, THATS THE PURPOSE OF CHAIRS, DEAR ME. WE THOUGHT THEY WERE FOR STORING COATS AND HATS, THEY SHOULD TEACH THIS IN SCHOOL, HURRY, WE MUST WARN THE TOWNS PEOPLE” because generally people already know this, It’s rare to make a good first impression with this style of conversation (generally).

The office mug stops this embarrassing moment of brain freeze. It can be used as a conversation starter with a “thats an interesting/nice mug” or a “what’s on your cup,” or the old favourite “which is your mug?” The possibilities of conversation are endless and then from these simple starts who knows where it can take you. Marriages and births have all began over the chit chatter of an office mug (not always in that order).

So it is important, crucial even that you choose the right mug to start these conversations with. A boring, drab mug will only lead to a dull conversation, on the other hand can a colourful, bright, vibrant designed mug can lead to a thrilling chatter and a new formed life long friendship. Its all about finding the right mug which elegantly suits your manner and personality.  

And if you get it wrong then oooooh dear me, woe be to you my friend. Cause what can you do, change the mug? Yeah you could but that would start the gossip, your boss might start to wonder if you are the right person for the job. A person who changes his mind about his mug. Maybe he changes his mind about other things too, maybe he is indecisive, maybe he can’t make decision at all, maybe he cant do his job. Why have we given this person a job he can’t perform at all. He changed his mind about his mug he’s terrible, he’s going to doom the company, the city, the country even. Western civilisation is doomed, the Earth is doomed, all is doomed. Time to move to a nuclear fall out shelter and live on left over 1962 baked beans tins. Fire him quick. If you change your mug then it’s a surer sign than drinking hemlock…..

Or you could accidentally break your mug, but then that could be even worse, a person who breaks their mug. People will ask if you are the kind of person to be trusted with any object? Can you carry this? Maybe not, after all you did break your mug so maybe you’ll break this too. Maybe your new office nick name will be “breaker” or even worse maybe you’ll be known as “Mac breaky, mac break break, the breaky’est mug breaker in the West” You won’t even be  trusted to carry a pen.

You could lose it, but again you’ll be known as the person who lost their mug and like the breaking will you be trusted again? You lost your mug after all, can you handle anything without loosing it? Can you borrow my pen? I’m now not sure, you might lose it…..

It’s a fate worse than death in the office world. Choosing your office mug is probably a harder choice then who do you want to marry, after all you can get divorced but as we have seen its hard to get rid of your wrongly chosen office mug. Your office mug is a mug for your career. It is not a choice to be taken lightly………

So before I begin, I must first start an extensive search of the cup and mug proprietors of Roath, to hunt down that perfect mug for Made in Roath. I'll keep you informed of how this hunt goes ....