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'I use teabags to document my past'

To most, a cup of tea is the ideal way to unwind after a hectic day in the office but for 44-year-old Patti Gaal-Holmes – it’s the ideal way to record a diary.

Self-confessed tea addict and mum of three Patti, who has more than 32,000 used tea bags to reminisce over not only enjoys a cup of tea, but then uses the bags to dab onto paper as an alternative method to documenting the dramas in her life.

 ‘I save the teabags because it’s a way of marking the days – it’s better than a diary’ Patti states, before going on to explain the methods she uses in order to keep such a bizarre past time.

After drying the bag on a radiator, Patti continues to number the bag, and sometimes even notes the people she drank with as well as anything significant (other than tea) they may have discussed.

Once dried, the bags are then stored in one of her many suitcases. ‘They do smell a bit but I find it quite comforting.’ And if she happens to be enjoying a cuppa out and about she even has a little box she carries with her in order to subtly store any teabags that are on their way to the bin.

“Sometimes friends think it’s a bit eccentric and my kids just say, ‘Its mum and her tea’.”

But the former PhD student from Portsmouth takes her tea cravings very seriously, usually indulging in between six and ten cups a day.

 ‘Sometimes at night I can’t wait to get up in the morning because I am so looking forward to that first cup of tea’ she says.

Despite being tea mad, Patti does have her preferences when it comes to making the perfect brew. ‘Ideally I will make it in a pot, have it in my special cup and dip chocolate in it’ she explains before adding ‘I like good strong tea with milk – like English breakfast or Assam.’

Ms Gaal-Holmes’s favourite case of tea bags has now been placed on display at the Portsmouth Eldon Gallery. It seems there are many more bags to come with Patti’s favourite quote coming from the late tea guru T’ien Yiheng who believes: ‘Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world.’

I think it’s fair to say Patti Gaal-Holmes certainly agrees!

The lady in the picture is not Patti.

By Patrick Morley

Do you think it's quite endearing that Patti records her life in teabags?