Sometimes just getting started is all you need to do. I've certainly found it beats sitting around, waiting with your fingers crossed for that perfect moment.

What does that perfect moment even look like? 

Is it when you've meticulously planned everything so that even your bullet points have bullet points? Or when you've had 7 unbroken nights sleep in row with two founding members of the juvenile early riser appreciation society living under your roof? Or when you had the foresight to wear three pairs of socks so that your toes didn't freeze whilst trying to fix a coffee machine in -3 degrees, for the second time that week?

If so, I'm still waiting.

Sometimes you've just got to jump in feet first and see where you land. You don't need to know exactly the path you're about to take, you just need to believe in your ability to embrace the lessons coming your way.

Living like this isn't always pretty, but it has been essential in the past year, where everything has been about as light and breezy as Chris Whitty taking us through the latest set of slides.

Everyone has struggled this year both personally and in business, there's been an undeniable sense of impending doom in the air and it's effected us all in our own individual ways. 

I can say with confidence that the only certain thing at the moment is the uncertainty.

I guess what I am trying to get at is the perfect moment is not going to come charging down the hill on Gandalf's white horse anytime soon. And that's what we've embraced here at Odd Kin Coffee - revel in the imperfectness of the situation, play to your quirks and enjoy the process. (The horse is called Shadowfax if you were wondering)

We have been given this opportunity to start roasting coffee because of the uncertainty surrounding us, not due to the ideal situation presenting itself. It's a dream we always had, but if we're honest it was that project that we'd 'get round to next year', when the the time was right and we'd ticked XYZ off the to do list.

The chaos forced us to take a step back from being so engulfed in the day to day of Wayland's Yard and strangely gave us the courage to make this happen.

And I am so glad we did.

We certainly don't know everything there is to know about roasting coffee, but we are putting in some serious hours and graft to get there. We are proud of the first three coffees that we've put out into the world and will continue to ship out tasty beans roasted by people who really do give a shit about what they are doing.

As a wise old friend of mine often says - the best thing about coffee is that you'll never know everything, there is always more to learn and more to discover. Myself and the team feel seriously lucky to have the chance to learn such a wonderful craft, meet a bunch of great people and share what we do with you.

Now, back to the idea of just getting started and good enough being exactly that - good enough.

I said to the team a while back that I was going to start The Odd Journal and post every Friday. The idea being to give you an insight into the goings on in our odd little family, to build a community of friends that want to join our journey and be something for people to hopefully look forward to reading with their Friday morning brew.

I've made a lot of strong excuses over the last few weeks as to why I didn't have enough time to start this.

Today, I've run out of excuses and here it is - The Odd Journal #1

This is me starting. It's certainly not perfect, but it's out there now and it means I better get writing again next week.

Even if no one reads it.

Big love,

Sam & The Odd Kin Fam.