This morning, I got up later than usual. About 6:30am.
It is Sunday, after all, and I don’t feel overly great.
I always reach for tea. That’s my routine. Fill the kettle & turn it on, feed the cats, select a tea. Not feeling great? I wonder if I have a nice green jasmine tea on hand? Yes, I have.
Make myself about a pint of tea and head to the computer. Firstly, fire up Hootsuite to see what my friends are up to. Of course, I could check my email first, but no, I won’t.
It appears that Ken is cavorting in a park with large, vicious-looking canines. Geoff is thinking about thinking about blogging, and Hazel is just shooting the breeze at what must be about 5am for her. After quick asides to occasional conversation partners Alexander and Linsey, I start throwing some banter around with the other three.
How do I know these people? Tea, of course! Ken and Geoff blog on it, Alexander has a book which features it, Linsey sells it, and Hazel, well she just seems to hang around a lot of tea people while claiming to enjoy some sort of imitation iced coffee. She’s kind of part mascot, part deity in our social circle.
Anyway, my diet book says I should eat, so it’s time to stir fry some vegetables for breakfast. Yes, that true.
No Nutella-smeared banana pancakes. No layered fruit and yoghurt waffles. No eggs bacon, tomatoes, sausage, hash brown, toast, hold the mushrooms. Never mind that I am simply the world’s best cooker of porridge; just bok choy, peas and a tiny bit of sweet potato.
But I’ll season it with tea salt, this one made with a Goomtee Yellow.
Whilst I’m cooking breakfast, I’ll cook lunch. And it’s going to be this:
Tea eggs!
I hard boil the eggs, then crack the shells. I make up a mix of soy sauce and Lapsang Souchong tea, adding a full star anise.
I place the eggs with cracked shells still attached into the liquid and I’ll boil then for half an hour. It’s the half an hour I’m using to write this blog.
A quick check back on Hootsuite reveals my friends are talking about the weather. In fact, one of them is blatantly lying about being in thunderstorm, perhaps to avoid a morning run.
What’s on my agenda? Well, I’m going to pick up the paper for Mrs Devotea. And make her some tea. Maybe another cup for myself.
Then I might force myself to go to the gym.
After that, I might shoot a tea video, then some tea instructional videos I’m overdue on. I might even be lucky enough to converse with Erik, Mildred, Meredith, Verity, Jackie, Vic or any number of dear ‘tea friends’ – or make some new ones.
So, to sum up, I’ll spend my morning drinking, talking about, making, cooking with and filming tea.
Tea connects me to other tea nutters. We all have our own lives and loves, we all have our work, we all have our own hobby horses. But tea connects us, and it connects us in a safe and enjoyable way.
I enjoy meeting people in ‘real life” that I have met on-line. I like the fact we feel like we know each other. I like the fact that they all call my wife ‘Mrs Devotea’ (because I am slightly warped). I like the fact I moved my blog to Teatrade because Jackie and Pete are as obsessed as I am.
It doesn’t matter on line that I have the single-minded focus of a serial killer; except I’m a serial tea-er. I’m amongst friends.
“Thinking about thinking about blogging”. I like that! Excellent post.
Another great post by The Devotea. Nicely sums up the best part of the online tea community.
But 0630 on a Sunday morning, are you living in the wrong time zone or something?
This is a wonderful post; well written, amusing, kind & heart warming. It’s nice that I know all the names of the people you mention. All but one, have to check with you who you mean.
Your early morning routine reminds me a lot of mine. Switching on the kettle is the very first thing I do when I go into the kitchen. Many other little things that need doing can be tackled while the water gets ready to boil.
Anyone who doubts the value of online communities just needs to read what you have written here. They’ll see there are some very good reasons to tweet & chat & blog on the net.
I feel honored we have your blog on teatra.de.
“Cheers” to all you mentioned,
Thank you,
Jackie
6.30am on a Sunday morning? Impressive.
Thanks for the tea eggs recipe. I might try it one of these days.
I love chai tea. I drink it every day at dinner. It gives me a good pick-me-up! I just love your blog, thanks for sharing!
For regular readers of my teablog, I’ll have to apologise at the outset. Normally I write about anything but tea. Sure I drag tea into it, but the topics I like most are tangentially related to that hot brown liqueur. I like to write about whatever film I happen to be watching or what I might serve footballers playing in the World Cup Final based upon the quality of each individual’s play. You get the idea.