Each New Cup

I post every Sunday, in case you hadn’t noticed.
I used to be more prolific, or less prolific. At times when I had more control over my time, I’d post almost daily. Other times, I might skip a month if I was caught up in various projects.

So far, there are 280 posts to this blog before this. There are 5 drafts, which are mostly posts I’ve thought better of.

And since I moved my blog to this site, there have been four 29ths of May.

In a sense this blog post is two days late, in another it’s been 31 years in the making, so the two days is of no consequence.

Last night, after a couple of days of not feeling well, I went out and had a great time. It was a good friend’s 50th birthday.

Of course, as ever, I was accompanied by Lady Devotea.

In the course of my life, I’ve met many people. Some of them become friends, the vast majority do not. That’s how life works.

Most of my friends with any sense, though, quickly take to Lady Devotea. They soon realise that the cleverness, the humanity and the intuition of us as a couple reside with her, and the facile clowning about is my domain.

At the event last night, every guest got to take home a package of tea, specially blended for the occasion. The tea was our creation. And it was a very popular idea. It even got mentioned in the speeches.

Embarrassingly, at the key moment, it was implied that The Devotea is all my handiwork. It’s not. It is a collection of people working in Australia and the USA in pursuit of great tea experiences.

This thing called “The Devotea” sprung from two people – Lady Devotea and myself. For 31 years next week (and we’ve been married for 29 of them) we have made decisions together about where life should take us. There have been wrong ones and right ones.

With regard to The Devotea, it wasn’t me that came up with the name: she thought of it in seconds. A great deal of the blending is done by Lady D. We both create blends, either together or separately. Our visuals and packaging are joint efforts. All our proper photos are styled by her and most of them taken by her as well (if you can see a shadow on the tea, a thumb on the frame and a dirty tea towel in the corner, it was probably me).

I’m very proud of what we do, but I get way too much credit. And it’s not anyone’s fault. Lady D herself was wandering around telling everyone who would listen last night that I am, according to Klout, number 8 when it comes to banging on about tea. Good on me. It just means I’ve got a bigger mouth than virtually everyone else in tea.

So, every year, I try to pay tribute to my (much) better half on May 29th, her birthday. The fact that I am two days late is rather a poor reflection on me.

Please, raise those teacups. To Anne, Lady Devotea, the love of my life and my partner in all things.