The Tea Lady is virtually a mythical figure these days. Once an essential part of any medium sized business; the post is now reduced to a couple of stereotypes. In my part of the world, they finally seem to have totally disappeared in the early 1990s, although the die was cast a couple of decades […]
I was going to start by saying “regular readers will know”, but as I have published only three short, simple pieces in five weeks, I probably don’t have any left. The last four months have been the most demanding of our lives, and this Thursday, the catalyst behind it all will come into being. I’d […]
I wasn’t sure I should post this. But, here goes. I spent many hours writing a post recently. And then found one fact that challenged my assumptions. My basic premise was that the new anti-gay laws in Uganda were a springboard for more or less boycotting African teas. What I have decided to do is […]
This is the final entry in my “List Week”. Seven Lists in Seven Days. If you’ve been reading, you have my thanks. If you haven’t – what’s wrong with you? According to a famous work by a certain Mr Booker, there are just seven stories in literature, and all books follow one or more of […]
The Devotea’s List Week. List 4.** I love a great title. I find inspiration in titles. Many of my favourite authors go for brilliant, somewhat far-out titles such as Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale”, “Flow my Tears, The Policeman Said” ). Or the clever […]
I’m on record as being unmoved by both Japanese teas and Japanese tea culture and ceremonies. Taking your shoes off, sitting on a rush mat and admiring a stick in a vase does not in any way cause me to suddenly enjoy tea that is too bitter, and/or too thin, and/or looks like second-hand bile […]
Ah yes, our words can come back to haunt us. In my last post, I mentioned that my next post – which should logically be this one – might be a little controversial and upset a few folk. Not much of a surprise there, really: if I’m not being incredibly funny I usually am offending […]
Even though I am proudly Australian, I’m also reasonably English. My ancestry was all English not that far back. On my mother’s side, it goes back to a bunch of Methodist brothers – actual brothers, not in a monkish sense -who left England in the mid to late 1800s because Victorian England wasn’t uptight enough for […]
500 cups of tea – at least – have been consumed. The evidence is overwhelming. In front of me is a package that once contained a kilogram of tea. It now contains nothing. I do not remember ever spilling any, I never gave any loose tea away. Lady Devotea does not like this tea, so […]
The Fourth of July is special to many of my American friends. Sure, it maybe should have been the 2nd of July, sometimes it’s called Independence Day and the declaration of Independence was probably actually signed in August according to Wikipedia, but it’s quite specific when you refer to it as “The Fourth of July”. In […]