I have always loved the expression The Curate’s Egg because, well, people say I’m a bit of a fence-sitter. Or, as I prefer to put it, not a fence-sitter. I like to consider all sides of a situation from all points of view before giving my opinion. Or you could I’m a fence sitter. But […]
We often conduct tea events in Aged Care facilities. People in Aged Care facilities are usually over 60 and a large portion are well over that. Sixty years ago, the year was was 1957. Family and social rituals embed themselves when we are very young; using AA Milne’s suggestion that once we are six we have […]
After a decade in tea, as a tea shop co-owner and/or manager, a blogger, a speaker, an author, co-owner of an online retailer and simply pouring way more tea than most would think possible down my craw, I think it’s fair to say I know a bit more about tea than most people do, or […]
I’ve been at this blogging lark for over seven years, and looking back, it seems to mainly be a series of posts that switch between unintentionally abusive rants and intentionally abusive rants. Every so often, I try to be serious, and usually fail. The thing I am really terrible at is using the blog to promote our […]
Some days, I just get sick of the news. Of being riveted to a procession of unpleasant stories; rarely natural disasters these days but more about the propensity of human beings to believe that our differences in politics / religion / lifestyles make us morally superior, and therefore justifies the most repugnant behaviour. Some days […]
This week marks the passing of the wonderful actor Geoffrey Baylden, who played the eponymous Catweazle in that brilliant TV show from my childhood, but this post is not about that form of sorcery. Rather, it is about drinking out of saucers. I was sharing a cup of tea with a friend the other […]
The cat you see pictured here was named Lily, AKA Mr Lil, and he recently passed away. You might, immediately, find the name confusing, but when he was born in the middle of the night on our bed, Lady Devotea may have been mistaken about his gender, and by the time we worked it out, […]
I know that many of my readers believe that the tea industry is ladies in colourful saris picking tea, cheerful overseers thanking them for their hard work as they tip wicker baskets into lovely piles of leaves, lovely plantation managers wheeling and dealing in a cheerful fashion to get the best price for their high […]
Yesterday, Lady Devotea and I were at an Easter Fair, and so were quite a lot of other people. If fact, we were meeting up with six of them. As we all know, fairs are sometimes a place to get really excellent tea. Perhaps as often as 1% of the time. As we also know, […]
Ok, thanks to so many of you… I am unwell, and had decided to take a few weeks off of blogging. And then, unbidden into my inbox / Messenger/ Facebook/carrier pigeon hole came multiple copies of a story from ABC news, along with cries of outrage. And I looked upon it, and I was displeased. […]