Revolution

Since we came to Australia we have become a family of tea drinkers.

Whoopee, you say.

What you don't understand, and what to my mind makes it so amazing, is that my mother has been trying to get me to drink tea, or at least offering it to me despite my vigorous and very vocal protests that I don't drink tea, for over twenty years, even knowing that her high consumption of the swampy stuff is responsible for her kidney stones. Share the love, Ma.

We come from a long line of tea drinkers. It's the Irish in them. Or more likely that 25% English they so strongly deny. Dear Aunt ML (I was going to call her Dear Old Aunt ML, but she would not like that so much) can absolutely not function without a cuppa, which I now understand to be symptomatic of a massive caffeine addiction. How many times were we in a rush to get out the door when someone would have to put the kettle on for just one quick cup before we went anywhere? When I get all steamed up hear me shout.

But now? People here drop by without calling ahead. And when they stop in, they expect a cup of tea. Which led to my keeping tea in the house. And a teapot. And you can't just have tea, you must be able to offer bikkies (Translation: biscuits = cookies) and all the accoutrements that go with tea like milk and sugar and clean spoons. If you are really fancy you might try having a few gourmet items on hand like lemon and honey. And then you must know how to properly prepare and serve these items. And with all that preparation you will eventually actually start drinking the stuff, if for no other reason than keeping your hands occupied. I've almost got it down pat and I think I'm nearly ready to take the next big step, having advanced from standbys like Lipton, to the Greys, both the Earl and his Lady, to green tea, to Prince of Wales and Irish Breakfast, camomile, chai, and my favorite, the fabulously smoky Lapsang Souchong: It's time to lose the teabags and go with the loose leaves. I am still unclear on what exactly a tea towel is for, though.

Elle prefers a cuppa green tea in the mornings and afternoons, Grice sticks with the locally grown black tea with a squeeze of lime, only Sarabelle remains unconverted, but she has mastered laying it all out and serving our frequent guests. Come on over! Anytime! We'll be ready for you.

As I finish up my third chai this evening -- eschewing a dainty china cup and preferring a tall heavy mug -- it dawns on me why I'm still up at 2:00 AM typing madly away.

Cheers.


This is the most magnificent movement of all! There is a dignity, a majesty, a sublimity, in this last effort of the patriots that I greatly admire. The people should never rise without doing something to be remembered--something notable and striking. This destruction of the tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important consequences, and so lasting, that I can't but consider it as an epocha in history!

-- John Adams


"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone: "so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter: "it's very easy to take more than nothing."

-- Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)