Tea
Tea. One word says it all. So why am I writing a post about it then, I hear you ask*? Well, while one word may be all you need to describe the wondrousness that is tea, many words are required to describe the travesty that is microwaved tea. The fact that I am only coping because I brought (or should that be smuggled in) a packet of Tesco's Fairtrade tea shows how desperate the situation is to start with. A proper tea bag does not have a piece of string attached! Yes, I do want milk with my tea, I do not want bloody lemon!! And I don't care whether it's Assam, Kenyan, English Breakfast I JUST WANT A CUP OF TEA!!! Why do people in this country not understand that?! I could cope though, if it was just a questions of not being able to get a decent cup of tea without a huge amount of stress in coffee shops etc. But no. I can't even get one in my room. Apparently, along with tins of tomatoes and breakfast cereal, electric kettles are something of a luxury commodity. So there isn't one in the dorm.
.
.
.
Just in case the full enormity of that last statement was lost on you, I'll say it again. THERE. IS. NO. KETTLE. As in, no way of boiling water short of getting out the saucepans. And seeing as though the box of kitchen stuff is not always readily available, saucepans are not usually an option. So I have to use the microwave. To make a cup of tea. A microwaved cup of tea.
I feel so dirty.
* or I would if someone would COMMENT, or at least send me an email**
** woo! footnotes, Terry Pratchett style!
.
.
.
Just in case the full enormity of that last statement was lost on you, I'll say it again. THERE. IS. NO. KETTLE. As in, no way of boiling water short of getting out the saucepans. And seeing as though the box of kitchen stuff is not always readily available, saucepans are not usually an option. So I have to use the microwave. To make a cup of tea. A microwaved cup of tea.
I feel so dirty.
* or I would if someone would COMMENT, or at least send me an email**
** woo! footnotes, Terry Pratchett style!
posted by Kate @ 7:28 pm
10 Comments:
At 3:21 am,
Anonymous said…
You should get yourself one of those little element-type things. Do you know the ones I mean? You put them into a cup of water and they heat it up. Its what the masses of Brits that went to the Spanish Costas in the '70's took with them so that they could get a decent cuppa.
Now there a question - what is it about Brits abroad and their tea? Surely a phD thesis in the making there?
At 6:51 am,
Anonymous said…
Hi Kate .... Vicki here from The Hague where we also have a problem with tea ... bags with string on them anyway and all that delicate flavour stuff - solved by a 240 bag packet of the strong stuff from Blighty ! Mind you we do have kettles here. I'm sure Walmart must be able to help you. Enjoy your time in the US of A. x
At 1:51 pm,
Anonymous said…
Hello!
Nice blog. Poor show with the tea though. My ex was of American origin and he not only used to make tea in the microwave, but using INSTANT GRANULES rather than a teabag. I think they also came with sugar already added to spare a valuable few microseconds.
With the exception of tea hope Delaware is cool! I'm supposed to be writing my dissertation at the moment so I anticipate I shall be checking your blog fairly often. As well as facebook...choir forum...anything.....
x
At 11:00 pm,
Anonymous said…
Hi Kate it is Lynne here in Novato.hope you have survived your first experience of mass patriotism on the 4th.Don't go to Walmart,please.Try Target for a kettle and if you need some t-bags I'll post sme to you.Get your Mum to send me your address.xx
At 4:21 am,
Anonymous said…
Tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea... how I love the stuff! And now I am back from Prague where tea tasted so very very odd I will go make a nice cuppa... of Morrison's Organic Fairtrade! Go us with our fairtrade teabags woohoo!
At 10:07 am,
Anonymous said…
Kate, I feared this would happen. I think the reason tinned tomatoes are so rare is that Americans don't know how to pronounce "tomato" properly, and therefore run into great difficulty trying to order and stock them. (The same problem has not yet occurred with potatoes because Americans only ever see the potato in the form of chips.)
As for the tea, I'm sure Delaware has some heating mantles in their chemistry labs. Surely you could steal one of those and develop a makeshift kettle thereof?
At 11:06 am,
Kate said…
Ooooh now there's an idea...
At 1:20 pm,
Anonymous said…
Oh, you poor thing, we had no idea!
We can take you to get an electric kettle tonight if need be!!! Just let us know :)
At 4:11 pm,
Anonymous said…
I fucking love tea. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. In fact, my blog is named after Tea. I just got back from Prague where I bought some tea leaves from a wonderful dreamy tea store with walls filld with shelves filled with large tins filled with tea! It was like something out of Harry Potter (much as I dislike the series, I can't think of a better comparison at the moment). I linked to this through your facebook status update, by the way, so there was some success there.
oh, and PS: a decent kettle can often be obtained for less than a fiver. And they last a long time... Failing that, run the hot water tap until it's as hot as it'll get, then microwave that water until it boils, then use that. Good luck. Leave me a comment to know how you get on.
At 2:15 pm,
Anonymous said…
Hey hey missy!
All this talk of tea, kettles and the prices of tinned-toms, and not much on what you're doing over there! 'ave you started your project yet then? I started work over here in Oxford this week, and have so far managed not to shoot myself in the eye with a laser and cut off my fingers with an electric saw. This is good! I'm sooo envious that you're over there in sunny climes, though we had a jolly good thunder storm last night, so I can't complain. Keep us posted on the goings-on in Delaware!
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