Tea By 'Eck

How much do I love the internet? Just look at this:















My favourite tea, Typhoo Green Tea, ordered online and purchased for a song! I used to have my poor old Mum post it to me, but now I have 480 bags of my very own. Enough for months - or just less than a fortnight if my Mum and Dad come and visit.

The funny thing is, I was never a tea-drinker when I lived in England. Not much of a coffee drinker either. Coffee always smells so wonderful, and always tastes so disappointing, and I'm a weakling when it comes to caffeine too. Half a cup of coffee and I'm bouncing off the walls, and LK starts cleaning the kitchen fearing the worst.

I always used to joke that I was kicked out of the country for not drinking tea. I'm from Harrogate, home of 'Yorkshire Tea' and 'Taylors of Harrogate' and 'Betty's Cafe'. Everyone I grew up with would drink mug after mug of the stuff. If you're at home and you hear my Mum's car in the driveway it's a knee-jerk reaction to put the kettle on. Everyone knows that the massive electricity spike after the Royal Wedding in 1981 was caused by an entire nation switching their kettles on going 'Well, that's that, I'll brew up then'.

Then I had Anna, and Mum and Dad came over to help, and suddenly I was never without a cup of tea by my side. Now I can't do without it, and I'm thousands of miles away from a good source of tea-bags. You can buy Yorkshire Tea in Santa Barbara, but it's true, it's brewed for Yorkshire Water, and it tastes like old woolly socks out here. I've wondered if it's all psychological, whether it was indeed a latent taste for the stuff, or whether I'm subconciously drinking it as it reminds me of home. If that were the case though, I'd be watching the Cricket World Cup, but trust me, that'll never happen. Cricket truly is a reason to emigrate.

So let me know if you fancy a cuppa. I'll be mother.