Icon thoughts

[liv]

That meme that's doing the rounds about how British people deal with crises by making cups of tea is annoying me. I don't know quite why, because I normally like tea-related silliness. I think it's the national stereotyping thing, even though that particular stereotype happens to be true of me.

My other grandmother¹ used to say:

If it's mechanical, oil it, if it's electrical, change the fuse, and if it's human, give it a cup of tea.

I like that better, somehow. And if I needed more tea-related icons, which I don't, I might make it into an icon.

As distinct from the grandmother whom some of you have met; I don't think anyone reading this has met my other grandmother, since she died in 1991.

Comments

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

You know, it's pretty much only since moving here that I have become in any way a tea fan, and that's basically from interesting green teas and white teas and dragon pearls and so on. The appeal of black tea entirely escapes me unless it's one of those odd Russian ones, doubly so if it's as over-strong as my family brew it, and triply once people start putting milk in it. I very rarely feel like hot drinks, and when I do nine times out of ten miso soup is what I want.

[ papersky reports that Cha Noir have started doing their iced green tea again, which means that when I take you there there'll be at least one thing I really like to drink even if the weather is asphalt-meltingly hot. ]

[leora.livejournal.com]

I like tea.

[liv]

I think the taste for basic black tea with milk is entirely different from the taste for fine, quality teas which obviously one drinks without milk. I happen to appreciate both, but they're certainly not the same pleasure.

I lived through about 15 years not seeing the point of the former. Then one day I got caught in a downpour on the way between the swimming pool and my grandmother's place, and I was chilled enough (and after the exercise too) that I was quite faint, so Granny revived me with the standard treatment of tea with lots of milk and sugar. And from then on I was completely hooked. Tea with loads of sugar tastes utterly vile, so when I'm not hypo I drink it without. But it feels to me like drinking the essence of being looked after by a kind granny and warming up after being unpleasantly cold and wet.

There are plenty of good people who don't drink tea, though! I think the addiction may be slightly catching; it's quite scary how many non-tea people have come into the habit from hanging around me.

[liv]

There are plenty of Americans who do! And it is a good thing indeed. My tea quotes file is not easily accessible, but Google reminds me:

Although my neighbours are all barbarians, and you
are a thousand miles away,
there are always
two cups on my table.

(Not sure about the line breaks in that; it's a translation from Chinese anyway.)

[lyssiae.livejournal.com]

I was a milk-and-two-sugars person until I moved here, when I got so much friggin' hassle from the natives that I dropped the milk. There is still an anti-British campaign going to wean me off the sugar but I know my limits, dammnit (little things like this really rub me up the wrong way, can you tell? :)).

A few weeks ago I was back in the UK, at a meeting at my old school, where my former French teacher offered me tea and presented me with a big cup of steaming goodness, all milky and sugary. Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh :)