Tea and the English

Tea has become a symbol of Englishness to people who have never visited. Foreigners who love England will always mention tea while those who do not will never do so. Tea drinking is linked in the foreigners mind with the ideals of fair play and sportsmanship. It is hard to conceive of a tea drinker ever being rude or aggressive  and Americans often seem a little disappointed that many of us drink at Starbucks. This is rather odd.

The English are a strange people. On the one hand we  just love to run other peoples countries but we do it as a hobby. We are not willing to shoot civilians or plunder nations as any ‘proper’ empire would do. This means that English colonialists were always very polite to those they conquered.  The British Empire existed before Starbucks so the empire was built on tea. All the values that we associate with tea (modesty, good manners, moderation and respect) are the public face of the British Empire.

NB The pictures are of my favorite teas of the moment. Spiced Chai, and Moroccan mint. Delicious.

Weird stuff in London (8)- Things that are not what they seem.

Thin houses.

This is neither a tree not a traffic light.

The houses are painted and the wooden furnature is carved to look like animals.

This is not a ship.

This is not the countryside it is the Richmond area of London.

This is not China.

Would you have guessed you were in London?

Weird stuff in London (9)- Clocks

Astrological clocks.

Lunar clocks.

Sundials

Moondials

Left handed clocks were the hands move backwards.

Clocks that are disguised as buildings and monuments..

Clocks powered by the rotation of the earth (I am not sure if this is the London example)

The Greenwich meridian which grandly calls itself ‘the home of time’.

Where imaginary lines are marked out by laser beams.

All time and map references converge on this point- unless you are French.

Musical clocks, heat clocks, expansion clocks, thousand-year clocks, rainwater clocks and just plain wrong clocks. Just look…