h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm sipping Earl Grey tea, in the mug that Wand'rin Star brought back from Hong Kong and gave to me for my 50th Birthday. It's got a dragon on the side and various Chinese symbols. It also has a lid, but I'm not using that.

A lid? All the better to keep the flavour in

Enjoy!

When making Chinese tea, you put in the leaves, add some hot water, put on the lid, wait a minute, swish it around, add more hot water, replace the lid, wait another minute, then remove the lid and drink it.

Your own personal teapot!

I'll have to try your method - I've been putting tea in an infuser, putting that in a pot, pouring boiled water into the pot, and waiting 4 minutes.

Do you have your feet up on a sofa, or on a footrest, Gnomon?

I ask, because a picture suddenly pinged into my mind of just that. I'm testing my psychic-ness

Frenchbean

Beware of those Chinese symbols, Gnomon. Sometimes they translate as "foolish Western tourist" (or worse). T-shirts are especially common for this

Gordon occasionally drinks Earl Grey, I noticed quite early in our relationship. I've been calling him Captain Pickard when he requests one

Oh, these symbols aren't Chinese writing. They're coloured pictures of some sort, like a worm coming out of a fruit.

My Chinese friend once started laughing as we were walking through town, because someone's tattoo apparently said "grandmother for sale"...

I want some proper tea now.

My aunt used to say "tea so strong you could trot a mouse on it".

Hi Frenchbean. No, I don't have my feet up. Your psychicness is obviously not working.

Are your psychic feet up perhaps?

Wandrin explained to me that the Chinese actually use the cup as a teapot and pour small amounts into the lid and use that as a cup.

As mine was broken, she was very sweet and sent me another one, which consisted of the cup, (like a good-sized coffee mug but without handles) a flat, simple lid which fitted directly on the cup, and a deep lid with a little knob on the top, which probably fits nicely between your fingers when drinking the tea.

I like Lapsang Souchong, but don't have any in the house at the moment. I don't like Earl Grey. I have plenty of jasmin tea, though. It will be nice to go back to that tea garden some time this summer.

My grandmother used to say she liked her tea strong enough that the spoon stayed upright, she always made herself 2 cups on a nighttime, and stood one by her bedside covered by its saucer, which she drank - cold - the following morning before getting up.



When I was a child I used to spend half-term holidays at her cottage and I offered to make her a hot cup of tea to have in bed but she always refused as she didn't want to get used to it

Some people are just that way about not wanting to get used to something they consider soft.

I knew an old Admiral at an office where I once worked who would only drink the last dregs of tarred coffee at the bottom of a pot that had been sitting on the burner for hours. I offered to make him a fresh pot once and he squinted down his nose and said "...noooo, that would taste too good"

I'm so pleased that the mugs are being used.The lids do keep the tea hot. Most Chinese students can keep one mug going all day by constantly adding hot water, but some varieties of Chinese tea get strong enough to take the skin off your teeth.
I'm not near a dragon mug at the moment (back in Gorey for the four year old's birthday followed by his father's next week)but I imagine the dragons are playing ball with a flaming pearl. The leaves round the edges will be lotus.
I would have checked writing before handing it on. Although I spent nearly 4 years in Shanghai and 10 years in Hong Kong, I don't read non-menu characters. That being said I bought dark brown china with old script on for the couple here and don't remember any of the translations ( all the plates are different), though I do own a pink silk blouse printed with a poem in the same old characters, that I do remember the translation of.