I listen to indiepop, I wear berets, I watch Wes Anderson films. I am, what I would call, twee-to-the-max. As everyone knows, the drink of choice of tweesters like myself is tea.
I love tea.
I love how there are so many different types. I love warming the pot. I adore flowery tea sets. I collect tea pots. I covet tastefully decorated mugs. I love how you can drink tea at different times of the day and it ALWAYS makes you feel better. I love how when I crashed my car and was standing at the roadside crying, a nice man drove away and came back with a cup of sweet tea. I love how it fixes everything. When I let my dog out into the garden and my dog chased a kitty and ran into the side of the car and broke his leg I love how my brother didn't blame me
but made us some tea while the car driver took my dog to the vets to get a nice plaster leg. I miss drinking tea with my best friend Ellie. She moved to Japan last year and I worry that she will stay there forever. I recently purchased a pale green "geisha" tea set with tiny little cups and a flat stove top teapot. It makes me happy, but not as happy as Ellie makes me. She tells me Japan has some amazing tea places. I'll get there one day. Or she can just tell me all about it when she comes home. I also love how tea is always offered at every big life change: weddings, funerals, birthdays...I would choose it over champagne anytime. Although I do like Champagne. It's just tea has that comfort factor. And it's warm. I'm always cold.
I realise I am addicted.
I never leave the house in the morning without having two cups first of all. You should try this. Forget coffee. Coffee is for stress monkeys about to embark on the busy lifestyle that I am completely not about. My two cup routine, involves warming the pot, using my favourite moomin cup and sitting reading and sipping. It is the perfect start to any day. I don't hurry. Take your time with your tea. Join me in being late. This moment of clarity is true tea utopia.
We all need more of this moments. This is what I am going to set out to achieve. I am going to travel around Scotland until I find the perfect tea drinking spot. This will involve me going to many different tea houses, drinking many cups of lovely tea, until I find somewhere that can compete with the early morning perfection that I achieve with my moomin cup and sleepily contented eyes at home.
In theory I imagine this tea moment to consist of a beautifully twee setting, flowery curtains at the window with the sun shining outside, a light breeze brushing the honeysuckle littering the wall, smiles on the faces of pretty waitresses and the perfect cup of tea sitting in front of me on a satisfyingly heavy wood table.
However, the reality of my epiphany could be entirely different. We will see. Whatever happens, I am not going to stop until I find tea-related happiness. I chose Scotland because it really is a perfect tea drinking place. It's cold and rainy and sometimes snowy and often windy but who cares when you can be inside listening to nice records and drinking yummy tea. And on those odd days when I feel like venturing out of the house I can go to tea places and meet my friends. Or read the paper. And when I find the best tea place in Scotland, I can move there and never be sad again.
Yesterday there was a big thunderstorm in Aberdeen. I lay on Giles' bed and watched it happen outside and it was lovely. The rain battered against the window and sipped on some green tea and it came close to being the happiest I had been for a long time. I have to go back to work tomorrow after two weeks of freedom, teaching books and plays and poems to disillusioned teenagers. At work I tend to drink coffee and wander about my classroom in my socks. I save my quiet tea times for home time when I can pad around with Harold and Maude (my little grey cats) and write and read. One night this week I intend to visit my first tea spot, in my home village of Aberlour. I am moving away from Aberlour this week which is scary cos I ve lived there off and on since I was nine. I am moving to a converted church also in the middle of nowhere. It is pretty big so I can fill it with my tea pots and ornaments.
The fun starts here!
