Tea for Two and two for tea

So finally the writer’s block seems to have got unblocked and today’s letter easily inspired an association:

T is for Tea and as usual it started an earworm that I often heard my father sing while growing up. Teatime was my favourite meal while growing up and it is only natural that I think of tea when I see the letter T.

My father is not much of a singer, but he did have an ear for music and a memory for words so quite often I would hear just snippets of songs that remain engraved in my memory. Today’s prompt got me thinking about the rest of the words of “Tea for two and two for tea,” and when got me thinking I googled the song found that it was written way back in the 1920’s even before my father was born!

I found two versions of the song on You Tube, one sung by Doris Day and the other the jazzed up version by the evergreen Ella Fitzgerald.

Which one did you prefer? I loved the pure spunk of Ella !

I don’t know why I’m fascinated by tea and the romance of tea because as an adult I ‘d much rather drink coffee. Perhaps it is due to the subliminal memory of visiting the Tea Centre at Churchgate, as a part of a field trip way back as an eight-year-old. It was the first ever school trip that I can remember and perhaps I was more fascinated by the whole process of going down the winding staircase to the assembly hall at the bottom, making groups of four and getting into cars that ferried us to the Tea Centre, learning how tea is grown and processed and brewed. Till today, the words still ring in my head:

How to make the perfect tea.

Rinse out a teapot with hot water so that the ceramic inside is nice and warm. Add a teaspoon of tea for each person and one extra for the pot. Then pour in the boiling hot water, one cup per person. Put the lid on and cover with a tea cozy. Allow the tea to brew for 2 minutes. Stir before pouring through a strainer. Add a drop of cold milk if required. Or squeeze some lemon juice. Add sugar if required!

This tea is quite different from the way we make it at home:

Measure out a cup of water for each person in a pot. Bring to the boil and then add the tea leaves. This amount depends on how strong you like your tea – more leaves for a stronger brew. Lower the heat and add the milk – once again depending on how you like your tea – milky or dark. Allow to simmer before turning off the heat and covering the pot, leaving it to sit for a bit. Strain into a teapot or into individual cups. This tea is generally really sweet and in the really traditional way, the sugar is added to the boiling water. In our house, however, we prefer to let individuals add their own tea.

Tea is made differently all over the world ever since it was brought out from the kingdom of China and it remains the favourite beverage over which people share ideas and thoughts. With tea cakes and sandwiches and all kinds of snacks, this truly is the cup that cheers!

T is for THANK YOU

I just realised that this is the Gratitude Circle Thursday Blog hop day so I’d like to also use this opportunity for being THANKFUL that everything is normal

It was a long time since the three of us had got together and I was grateful that we still could meet after all this while. We decided to take in a movie and went to see “Margarita, with a Straw” a movie that is currently playing at movie theatres and catering to an audience that thinks. This is a thought provoking movie loosely based on a woman whose condition triggered off a series of responses that ultimately led to the founding of the Spastics Society of India. This coming of age film of a child of cerebral palsy deals with sexuality among differently abled young adults, a topic that is rarely touched upon.
While I did empathise with Laila, I found myself actually thanking my stars that I am not differently abled.
So this month I am thankful for

~ the brief holiday I had in Dubai
~ the wonderful people I met during my holiday
~ the wonderful activities I could enjoy as a Blogger
~ my life that is boringly normal!

I’m also putting this up on Write Tribe ProBlogger Challenge.

There are over a 1000 bloggers from all over the world participating in this challenge. Do pop in and see what the others are writing. It’s amazing and fascinating to discover how people’s minds work and how the same prompt can inspire different thoughts.