I saw the other day, as though they were acting out a formula joke, three men changing a light bulb in the Pantiles.
A book, Sergei Aksakov's Russian Gentleman, which I ordered a couple of days ago from one of Amazon's registered dealers arrives today in a neat package with a note: "Hope you enjoy the book." I will, Iknow.
There is an an interview with the Japanese writer Masahiko Fujiwara in today's Financial Times magazine. 'In England,' the interviewer says 'he had been shocked to see esteemed professors slurping tea from their mugs. "We have tea ceremony. Everything we make into art."' I have always admired the charm and restraint of the Japanese tea ceremony. But, as much as I admire it, I don't think I could could could cope with it for long. The very thought disturbs me. So I make myself a mug of tea and slurp it, a biscuit in the other hand, with the smug contentment of one who has long practiced the English tea ceremony.
5 comments:
I am trying to contact Joe Hyam...wondering if he once worked at Mechanical Handling.
This is Joe Hyam. I did work on Mechanical Handling and Materials Handling News. I write this blog under the name of Plutarch. You, or anybody else, can email me at hyambush@mtsion.fsnet.co.uk
i was just licking some ginger biscuit crumbs from the corners ...
According to 'Memoirs of a Geisha', my sole source of information on the matter, the frothed up green tea involved is an acquired taste even for Japanese people, and frankly sounds rather disgusting.
Where I live in Japan, everyone enjoys a casual mug of tea and a sweet at their desk. There may not be much slurping going on, but it's certainly not the elegant production that tea ceremony is. (And lucy is right about the bitter frothed tea used for tea ceremony being an aquired taste. A lot of my Japanese friends hate it.)
So - enjoy the biscuits and slurping in international solidarity :) If only I had a ginger snap right now....
Post a Comment