Monday, April 21, 2008

footsteps, laughter, bush tea

In the footsteps of ivy: where the live tendrils have been torn from a wall leaving behind their withered imprints.


In the Radio 4 programme, Start the Week, they are discussing laughter. They say that human being are distinguished from other animals by the capacity to laugh. Or, I think to myself, to see the joke? "Laughter", one of the speakers says, "is a reaction to how things are in contrast to how they ought to be".

When I read The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency soon after it first came out (it has since been followed by numerous sequals, I did not think that the red bush tea which Mma Precious Ramotwe offers to her clients would be available in UK supermarkets. Perhaps as a result of the success of these unusual detective stories, now made into a film, by the late Anthony Minghela, it seems to have become a popular drink over here - a tendency, which the producers of the tea have not ignored. "This tea is for people who really appreciate tea," says Mma Ramotswe. "Ordinary tea is for everyone." Heidi and I have taken to drinking it without milk mid-morning. Heidi says she regards it as medecin, but no one makes her drink it. I have come to like it."
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2 comments:

Lucas said...

The ivy footsteps are a very impressive form - they seem to be three dimensional as if preserved in clear wax or glass.
Royboss or Redbush tea is a good drink.

Unknown said...

In fact they are three dimensional. They are the withered remains of the tendrils with the help of which the ivy clung to the wall.