Sampling a Different Tea

— Posted inFood — 2 min read

I order my teas from Upton Tea and one of the things they do to get you to try different teas is to give you a choice of one of four different teas in a free small sample size with each order. I’d never tried a Columbian tea before, so when the above tea was one of the four offered with my last order I decided to give it a try.

Great color, smooth and flavorful, definitely far better than any tea bags from the supermarket, but my taste in teas runs in a slightly different direction. Found it to be on the mild side and without any hint of the chocolatey notes the description indicated. I had used 2.25 grams of tea to 6 oz. of water at boiling, steeping for four minutes. Will increase the time to five minutes for tomorrows cup, but my experience is that longer brewing times tend to bring out the tannins, think the” brisk” in Lipton tea, which I don’t care for.

Still, the sample packets are great for trying new teas. Afterall, that is how I stumbled upon the Keemun tea that is my favorite. Just like in wines and cheeses, there is a tea for every taste. My wife is into iced tea, though she buys loose tea from another online seller, then bags it up and brews it as solar tea before refrigerating it. But that is a story for another post in the distant future.

It’s “A Christmas Carol” Time of the Year

— Posted inLiterature, Movies & TV — 2 min read

It’s the time of the year when many movies seem to be based on Charles Dickens classic. (Full disclosure: We stream a Christmas movie every night between Thanksgiving-the fourth Thursday of November- and Christmas.) Some adhere more closely to Dickens’ story while could euphemistically be said to take their inspiration from it.

In one of our conversations about what was happening in the movie we were watching at the time my wife said I should read Dickens original. That led me to a website I often go to for books and stories from the past that are out of copyright, Project Gutenberg, which is easily found by a web search. Project Gutenberg is one of those sites reflects what the world wide web was before it was commercialized into what it is today. All work is done by volunteers and all the books are available for free. And there are also books that are available in languages beside English.

In the end I read the original 1843 first edition after downloading it to my tablet. Even though I thought I knew the story quite well, the images Dickens prose generates in the reader’s mind gives a better impression of what takes place than do the various movies. Project Gutenberg also has the 1905 and 1915 additions available as well as Dickens original handwritten pages. Below are a few images to hopefully whit your appetite to peruse the original yourself.

Cover
Front piece
Handwritten page
Image from ifirst edition

See Ya Next Year

— Posted inTravel — 1 min read

There once was song by Frankie Ford titled “‘Sea Cruise”. one of those hoppin’ boppin’ song from my long ago (mis-spent?) youth. Slow forward many decades later and that song is about to become reality. Some 110 pounds of luggage next to be seen in less than three weeks in a cabin on the bounding main.

No lugging our luggage through airports. It was a free perk for early reserving out trip. It is called Luggage Forward and if it works the way it should, it will be the cat’s meow and more.

When Okay is Good Enough

— Posted inEclectic, Humor — 2 min read

When you are going to attend one of those soirées where it is stated that ‘Gentlemen should wear jackets” and you don’t own such a garment, what do you do. Some five years ago we were scheduled to attend a whisky tasting in Scotland where jackets were very highly recommended. We solved that problem by going to a second hand thrift shop and buying, for a ridiculously low price, a very nice tweed jacket. We disposed of it by simply leaving it in the hotel room when we checked out as I had absolutely no further need for it.

Fast forward to the present day where once again we are presented with the same situation. So once again it was off to the second hand thrift shop for some shopping. Trying for the black look we hoped to find a “suitable” black jacket.

As expected, there wasn’t much of a selection, but there were several black jackets, though as shown on the photographic young model above, some were, shall we say, a tad too large to provide the dashing debonair man about town look I was trying to achieve even though the black color goes perfectly with the jeans I was wearing.

When okay is good enough. Yes it is a size too small, but it is never going to be buttoned. I really like this look and the fact the sleeves a tad short, plus at only $9.99 the price was about $165 less than what we had seen at the regular stores for something that, while the correct size, didn’t give me the fitted look I like. Never let it be said that I’m unwilling to spend whatever it takes to get the look I like.