"No reading at the breakfast table"

Yesterday I handed in my last assignment for my Masters degree.  I feel so relieved and truly amazed to have got this far (although happier once I know I've passed). To celebrate, Rowan and I went out for supper last night (courtesy of my Mum who is staying with us for a few days).  We celebrated in our usual outrageous style.  A trip to a bookshop followed by a coffee shop.  'Yes, let's get our own decadent chocolate fondant each', we cry, 'It's a celebration after all!'  And yes, with a pot of earl grey tea on the side (of course, what else?). After 9 pm.  Bad, bad move. I was awake until 1.30 am.  And had to get up at 6.30 am to get ready for work.  It was a looonnngg night. Followed by an even longer day. Why couldn't I sleep? 1.  I'm really not used to eating rich food 2.  I can't cope with that much chocolate and caffeine so 'late' in the day 3.  We are just getting old. Now, as I'm sipping my herbal tea at 8.30 ...

It was my birthday on Wednesday.  I am of age - a significant age - but not a large zero age ... yet. I had a fab day - this whole working thing paid off because they gave me an incredible chocolate cake which we enjoyed for morning tea (we do love a birthday at my work).  Even a little pressie from my co-workers on my desk.  Very sweet. So here's my first favourite birthday present.  A porcelain eco-cup.  All for me and not for use by my husband drinking his stinky coffee.  It has flowers and a teapot on it - unlikely he'll be fighting to use it. The question is.  How long will it be before I break it?!

Thanks to the mystery dealer who deposited a box of 100 Earl Grey Twinings tea bags on my front steps this morning. You aren't helping me in my attempts to reduce my tea drinking ...  But I am ever so grateful.  Lovely surprise.

I never thought that a public airing of my weakness for a good cuppa would generate such discussion! So here's the update. I've decided on a compromise.  Going cold turkey and then finding no reasonable alternative was too much.  So I'm having a couple of nice cups of tea a day and enjoying them a lot more.  Maybe I had fried my tastebuds by drinking so much that I couldn't even taste it anymore. I'm also going to be diligent about not drinking proper tea at night. But I have to write a very tedious essay this week on library management (as if little old me, mother of 5, aging rapidly, will ever be managing a library - it is quite amusing really).  So that will be the real test.  Can I manage to get through a week of battling through an uninteresting assignment and not get hooked again? Of course you do realise that the real test comes when you're faced with the pressures of life.  (I've heard the Biggest Loser rhetoric).  Maybe I need to go t...

I have to confess in this public forum that I'm addicted to earl grey tea. I used to like the expensive stuff (Twinings) but because I drink so much of it, over the years I've had to buy the home brand version because I couldn't afford to sustain my habit. On Monday mornings I'd go to playgroup and have a cup of tea.  But one wasn't enough.  I'd have to go back for another. I'd visit a friend and enjoy the first cuppa.  But start to wonder if it too rude to ask for another, an hour into our visit. I don't have milk or sugar with it.  That just wrecks the purity of the experience.  I would branch out sometimes and enjoy Lady Grey or French Earl Grey for a treat.  But for everyday purposes my friend was the 'Earl'. But two weeks ago I went cold turkey.  I just decided that it was time to break the habit.  I have entered the world of herbal teas with all its strange flavours.  Peppermint (toothpaste dissolved in hot water).  Camom...