Back in the Loop

ICED TEA

2010-01-05T02:30:00.000-08:00

My Iced Palace.........it is the coldest London has been for 20 years and here I sit in front of my fire place, with a mug of soup and my boiler not working, so no hot water, and no heating!! The year is 2010 the date 3rd of January......New Year's Eve was memorable, good food, good friends and a feeling of all round positive emotion. Enough of hard times, this year is going to be special against all odds. I had slept over with friends, had a lovely breakfast and was rushing home just to have a bath, get changed and go to my next social engagement. I turned the dial to switch on the boiler, and it had gone into lock-out mode....I pushed the reset button but nothing happened. Got out all the manuals, and began to decipher the instructions......christ why don't they write a book for housewives and laymen, all this technical jargon...time running out I have to go!..Boil kettle, wash face, put on make-up, change knickers put on same clothes, too cold to change....When I arrive, the husband offers to return home with me and help sort out the boiler, but after dinner and watching District Nine, (the aliens in S Africa) he has had too much wine to drive, and I say "don't worry I will sort it out!". Brrrrr at half past one in the morning...my feet now gone into lock out mode...blocks of ice so I retire to bed with the boiler problem not solved. I find it difficult to sleep just too damned cold, and when I add another duvet, I get too hot!!....wake up I have a breakfast date, so I ring them up, ask whether I can shower and wash my hair at their house and I leave dressed in a sweater and my pyjamas again too cold to change into anything. Lovely bagels and scones, but I am on the mobile most of the time sorting out a plumber. Everyone is away for the holidays and it is difficult to get anyone. Before the breakfast has finished a plumber calls and says I can be at your home within a half an hour. Great! I leave abruptly and rush back. Two hours later, frozen hands, frozen feet and the plumber saying " I am so sorry I just can't work out how to reset the boiler, it seems the fan is not working and the electrical circuit is not connecting, and it is a process of elimination, to work out the problem, could cost you £300 and then you still may need a new boiler." Now I have dinner at a friend and then going to a movie and have decided to sleep the night at someone else because it is too cold. I am really feeling sorry for myself, I have just had a bonus of £1000 and part of that money was to go on a ticket to South Africa....and before my eyes, it has disappeared into the ether!!!! See 'Nowhere Boy' the film about John Lennon's childhood....it reminds me of my childhood, well not exactly, but it is sad, and I have already cried watching the film. Rush to my next port of slumber, and the daughter is getting ready for her flight to India, to stay at Amma's ashram in Kerala. I just want to go with her, don't understand why I am attracting bad luck regarding money!! I go upstairs, to a very very spare room, little mattress on the floor....I am starting to feel like a jesuit priest, having the least comfort, all stripped away from me so that I can face my destiny or regain my faith, at this stage no sure which one is my truth. I cry myself to sleep and wake up determined to sort out this problem and find a gas company. It is SUNDAY and the HOLIDAYS wake up and smell the coffee, you have to sit this one out!! I need to go home. My studio has a heater, so I go there and decide to paint for the afternoon......a few hours are spent amusing myself, but when I come in to change, it is so cold that I ring up my cousin, ask if I can come there to bath before we go out and she says that it is fine, but she will only be home at 6pm. Ok so I will keep myself warm and I decide to polish the table with wax....don't even question this decision. 5.30 I grab some clothes, I have decided to sleep there and off I go. I am starving, and she has nothing in her fridge...I decide to bath later after the jazz concert because she wants to get there early to park. While we are sitting in the bar....another cousin who has joined us, remarks there is a very weird smell...."I can smell floor polish" I reply " that is strange because only today I polished my table". Bev replies " the smell is so strong and I think it is coming from you!" Of course I was too cold to take off my coat, so as I polished my sleeves were soaking up most of it!.....I had had enough of camping!!!!! Went back to sleep at Marion, who is also saving on electricity and gas, and her flat was cold!...Had a bath by that time the flat had warmed up and I got into another single bed in the lounge...again I cried...but not for too long..I looked up at the ceiling...which now was the heaven, and I asked the God of Saving Boilers, to guide me as to where I have gone wrong in my life and was I being tested on my loyalty and faith...and how was I to change!!. Sleep, wake up Monday morning, ring British Gas for a quote, and N Power for a quote, and it is approx £2000 and a 10 day waiting period. NO!!!!! don't even brush my teeth, get my clothes on and go to a boiler manufacturer....one for £800 another for £650 but I don't have the measurements. On my way home see another huge depot for plumbing and boilers....one for £650 another for £550...got to measure the dimensions. Get home phone Ken my builder friend, he tell me he will come at 1pm and his brother will come at 3pm to fit it, so I must buy a boiler. Ok I get one, it is the cheaper one, but it has a 2 year guarantee and they promise me it is GOOD.
But here I sit, in front of the fire with a cup of soup....Ken draining the radiators, the brother (engineer) not coming because he has too many jobs....and another night of misery and cold.
My brain has gone into cold fantasy....I am a monk in the Himalayas....god is trying to get me to see where I need to change my life....all I can come up with is CHANGE THE BOILER....I know there is something more than that but I can't figure it out. My friend says I am to be aware of the law of attraction, fear manifests the worst..so even when I earn money it disappears very quickly.....part me likes this feeling of nothingness and numbness.....time to think time to plan...although god says if you want something to go wrong then PLAN....so maybe no plans just be just embrace the moment...that is all we know......I hope the plumber is coming tomorrow the ICE MAN COMETH

Gay-et-Tea

2009-07-08T03:19:00.000-07:00

The week that was...I worked for the Democrats abroad on Saturday, they had a picnic in Portmans Square. It was all very civilized and relaxed, with American stalls and a Jazz band to serenade. Just outside was the Gay Pride march....and thousands watching Gay Policemen, gay fireman and Old and Young Gay! Madonna did a concert at the O2 centre, and dedicated 2 songs to Michael Jackson, and there was a musical concert in Hyde Park.....what a July 4th!

Tea with Salman

2009-06-17T23:13:00.000-07:00

I have known Salman since I have been coming to Sinai which is 4 years. He has taken us on many a trip into the mountains providing us with delicious meals and sage tea. Here he shows us the art of pouring.......I share my 'marmaria' tea with my school friend Naomi, and Yasser.

You drink a cup of tea and you think you've made a brother

And you have another cup and another and another

Desert Rat

2009-06-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

We scout the Sinai desert for the perfect cup of tea.....it could be mint or marmaria both refreshing in the 40 degrees heat. It is the welcome drink, time to sit, rest and talk about

which camel you passed on the way.

Don't cry over spilled TEA

2009-05-30T02:10:00.000-07:00

I've been seen spilling mint tea all over my trousers while driving from Staines to Turnham Green I’ve driven, without stopping, around the houses while fondling a large woman between Feltham and Wapping. I jumped up a bit sharpish after sitting down to dinner. At a get together between Arsenal and Pinner I parked my car at Hyde Park Corner and hid for a while around the bend. But I’ve finally ceased keeping a low profile in Crouch End! I doesn't matter who wrote this......his identity is out.....

My first Gig....poetry!

2009-05-12T15:27:00.000-07:00

Do they all suffer the 'you have to be mad to be brilliant syndrome' or 'the settle down to some opium and recite' syndrome.....Poets hey, what a bunch. There was the witty compare who made a joke about the content of each poem....there was the guy in the front row that nodded at each iambic pentameter....there were the lover poets who sat on the couch on stage, obviously having just been away, they both wore the same tan....there was the stoned drunk voice of brilliance that bellowed from the corner.....the bankers who did the serious stuff like a version of the Illiad....showing their other side, the soft lyrical feminine touch and me who used at least five different accents and poeted about India.... I was nervous although the compare at the end asked whether I had done this before....I dared not say the word performer...this was my first poetry gig and I was nervous. The women were lighter, funnier except for the beautiful voice of the slightly older lady, who talked about being old on the inside and young on the outside and vice versa. My friend next to me, wanted to shoot her but I liked! Lots of sowf Lundon blokes...funny voices couldn't bleeding understand nufink....posh political chaps spouting left wing views, and then Johnny Rizzla....who saw the light and was pissed off with God! Will I go again, they asked me to do a 'SLAM'...I hope it isn't a bloody gong when they think you are crap...but you get points apparently...and become the laureate. Who would have thought those elocution lessons would come in handy...and to perform my own words....all too much really...good night

Understandabili....tea

2009-05-08T00:05:00.000-07:00

Last year I did a TEFL ( teach English to foreign students) course on line...I did brilliantly, well you would when you have all the time to look up an answer. I haven't officially taught, and I went for a job last week in the East end. Sadly I didn't get it...BUT it was for only one day a week, unpaid until you had accumulated 40 hours and they wanted a committed person to the East End Bangladeshi community.....my answer was I need to get physical hours on to my Diploma....WRONG! I have a new friend, only met him last year and he is teaching in China. His stories are hysterical but I must say it all sounds so alienating that I wonder whether I am cut out for this business anyway! He writes.........

Here, in English, everytime you ask an interro-negative question (No, you don't think so?/ You aren't going are you?, etc, they answer "Yes (meaning being, "yes (I agree with you) I don't think so" or "Yes, I'm not going".

Clarification is often required, "is that an English or a Chinese yes?".

Also, another thing that happens all the time with the Chinese teachers (vaguely possible to describe them as translators, of a kind) ) is that whenever they say "I know, I know" (meaning "I understand") BEWARE. (My translation of that is different: SORRY I HAVENT GOT A FUCKING CLUE WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT ). Especially as they start knowing everything before I've even put the verb in the sentence.....!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next step, pause and ask them, "OK, what exactly is it that you know?" ......Question is followed by blank grin and I end up swearing at them in Spanish (something light like .........."I shit in your mothers milk") with a smile of encouragement on my face.........and wonder how long it will be before they do it again

Still, we are so bad at Chinese that they must think we are just another dumb foreigner. I think losing one's voice completely and struggling to express oneself would be a good way to practice the kind of sounds they emit and class as language.......

A lot of them appear to be on happy pills with the most standardized, archaic opinions about things. However, you can find people just like everywhere (well just about), open minded and doing their own thing, to some degree. Professional, family and educational pressure is enormous. Most of them seem to get married at about 12.

In one adult class I was coaxing and trying everything under the sun to get them to participate with encouragement such as "Come on Tina, what's your opinion? What do you think Tina, etc.? After much stammering and stuttering Tina managed to emit "Teacher, what do you want me to think?". I rest my case, no more needed. That is actually quite indicative. They are very concerned about maintaining face so do not want to appear foolish or make mistakes in public.

Chinese are very bright indeed, excellent at maths and things like that, memory, etc. However, don't ask them questions such as 'why' because they just don't know! They are not trained to analyse, not creative, I guess having to learn thousands of characters by heart must play a role in this!

It's shitt TEA

2009-04-25T07:52:00.000-07:00

It's pretty shitty when a parent dies...even if they have been ill for a long time...you are never really prepared. Anne Samuels was the mother of my good friend Howard Samues and was a real character, I had known her for about 18 years. Last night she passed away at about 11pm...she had surely had enough, only a few years ago she had had her leg amputated below the knee...Heather Mills eat your heart out...Anne would have tripped you on her zimmer frame with wheels. She was so frail almost bird like but her mind was active and she always had her sense of humour. I remember years ago, when she thought I would be a perfect wife for her son...."Michelle I think you should be with my son" "Anne believe me I adore him but you can't sleep with your best friend" "Michelle TRY IT!!!!" I also worked for her when I first came to London. I was in a show with Howard at the King's head and needed to earn money. Algy and Anne had a dress factory and I packed dresses for them. Come lunch time a voice came from the office "Michelle you want a bagel?"....so off I went to sit with the directors while the rest of the workers sat having their bacon and eggs at the bottom of the factory...I felt bad, but I was being summoned to the Nosh Pot! and why not! Tonight Howard and I were due to perform for a 40th birthday, but unfortunately I got the dreaded call this morning. So the show goes on and thanks to the two guitarists we will be able to do 'a different cabaret'....Anne would have loved it she was one of the most loyal audience members....she was show biz!

HIstory of Dance will sipping tea

2009-04-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

Tea Dances originated in America and England as an added attraction of the afternoon tea held at afternoon tea gardens. It was reportedly an opportunity for women and men to mix more freely. They became extremely popular in the 1920's and 30's. Ladies would wear an afternoon frock and gentlemen a long sleeved dress shirt with a bow tie or ascot, slacks, a single or double breasted sport's jacket, and lace up oxfords.

World's biggest Tea Cosy

2009-04-16T11:04:00.000-07:00

A huge tea cosy is touring Britain...all for charity and to raise money for sick children and their families. It is all part of the Wallace and Grommit Children's Foundation and if you look on their website they have 'tea events' and 'tea dances' and tea cake recipes....and you can donate lots of money that you don't have..........

....

Sal TEA

2009-04-07T02:24:00.000-07:00

I'ts coming up to Pessach...and I love boiled eggs in salt water with crushed matzoh bits! The egg symbolizes birth and rebirth and the salt water symbolizes both tears from oppression and tears from joy in freedom. If I was to be reborn.....there is a lot I would put on the list....no 1. having long, lithe, beautiful legs.....call me superficial.....say what you like....when you haven't got em you want em, and if I was reborn again....I'd want good legs that could make me a lot of money....not too much to ask! Happy Pessach...which reminds me I better go and get some of that stomach binding, constipating matzoh and those farting eggs......and enough salt to increase your blood pressure.........

Edibili TEA

2009-04-05T03:23:00.000-07:00

It has actually happened....I was given a 'pill' as the starter!!!! Love it! Went to my friend Yvonne for dinner on Friday night, she is a naturopath and is about to do a course on raw food cooking.
The meal was spectacular and interesting and fresh....mostly raw with great dressings. We sat down and on each of our plates was a pill....'"what's this?" "a digestive enzyme" she replied....and this was before we had even eaten. Does this mean...that unless we take it, we will suffer from reflux and indigestion....can you drink on this pill! Was it really what she said it was...or were we about to take a trip on a Magic Mystery Tour....Unbelievable...not one guest, said that they weren't taking it.....we swallowed dutifully....we ate and ummed and awed....raw food is definitely where it's at!!!!

Tea Hugging....or even Tree

2009-04-01T12:58:00.000-07:00

ZERO TRANQUILI-tea

2009-03-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

Protesters sat down for tea, cake and cookies outside the Bank of ENgland on Tuesday, a genteel start to what they vow will be a noisy, angry reception for President Barack Obama and other leaders attending the G-20 summit....dubbed Financial Fools Day by demonstrators.

FIner Tea

2009-03-31T02:52:00.000-07:00

NOTHING COULD BE FINER

Than to be right here is Sinai

When it's hot and you rock

And you think you all alone

But you never far from home

See a bedouin, and a camel and a mobile phone

And you have a cup of tea and you think you've made a brother

And you have a cup of tea and another and another and another and another and another and a....

Publici- TEA

2009-03-30T17:30:00.000-07:00

QUOTABILI TEA..........RESPECTABILI TEA

TRIVIALI TEA

2009-03-30T16:53:00.000-07:00

Name dropping at its best.....my friend Linda Marlowe played trivial pursuit in the 70's in LA with James Taylor, Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell.........I have just watched an hour long special of James Taylor singing in his home town. He is funny, eccentric and sings like an angel...he just doesn't look like I want him to! He's sixty for Christ Sake....he doesn't have his long hair and moooostache and driving a Cortina...but he made me cry, he sang 'You've got a friend'......how we danced and sang to that song in Bulawayo days.....but it was Carole's version we danced to!

I'm watching you watching me

2009-03-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

MY IDENTI-TEA IS MY ABNORMALI-TEA MY SENSITIVI-TEA

T joke

2009-03-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

WHEN I WAS YOUNG MY UNCLE USED TO ASK ME TO SPELL ATTIC

So I said Ay Tea Tea eye see ...... (and he laughed)

until I realised I had said A titty I see!!!!!!

Time to do Tea in the East End

2009-03-29T12:21:00.000-07:00

We love it....Columbia Rd, Brick Lane and Spitalfields.....don't seem like no depression that side of town sister! Us Londoners in the West where the rich folk live, suddenly see our East End cousins come'n up and flourishing, I am sure it is an illusion. Sunday morning, head to Columbia Road to the flower market...and if you don't buy the pansies (for a fiver) when you see 'em, (cos I can assure you they were gone by the time we came back!) And the guy next door is selling them for £8 so now they are not even a bargain! I saw 'tea' in Everything in the East end...Party, Tea shops, Tea entrance. See for yourself! Come fly with me.....but you can't bitch you don't have wings! tea hea!

Tea with Mussolini

2009-03-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

Paris world cup rugby 2007. Raunchy romance, rugby and Tea with Mussolini. A blissfull moment in time. Tali ever the model!

thanks E

3 little T pots

2009-03-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

Now Lynne tell us where we all come from.....am I copper cos you haven't cleaned me? did I belong to Gypsies in Europe.........I'm so little(says the little one) I don't have a pot to piss in.......

I'm a little T pot, short and stout

Here is my handle here is my spout

Bulawayo....Fatali TEA

2009-03-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

...a need to touch base with our past so we can evaluate our present. It doesn't matter if you haven't seen each other for 20years.....it is always easy to pick up with you'r old buddy from Zim, do a quick reality check, update your past and share in the nostalgia of 'the Bulawayo days' the 'Dairy Den', the 'Coffee Pot'.....Townsend School. The roads have not been maintained and these recent photos depict the state of them ...the road I took every day on my bicycle.......the journey of the past, the present and the future.

Jewish identity

2009-03-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.thefriedmans.net/jewgle/

Tea in West London...inevitabili...TEA

2009-03-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

Up Portobello, into Westbourne, head towards the Tea Palace, oh shit it's bloody closed, bugger! Rent's gone up, man what a shame. You think I am going to tell you that I loved that place, I went there every Friday, I met the man of my life......wrong wrong wrong! I have never been there ...I sometimes peered through the glass to check it out....but I liked it there..So came back down the Bello and saw other people drinking tea....

New Identity ...transformation

2009-03-23T17:40:00.000-07:00

I'ts her birthday, time for renewel....new hair, no hair! first tatoo. Ouroboros', this symbolizes the eternal cycle of renewal. Take a look at 'The Ourboros Team' http://www.ouroboros-team.com

Nigh Tea Night

2009-03-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

Too much tea and I pee all bloody nightly

Nigh Tea Night

Sexy Tea

2009-03-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

someone told me that you can buy sexy tea on the black market in Turkey, it is full of viagra.....I'd rather go to Turkey and do the beginners divers course......

Dobra Tea House

2009-03-22T15:40:00.001-07:00

Picture the scene THe DObra Tea HOuse Burlington VT USA....the Schillers are out for a quiet cup of tea...unaware that there is a cyber stalker and they are being watched and photographed. How many sugars, did the Dad have...did the Momma take low fat milk.....did the little girl finish her tea before she left....how did the boy really make the teaspoon stick to his nose....... They seem like an ordinary American family, but the telling is all in the cup.....I will have to check with Gypsy Lee Fine......she has memorized the clues from the tea leaves, and soon will be revealed!

Tee hee tee hee

2009-03-22T08:28:00.000-07:00

Yo 'brew' make a cuppa tea for me

want to chill read the paper can't you see

more relaxed when I'm sipping a cup of chai

sweet like you babe my oh my

Tea with Shirl

2009-03-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

I have just received the first of the tea photos...from my friend, actress extraordinare, and film writer and director. We have had many a hot cuppa and hot chat!

Words from Shirl:

In a Hakka Tea Room where the whole process takes about an hour for the tea to be ground-brewed and shared amongst friends in soup type bowls, and I am sorry to say I found it rather horrible, but the occasion was wonderful and the tea ceremony divine - and I was being hosted by the most warm, generous souls, so I put my tastebuds in my pocket and smiled and swallowed.

Identi-TEA

2009-03-22T01:11:00.000-07:00

When I stayed with my Granny Ethel in Hillbrow...she would wake me up in the morning with tea in a glass, lots of milk, lots of sugar and a 'bulke'.....oh my god.....I am in constant search for the ultimate bulke experience ( a yeast cinnamon cake). She used to sleep with a couple of plastic curlers in her hair and a pair of knickers on her head to keep the style, a Latvian beauty!!! My first real memory of breakfast in bed.....no it was not TIFFANY....but the Lithuanian beauty was offering her soul in a bun, he kindness and love in a cup of tea.

Identitiy

2009-03-22T00:57:00.000-07:00

After 4 months of travelling I am back in London and back in the loop! Last night I sat with my friend Angie and told her how confused I felt...no real pull to anywhere....where do I really belong. Her advice was sound...you are where you are, here and now, no need to give yourself a hard time and analyse everything JUST BE. So I shall! No short of inspiriation...I have a thousand ideas of what I want to do....and TRUST will be at the top of my list.....CONTROL will have to move its way down
So lets blog about tea, even tho I am more of a coffee drinker, but all those tea shots I took...................and then you can take it into identi....tea and introduce anything really, ok I will allow myself to be guided.....join me for tea!