tea bag blues

Back to "normality" after a very exciting and meaningful trip to a little part of my childhood, has been a little underwhelming to say the least. But then I always feel that way after a great trip away. Better to just get a grip and get on with it! I always tend to try and take up the threads I left earlier than starting completely afresh. Just getting busy and back into it has been more difficult than I imagined.

To ease my way in, I got back to making a few more little tea bag books but with the emphasis on the Sri Lanka experience. Good to get back to my materials and start solving different problems. After fiddling around with a few of these which have taken off around the globe, I really want to sink my teeth into something a bit more substantial.

The many thoughts and paradoxes that were thrown up from Sri Lanka may take a while to gel before finding a better mor e serious output than these tiny books. Maybe a whole stack of these bound into a bigger "little book" for starters. Just to keep the ball rolling.

The social justice issues of poverty and equity of the people of Sri Lanka (even just the Tamil tea pickers as a starting point) are just so large I'm not sure how to handle them in book form. These tiny little tokens are not strong enough to deal with the strong emotions that inevitably spring forth. So larger format and probably a whole new approach will result further down the track.


Some food (drink?) for thought from a description of an after dinner tea  in a restaurants one of the 5 Star hotels in Colombo:

AFTER DINNER TEA

Uva Seasonal Best Dark

Made in the unique world famous Uva season.

 Flavour driven by the hot Cachan wind. 

Manufactured at midnight for coolness to develop the volatile flavoury oils. 

Produces a rounded liquour with some colour and a delicate flowery flavour. 

Will balance milk if required. If without milk, recommend to cut leaf quantity in half.

Rs 240 (approx $Aust2.00

(A Tamil teapicker works all day picking 18 kg of leaf for Rs 400)