Sunday 2nd June - All kinds of tea (and coffee)

When the weather is really hot, what I like is proper cold tea to drink. In a Sunday magazine, probably twenty years ago, I read that the best way to make cold tea is to place a spoonful of fine tea (darjeeling? jasmine? Earl Grey?) in a small jug of cold water and leave overnight in the fridge. I do the cheat's version; bung a tea bag into a recycled smoothie or fruit juice bottle. Currently Clipper Tea's White Tea. Then I can fish the teabag out (it floats conveniently near the surface) and put it in with my packed lunch. The bottle. The teabag goes in the compost bin. With any luck a chill pack will have kept it (the bottle of cold tea of course - the teabag went in the compost, remember? Do pay attention, please!), and my sandwiches, cool until lunchtime, or whenever I get a chance to drink it.

Today I have indulged in a series of tea (and coffee) occasions.

It started well; coffee and croissants were on a tray ready for me once I was out of the bath, clothed, and in what passes for my right mind.

Later in the morning we went to the Santa Fe coffee shop, which is upstairs in our Waterstones bookshop, as a reward for getting up early to do the shopping. It's the first day of half term and all my decision-making ability had been used up in the supermarket, so I was unable to supply coherent answers to complicated questions such as "which coffee would you like?" (choice of 4) and "what size cup?" (choice of 3). In the end I managed to whimper "the strongest one" and make a cup shape with my hands to indicate the size. The waitress looked resigned and sorted it out for me.

Somewhere around 3pm we finally remembered that we hadn't had lunch. That delayed our arrival at the Jubilee street party until 4pm. I guess there was tea and cake on offer, but we just had an ice cream each, chatted to the one adult (a neighbour) and the three school children (I teach at the school round the corner) that I recognised, and then went on to friends down the road....

where we sat in the garden and had proper tea and home-made cakes and Jubilee shortbread from a commemorative tin. By this time it was warm and sunny; the Best kind of Bank Holiday weather. (The cake was coffee with coffee icing and walnuts on top. I had two pieces.)

It wasn't really a cold tea sort of day, apart from an hour or so around 4pm, which is proper tea-in-a-teapot-time.

It is now time to start thinking about supper (7pm). I think I need another cup of tea to help me decide what to cook.