Your ViewsKeep your e-mails pouring in, it's good to know that there are lots of you out there with views and opinions. To help you work out what is what, are now little icons to help you see biscuit related themes. And now you can see at a glance which are the most contested subjects via this graph (requires Flash 6.0 plugin). Please keep your mails coming in to nicey@nicecupofteaandasitdown.com | If you like, you can use this search thingy to find stuff that matches with any of the icons you pick, or use the fantastic free text search, Yay! | Your e-Mails |
Nina Swift |
Dear Wifey and Nicey,
It seems yonks since I first discovered your site, and now I see you're only a year old, well Happy Birthday !!! fantastically funny and clever site.
I'm a single lady, recently made redundant from my job, so I can now use all of my mugs whenever I like, I usually make tea in them. Ceylonese preferably.
Why has no biscuit firm yet made an Internet cookie biscuit ?
Redundancy
No more office teas for me,
now I can dunk my bread and cheese,
or my giant belgian biscuit
or my moggies' little crispbits.
All my mugs are on display
all about the house each day,
in the bathroom or the bedroom
in the attic if there's headroom.
Here and there a biscuit tin,
I can pillage when I will.
Yep I've got epiphany,
Biscuits and my cup of tea.
Spicey and Pricey
Nina Swift |
Nicey replies: We put the bit about our first birthday up about 2 years ago, because its now our third at the end of this month. Redundancy has always been a blessing in disguise for me, I probably wouldn't have just written our book if it wasn't for the last one.
Our web cookies are called biscuits if you look at the data.
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Lee Bolton |
At my workplace it is common for 'outsiders', or as some would have it 'friends you haven't met yet' to use any available mug. Anyone's that is, except mine, for I never wash mine up, merely rinse the worst effects of the custard creams out. This started as a drive for the perfect cuppa, in the same way as scrubbing a wok clean is frowned upon by those that are in the know, but this added bonus was soon noticed. Strangely, despite everyone here seeing the value of my policy, no-one else has followed my lead. I can only imagine they like having other people drink out of their mug. Additionally, when all the mugs are on the shelf, it is hard to see those that are behind others, but being able to look down from on high, mine stands out as the unclean-one-in-the-middle. You see, I'm a winner all round. Except when I have soup in it from time to time. |
Nicey replies: Lee,
A common strategy, that probably also ensures that people don't invite themselves round for meals at your house either. |
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Steve Britton |
Just thought I'd offer some feedback about causing a stir with a personal mug I used to use.
It was at a previous company, where the unspoken policy was that anyone making a round of teas had to wash up ALL the mugs before brewing up.
Now, I (being somewhat busy most of the time and rather extremist in my right-wing, goose-stepping views) stood up like Mussolini, gesticulating wildly and tried to implement a policy of "if we have our own mugs, we can each be responsible for them.. blah blah blah." Surprisingly to me, no-one responded to my elitest suggestion.
However, wishing to set the example, I persisted in my regime and one day was unfortunate enough to find myself in close proximity at the sink to a certain colleague (female by nature) who was enjoying a rather 'sensitive' moment of the month whilst washing up. Wishing to expand the borders of my personal-mug-usage empire, I engaged the fair maiden in a discourse about individual mug usage. I'm pretty certain that the turning point came when I made a rather blase comment that other people using my mug was (to me) tantamount to 'raping my mug'.
Suffice to say, my imperialist 'Tea Reich' came was reduced to a smouldering wreck on the highway of history by a very soapy dishcloth, slapped with socialist vehemence in my face.
Despite having now changed companies several times, I continue to remain happy to enjoy my morning cuppa served in the 'people's cup'.
Steve Britton |
Nicey replies: Steve,
Yes I too have worked at places where the policy was for people to take turns in washing up all the mugs. Mostly this resulted in the 'busiest' most 'too important' people not washing up mugs ever, whilst everybody else who appreciated a cuppa from a clean mug was forced to wash up the collective mugs. This created many unpleasant scenes not least the shirkers scratching around for anything at all clean that they could use at 3:30 on Friday afternoon to drink tea from. You could always spot these people as they would happily drink tea from a vase, or plastic bag if it meant they didn't have to wash it up. |
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Phil Dennison |
Dear Nicey,
I'm an Englishman abroad in California. I've just looked in the fridge and a stick of butter is indeed 4oz. Bizarrely, the paper wrapper has markings to show some kind of spoonful conversions, and cup conversions. It is very odd that people do not weigh ingredients here. And of course they use a 16 fluid ounce pint rather than the 20 ounce pint which used to be used in the UK.
I try my best to confuse my colleagues by using the 24 hour clock and metric measurements.
I've attached a photo of our kitchen tea station, as we found a rather fetching cup of tea sculpture in a local bargain store.
The best local biscuits that we buy are Graham Crackers. Quite light and suitable for regular consumption, particularly the honey flavoured kind. More serious biscuit enjoyment is restricted to imported products.
best wishes,
Phil.
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Nicey replies: Phil,
Thanks for the butter info. You seem to be doing splendid work out there in California getting the tea making sorted out. That's a very nice mug you have there. Wifey says she's concerned about which teabags you are using in it. I trust from time to time you have baked beans on toast for lunch to further unsettle the locals.. |
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Wayne Shaw |
It is with a heavy heart and a great deal of anger that I write to you to inform you of the sad demise of a fine, upstanding mug.
My own Dennis The Menace (of Beano fame) mug which I have had for many a long year and has accompanied me through various offices, was today mortally wounded by the incompetence in the tea room and clumsiness of a fellow worker.
The aforementioned colleague seemingly dropped the mug onto a hard concrete floor with no consideration of the cups well-being. The handle of the mug snapped clean off, whilst miraculously the rest of the mug remained in one piece.
This mortal wound has left the mug unusable and although it saddened me to do so I had to hold a short ceremony and bury the beloved mug within the contents of the kitchen bin. It will soon be carried away by a hearse (in the shape of a dustbin lorry) and buried in the nearest rubbish tip.
As you can imagine I am heartbroken, as if I had lost a dear friend.
This terrible incident is made worst by the fact I now have to drink from a stained, crappy yellow Hewden Industrial air mug that makes coffee taste disgusting because it’s the only spare mug knocking about.
I hope you can help me get over this traumatic event |
Nicey replies: Wayne,
Our sympathies are with you, at what what must be a very difficult time. However, loosing a mug is a bit like loosing a Pet. Although another mug will never take the place of the one you have just lost, you can of course console yourself by going out and buying another. It will take a week or two to get used to the new one but time is a great healer and soon you'll be able to look back and just remember all the happy times you had with your old mug, before your mate smashed it up on the floor and you had to bin it. |
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