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Your e-Mails

Alison	Dear Nicey (and Wife of course!), I recently bought your book, having seen a copy in my son's shared student house and not having time to read it properly before it was time to go back home after delivering all his Stuff for him. I don't really do the web thing as access isn't easy but books ... well, I really love books! The students in his house are all tea freaks and have a wonderful collection of pots which they use for communal drinking sessions. At home, the Man prefers Earl Grey and I like Darjeeling. Sometimes we drink the same and use a pot but it's just one of those standard steel ones - but it pours so well we keep using it. (We drink it the best way of course, ie black and not too strong, so you get the fragrance and flavour just right. *grin*) Anyway, the point of this is to share with you something about pouring and spouts, which I learnt from my Dad only this morning. He's rather old and only drinks horrible instant coffee with lots of milk and sugar when he's at home, but a while ago he had to spend quite a lot of time in hospital and there he got used to drinking tea (also horrible with lots of milk and sugar!). The lady with the tea wagon used to pour out a whole trayful at once and Dad was at leisure to watch this activity and observe the results. He still has an enquiring mind and noticed that the giant teapot poured badly when it was full but better later on. The results of the study indicated that the angle of the spout is critical, and further occasional study by him at home involving watering cans and milk jugs supported this theory. If the liquid coming out of the spout is already pointing downwards when it leaves the spout (ie if you have a nice curvy tipped spout) then it pours tidily; however, if your spout points upwards so the liquid has to struggle to achieve downward motion then it invariably gives up and sneaks down the side of the pot/jug/watering can. This is where the end-of-the-pot bit works - when it's nearly empty the spout is pointing much more down than when it's full. I haven't tested this for myself but it does sound like a good excuse for a few more cups of tea to be made .... best regards, Alison.
	Nicey replies: Thank you for passing your father's sage learning. I fear that entire sum of human knowledge and enquiry to date has failed to properly quantify and explain the forces and mechanisms at work when tea is poured from a pot. The design of such important things being left to the creative whimsey of artisans rather than the directed research of physicists and mathematicians. Perhaps if we roped in Mr Dyson he could come up with something sure fire, given his successes in getting 'hoovers' to pick up fluff off of carpets. As we crossed the Irish sea on our way back from this years tea tour I was treated to an unusual scene in the men's toilets. An elderly American chap, properly attired in comfortable chequered clothing was raving about the hand dryer. It was another one Mr Dyson's inventions. The old fella was so impressed, his words were "that's the first goddamn one of those that I've used that's ever worked", and he promptly took a photo of it with his digital camera. I rushed back and immediately told Nanny Nicey, who prides herself on taking offbeat and tedious holiday photos with which to stupefy her rambling circle. Her pictures of unusually shaped collecting containers at French recycling points were in danger of being eclipsed by this old boys pictures of maritime toilet fixtures.
Debbie	Hello Nicey, Here is a lovely tea cosy a very nice lady knitted for me, Its the perfect accessory for tea and biscuits! Love Debbie
	Nicey replies: Very nice pom-poms too.
Steve Watts Club Milk Review	Hi It is great to learn that Club is back in its original format, even if its only in Ireland I worked as a sales rep for Associated Biscuits Limited (Jacobs, Peek Freans, Huntley & Palmers & Chiltonian) from 1980 to 1996, surviving all of the major changes in ownership, Nabisco and Danone! When I joined Club was available in Fruit(Purple), Milk(Red), Orange(Orange), Plain (Bright Green) & Wafer(Light Blue) available in singles or in 5 packs (RSP 41.5p, on promotion at 27.5-29.5p) Mint(Dark Green) with plain chocolate was added a little later Many an hour was spent filling supermarket shelves and building promotional ends for these brightly coloured packs ensuring that you always separated the two green packs with one of the other colours so as not to confuse the customer! Changes came, the chocolate was taken off and replaced with chocolate flavoured coating, the famous sandwich biscuit was replaced, Club Wafer was discontinued, Club Milk turned blue. the chocolate came back but a lot thinner and Club Mint changed to Milk Chocolate! Sales declined We also saw the disappearance of Trio, Winner and Elevenses During my time with company, McVities & United Biscuits were the sworn enemy and now they own the brands, it grieves me to see Crawfords on Family Circle but perhaps they will see sense and re-introduce the original and best Jacobs Club... because I think we all like a lot of chocolate on our biscuits! Regard Steve Watts PS what has happened to Mrs Peeks Christmas Puddings?
	Nicey replies: Steve, Great to hear from somebody who was so involved with the revered Club Biscuit. It was my cherished wish that McVities would ride to the rescue and reinstate the Club back to its former glory but alas they seem to view the whole acquisition and what was Associated Biscuits as a means of getting their hands on Cream Crackers. Given that they have had to brand their Jacobs fig rolls as McVities in-order to sell them in the Republic of Ireland, maybe Jacob's Fruitfieild will brand their Clubs as Bollands and start shipping some over here (we can hope). As for all those Christmas Puds, we had a few in our time. Every one accompanied by my Dad's tale of how awful the one they had after the end of WWII was. The resurrected Huntley and Palmers does quite a nice Christmas pudding nowadays, probably to be found in Waitrose.
Jim Fussell	Hi Nicey, How’s tricks? Hope you, Wifey and YMOS are all well. I thought it was about time I contributed a mail to the site again…..it’s been too long. I’ve just come back from a work trip to the USA and as per usual getting any sort of cup of tea over there is tough, let alone a decent one. Anyway, it was a two and a half week trip and frankly something had to be done to satisfy my tea craving. In my hotel room was a coffee maker, 4 Lipton Yellow Label tea bags and 3 sachets of Coffeemate. How wrong could it go? I loaded the tea bags into the coffee jug and filled the machine with water. A flick of the switch and I was only 5 minutes away from a delicious brew. The slightly hot water landed onto the bags and the level rose until I was satisfied there was enough for a couple of cups. I poured and added a sachet of Coffeemate. I’m sure you can imagine how it tasted……so I nipped over to McDonalds and got a tea from them, which to my surprise didn’t taste too bad….or maybe anything would have tasted good after my effort. Regards, Jim.
	Nicey replies: It takes one or two truly woeful and tragic cups of tea to knock that plucky British optimism out you. I also think Ray Mears has a lot to answer for here as he seems to be able to conjure up most of life's necessity's using just some sticks and a bonfire, it seems reasonable that we should be able to comfortably come up with a cuppa using the resources of a hotel room, even an American one. If there is a next trip perhaps you should camp out in shrubbry next to the car park and brew up billy can tea. I'm sure those innovations style catalogues full of executive toys and gadgets have something that could be used to make tea in such a hostile environment.
Cathy	Hello from California, USA! Do you know of any way I can order some Empire biscuits to get here? I love them, but haven't had any since I visited Glasgow about seven years ago. Both my parents were from Glasgow. When I was a child growing up in Brooklyn, New York, there was a Scottish Bakery called "Drew's Bakery" near our apartment. We used to get Empire Biscuits there. I do wish I could get them here. They are so lovely with a nice cup of tea! Just happened to see your web site on "Google", and thought I'd drop you an email to see if you knew of some way I might be able to order some. Thanks so much and have a great day.....Cathy
	Nicey replies: I don't think that's possible. They are the sort of thing that just turn up in small local bakeries and not the places accustomed to shipping things worldwide. They are very simple things really, you should have a go at baking your own. Here is a charming blog page I found on just that.
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