it's not the same moon in the sky

I remember how the last time we stayed with R's mother, she was aghast at the frequency with which I drank tea. It was the punctuation to my day that cigarettes were to hers, but tea occupies a different cultural niche there. Almost anyone I've visited has had a fancy lidded box with lots of compartments for different teas - green, lemon, ginger, rooibos, strawberry etc., but it seems to be something people drink for a novelty or because they shouldn't have any more coffee (that's the really important hot drink there), rather than because it's the central requirement of life.