njalo-njalo: Tea and Talk

It’s official. I’m a tea-addict. I stepped off the train this morning with a dull headache that was dispelled quarter of the way down my morning cup of tea. It’s all m2m’s fault too—the kitchen here is stocked with every kind of tea your heart could possibly desire, with six varieties of accompaniments to go with (full cream, half ‘n half, 2%, no fat, skim, lemon). And they told me on my first day here that I could take “as many tea breaks as I like”. I don’t dare disobey.

I’ve always considered tea to be a ‘grown-up’ drink. I drank milk or juice or some other benign drink, while my parents and uncles and aunties drank tea. I drank tea in college—hot, black, no sugar—to stay awake before exams and paper-due-dates. But there was nothing to love in those cups of tea; they were strictly utilitarian and intrinsically associated with the dull, nagging feelings of despair as a deadline loomed. But at work now, I’ve taken to drinking tea in the Indian way: really milky and really sweet. It’ll give me diabetes, I know, but that shot of caffeine and sugar does wonders for my productivity. So its official, I guess. I’m a grown-up.

And speaking of grownup things—I opened my SA bank account this weekend. It was a three-week long exercise that took me to each of the four major SA banks, including four visits to the bank I finally got an account at. Yay third world bureaucracy. Next hurdle: getting internet installed. Will keep you posted.

I spent a good part of Saturday at the water-front in Cape Town with Neinke, whose Dad was kind enough to drive us there and back. We had an unexpectedly good weekend weather-wise: sunny and warm with a lovely breeze coming off the water. Blissful. It’s rainy and wet again today, but hey, good weather is wasted on a Monday anyway. We sat in the sun, watched gum-boot dancing and ate very good Cape Malay food at a restaurant called “Rootis”. Yes, the food is basically Indian. Curry and rice and rotis and biryani. Am I complaining? No siree. Other highlights of the day included ice-cream, window-shopping, sunning, watching a wide variety of street-acts, gazing upon the Atlantic and Princeton reminiscing. I’m definitely going back there soon. We have a public holiday coming up this week (Women’s Day—how awesome is that!), and I’m planning to go check out the other (Indian) ocean front. Won’t forget my camera this time.

I did take some pictures this weekend—just around the house. Ironically, after weeks of gloomy weather, the sun was shining so brightly that I couldn’t get a good shot of the view of the mountains from my house. But now that I have Rishi’s camera figured out, I’ll take more pics. Enjoy!