RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30212, 17 August 1963, Page 20

RANDOM REMINDER

ME OLD CHINA

The ritual of morning and afternoon tea breaks is observed throughout New Zealand, with considerable ceremony in some places. But journalists do not conform, quite, to the accepted pattern. Mainly, one must suppose, because staffs consist very largely of men, there is not quite the feminine flutter one often associates with the serving and drinking of tea. The stuff is welcome, but the drinkers seldom use saucers, and. indeed, often line up at the communal pot with large, inelegant mugs which are apparently relics of war service. This casual approach to the tea business sometimes brings other problems in its wake. It must be confessed that there are some journalists who do not take a proper pride in the cleanliness of their cups. They seem

content merely to swish the main residue away and leave it at that, with the result that their cups assume, inside, a hue which, it is believed, is very similar to that often noticed among the peasantry of southern Spain. We have a colleague with such an ugly mug. He drank office tea year after year, while the receptacle turned slowly mahogany. But recently he went up in the world. He now specialises in one department of the office, and he has an assistant. What more natural than that he should make his rank substantive by organising his own tea break? But of course, it had to be coffee, now. So from his new assistant he took several shillings, added one of his own, and sent the lad off for a tin of instant coffee. The stuff was

duly bought, and the first cups of coffee were made. The head of the department sucked away at his share with evident relish from, of course, the same battered old tannic tin. And he was moved to observe, with some satisfaction, that the brand of coffee they were using was stronger and better than he had at home. Then he found out why. As he drained away the last of the coffee his eyes nearly popped. His old enamel mug had, in a matter of minutes, regained the pristine purity of its youth. There waa not a mark or stain within it The poor fellow is over the shock now. And is wondering whether he might not have discovered a new. valuable means of cleaning his car swiftly and efficiently.