PostScript recently discussed how the month of May is looked upon fondly in Britain, partly because it heralds warmer weather. Admittedly summer in the UK can be rather brief, especially if the occluded fronts start misbehaving. It's no coincidence that the most common forecast in the British summer is "outlook changeable".
May is living up to its merry month reputation this year in Britain, with Uncle Boris promising that from tomorrow Covid restraints will be eased and people will be able to hug one another again, or at least indulge in a "cautious cuddle" whatever that entails. Of course, not everyone will appreciate being hugged and we could be in for a few unseemly cases of "hug rage".
The newspapers could not resist celebrating this occasion with painful puns, both the Daily Mirror and Metro coming up with "The darling hugs of May'', an adaptation of Shakespeare's words which became the title of a successful television series in the early 1990s.
In fact "hug" headlines appeared in nearly every paper, with the Daily Mail carrying a banner headline "A huge hug for Britain". Indeed "hug" is the current buzzword in the UK. Being only three letters it is popular among headline writers and also useful in Scrabble.
Even Thailand is celebrating May in a somewhat different way. Golfer Ariya Jutanugarn, who happens to be nicknamed "May", last week won the Honda LPGA Thailand tournament -- her 11th title. It was in May 2016 that Ariya won an astonishing three titles in a row. So we can say with some conviction that May has been a merry month for May. The Bard would be extremely proud of her.
Cuppa catastrophe
It was not all good news in Britain however. Despite expressing joy at the forthcoming hug-in, the Daily Star has warned that there is a "Cuppa crisis brewing" as a result of climate change which is badly affecting tea plantations in Kenya, Sri Lanka and China. In case you are not convinced, the Star warned "Tea at boiling point".
Some would argue that not getting their regular cup of tea could cause more panic among the UK population than the pandemic ever did. In 1946 George Orwell even wrote an article on how to make "A nice cup of tea" in the Evening Standard, referring to tea as "one of the mainstays of civilisation in this country".
Tea is so ingrained in the British culture it is estimated the average Brit drinks four cups of tea a day. More importantly, without tea there would have never been the "tea break", such an essential part of a British worker's life.
Tea and buns
I have happy memories of the tea break when I worked for a year in a London office in 1968. The high point of the afternoon was around 3pm when Alice the tea lady arrived. Alice was a cheerful middle-aged Londoner and loved exchanging a bit of cheeky banter with the lads concerning her tasty buns and doughnuts.
Alas, the tea lady was replaced by vending machines which, apart from producing ghastly liquids bearing little resemblance to coffee or tea, had a nasty habit of breaking down. The tea lady never broke down.
'Right Said Fred'
The role of the tea break for British workmen is epitomised in the 1962 Bernard Cribbins song Right Said Fred. It featured three workmen unsuccessfully attempting to move heavy furniture. As the lyrics explained: "Tried to shift it/ couldn't even lift it", with each verse ending with the sensible "…and so we had a cup of tea."
After six cups of tea they still hadn't shifted it and eventually decide to leave the furniture "standing on the landing". The song concludes with sound advice from Cribbins, "you'll never get nowhere if you're too hasty."
Bags of joy
Tea purportedly heightens alertness, although it has failed miserably in my case. Nonetheless, I can't start the day without a morning mug of English breakfast tea.
I was brought up in a tea-drinking environment. One of my childhood tasks was the demanding role of warming the teapot before adding two or three spoons of tea leaves. This was in the days before tea bags, which became popular in the late 1950s and were to make life a lot easier.
My mother initially didn't approve of tea bags, feeling they were a bit vulgar, but they definitely weren't as messy as tea leaves and she eventually succumbed. But for years she would apologise to visitors for using tea bags, as if she was committing some kind of social gaffe.
Cosy corner
We had the same tea cosy for about 20 years and it became so familiar it was almost regarded as a household pet.
Comedian Billy Connolly once observed: "Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, doesn't try it on". I admit to succumbing on occasions and I suspect that there might even be a few readers who have been closet tea cosy wearers in their youth.
There's even a best-selling book titled How Tea Cosies Changed the World which firmly establishes tea cosies as works of art.
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