Do you still use ... ... ...

[daffy]

I maybe gave up drinking from a teacup after wife #1 pointed out the raised little finger as I drank - sorry, sipped - my tea.


Despite its resurgence of late I have not played a single vinyl single or album in over 20 years!
Cassette tapes made an exit from Daffy's world 25 years ago.
Video tapes last got played about 12 years ago, and then only to record them onto a hard drive and then to DVD format.

I still have some of the audio cassettes, and ALL the vinyl, though that's only about 200 albums and a few dozen singles or E.P.'s. Some of the most loved stuff has been duplicated by CD's, and there's lots of stuff I might never get around to listening to again.
Heard one of the oldies only last week when step-son demonstrated his Amazon subscription and said "name an album, they'll have it". After three failures he finally succeeded with 'Air Conditioning' by Curved Air sounding out from his Hi-Fi via his phone.

Even so, I really should get shot of the physical albums.

[Mike Hamilton]

I think it's just a general fall in standards and etiquette.  "Another cup of Earl grey with a slice of lemon and a slice of Victoria sponge cake?"
"Don't mind if I do"   :-)

[NeMo]

George Orwell is always a good read, and his essay entitled "A Nice Cup Of Tea" is one of his shorter and most accessible essays.

As a teacher, I find this a good essay to show students how even simple subjects bear closer examination. It's also a good essay for showing how even something with eleven points of interest (!) can be written about precisely, clearly, and without the need for complicated language.

Orwell's ability to write about the English people was unique. I know he has his detractors nowadays, but how can you disagree with somebody who says that "...tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes"?

Cheers, NeMo

[austinbob]

Not a tea drinker but have a few teabags for my daughter in law which she supplied. Drink black nescafe coffee without sugar (6 mugs a day). Have a bag of sugar somewhere, but last time I saw it was quite solid. Only use milk on cereal for breakfast, straight from the plastic bottle.

I have a Lurpack butter dish and a Lurpack toast rack (freebie from Lurpack years ago) Neither have been used. 

I also have a gravy boat that only gets used at Xmas, the rest of the year gravy is left in the Pyrex jug it mas made in.

I've got a couple of gravy boats - but can never find a big enough bowl of gravy to float them in!!

[ChrisWV10]

I do have a teapot (and strainer!) but never use it. Bag goes in cup. Also a butter dish which I do use for real butter. Not that ghastly plastic 'spread' for me. The gravy boat is rarely used mostly because I never have a roast.

C.

[austinbob]

If I remember correctly the reason for putting the milk in first was to prevent the bone china cracking when you pour in boiling tea.

[daffy]

Staying at a self catering flat in Keswick recently there were no mugs and the cups were tiny, or chipped, and I drink tea at home from big mugs. There was a teapot, sadly a stainless steel one, not the much preferred and superior clay derived variety, so I found myself missing a much loved 'nice' thing I first encountered as a small child at my grandmother's house - a knitted tea cosy!

A set of padded oven gloves didn't quite look the part, but they kept the tea warm.

[Dorsetmike]

Ah, but the tea you poured into your bone china had brewed in the pot without the presence of milk. Tea requires boiling water to brew properly, milk in the mug with the tea bag will cool the boiling water hence the brewing will not have its full effect.

[cycletrak9]

If I remember correctly the reason for putting the milk in first was to prevent the bone china cracking when you pour in boiling tea.

I heard it the other way round Bob. Wealthy folk who could afford bone china [which could withstand the higher temperature without cracking] would put tea in first whereas the lower orders who had only earthenware used the milk to reduce the heat of the tea.

Things we have and still use, but admittedly only occasionally, are:

Pie server
Pastry forks
Fish knives and forks
Game carvers
Napkin rings

Most of these have been in the family for years and have been passed from generation to generation. It just seems a shame not to use such beautiful old things occasionally though I doubt that either of our sons will bother once we are no longer around. They'll probably flog them on e bay or take them to a car boot. 

[GroupC]

Staying at a self catering flat in Keswick recently there were no mugs and the cups were tiny, or chipped, and I drink tea at home from big mugs. There was a teapot, sadly a stainless steel one, not the much preferred and superior clay derived variety, so I found myself missing a much loved 'nice' thing I first encountered as a small child at my grandmother's house - a knitted tea cosy!

A set of padded oven gloves didn't quite look the part, but they kept the tea warm.

Were they Joy Division Oven Gloves?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8De85dxmfT0

"Oooh oooh Nagasaki towpath" at 1.03, a propos of nothing in particular.

!? I hear you saying.

[njee20]

Our pastry forks get at least a weekly outing! Admittedly they deputise for cake forks, as it's an in joke that all cake forks are right handed (I'm not), whilst pastry forks are 'ambidextrous'. One day I'll find a left handed cake fork dammit.

We have grape scissors too.

[broadsword]

I used to have a mustard spoon for making your
mustard from mustard powder, looked like
an N gauge shovel.

[Gary Burcombe]

To all those who make tea (and it doesn't brew, it steeps) in a mug I say, "heathens!"  I always steep my Yorkshire tea bags (other brands are available, but not as nice) in a teapot.  It allows the tea to aerate when poured (also why it is considered good form to slurp tea to promote aeration) which improves the flavour.  And yes, it must be boiling water.  And as to the vessel I drink it from, a mug I'm afraid, or in the case of my first cuppa, a bucket may be a closer description.

[cycletrak9]

Our pastry forks get at least a weekly outing! Admittedly they deputise for cake forks, as it's an in joke that all cake forks are right handed (I'm not), whilst pastry forks are 'ambidextrous'. One day I'll find a left handed cake fork dammit.

We have grape scissors too.

That's one thing I've always wanted but the prices that the dealers are asking these days amount to an awful lot of modelling kit so I've resisted the temptation

[Intercity]

I was always taught to steep the tea first, once it was an adequate strength (something you just knew when it was right), it was poured and milk added afterwards, the reason I was told to add milk after was to prevent it burning and going instantly sour, honestly when I had tea made the reverse way I never noticed a sour milk flavour, so probably an old wives tale.

Btw, glad to see half man half biscuit crop up in here, thought I was the only nut that listened to and bought their stuff