[astra]

Originally Posted by aceflor

I am sick. Big cold, muscle pain, headache. Staying in today.
{SNIP}
So I will spend my free time today curing myself instead of working on the site, bummer, and my kids can't even enjoy themselves, double bummer.

Speedy recovery! Get well real soon.

Originally Posted by aceflor

Hope astra is having a blast in London !

It was good. Super relaxing.
Thanks to my guide, every corner of Portobello Rd., was known to us. Every shop and nook was researched.
Visited a couple of bakeries, left with some sweets and rye bread(for balance)
Tons of antiquarian shops. Not my type but interesting.... some old, metal, rusty tea caddies £20
Stumbled upon an odd shop with tons of Ahmad tea. Some caddies I have never seen before. Didn't even know about existence of Ahmad Ceylon! Got for myself a couple of English Breakfast caddies for less than reasonable. Very unusual for England. I have to remember this shop.

Lunched in a very beautiful The Elgin pub that has 20+ of gins
Tried 5 or 6
When we were leaving noticed another gin that when we see it in duty free we buy it. Beefeater24. Why? Ha! Among its ingredients are

unique blend of Chinese green and rare Japanese Sencha teas

Barman was a real fun.

Obviously, the cherry on the cake was The Chinese Tea Company.

Spoiler:

Anyone who saw the latest British The Apprentice (season 07) would appreciate this
In the Apprentice there was a young girl who put in her CV that she owned a beauty cosmetic company that trades in 100% natural products for skin care.
Later, at the end of the show she revealed that the company she owned consisted of herself and a few unregistered helping hands (if I am not mistaken). The products she was selling were made in her "kitchen". They were not registered anywhere. They didn't have any health and safety checks, no testing etc. Her Chinese mother recipes
Companies such as L'Oréal Paris spending millions for testing their products didn't put her off

The Chinese Tea Company was...a tiny 1 room shop in an arcade. The owner, a young Chinese lady was the only employee She started her business a few years ago. Very professionally designed website was made by IT Guru, her English husband, including all very good quality, I would say professional pics
Besides the initial surprises of transformation of The Chinese Tea Company into a small tea shop and the owner who I assumed was a lady on pics on the website, but in reality was a young lady, we had a fantastic time in her company.
We spent 5 hours! in the shop. Time just flew.
She is a very dedicated tea lover. Too honest for a business lady, IMHO, but that's what attracted me in the first place when we exchanged emails.
The shop is a very cosy place. Lots of different teas and tea ware.
She loves to explain things related to the tea. She used to help her mother to grow tea in their garden at home in China. She really cares for her teas, tea quality and helping customers to understand tea.
We really enjoyed tea tasting. Bought some tea for home drinking We came there at 15.50 and left at 20.35

Originally Posted by maianhvk

Gosh, dad and mom came back wayyyyyy earlier than I'd expected! They opened the door at 3 pm, and I was dozing off with a book, some dirty bowls in the sink, a mess on kitchen table and a pile of dirty clothes...
Lucky for me, they were too tired to complain.

Morning of black tea paradise
5 cups so far.