Strainer

I need to cut back. We’ve overspent this month. When I look back, I don’t know whether it’s the newly-printed poster board on my wall which I’ll point to as “peak-splurge”. Maybe it will be the sailing sun-hat from the French...

Dressing up schoolwork as a toy. It’s such a hoary old cliché it might just work. I’m hoping to coax out some actual written words from my students by inviting them to play with the paper itself; dirty it up...

So you drink coffee? Fair enough. You’re not alone. It’s an easy mistake to make. There’s plenty of time to remedy your error. If you’re reading this here in China, you have ample opportunity to switch yourself on to a...

You’re familiar with the rule by now. Do not carry your own liquids allowed into the airport departure lounge.  … except that I was drinking an awesome green tea I’d brought with me from China. And no one was asking...

If there’s one food that’s emblematic of everyday indulgence, that’s chocolate. Delicious for most of us yet inextricably connected with fat, sugar (and caffeine, if you’re worried about that).  When my 4-year old daughter went for her second tooth-filling last month,...

The tea was oolong, with just a hint of Formosa-perfume-tanginess. Or was it a hint of detergent? Anyway, this was a nice restaurant, too nice for pouring spilt water onto the floor.  This was a rare lunch with my teenage...

Tea is supposed to be zero calories. So what is this shiny slick on the surface of yesterday’s drink? It’s like the blue-brown façades of blocks in China’s fourth tier. It’s like a rolled scarab carapace. It’s like the squeezed...

I would normally have said no. But I was all out of tea that day. Actually, I welcomed that big cup of coffee after another poor night’s sleep. The drink was ice cold, mercifully unsweetened and wrapped in the green...