This day, 16 April, in 1992, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Military Engineering Brigade arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to participate in United Nations’ peacekeeping operations. The...
There’s an English word that begins with “b”. It literally means “female dog”. Don’t pretend you don’t know it.
The word has retained its full force during the many years since I first learnt it, while other “b” words, such as “bloody”, have lost theirs.
Secularism and permissiveness have prevailed. But even as the old lexicon of oaths and obscenities fades into quaintness, there is actually a whole group of curses that retain the capacity to shock.
These are the terms that will lose a broadcaster his/her job; the terms that imply/constitute...
The bad news is that you’re possibly going to be confused at some point here. The good news is that, at the end of this Strainer, you’re going to know about a really cheap, great Chinese tea.
Ask anyone around here (in Jiangnan, I mean) about White Tea and they will talk about Anji Baicha . Fair enough. That’s a great one, a must for anyone slightly interested. And Anji’s claim to the “white” name is somewhat legitimate; the relative lack of chlorophyll in the leaves results in a...
By coincidence, I was recently drinking Yunnan Green tea anyway.
My favourite market-stall had been selling some. Yeah, it was cheap. And, despite the unpromising smell and ashen grey appearance, I was curious.
I had not bought any of this stuff while in Yunnan itself. I remember seeing it piled high in the market there, dusty, no effort towards preservation. “That’s not the way to treat green tea”, I thought. Moreover, the Yunnan sellers themselves told us not to buy it! Buy the pu er, they said; this can only by...
Some 2 years ago, with the passing of Elizabeth II, I speculated in these pages that the late Queen would become, principally, the woman crowned in 1953, young and beautiful. I suspect that was an image she herself was comfortable with. Certainly, she was slow in commissioning coins and stamps updating her profile, happy to issue retro instead.
Just recently, we lost another “National Treasure”. Even if you don’t know her from Downton Abbey, or The West End, you’ll know her as Professor McGonagall, Housemistress of Gryffindor. The actress Dame...
