{"id":1508,"date":"2023-02-22T08:49:26","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T08:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1508"},"modified":"2023-02-22T08:49:31","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T08:49:31","slug":"the-myriad-benefits-of-darjeeling-tea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/the-myriad-benefits-of-darjeeling-tea\/1508\/","title":{"rendered":"The Myriad Benefits of Darjeeling Tea<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGo into business with your twin,\u201d they said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be fun,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you call sweating in a caf\u00e9, cleaning up after customers while your twin sister\u2019s gallivanting overseas in pursuit of new teas and coffees to sell, \u201cfun,\u201d then they were right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sigh. Where to start with this clean-up operation? I watch the stain spread across the pale wood floor, seeping into the grain. It was her idea to get wooden floors, of course. Wood the colour of her platinum blonde hair that she insists on bleaching to look as different from me as possible. \u201cMousey,\u201d she calls our natural hair colour. \u201cClassy,\u201d I always reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It\u2019ll be ruined now. This would never have happened with my suggestion of grey tiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even from across the continent her voice rings in my head. Think it\u2019d be cool to have telepathic communication with someone? It isn\u2019t. At this very moment, despite the seriousness of the situation, she\u2019s launched into inane chatter about the merits of adding a Darjeeling infusion to our repertoire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decide to drown her out by sweeping up the glass first, the tinkling sound momentarily lulling me into an imaginary sparkly world. I try to block out her voice and the growing stain creeping into view. From the corner of my eye, it resembles a two-headed monster. Conjoined twins, perhaps, stretching out in opposite directions, reaching for different things but somehow unable to separate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026 must get a later flight,\u201d she mumbles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat? No way, Jen. You\u2019re coming home now to help me sort this shit out!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI said, \u2018the muscatel flavour\u2019s light,\u2019 you idiot. Honestly, Pip, you should get your hearing tested! Look, you got yourself into this mess. It\u2019s nothing to do with me. You need some of this Darjeeling tea. It\u2019s a proven stress-reliever\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is<\/em> your fault!\u201d I scream out loud, even though there\u2019s no need \u2013 she can hear my thoughts and I shouldn\u2019t be drawing attention to the caf\u00e9 right now. But it feels good. \u201cWhy can\u2019t you pronounce your words properly when you think?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A knock on the door makes me jump. Oh God. It\u2019s the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The officers peer over my shoulder. \u201cWe heard shouting. Noticed you\u2019re closed in the middle of the day. Anything wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They look so young I have to fight the urge to laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust mopping up a stain. Red Thunder Gold, Autumn Flush Darjeeling. Dropped the whole pot. The rust colour\u2019s a bugger to get out, but it\u2019s delicious. Full of health benefits too!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baby-faced policeman number one sniffs the air. \u201cOdd smell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAh, that\u2019ll be the muscatel!\u201d I smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He nods and they walk away. I don\u2019t exhale until they\u2019re out of sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell dodged!\u201d Jen thinks. \u201cBut just for the record, this is your problem, not mine. The customer only broke a glass, for goodness\u2019 sake! I very clearly said, \u2018Bill her for it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turn the radio up. I don\u2019t want to hear any more from her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, where\u2019s that mop?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cGo into business with your twin,\u201d they said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be fun,\u201d they said. If you call sweating in a caf\u00e9, cleaning up after customers while your twin sister\u2019s gallivanting overseas in pursuit of new teas and coffees to sell, \u201cfun,\u201d then they were right. I sigh. Where to start with this clean-up operation? I watch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[695,700],"tags":[7,167,14],"class_list":["post-1508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-695","category-feb-2023-the-stain","tag-her","tag-into","tag-she"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-ok","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1510,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions\/1510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}