That first morning cup of tea.

Went off tea when I was last pregnant 50 years ago. Not drunk it since. I usually have a quick drink of cold water then out walking with the dogs. Fruit juice and cereal when I get back.

I can’t drink tea in the morning - it has to be coffee for me in a breakfast cup, but I will usually have a cup of tea at some stage during the day. I can’t drink tea with milk, it makes me throw up, so I usually drink Tik Tok rooibos, or a herbal brew from Pukka’s vast range. I keep Earl Grey for my DiL’s visits, and builders for - well - builders!

Three spoons of PG Tips leaf tea into the teapot (it has an inbuilt strainer), let it mash for a few minutes and then pour out with just a splash of milk in my special mug. Then I sit and drink it by the Rayburn (with our friends’ dog if she’s here on her holidays) whilst reading the Good Morning thread on Gransnet. My sons say it’s the equivalent of starting up an old engine. The more mugs of builders’ tea that go down, the easier it is to fire up! They’re not wrong.

Being very much a creature of habit, my breakfast only varies twice a year. So......sometime in October, I will start having porridge and summer berries (from frozen), with that huge mug of tea. Sometime in April, I will change over to having a bowl of Fruit & Fibre with the summer fruit alongside the same huge mug of tea. Do not feel entirely human until I have had my tea. Have a lovely, large mug with lid and container which takes a tea bag. All put out ready the night before, as I walk into my kitchen just turn on my boiling water tap, run mug underneath it to warm and make that vital mug of tea.