Sunday 25 July 2010

Day 7 in the never ending story, of us doing tea things.

Day 7


At 7 am, the work siren sounds at Behora signalling the beginning of the working day. Pickers gather to receive their instructions from their Squadron Leaders. Throughout the day these sirens wail for meal times and breaks etc, as most of the workers are not entirely sure what a watch is or does. The noise very much resembles what i have been led to believe is an air raid siren. Most disconcerting. I woke, at 7, to this siren, and after drowsy frowsty confusion had dispersed, and i had had my morning wee, i left my quarters. Into the reception room. The big one, with the mozzie nets and open space, remember? One of the highlights of the trip. The scene -

Air that was hot, with a breeze that cooled it perfectly, flirty tree-pies frolicked in a nearby tree with their surprisingly bright orange plumage, i sat and was silently approached by the kind servant. I said yes to the generous offer of chai. And sat in the obscene tranquility with my little note book - the one i am now reading from in an effort to recall events. Somewhat of a journal, though it isn't at all.

About 20 minutes of this heavenly lull in life, Laura the wife of the Tea Estate Manager came, and we chatted for nearly an hour. This was a lovely little bonding session, and the feeling of being strangers completely left. I felt very comfortable in her presence from then on. Pat and Sam came through after the chai man had decided it was time for them to get up and made a delivery. Sam was mega lethargic, and stayed that way for most of the day. One of those times where you just cannot wake up, no matter how much you want to.

Breakfast included hilariously dry toast, that we nibbled on self consciously....

...crunch.....

......crunch....


....Papaya, Sausages, Baked Beans and bizarre chicken sausage things. All of which tasted almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the real thing. Apart from the Papaya. That tasted like papaya. Which we dont love. It's ok. I mean, we'll eat it, but we won't go out of our way to eat it.

We were leaving in the evening, so a tour of the general area was on the cards. Picked up at 10.30 by the lovely chap who ferried us yesterday, and went for a cruise. Drove through villages (willages), past the oil refinery that they are very proud of, and passed LOTS OF TEA, and visited a 10th century Hindu temple that was in the middle of restoration. It was VERY HOT, and the workers had just felled a muckle tree. They were sitting on/around it like kittens do whenever you bring a large foreign object into the room. I'd feel bloody proud, having nearly passed out digging up a small plum tree recently. The site was littered with beautifully carved stones, which they seemed to be slowly putting together like a HUMONGOUS 3D jigsaw puzzle to form the old Temple. It was wonderful.







We stopped for chai and milk sweets on the way back to the estate. Milk sweets are a big deal all over india. Made with a base mix of sugar, milk and a ground nut of sorts. My mind is not made up over them. They are delicious. Then you take another bite, and want to throw up, then you take another bite, then they are delicious again, ad infin. So every time we finished one kind of these funny things, they bought us another one, each time served on a pointless plastic plate. Very wasteful. Bloody nice people there though, and another simply lovely point in time that, whilst sitting in this horrible weatherspoons (with great cheap dirty fry-ups and free internet. Ok, i love you really), is hard to believe happened, that it still exists, and people are there. Right now. Eating milk sweets. Drinking chai. Throwing away their pointless plastic plates. Hmmm, we miss you, Assam.




We got to the estate and asked for a bit of a photo sesh. The pickers were delightful, and enjoyed posing. They showed us exactly how to work a sector so that it can be efficiently plucked, and enlightened us with all the tips (that is officially a tea pun) of the plucking trade. I love Assamese plantations. You can just walk and walk through the gently rolling hills, and never ever get bored of the repetitive scenery. It's gorgeous.

















To end our excursion, we visited the estate hospital, and saw a few projects that WM was running to help the workers' community and their Rainforest Alliance certification.




We also saw a lizard with a red head.



And another wonderful Kingfisher.

And tables made of dead tea bushes. Sam got delirious with joy over the tables, and made all sorts of plans to import them.


(the table is kind of showing to the left there)


Back to the Bungalow. Sit, read in garden. Mozzied. Eat delish Indian food with a slightly censored spice level. Snooze. Wake. Samosas. Pack. Goodbyes, and Thankyous.

Conclusion.

During our short time at Behora we were treated like kings. I cannot express our gratitude enough towards the Williamson Magor Group, and more specifically Mr and Mrs Rajkhowa. Our time on Behora was insightful, delightful and showed generosity at its purist. And to be gifted a big chunk of tea just before we left, was the icing on the ridiculously kind cake. Assam is a fantastic area of India. And, for the most part, it is without the hordes of foreign visitors that make India less Indian. So it was with a great fondness for the area that we left, on our way to our next destination. Darjeeling.....

Celebrate good tea-imes, c'mon.

Hello Ya'll.

Well, the day has finally come.

The WEBSITE/WEBSHOP OPENING PARTY WILL BE A WEEK TODAY! Can you believe it? I can't.




We are having a wee celebration to kick it all off, at our rents house, in the lovely semi-countryside.

There will be beaucoup de cake and beaucoup de tea (of course).

You are all welcome to come, but please send us an email to enquiries@quilliambrothers.com just so we know who's a comin'.


There will be a live video broadcasting of the event, and a couple other technological wizardries. But more on that in the soony future.


It's a struggle to refrain from weeing ourselves with excitement.

Hurray for brew and the internet!

Quizzle Brizzles. xxx

Tuesday 13 July 2010

BREAKING WEBSITE WOTSITS

Hello Peoples.

Just to let you know we are finishing off the website!

Woooo.

It'll be live within a fortnight. And this time no over zealousness with the announcement. Promise.

You will be able to purchase to your hearts content, or just have fun clicking on things.

SCREENSHOTS RAAAA!





We are now united after a few months apart, and things are going to PROCEED with HASTE.

Tea is being consumed as we work. An Oolong for me, a Quilliam Brothers Breakfast Blend for Pat, A Yorkshire Gold for Sam.

Yip yip.