Author: AJ

Shadowrun Brings Tealovers Together

I game. This should not be surprising, as I follow most of the trends associated with “geeks”, especially the old fashion type. Recently, my DM (of many years) has started into Shadowrun. This is my first brush with it, and to fill out our group he turned to the internet to gather some players. After many misses, he managed one new player (bringing our party total up to three), since most of our old regulars have since moved away.

During our last gaming session, I learned that our new member is big into tea. We managed to derail the whole game for half an hour discussing it–pausing every so often in an attempt to return to the game, but ultimately failing each time.

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Chinatown

Invaded Chinatown yesterday to pick up teas. I went in for unflavoured tuocha and “honey” phoenix dan cong, came out with a bit more.

And also books. But I got those at Chapters downtown, after I’d left Chinatown. Photos under the cut.

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Hor-Tea Cul-Ture, and Old Geology Books

Picked up some tea that seems to have absolutely no record on the internet. …Outside of the Art Knapps store, from which it seems to be a new product of theirs.

It’s always a little exciting to be the first to discover a tea on a community database-like setup like Steepster, although I always like reading through others’ reviews before making a purchase–it helps me decide.

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Tea Purchases

Thought I’d update with a few of my purchases. Seeing as I spent a total of one hundred dollars ($CAN) on tea and tea accessories (okay, they were all reasonable prices minus the forty dollars I spent on a freshly-picked 2012 first flush Darjeeling, but getting to that). Continue reading

Faking Sanity

I spoke, a few posts ago, about a Tea Shop/Used Book Shop I discovered whilst I was up north working at a coal mine. I didn’t think to scan the bookmark I picked up there, but I thought maybe I’d post that.

The shop was called “Faking Sanity”, located in Dawson Creek. Unfortunately, I was only able to visit it once, since I wasn’t living in Dawson, and didn’t own a vehicle (nor do I have my license, for that matter); it was found when me and some coworkers made a road trip there, since the groceries are about 1/3 the price (our town had one grocery store, and thus complete control over the perishable food market in the area). We’d passed the store while driving through the area, and I’d noted the name, “Faking Sanity” (I believe I figured it for some sort of Collectibles shop, perhaps). After watching Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon in a tiny theatre, I re-expressed my interest in finding a good book shop. Dave (a coworker) pulled out his phone and did a search of the area. There wasn’t much–just two, in fact, if I remember correctly. He said “Faking Sanity”, and I said that I remembered seeing that shop.

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A Search for Information: Murchie’s

It began (as it usually does) on Google; this isn’t the first time I’ve typed ‘ “John Murchie”+tea ‘ into the Google search-engine. I’ve done it a few times now, but my search usually ends with very little information, and I normally give up within the hour.

Let’s start with a background for the non-Canadians. John Murchie was a tea and coffee importer and blender; he started up the company “Murchie’s”, and is normally considered to be the man behind the unorthodox blending of green tea with black tea. Murchie’s is still around today (with two in Vancouver and more in Victoria), and is pretty well-known. Heck, I have a friend from Alabama who orders from Murchie’s to keep up a supply of their Library Blend (they were first introduced to the company when they visited Canada a while back; sadly Murchie’s doesn’t extend into the US of A). Continue reading

A Tea Update

I’ve nothing of worth to say, but my usual Team Fortress playing ritual includes making a pot of tea. I sip in between kills, and refill my cup when I die.

As such, here’s my favourite class drinking my favourite beverage. Also included: A friend/frienemy eating a poptart.
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Roman Mountain, Tea and Geology

I write to you today during my lunch hour at work (although I usually write these posts over the course of several days, and this one continues in the public library). As part of my job in the Exploration department, last week we hiked up (again) to the top of Roman Mountain. It’s a wonderful view, and I regret that I did not bring my camera with me on that occasion. I must next time (assuming there is one); in the meantime however, my supervisor did snap some shots, and I was able to take some yesterday when me and some colleagues went flagging up the opposite side of the mountain (not reaching the top ourselves).
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Coal Mine

I’ve been pretty busy the past few weeks, worrying and working, preparing to leave for my summer job; I will be moving up north to a small mining town in order to work for one of the many metallurgical coal mines in the area. I’m not going to say much more on where. Northern Canada, very exciting. Everyone’s excited. I’m excited.

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