Many readers will already be aware that Tea, in the UK and much of the commonwealth, can either refer to the drink itself, to afternoon tea, or as an entire meal itself (similar to Supper, which is not to be confused with Dinner, of course). The preferred flavor of tea is English Breakfast, or Earl Grey. Top brands are PK Tips (the #1 selling tea in England), Tetley and Barry’s Tea (from Ireland).

Of course, you can always just brew a pot and enjoy a cuppa* or you can experience the fun, relaxing, delicious pastime known as Afternoon Tea. You might also know this as High Tea or a Tea Party. This can range from a high-class fancy event, to a simple gathering at your kitchen table. If you’re looking to go out and experience Tea at a swanky restaurant, or Tea Room, let me tell you what you can expect.

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with my mother at The Added Touch Tea Room in Downtown Oakville to enjoy some wonderful tea, sandwiches and treats. Usually you’ll get to select your tea type (which can range anywhere from English Breakfast to Moroccan Mint) and order up your selected snacks. I went for the Complete Tea which included several bite-sized sandwiches (cucumber, smoked salmon and apple cheddar), scones with preserves and Devonshire cream, and tarts (treacle chocolate and lemon).

The tea was steeped to perfection in my own pot and enjoyed spooning my sugar using tiny silver spoons. Quite delightful.

The meal was wonderful. I was even more excited to hear that after we left the Tea Room was closing for a private event - and 11 year old’s birthday party! I couldn’t think of a more fantastic way to celebrate a birthday, or any special occasion.

If you’re looking to go out with friends or family to celebrate something special - it’s not hard to find a local tea room near you. A great way to begin looking for a place that serves tea (whether it be the formal British way, or more urban or casual spots), is by checking out both TeaMap.com (for USA) and TeaGuide.net (Worldwide).

However, I think the best way to dip your toes into enjoying this tradition is by setting up your own Tea Party at home, with a few friends or family. Don’t be intimidated by the preparation that you might think is involved, it’s really quite simple and the enjoyment for effort is absolutely worth it.

My at-home tea set. Quite modest.

All you’ll need, really, is a Tea Pot, a few cups, and a minute or to to put together some snacks. You can honestly choose whatever you think your guests will enjoy. While tarts, dainty sandwiches and scones are traditional feel free to think outside the box. Cookies, Fresh Fruit, or even Cupcakes would be very welcome at the Tea table.

If you do want to serve traditional fare, you might find this page of Tea Sandwich Recipes to be helpful, or this one for Scones. Finally, I found this site which has lots more information about traditional Tea Time and different sorts of parties and ideas to enjoy this pastime, on OldFashionedLiving.com, but don’t let that endorsement fool you into thinking Tea is just for grannies - with exotic and unique blends of tea entering the marketplace so much recently, I suspect that taking the time to enjoy a few cups of tea and some snack with friends will be very popular with both the young and older alike, and can be traced back to this fine British Tradition.

That’s not to say that England has cornered the market on Tea - quite the opposite. Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Tea Traditions Series where TheRoamingLife Co-Author Angelina will introduce you to another form of enjoying Tea - in the Far East.

Well, there are several remedies of all sorts for the latter, but we’re going to focus on providing you with some tips on how to make flights, and in particular long flights, much more enjoyable. Between myself and my co-author Angelina, we’ve taken 21 trips across the Pacific, including one fateful 11.5hr flight from Newark to Honolulu, so we’ve come up with a few tricks to make it more tolerable.

Book the Right Seats

Expedia now includes SeatGuru into each flight reservation process (via the “Preview Seat Availability” tool), but if you’re booking a flight via any other method you can visit SeatGuru.com to get a detailed map of the plane you’ll be on, and information about each seat. Not all airlines let you select your seat when you book, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. If you’re doing online check-in the day of your flight, often you can select your seat at that time.

My personal favorite seats are front row Bulkhead seats. Not everyone likes these seats though, as you have no under-seat storage and the armrests are often immobile. However, you have more leg room and most importantly no seat reclining into your space. Alternately, I like an aisle seat for leg room, and not having to disturb whomever you’re sitting beside when you have to get up to stretch and/or use the washroom.

Everyone has their own personal preference, but checking SeatGuru can help you avoid the really nasty seats, too.

Get As Much Information as Humanly Possible Ahead Of Time

do i have a choice? by emptyhighway

I don’t know if everyone is aware that you can look up lots of details about your flight before you go. Every major airline (from Air Canada, to Quantas) lists the “Onboard Services” on their website. Sometimes this can be under “Flying with Us” or “Your Flight”, search around the site.

This includes your Entertainment Options (specific to your actual flight), In-flight food (both included and for purchase), Electronics Capabilities (like iPod Docks or Laptop Charge Ports), and much more. I find this to be one of the most helpful tools when preparing for my trip, especially if it’s a long one.

Another part of getting more info before you travel is to think about your Stop-Over. It’s likely going to be in an Airport you’ve never been to. Although most airlines are easy to navigate, you can take initiative and look up the Airport Layout on their website.

Once you’ve checked in (either at the airport, or online in advance) you’ll usually be given your Gate Numbers, so you can figure out the distance you need to travel, if you need to change Terminals, and where the Food Court/Restaurants/Stores/Currency Exchange is located within the Airport, should you have time.

Plan Each Hour of Your Flight

This doesn’t take as much effort as you might think. If you’re on a 8hr flight, just find 8 things to do for one hour each. Obviously if you’ve checked what your in-flight Entertainment options are already you might have a couple of hours already planned. Download a few podcasts, bring a of couple video games, select a book to read, or take a notebook to write in. I find that if I have lots to do, the flight goes by quicker when I realize I don’t have time left to watch that third episode of House I’d planned to.

Gadgets ready for Barcelona by nechbi

Most people do this already, but a lot of people also Plan on Sleeping. I never schedule nap time for my flight, because you never know if you’ll actually be able to fall asleep. If it happens, it happens, if not, you’re prepared.

Be Comfortable, Bring Supplies

These might seem like two different rules, but I assure you, they go hand-in-hand. I always wear super comfortable clothes while traveling, including bringing a pair of slippers. A lot of people take their shoes off on flights, but have to put them back on to get up for a stretch, or use the facilities. Not me, comfy slippers does the trick, and don’t worry you won’t be judged - those curious looks you’re getting are people thinking “why didn’t I think of that?”.

Bringing a basic travel kit that includes earplugs, eye mask, neck pillow & thin blanket can go a long way on a long flight. Luckily usually these items can be bought inexpensively at a drug store or Wal-Mart, of course, nothing beats bringing your favorite couch-blanket from home.

Stay Healthy

Medicine by Donna Grayson

I’m not going to start dishing out medical advice, but a big part of being comfortable is making sure you’re not ill when you travel, or worse, get ill while on vacation. Bring hand sanitizer, if you’re into that sort of thing, take Vitamin C and drink lots of water pre-flight. On my flight to Hawaii last year I felt myself coming down with a cold, my entire trip I took cold meds, but it was too late, and just got worse for my flight back. If I had just thought about preventing it a couple weeks prior to my trip I’m sure I could have avoided the whole problem.

Worst case scenario, you’ve got a cold, the flu, or allergies and you still absolutely need to fly. Bring medication, cough syrup (in very small quantities, of course, as it is a liquid), cold pills and painkillers are essential. Not only will you be much more comfortable (and likely asleep) you won’t risk infecting the other passengers (or worse, disturbing their sleep!).

Stay Informed

Mobile TXT by smig44_uk

It’s so important to know the rules. You should always check with your Federal Government (Link for USA | Link for Canada) to check on the rules about traveling, even domestically. Know what documents you’ll need at the airport, double and triple-check you have them, and ensure you have no hazardous or banned items. This will make your trip through Security a breeze, and make others hate you less. I recently saw a guy try to  bring a jar of peanut butter onto a plane.  Not only was this confusing and entertaining, it was also very, very annoying.

Most airlines also allow you to have mobile alerts sent to your phone should your flight information change. This is particularly helpful to let friends and family to know if you’ll be arriving late, or getting in early. It’s also a comfort knowing that someone is paying attention to your flight while you’re on it — my mother always stalks me on a Flight Tracker. Peace of mind can go a long way.

Extra Advice

Try not to stress about packing - I find it’s often the biggest worry, and ends up being No Big Deal, if you forgot your favorite pair of Flip-Flops or only packed one set of pants, most people will be able to make due — besides they have stores where you are going, don’t they? I’m sure you’ll remember the important things like medications and chargers.

If you have a long stop-over, or want to arrive at the airport early, I seriously suggest utilizing the Airport Lounges. Your airline will have a list of available lounges on their website and most day passes are usually not too expensive (from $25-$45), often times you can use your frequent flier miles to book Lounge Passes. It might be worth it to have a comfortable, relaxing place to either have a bite to eat or watch some tv, not to mention charge your Laptop and check your email.

Speaking of which, some airports have free wifi service, but most have a paid service which runs around $9.99/day. Practically every time I’ve flown I’ve bought the time in advance (the click starts ticking once you log in). This means you don’t have to worry about signing up and fussing with billing once you’re there - you can spend your stopover time, or time before boarding, to check emails and read The Roaming Life.

If you’re a smoker (which I am), you should consider getting a pack of Nicotine Gum, or even better, Nicotine Inhalers. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

Of course, the #1 Best way to make your flight experience the most comfortable it can be, is to get Bumped to First-Class.

Hopefully you find this guide informative, and if you have any suggestions of your own feel free to add them in the comments!

Cherry blossoms, or sakura (桜 or 櫻)  are the symbol of spring in Japan and to the world a symbol of Japan itself.    The Japanese are big on seasonal symbols and so sakura time is a very important part of the yearly cycle here.  Depending on the length and severity of the winter it can begin at the end of March or the start of April.  This year we experienced a cold snap after the blossoms had already begun to appear which caused them all to halt their progress.  While it made me impatient at first it proved to be a stroke of luck as the sakura were in full bloom on the day of my school’s Entrance Ceremony For New Students.   The petals drifted gently past the Japanese flags at the gates as students wearing brand-new uniforms filed into the school.

Cherry blossoms in Japan are not just a symbol of spring, but also a representation of the beautiful transience of life.  The tiny pink flowers bloom and fall away in a matter of days, so if you want to enjoy them there is no time for dawdling.  Time and sakura wait for no man.  Most schools have sakura trees planted around their grounds, and so I have spent four springs waiting for the first flush of colour outside the office windows.  As soon as sakura appear I rush outside to stand under the branches and let the warm sun and sweet smell drift over me.  After a cold winter spent huddled in layers of sweaters indoors, my trip outside to greet the sakura is often my first incentive to spend any amount of time outside in the fresh air.

And I’m certainly not the only person to feel this way.  Sakura viewing is such a widely enjoyed activity that it has its own name: hanami (花見).  This literally means “flower viewing” and it is popular on the order of Canada Day/Fourth of July.  Families and coworkers gather in parks and on mountain tops to sit on blankets under the trees and eat delicious boxed meals (bento) together.  It is a chance for them to lay down their ever-present work and take some time to just enjoy nature and each other.  Oh, and to get incredibly drunk.
Every year my friends and I have gathered Takamatsu City’s ancient and famous Ritsurin Park for hanami.  We’d spread out on our plastic tarps, eat our bento, and drink some chuhai.  During the winter it’s hard to work up to motivation to travel, so some of the friends I meet for hanami are people I haven’t seen in four months or more.  It’s a fantastic opportunity to catch up, let loose, and be one with nature.

There is no immunity from sakura fever here.  Once the trees in the south start blooming the newspapers will run features tracking the projected path of the blossoms.  Even now the trees outside have almost dropped all of their petals and the pink is giving way to the bright green leaves.  And no, once the flowers are gone I can’t console myself with fresh cherries - the sakura trees of Japan are non-fruit producing.  But that doesn’t stop me from enjoying them.  Four years and four great hanami have left me feeling much more positively toward spring.

Now, you may be thinking “That’s all well and good, Angelina, but aside from your pictures I can’t really do hanami myself, so what’s so great about it?”  Well, let me answer that by asking: did you know that you can experience hanami in many countries besides Japan?  Probably not, if you asked that first question, but anyway.   I first learned of non-Japanese hanami festivals in an article from The Japan Times: “Scottish Town Takes To ‘Hanami’”.  Oh, and from another article about the cherry blossom trees in Washington DC.  My esteemed co-author Chantelle did a little digging for me and located this:

Sakura Matsuri events in the US and Canada:
National Cherry Blossom Festival, Washington, DC
International Cherry Blossom Festival, Macon, Georgia
Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival of Greater Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Branch Brook Park Cherry Blossom Festival, Newark, NJ
Sakura Matsuri, Brooklyn, NY
Seattle Cherry Blossom & Japanese Cultural Festival, Seattle, WA
2009 Cherry Blossom Festival of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, Vancouver, Canada

Via http://blog.ningin.com/2009/04/05/time-for-cherry-blossoms-time-for-sakura-matsuri-time-for-hanami/

So!  Aside from the fact that spring is almost over you have no excuses.   Next year I challenge all of you to gather your friends, some blankets, some Lunchables, and head to your nearest sakura-having park to experience spring in a brand new way.   Get out, get some fresh air, and enjoy the fleeting beauty of this tiny pink flower.

WWOOF can stand for a few things: Willing Workers on Organic Farms, or World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, or The Best Way To Spend A Week Of Your Life.  Ok, I made that last one up, but it’s genuinely how I feel after my WWOOfing experience.

I first learned of WWOOF from this article on Vagabondish.  Incidentally that’s also how I found out about Couch Surfing, which will be the subject of another article, soon enough.  The name drew my attention and as I read more about it I realized that I very much wanted to go.  I wanted to get out of the office and try being a farmhand, if just for a little while.  So this past summer I picked a week,  booked some vacation time, and headed off to the farm!

Well, there was a bit more to it than that - I had to get a membership with WWOOF Japan, go through the list of Host Farms and choose one I thought I wouldn’t accidentally destroy, then contact them and arrange the dates, and then pack. How does one pack for a week of manual field work?  I was told to bring long-sleeved shirts, despite it being August, so I packed some baggy ones along with a pair of khakis that had seen better days.  Then I was ready to head off to Yoshimura Farm.

As a WWOOFer you work a certain number of hours per day, and in exchange the host provides you with room and board.  I spent just six days with the Yoshimuras, and on the farm I harvested vegetables, watered plants, weeded, trimmed overgrown herb bushes, and helped clear a pumpkin field.  The farm is small, but there is a surprising amount of work to be done every day, so I returned to their house each evening exhausted but happy.  And then I got to eat the food which we had gathered.  Being 100% organic it was fresh, and wonderful.

I am very happy with the choice I made, as I had an incredible experience with them.  A full account of it can be found at my Live Journal, in the post I creatively titled “WWOOFing”.  It was not easy work, but nor did I feel like I was given any tasks beyond my abilities. In fact it challenged me in ways I wasn’t expecting, and I was thrilled to exceed my own expectations about myself.

I left the farm in slightly better shape, with a neck-tan, and full of joy.  That was quite a few months ago, and with another vacation period (Golden Week) coming soon I’ve made up my mind to try it again once more before I leave Japan.  I will probably visit another farm to get a variety of experience, and I may be joined by some friends.  I can’t wait to get back to work!

For some it’s a harrowing trial to be overcome, while for people like me it is necessary for continued survivial.  I am (or, technically, was) an army brat, and that has shaped more about me than I could even guess.  Travel of any distance thrills me to no end and if I stay in any place for too long I get incredibly restless.   So to my family it came as no great surprise when I announced my intentions to move to Japan.  I promised it would only be for a short time and I’d be back before we knew it.  That was in 2005…

Almost four years have passed and this summer I will finally move back to Canada.  A short blog entry can’t begin to describe my time here, which is why I’ve been keeping a diary of it on my Live Journal.

Living here has been a wild ride and it will be hard to leave behind this phase of my life.  But I have plenty to look forward to, and plenty more to talk about as this blog gets off the ground.  My love of travel has merged with both a new-found sense of self-sufficiency and a love of Canada that I could only have developed from the-outside-looking-in.  This all has me just itching to start travelling around my country, and others.   I hope you stick around to hear all about it.

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Welcome to The Roaming Life. A bit of an introduction to the site and the writers is in order, I suppose. Although hopefully our agenda is clear; bringing our thoughts, fantastic ideas, news and rants to the world on the subject of Technology, Travel, and lots of topics in between. We’re motivated to create this blog because we love to write, and voice our opinions, and want to document our own personal adventures in the world of technology and travel… Wherever that may take us.

Hit up the About page if you want to know more about myself and my cohort, Angelina.

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