I'm Conflicted

All Out Of Concern For You, The Reader
The problem concerns Conrad's activities yesterday, being out for the afternoon and into the evening at "Sounds From The Other City", an annual music festival event in Salford held on the May Bank Holiday Sunday*.  Lots of photographs and notes about the bands and venues generated, believe me, enough to make a complete separate post.
     However, do you the reader want to read about the event all in one long post?  Or should I break it up into easily-digestible pieces, scattered at random across next week?
     Hang on, let me check out last year - 
      - aha, all delivered in one big breakfast.  With hits, too, so I shall probably post my Afternoon On The Terra-Cotta Tesseract later this evening.
     So, back to breakfast.  The sentence before the previous one?  DO keep up!  Look, go read everything twice over while I go top up my cup and then we'll begin agin.
     Right, breakfast - Art?

Pay close attention!

     What's wrong with this picture?  Jenny, is what.  There she is in her cat-igloo, ignoring breakfast and books, as she's normally sitting on the latter trying to get at the former.  Not today.  The difference is that Conrad has liberally spread orange marmalade on his toast, leading him to wonder if this makes an effective cat repellent.  What do you think, Edna?

"I love marmalade!  and toast! and both together! And cornettos!"

     Hmmm.  I think we'll hold fire on that one; thanks for your candour, Edna.
     Okay, time to let the motley begin!

Okay, Yesterday's Coincidence #1
It's not apparent from that first photograph, but I am attempting to finish "Stemming the Tide: Officers and Leadership in the British Expeditionary Force 1914", which I got from Ian Allen at £20.  Pricey for a paperback, yes, but the paper and print quality is outstanding; this is a weighty tome in both senses of the word!  It deals in great depth on a series of very specific subjects, perhaps a bit of a niche subject so I shan't bore at interminable length about it.
     So, yesterday, who turns up on Twitter?  Spencer Jones, the Editor of the above work.

There you go

     That panoramic painting is the wrap-around cover for the book.
     Nor is that all.  I am quite aware of Seth Shostak, too, as he is a mate of Phil Plait, whom you might (or might not) know as the Bad Astronomer.
     Enough of coincidence!  I haughtily snap my fingers at you!

Tea
After Rick's rather suspicious-sounding post last week, I would like to present a short photgraphic essay on How To Make A Pot Of Tea.
     "But we already know how to do that, Conrad!" I hear you object.  "Teabags, mate, teabags."
     I shall ignore the over-familiarity inherent in that response.  Also, NO!  NOT TEABAGS!  NEVER TEABAGS!!**
     Dammit, man, how do you think we acquired and ran an Empire?  By not relying on teabags, that's how!
     <short pause until forehead veins stop throbbing>
Art, begin.

In summation, the instruments of percolation

     This is what you need.  Go check your kitchen cupboards and ensure you possess all this kit.  Next:

The tea leaves

     The tea leaves are measured out, two rounded 5 Ml teaspoons.  Notice that this is English Breakfast Tea, a very fine-leaved blend.  Next!

Kettling

     Unlike the police tactic, this increases the volume in the vessel affected.  Note the pouring from height in order to maximise aeration and thus oxygenation of the liquor***.   I hope you're paying attention here, Rick, there will be questions asked later.  Next!

The leaves are stirred.  Not shaken.

     Pretty obviously, you'd only ever make that mistake once.  I include this stirring scene purely for completion, because the fine-leaved teas brew very quickly and don't really need this.  A typical large loose-leaf like Darjeeling, however, takes considerably longer to brew and would need stirring.

Alloo to brew

     Again, with EBT this takes hardly any time at all and the tea is ready to go pretty much straight away - because if you're having breakfast prior to heading off to work, you don't want a long delay.
     Note the colour scheme of the cup on left - un-necessary with EBT because it brews so quickly; however, if using a long leaf brew, you need to be able to judge how strong it is, which means a light-coloured cup.  Next!

A very steamy scene

     The tea-strainer here is needed as your fine tea leaves are going to work their way through the restraining filter in the pot.  Again, with large leaves you can dispense with the strainer.  Lastly!

The cosy

     As you can see from the steam, that cup of tea is hot, and will consequently take a good while to cool down.  Therefore we put a cosy over the pot, so that our remaining tea remains warm.  This is why those teaspoons of leaves were only rounded; if you just hit it with heaped ones the brew would end up stewed by the time you get to the last cups.
     There!  Now you have NO EXCUSE for not knowing how to brew a pot of loose-leaf tea.

For Your Information
Gosh I can hardly wait!  I know I'll just have to, as The Doctor would take a very dim view of a broadcast on the UNIT Emergency Channel, requesting a time-hop of a few days -

     You may rest assured that Conrad, as befits his advancing years and unsmiling countenance, will not be dressing up for the day^.  



* What a shame we didn't have yesterday's weather today!
** I'm not going to apologise for two exclamation marks here.  I intend to make a point.
***  The formal word that tea snobs use for tea.
^  Not in public, at least.  At home, though ...