...the barmaid knows what you're about to order before you order it (well known fact practiced by many).

Should I worry that in the case of me and the Bar in the Dana Centre the drink in question is tea...

OK, went in there tonight and went straight up to the bar and instead of asking me what I want, like she has every other time I've been there, the barmaid says "tea?". Now that's a question I like being asked^*, I think I need to get more bars to ask me it when I go up to them...

Anyway, towards the end of the evening when I went for another cup the conversation went like this:

"Another cup of tea?!"
"It's only my third"
"Only?!?!"

Is 3 cups of tea in one evening (by evening we're talking first cup ordered just before 7pm to third cup ordered just after 9pm) that unusual?

She also then asked me how many I had a day, which left me flumoxed**. I have absolutely no idea. Perhaps I need to do a scientific study into my tea drinking habbits? A tea log for starters perhaps?

Also, I've been drinking large amounts of tea for as long as I can remember (certainly was drinking it in quantity when I was very young). Thinking about the discussion on mental stimulants the other week and the fact the caffeine certainly is one and the tea as such will be altering my brain structure, I'm now wondering what effect it has had.

There are obviously many factors that make up intelligence, for example

• Biological factors - what the brain's like to start with


• Environment factors - what external stimulants there are to influence the brain's development

Another fact is going to be the presence of chemical stimulants...

...so I'm now wondering how much of things like my getting into Cambridge, me getting my degree, etc are down to my tea drinking during my development? How would things be different if I hadn't drunk the tea?


* - for reference the other main question I like being asked is "port?"
** - not sure that's how you spell it, but it's a wonderful word, that I don't really use and should do.