The Tea Lady

The Tea Lady!

As part of our training before we left, Cat and I decided to cycle from Oxford to Hull. I could then  meet Cat’s mother and hopefully reassure her that I wasn’t too flaky and that I was a suitable cycling buddy for her daughter.

We set off from Oxford with Tom Skipp the photographer from Oxfam. It was a beautiful evening and we all cycled to Brackley where we set up camp. The next morning the warm sun shine had been replaced by cold drizzly rain. We pushed on to Leicester where Tom could no longer cope with his teeth chattering and caught the train back to Bristol (as planned) we were also shivering so found a hotel to defrost and dry our kit.

The following day the weather was no better, if anything slightly worse. We were met by Carl, a free lance film maker working for Oxfam. The torrential rain brought an extra challenge to Carl. He would drive ahead of us, get out the car set up his camera, only to have us cycle past before he could get it in to focus...however frustrating this must have been he never said...I think he was surprised we cycled so fast.

The national cycling routes are brilliant for taking you away from all the busy traffic, towns and villages... but that does mean you also miss all the shops and cafes.

By two o’clock we were getting really hungry and on the lookout for somewhere to stop, eat and warm up. The first pub we found was rejected on the basis that our feet stuck to the carpet and everyone stopped talking and stared at us as we entered. Fortunately is wasn’t long before we spotted a tea shop by a lock. As we were leaning Alice up against one of the many empty benches a lady appeared from within and asked us to move the bike, in case someone wanted to sit on the bench. Cat and I both looked skyward at the rain and wondered who would want to sit there today.

We duly did as we were told and parked the bike out of range of any potential brave, rain loving customers.

Once inside we were greeted by the same extraordinary lady, she was in her 70’s, sporting a long wavy auburn wig, Shirley temple style. Scarlet nail varnish and matching lips. We eagerly asked her for the menu.

She said “ this is a tea shop, we only sell tea”. “Great” we said “ two cups of English breakfast please”

“We don’t sell English breakfast tea, we only sell ordinary tea” “ perfect two cups please! “ smiling to ourselves and trying not to laugh we took our tea to the next room, which was festooned with chinch and novelty teapots. Carl joined us with a latte.

Carl wanted to take advantage of the fact we were not moving and do a short interview. Before setting up the camera gear he went to ask ‘Silviya ’ (not her real name, but we all agreed she looked like a Silviya . Apologies to any beautiful Silviya’s)

She told him in no uncertain terms that we could only film in the one room, due to security! Being very security minded he agreed not to let his camera roam over the teapots

Carl set up his gear, but as we started to talk it was very apparent that we were being drowned out by radio Lincolnshire & Silviya’s chat. So Carl went back to ask politely if he could shut the door, but of course, this was not possible because the security camera would set off the alarm if it vision was blocked. Looking on the bright side Carl said it would add to the atmosphere to have backgrounds noise.

As the filming got underway, Silviya then appeared in to the door way to not only observe but also carry on her conversation with a friend.

All filming done, camera packed away, just as we were leaving Silviya appeared with half a cup of coffee. She called Carl back to finish it properly. Trying not to catch our eye Carl returned to do as he was told. Cat started to turn Alice round, ready to go and I quickly popped back in to the tea shop to ask Silviya if she would mind filling our water bottles, only to be told that she didn’t have any water. I explained that I only meant tap water.. to be told that the water in the tap was for ‘washing up’.

I could buy a bottle for 75p! We left smiling.... on to brave the harsh Lincolnshire weather.

Rachael Marsden