Tea and Orange Juice - a Public Service Announcement

A couple of years ago I was given a rather pretty Cath Kidston mug, from which I often drink green tea in the afternoon. (It's the only kind of tea I really like.) After a while, I noticed that the mug was becoming stained on the inside, and that washing up liquid did nothing to shift it, no matter how I scrubbed. It was hard to accept, but eventually I came to terms with it.

Being out of glasses one day, I drank orange juice from that same mug. Wiping the mug clean afterwards, I found the tea stains disappearing like magic, with no effort at all. "That's a useful trick," I said to myself.

Since then, I've had occasion to mention this thrilling experience to a couple of people, and neither of them was aware of the tea-stain removing properties of orange juice. It occurs to me that it may not be widely known - in which case it's my duty to tell the world!

Is it widely known?

Doing Time in Holloway

I love these photographs of the ways students furnished their rooms at my old college in the 1890s. By the 1980s, things had changed somewhat.