An-glo-phile   /ˈæŋgləˌfaɪl, -fɪl/ [ang-gluh-fahyl, -fil]

–noun a person who is friendly to or admires England or English customs, institutions, etc.

I may have mentioned, or you may have deduced, that I am an Anglophile.

People always look at me askance whenever I tell them that, so I've learned to not tell too many people (I think they think I'm confessing some kind of weird fetish--Philistines)!

However, in such a forum as this, it cannot long be denied.

I love British things. I don't know when it started, I don't know why, but I want to be British. I like to blame it on my heritage, having a very English maiden name, a father descended from an English pirate, and a mother who can trace her English and Scottish ancestry through numerous signers of the Magna Carta, King John, Eleanor of Aquitane, all the way back to Charlemagne.

But I'm also German, a smidge French and 1/4 Italian (though we choose not to talk about that side of the family much; that's the side EGOD represents) so I guess my theory doesn't hold water.

For whatever reason, I love Britain and British things. The Viking and I went to England to celebrate our 10th Wedding Annivesary four long years ago (chronicled here, here, here, and here) and it was like coming home after being homesick all my life. I still get homesick for a place I've only been once.

Well, I don't get to indulge my mania very much here in the States, but today? Today, I made my bi-monthly trip to replenish my stores of tea. And not just any tea, but this tea:



Ah, sweet nectar! My friend from London brought this back for me from a trip home and I have been irrevocably hooked ever since. There aren't many places around here that carry it and even less that carry the decaf variety so I have no choice but to make a special trip every two months or so to get it:

Somehow, I summon the strenght. Today was that lucky day. I. Love. This. Shop. For a shop it is, no commonplace name such as, "store", will suit it!

I never take the kids with me so I get to browse, undisturbed, to my heart's content, drooling and dreaming over all the lovely goodies inside. Sometimes I pick up some bangers or pasties from the freezer case, and every time I pick up the red Brown Betty teapot, wondering a)if it can still be called a Brown Betty when it's red and b)when I'll be able to take it home with me. Once in a while I'll buy two kinds of tea, maybe a box of Yorkshire Gold or Lapsang Souchong for a little variety. But I always bring home something lovely for the children from the sweets selection. Ah, the Cadbury chocolates, the HobNobs!




Today, I saw the Advent calendars I'm going to get the kids this year:

Just perfect!

And a few lovelies I'm pretty sure I'm going to be handing out with some frequency to friends and loved ones this year:

I can think of a few people, in particular, who will love getting some of those (including myself)!

I considered buying a small shepherd's pie for my lunch tomorrow, but paying almost $5 for a dish I can easily make myself was too much. So, I only got the package of tea, and sweets for my sweets, of course.

Today's selection was two Curly Wurly sweets. It's a lattice of caramel, covered in chocolate. Chewy, simple, delicious (I was granted a bite of each of theirs). Kind of like a Twix bar without the cookie.

So, I may not have been able to bring the red teapot home yet, but I'm pretty happy at the moment, with the dregs of my bedtime cuppa in front of me, coasting along on the fumes of my afternoon jaunt into fantasyland, knowing a full package of Typhoo tea (minus two bags--Redheaded Snippet had her bedtime cuppa, too) is secure in my cupboard, waiting faithfully for me to heat the kettle first thing tomorrow morning.

Why didn't I grab a sleeve of digestives?