Just to let you know:  I have a passport and I’m not afraid to use it.  Starting tomorrow.  And starting with a cup of tea in (wait for it)… London.  What started with a 30 minute glider ride in Santa Barbara has somehow blossomed into an international flight leaving LAX tomorrow afternoon and arriving at Heathrow, the afternoon after that (oh Time Zone Conversion, you wicked mistress).

 

And you know what?  I’m looking forward to the ten hour plane ride most of all.

 

Lest you think I’m joking, let the lines forming the “11” in the middle of my forehead assure you that I’m not.  Not in the least.  See, the idea of being trapped in a big, metal tube with a most excellent traveling companion with uninterrupted chat-time, punctuated by naps and snacks?  Oh, yeah.  That is SO my cuppa tea.  Earl Grey, Darjeeling or otherwise.

 

Tea with T. Katz was started nearly two years ago with the intention of being a place for a bit of tea and conversation served by me, someone who has been called “an absorbent observer” over the years.  I have collected a lot of stories and experience — from time spent in the music industry; television production; teaching piano; being a mom; and just being related to some of the wackiest people on the planet – and I allow all of this to brew and steep, until its ready to be served.  These tales, like the multiple varieties of tea are sometimes spicy, sometimes sweet and rarely, if ever, bitter.  You guys get to be the judge of whether what’s poured is hot, cold or downright i.c.y. (I’m a storyteller, not a saint).

 

For the next week or so, I’m taking this show on the road to gather sights and sounds in Europe.  Beginning in Covent Garden and finishing in Paris (the one in France, with the tall tower.  Not the one with the tall Texans).  It will be my tremendous honor and pleasure to share with you what is set before me.

 

About now I’d like to sing another Frank Sinatra song “When I take my sugar to tea” – but truth be told, it is someone as sweet as sugar who is taking T. to Tea…in London.  England.  <exhale/sigh/gasp> Wow.  Such stuff as dreams are made on (and I thank you Billy Shakespeare, for describing that so well for me).

 

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.”  Friedrich Nietzsche

 

“I’ve stood my ground long enough.  If nobody minds now, I’d like to fly.” – T. Katz