Chai

Chai tea often contains cardamom.

Imogen of the Internet is fighting six bored housewives to win an eBay auction for a bag of premium chai tea.

I’ll drink chai.

"Would you like Earl Grey or chai?" "Earl Grey, please." "Yes, ma'am. And would you like the loose leaf or bagged kind?" "I'll take the loose leaf, thank you."

Here on Lulu Island, a few days ago, I've tried the Jerk-spiced Chicken Rice Bowl from Subway, but I've yet to try the expensive Hawaiian goodies at Steve's Poké Bar. This morning, the 25th of November of 2024, after 6, still dark as night, I saw Michael J. the Dane-French, whilst I was walking. He showed me new pictures on his cellphone about strange neighbourhood lights that he attributes to extraterrestrials. I mention to him about Elon Musk's apparent position on the matter that aliens haven't visited us here on Earth, but he doesn't discount the mathematical probability that life, intelligent or not, exists on faraway worlds. He's mentioned that there may be many one-planet civilizations that may have died out. He thinks that it is important that our Terran consciousness would be propagated outside of Earth for our own security. It's important that we have a "multiplanetary" civilization, Elon opines. We don't want to be a one-planet civilization that just dies out. I told Michael my two reasons that aliens would hide from us: (1) They're higher beings that have compassion for lower beings like us Earthlings, and (2) we as Terrans and Earth as a whole could be their EXPERIMENT, so they don't want to disturb it. Later, walking, I reached Starbucks café. I drank an Iced Gingerbread Oat Chai, then a reddish Passion Tango iced tea, from my barista Emma, an Iranian. At my corner window table, I was reading the Esperanto sci-fi book La Imperio Ornaks.

These days, at Starbucks café, I have been addicted to Oat Nog Latte, but this morning, I decided to have Iced Gingerbread Oat Chai. I sat in the back, near the restrooms. It is a grey-sky day. I walk practically everyday to get to the café. It was extremely windy, today, though. I stopped at Yummy Slice pizzeria for a Diet Coke and Subway sandwitcheria for a Turkey Ranch "Snackwich" just before the café. Heading home, I then visited Kin's Farm fruteria. Grandma Taiwan was there at the front: "Míng sà la!" she exclaimed. The lotus roots were out of stock. The wind was ferocious, as I walked back home. The neighbourhood Tim Hortons will be opening soon. Today is the 14th of December of 2024.

About 6 in the drizzling morning, I headed walking towards Tim Hortons, here on Lulu Island. I had a chai tea with oat milk and a four-cheese savoury twist pastry. Later, my Cantonese friend Gary showed up; his family has been in this country for generations. Besides English, he speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. Some people want to live in a different country: Gary wants to live in Vietnam, specifically Ho Chi Minh City, for part of the year, as he has a girlfriend there. He said that he was not having too much language difficulty there, despite that I know that most signs there are in Vietnamese. He suggested that I buy property in the Philippines, where it would be much cheaper. I said that I do not really prefer a Xtian country. I talked about the city of Ayutthaya in Buddhist Thailand, full of expatriates admiring ancient temples there. Later, before 8 in that morning, I walked to Starbucks, and I waited for my Filipino friend Greg, but he did not show up this time. I was drinking an iced strawberry oat matcha latte. Today is the 5th of January of 2025.

Later in the morning, before 10, I returned to Tim Hortons. I walked as I usually did. At a corner of a long table with a graphic of an ice hockey rink, I was eating an Herb and Garlic Pastry whilst drinking a Specialty Chai Tea with Oat Milk. Pushpak the South Asian vendor was there, then. I saw my friend Leo the Filipino with a big bag of groceries for "two weeks' worth." He said that he still ate Filipino-style, despite being here in "the Great White North." There was a dark-haired technical man with a strange Euro-like accent using a sophisticated ultramodern rotating black camera on a tripod for taking "measurements for insurance." He mentioned the word "lighter." At home, I listened to music from a radio app on my tablet: Happy '70s, '80s & '90s Pop Rock, House: Deep to Future, Baroque, Zouk Hits, and Southeast Asia Psychedelics. I was earlier today making contributions to articles in the Tagalog Wikipedia. It was the 23rd of January of 2025.

This 17th of April of 2025, I walked to Lulu Island's Tim Hortons café, early morning, after 5, there to enjoy an Earl Grey tea with oat milk and a sausage English muffin. The vendor was Sukhman, the elegant Punjabi lady. A big white man with tattoos on his legs was standing by the till. He was wearing a black and blue checkered shirt. Ken, also a big white man, but with white hair, sat in his usual corner. It was still dark sky outside the bay windows. Jack the Chinese man in a brown jacket rendezvoused for his coffee. Before 10, with sunny weather, I walked back to Tim Hortons café this time to enjoy a Chai tea with oat milk and a croissant. The vendor was Rikku, the affable Punjabi lady. Gary, my Cantonese friend, a fan of Vietnam, sat at the long table etched with lines of an ice hockey rink. He was wearing a black leather jacket and green camouflage Vietnamese military pants. On my way home, I met Michael L. J., my Dane-French ufologist friend. And he showed me on his cellphone another video of mysterious lights in his bedroom; he attributes them to extraterrestrials. I kept to myself my thought about the Zoo Hypothesis. For lunch at home, on my sunny verandah, I ate barbecue pork on a bed of salad with red-tinted rice. Afterwards, I was eating a Tohato-brand matcha-flavoured Japanese Caramel Corn snack from a green plastic bag. Mama has Chef Tony Buns with Egg Yolk Lava in the freezer. They are black on the outside, I think, because of charcoal or something.

'Twas a cold morning. As my imagination of Esperantoland, the café Starbucks was my walking destination. Sitting outside in front were Les the Japanese, Marlin the Filipina, and their Chinese friend, all chatting away. Inside, 'twas quiet. I was drinking Iced Cherry Chai with oat milk. Greg my Filipino friend didn't show up today. Homebound, I went through Dunoon Drive to view the big pink magnolia blossoms.