More revelations are due to follow about my mother’s side of the family tree, I am sure.

My daughter started talking about the word char today, which apparently means a cup of tea in Mandarin.

Did you know people called a cup of tea a cup of char./cha?

Both my youngsters apparently know that char is Mandarin for tea. They then had a shock. when I had told them that my grandmother had referred to a cup of char all the time. They had then gone on to explain that the phrase

Long Time No See.

was also a translation from Mandarin and were further confounded to learn, that just about everybody in my family, uses that phrase all the time, (including me). I have occasionally pondered a link with the East India Tea Company. I do know the area where my mother was born, (although my grandparents were both London born and bred.) was full of people who had been connected with the East India Tea Company.

Actually my grandmother had considered them rather snobby and had been outraged when somebody had dared to suggest to my grandfather, that my grandmother come work for them, as a servant.

However I am now seriously beginning to ponder why my mother’s family’s language, is littered with Chinese phrases. To quote ‘Alice in Wonderland.’