Tea-bagging? You don't know the meaning of the word.

When you think of Scotland and its people, certain stereotypes tend to crop up. Many foreigners see us as kilt-wearing, haggis-eating, whiskey-swigging drunks who live in a Brigadoon-esque time-warp.

These stereotypes do not really bother me because I can, kind of, see where they originated. The one stereotype that really gets to me, however, is the one about us all being really stingy. That really annoys me. In Germany, they even advertise the price cheap of goods as "schotten price" - such is our reputation for frugality! I always thought it was unjustified - until now, that is!

As you know, I work with a particularly eccentric bunch of, ahem, older ladies. In previous posts you have met one of them, The Twitterer, but have yet to meet Mrs. Dooubtfire, The Grey Lady, The Duchess and Miss Smugly Treacherous.

Normally, I keep a low-profile and try to keep out of their staff-room politics but their antics last Friday caused me no end of amusement.

We have a whiteboard for announcements in our staff room and on Friday it bore the legend "Please share your teabags. Either make a pot or share a bag between two cups.". I kid you not.

Sorry folks, but unless someone is a blood relative I am not sharing a bleedin' teabag with them. How bloody stingy.

Anyway, I decided to play along with their post-menopausal reasoning and only had tea from the pot at break and lunch. I still couldn't bring myself to 'share a bag' though. The thought actually turns my stomach. Later in the day I was in-between classes and decided to have a quick cup of tea whilst catching up on some marking. I sneaked into the staffroom and made myself a cup using one tea bag all to myself - such hedonsim. I was in the process of sneaking back to my room when The Duchess appeared from nowhere and shouted, "I hope you are still tea-bagging!"

Oh my God! At least a dozen or so sixth-formers were in the corridor and they just about collapsed with laughter. Now, I know what The Duchess meant by tea-bagging, she also knew what she meant, but I am sure she had no idea that the term has other meanings too. I am also pretty sure that the definition that made the sixth-formers roll in the aisles had nothing to do with Poilitics either.