Tea eggs are super easy to make – as simple as boiling eggs, cracking the shells, and re-boiling them in a darkly-stained broth.

Chinese tea eggs

• ½ doz. free-range eggs
• 1 tbsp black tea leaves
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
• 1 tsp Chinese five-spice

Hard-boil eggs in a medium-sized saucepan. They should be ready five or six minutes after the water comes to the boil. Remove eggs from water and leave until cool enough to handle (or run them under cold water). Once you can touch the eggs, gently crack them all over by rolling on your benchtop or tapping with a teaspoon. Return the eggs to the saucepan of water, along with tea, soy, rice wine and five-spice powder. Simmer gently for half an hour, then allow to cool. Refrigerate eggs in the broth for at least 24 hours before serving.

We did lots of the usual couple things we’ve been unable to do for the ten months since I moved to Brisbane: dates, movies, falling over in the snow. We’ve built snowmen, cooked meals together and gone hiking. We even made it to London for a long weekend in the big city:

Britain isn’t getting any warmer. I left Edinburgh at five in the morning, trudging through half a foot of snow and -10°C temperatures. Thirty-eight hours later (via Dublin, Abu Dhabi and Singapore) I emerged into a balmy 30°C Brisbane morning, still wearing thermals and a coat. Oops.

I’ll miss the snowmen:

(and the snow in general, I guess),

I’ll miss my beautiful city:

But most of all, I’ll miss my Hannah:

Five weeks and counting ’til she’s home.