I am a filth pig
I drink quite a lot of tea while I'm at my desk (and when I'm not: I can often be seen wandering around Manchester with a large mug of the stuff). I've just been for a refill.

Now, my mug gets washed only once a week on average, just before the Monday morning cuppa. This week, I forgot. That means that it's a little browner than usual inside. (Hell, anything that survives immersion in boiling water several times a day deserves the right to make its home there.)

So: there I am in the SCR, idly looking out of the window and checking my post while the kettle boils. Also in there is one of the professorial staff. "Shall I fill your mug, Enzyme?" he asks.
"Ooh. Ta."
"I haven't touched it."
"Huh?"
"I don't think I'll catch any diseases from it."

I think that's code for "You're a disgusting scruffy waste of space and I regret having been on the interview panel that gave you your job."
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 11:22, 10 replies)

Eww
I use the same mug all morning but use a clean one for the afternoon.

That is my system. All hail the system.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 11:26, closed)

You are not alone.
I stand by the boiling water theory.
Besides, it all adds to the flavour.
(oneinthepink is at your cervix m'lady, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 11:38, closed)

black coffee only
3 months and counting......

when i go on leave my staff tend to take pity and clean it - it doesn't need it, leave it alone!!!
( bazza van der trance , ooh baby baby, baby baby. Get up on this., Wed 22 Oct 2008, 11:53, closed)

I think I'll have to put you in touch with a friend of mine
He works in the office downstairs from me and probably washes his mug even less frequently than you do. It allegedly got to a point where the lady who serves tea in our common room offered to wash it for him before she poured any more of her tea* into it.

Perhaps the two of you could have a marathon. First one to give in and wash their mug can buy the other a cup of tea.

*_{Actually, her tea deserves a mention - I don't know how much she puts into that pot, but the stuff's like rocket fuel...}
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 12:16, closed)

I have one of those camping mugs
thats insulated with a lid. I wash it when I go on holidays and thats about it. It gets filled up about 5 times a day with coffee. Why wash it.. its all extra flavour!
(scowners shagged his mum on, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 12:31, closed)

I worked with an ex-Navy man
who drank tea and had a white cup that was dark chocolate brown on the inside. He claimed that he had never washed it in five years, only rinsing it with hot water, because it was now "seasoned". As he drank his tea black, there was never really a worry about anything growing in it- the brown was simply tea. He told me that it was finally to the point where he could just pour in boiling water and no tea, and it would be tea in ten minutes anyway.

One day his wife got hold of that mug and spent two hours scrubbing and bleaching it until it was clean.

He taught me some new words the next day as he was telling me about this.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 22 Oct 2008, 13:01, closed)

Think yourself lucky
we're stuck with rotten vending machine tea and coffee. The coffee's nearly palatable but the tea strips the varnish if you spill it on the desk....
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Wed 22 Oct 2008, 13:53, closed)

I drink green tea without milk at work
and it takes much, much longer to go manky. Plus it has more caffeine.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 14:07, closed)

I drink black tea (I usually clean it in the morning) and keep meaning to get a mug with a black inside as the tea layer doesn't bother me but it seems to bother everyone else!
(cmouse is pondering about life in other jobs, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 14:42, closed)

Not so much my mug
The coffee perc in my own office has never, ever, been cleaned. The jug has only ever been rinsed with cold water. I have had the perc for about two and a half years.

It makes me black coffee that lets me see through time.
(powervator and NONE SHALL PASS, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 16:55, closed)