Hamburg  - Tea-drinkers can hardly miss the variety of brews on offer in the stores these days - from green teas with chilli peppers, cocoa beans in rooibos tea to coffee-flavoured black teas.

Individual blends are constantly being expanded by teas that branch off into new fields of taste. German tea specialist Alexander Linhart expects even bolder and more eclectic blends to come in future.

"These days there are two types of tea drinkers," said Linhart. There's the classic tea lover, who traditionally prefers unflavoured green or black tea leaves. And there's the second type which Linhart believes is now the larger group, who drink intricate blends with strong aromas, and are thus always in search of new tastes.

Berlin  - The career of cellist Sonny Thet, who owes his life to music, has royal roots. Born in 1954 in the kingdom of Cambodia, he was sent at age 15 by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, then Cambodia's head of state, to the East German city of Weimar for musical studies.

Thet became more than just a good student. He founded the music group Bayon, which went on to fame in communist East Germany.

Tokyo - "Welcome - would you like a hot drink today?," a soft female voice purrs in the cold winter air.

Confused, the first-time visitor to Japan makes his way over to the vending machine where he chooses from a dozen boiling hot cups of coffee with flavours ranging from sticky sweet and milky to night black. This machine talks?

"Thank you. Have a nice day," the artificial voice says, catching perfectly the correct intonation of politeness to make the Japanese customer feel appreciated.

Welcome to Japan, where people might be forced to live in the most cramped quarters of any industrialized nation, but, with the aid of a unique plethora of high-tech gadgets, lead more pampered lives than anybody else on the planet.

Paris - Everyone bar a saint can recall being curt with a supermarket checkout girl at some point, but after reading a new best-selling book in France, many a customer might think twice about being unfriendly to the woman behind the counter.

In her book "Les tribulations d'une caissiere" (The Trials of a Checkout Girl) Anna Sam, 28, dissects typical supermarket users, including many familiar types. Her critical eye registers the notorious moaners and the bargain hunters along with the shop-until- you-drop types and of course, the pleasant customers who do mind their manners. The book has already sold 100,000 copies in France and is set to be published in English later this year.

Cologne - Moving on from traditional armchairs and sofas, designers are now using leather to cover furniture previously not associated with the material.

At the Cologne International Furnishing Show, held each year in late January, cutting-edge creations included a leather-fronted cabinet and leather-bordered beds.

"And a lot more is coming, too," predicted Ursula Geismann, a member of the German Furniture Industry Association.

Munich - Fixed appointments have become an exception in many people's lives.

While previously, it sufficed to say "Friday at 8" when setting a date, nowadays people discuss an appointment, but then agree to ring each other shortly beforehand only to postpone or cancel it. For some people, a short text message is all it takes.

It appears nobody wants to be pinned down by fixed appointments, but constant postponements amount to bad conduct and prevent real friendships from developing, behavioral experts say.