Warming, soothing tea. A social event, a pick-me-up, a comforter. Tea is a great social leveller, given to both vicars and builders alike.
It is a cure-all and a cause for celebration on its own, but hitch it to the wagon of afternoon cake and you have an altogether brighter star.
There is something innately civilising about afternoon tea. One, for it must be "one" and not "you", cannot slouch at a table set properly for tea.
One cannot wear jeans or sneakers, sport ragged nails or unkempt hair. Not in the face of delicate tag heuer replica china, weighty silver, a tablecloth like a bride's skirts and a three-tier cake stand.
Even stripped bare of all its frippery, afternoon tea is a winner for that one central reason: cake. Cake is one of life's quiet glories. I, for one, have never met a cake I did not like. Chocolate cake, carrot cake, Victoria sponge and hummingbird. Mmm. Cake's one downfall is that, in polite company at least, you cannot have it all.
rolex fakeWith cake comes choice. Chocolate or carrot. Victoria or hummingbird. Just one slice. Not so afternoon tea. It is the switherer's delight. A three-tiered tower of pure pleasure.
Sandwiches? Try a finger of each. Scones? Crumpets? Sultana bread? Have a wee taste of all.
And, then, top tier. Glorious, tooth-melting, stomach-plumping top tier of cake in many varieties and no need to feign restraint. Time for tea is an apt phrase indeed. Afternoon tea comes in miniature courses that cannot be rushed but plead to be savoured. The tea itself is a hot punctuation, slowing the meal to take an hour ... even two.
If I had the skill to arrange my words into neat stanzas, I would write sonnets for the ritual of
embroidered patches scones, cake and tea.
This is not in praise of afternoon tea; it is a love song.
Other articles:
http://www.chinazgw.cn/Blog/View/?631
http://www.eworkexchange.com/No-power-to-the-people-here.html
http://www.jabeztv.com/Startup-donation-for-pupils-.html
http://blog.39.net/
http://www.111111.cc/Blog/View/?271