Tea for Two

The place: Orange Pekoe, Barnes

I do like a spot of tea and cake. This is because I a) like to eat and 2) like to pretend that I have an enormously elegant life of swanning around a variety of teashops and chatting about high-brow things*.) So when the Sister of Virtue suggested we go for tea and scones** near where she lives I said 'Yes! Let's!'*** and went.

It is the most adorable place, combining ye olde-ness and a modern feel very well (that wallpaper with the birdcages on; quirky mismatched china displayed in a very interiors-mag way; dinky outside furniture for the pavement cafe element.). It's a very good-looking place.

The food and drink was likewise very good. I had a steamed milk, cinnamon and honey concoction that was very nice, although rather too heavily milky for mid-afternoon; I should have gone with the honey latte. I had a scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam (it was a bit posh; they called it preserves). The scone was home-made, I don't know about the cream and jam. Sister had a lemon cake, which came in a pleasingly large wodge (I didn't taste any; we're eaters, not sharers, in our family).

Apparently Orange Pekoe is really into tea. To the extent there was a little book on the table, which you could buy for 5.95 English pounds, and it was all about the Orange Pekoe and how into tea they are. We didn't have any tea, but I'm sure it's excellent. We did, however, look at the tea, which is arrayed on a whole wall in big jars, and that was very nice, like a sweetie shop of yore. They also do sandwiches and light bites, and a full-on afternoon tea with finger sandwiches and cake stands and general indulgent loveliness, and who among us doesn't want a bit of indulgent loveliness now and again?

* Not actually the case.

** I'm not that into scones, but have a fondness for them because when I was little I won a prize by ringing into the radio and telling them my joke, which was:

What's the fastest cake in the world?

Scone.

Everyone laughed. I was pretty cute back then.

*** The title of a game I used to play in drama class, consisting in one person shouting out something to do (e.g. hop on one leg, jump up and down) and we all had to shout back 'Yes! Let's!' and then do it. Sometimes I feel that this attitude could take me far, and sometimes I think it's a barrier to wisdom.