Time For Tea

Come along inside… We'll see if tea and buns can make the world a better place.

Kenneth Graeme - The Wind in the Willows

Brown's Hotel, Albemarle Street, W1S - Saturday, 9th February, 2013

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Tea takers

Sarah Ryan

Paul Ryan

Olivia Ryan

Sandra McNally

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Brown's opened in 1837 as London's first hotel. Situated in Mayfair, (in the street next to Dover Street, so it's well situated for the Drones club) it is everything you would expect in terms of elegance. I last had afternoon tea here in summer 2002 having just discovered I was pregnant with Olivia, so it was nice to return with an almost ten-year-old who can now enjoy the scones on her own behalf.

The scones were indeed stupendous. Pleasingly small but also plentiful and replenished at our lightest whim. All sandwiches and cakes were lovely, and nice to see the Battenburg making an appearance (even if no-one actually ate it).

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It was delightful to be joined for this tea by the lovely Sandra McNally, who is the first (and probably only) Professor to join the odyssey. She was charming and entertaining company, as ever, and for all of us it proved a fine precursor to the evening's Lourdes reunion dinner at St Mary Moorfields. All in all, a very jolly and sociable day.

Sandra must also be congratulated on a particularly fabulous and apposite age-specific birthday card. (Which makes me think that we must ensure Desmond and Raymond get to be guests at least at one of these teas, although possibly in slightly different containers)

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The lounge pianist provided considerably better music than we had the day before - here we see father and daughter enjoying Dancing Cheek to Cheek.

We were also treated to two performances of Happy Birthday to You*, one being in my own honour and accompanied by:

(*Criminal act? Based on the 1935 copyright registration, Warner claims that the United States copyright will not expire until 2030, and that unauthorized public performances of the song are technically illegal unless royalties are paid. In one specific instance in February 2010, these royalties were said to amount to $700. In the European Union, the copyright of the song will expire on December 31, 2016).

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Second Tea - Second Year

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Most disconcerting element of tea No. 2 - the black and white photograph of a matador smoking a cigarette, hanging in the Ladies' toilet. I find no reason at all.

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Nowhere is the English genius of domesticity more notably evident than in the festival of afternoon tea. The mere chink of cups and saucers tunes the mind to happy repose.

George Gissing

Buxted Park Hotel - Friday, 8th February 2013

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Tea-takers

Sarah Ryan

Paul Ryan

Olivia Ryan

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Buxted Park, our local country house hotel seemed a suitably traditional setting to begin the Afternoon Tea odyssey upon which I am embarking. The house was built in 1722 by Sir Thomas Medley. This fine aristocrat made his money through introducing Port wine to England (or so the Hotel's own potted history would have us believe) so it seems doubly auspicious. Even approaching in the dark, the eagle topped gates and long drive through the parkland and the shadowy silhouette of 13th Century church, made a deeply pleasing impression. We had the lounge to ourselves at the unusually late tea hour, with the lovely smell of wood smoke from the fire, and a wide range of lounging opportunities provided by the armchairs and sofas. However, it should also be noted that an irritant in the form of piped Andrew Lloyd Webber tunes kept it from being too cloyingly delightful - such a relief.

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Olivia and I highly commend the buttermilk scones, which were still warm. The rather nervous, strongly-accented waiter gave us the run down of what was on the cake stand (in case we couldn't see) and thoroughly confused us with this which we think he described as an 'atom'

It tasted lovely anyway and was a combination of fruit, cream and meringue, which was always likely to be winning combination whatever anyone choses to call it.

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The French duty manager, Marc, came over to be charming and made friends with Olivia, and succeeded in his aim of fuelling her with an enormous desire to go and stay at the hotel. We swapped stories about French and Italian driving and he talked about his passion for hospitality in the Ashdown Forest, before supplying us with extra biscuits in a doggy bag (sac de chien?). All most pleasing.

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