Homepage
Dagboek
High Tea
Today it was again time for an annual event: We celebrated my mother’s and my brother-in-law’s birthday. Their birthdays are very close to each other, so every year they invite the family together for a dinner.
This year they had chosen for a “High Tea” at Lister’s restaurant in Eindhoven. It sounds like that is easy to find, but wait: Listers has five different restaurants in Eindhoven!
I hurried to get to right restaurant on time and arrived just one minute late: At 3:01 PM. It turned out I was the first to arrive, so I had been hurrying without reason, but that was no problem. I took the opportunity to smoke a cigarette. My mother and my sister always get ill from cigarette smoke, so I’d rather not smoke in their presence.
By the time I finished my smoke, the rest of the family arrived and everybody congratulated everybody else. A separate corner in the restaurant had been reserved for us, with one small table each. It all looked very neat, but we were too far apart. So for a while we were moving tables and seats until everybody was together closely enough. Meanwhile, tea was served. It came in a private pot for each of us, just the same size as the oversized tea cups that were on the table. So each pot contained the same amount of hot water that fit in the cup. In Holland it is common practice nowadays to also provide a big, wooden box with tea bags when tea is served, so that everyone can pick his or her flavor. I detest tea with an artificial flavor, so I usually pick normal Ceylon tea, but this time there was also “rooibos” tea. That has not been artificially flavored, it is just a different kind of tea. Very wholesome and nice!
It would not be a birthday without presents of course. Julia and I bought the present for Gert (my brother-in-law) months ago. It is a glass cube with a three dimensional picture of a saxophone burned into the interior by advanced laser technology. Gert plays the saxophone in a band so this seemed an ideal present for him. Julia had picked a present for my mother by herself.
I was started a little when I saw from the corner of my eye, my father was manipulating with a cubic package below the table. “I hope they didn’t pick the exact same present we did!“
Well they did! They had bought Gert a glass cube with a saxophone burned into it as well. Fortunately it was not an exact copy of ours. Isn’t it funny we both picked the same present? I think it shows that this has to be suitable for Gert. And why wouldn’t he put these beautiful objects on the mantelpiece side by side?
For my mother Julia had picked a beautiful bracelet. Nice choice!
Meanwhile we enjoyed all the goodies that are part of a high tea. Of course there were sandwiches (covered with deliciously fresh salads), but also scones and sausage rolls, jam and clotted cream, fruits and pizza slices. It was all high quality food and everybody was very satisfied when we had finished it.
A very nice family outing!
Related posts: