The afternoon tea

I was just watching 'The Hairy Biker's cookbook' on 'Travel and Living' (God help me but I love that channel!!!). Anyway, I saw the guys enjoying the afternoon tea. And it brought back all these memories of the afternoon tea that I had had at Hampstead Heath. It was wonderful. The entire experience. The tea was tasty. It was a quaint little eating place. And the cake was so vibrant in taste and look. It had fresh strawberries and blueberries and I don't know what other berry. But I loved it. It had just the right amount of sweetness(which was a major win for me, since I am not too much into sweets. ) Also, I had good company. (Sneha, take a bow) It was also the perfect weather. Not too hot, not too cold. God, I sound like Goldilocks.
But I love this tradition of the English Afternoon Tea. :)
I have only realized a few days back that 'High Tea' is something completely different. High Tea involves the full meal (meats, fish, eggs, cheese, bread, butter, cakes). Whereas, in the afternoon tea, along with tea, there would be pastries with clotted cream or preserves, delicate sandwiches and scones.
My 'afternoon tea' was a highly toned down version of the actual thing. Still, I never thought I could enjoy something sweet with my tea ever. I generally enjoy my tea by itself. No accompaniments. But somehow, the cake seemed to be the perfect accompaniment. The fact, that I was sitting close to someplace where George Orwell used to sit did contribute to the extremely pleasurable setting. I loved it all.
I tried doing the afternoon tea back at my hostel. Horrible disaster it was. I didn't have cake. Instead, I used Jimjams and Bournbons My tea, made from a tea bag tasted quite ordinary. And my desk was an absolute mess. The weather was terrible. It was quite hot for the rainy season and it was sultry coz it was the rainy season. And the only virtual presence I would've got of a literary luminary would've been from my laptop. So, therein ended my experiments with afternoon tea.
Hampstead Heath is a wonderful place btw, with its parks and ponds. I really liked it, more so probably because of the afternoon tea. :)
Anyway, back to work for now.
Waiting for my next 'Afternoon Tea'
xoxo
The Rambler