High Tea

 

One of the many, many awesome things that happened to me over my long weekend of birthday madness, was that on Sunday morning I was told that I needed to get dressed and ready to roll.  What was going on?  Well it turned out that my daughter was taking me out to high tea.

And when I say she was taking me out, I mean the whole shebang.  She had the reservation in her name.  Upon entering she told the maitre d' that she held a reservation under her name, we were lead to our table and she even paid at the end!

I was told a number of times by different young waitstaff that they hoped to have a daughter like Harriet when they're older. 

Pfft - they wish!  There's only one, people!

We read about correct 'tea etiquette', read through an extensive list of tea options and on Harriet's urging I branched out and chose a pot of Prince of Wales (because, as you may or may not be aware, it was the name of a ship in the First Fleet and such honours leave a strong impression on minds of young history buffs).

I'm so glad I listened to her - it was seriously delicious.  Harriet drank the chai and pronounced it delicious as well (and she is quite the connoisseur of chai).  And then a three tiered tray of food arrived which we were talked through.  Red velvet cakes, lemon cheesecakes, caramelised onion sandwiches, date scones - to name a few.

Bless her sweet little heart at one point she turned teary and announced that she was so sorry that she couldn't eat any more.  How sweet is that?  In fact neither of us could work through that mountain of food and Harriet requested the remained to be taken home in a container, which was promptly attended to.  Ted and James were most pleased at our inability to complete the goods before us.

 

After careful reading, Harriet is here demonstrating the correct approach for drinking tea.  Index finger curled to the first phalange, thumb atop the handle, saucer resting in the other hand above the table (who knew?).

These kinds of milestones are held so close to my heart.  Her pride at completing not only the secrecy involved in the lead up, but the execution through the activity itself. The respect she was shown by the people working there - all of these worked towards her feeling the control and mastery of what had hitherto been in the purely adult domain.  And what joy to see her as it unfolded.

Oh and the tea was great too.  Can't forget the tea.

ps - Harriet is beyond excited at this awesome website.  https://diy.org/  Oh man, it is FABULOUS!  Harriet is interested in tackling beekeeping first.  Or bicycle maintenance.  Or astronomy.  Hey, let's do them all!  Today!  Who needs to sleep?