Tea in Windsor

Ecclesiastes 2:24:
There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.

       
Before I begin this post, I wanted to make sure you all know that even though it’s in the first person from me, Brenda is greatly contributing to the blog. Every time I write up an entry, we then go back through it and she helps me get straight on the facts and often brings up the funny details that make it fun to read. She brought her Kindle Fire on the trip, and every evening she looks at the blog and reads all the comments from you. So if you make any comments, she will definitely see them.


OK, so here’s the rest of the day: After we left the castle at Windsor, we walked just a bit down the street and found the Crooked Tea House, a little 2-story building that took cash only (first thing they told you when you walked in).  We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon tea of scones, clotted cream, jam,  and grapes, tea sandwiches (cheddar & tomato on whole wheat bread; egg mayonnaise---egg salad, and some type of salmon or prawn sandwich). Actually I was so taken by the clotted cream (Does Kroger sell that? How many WW Points?) and scones that I barely noticed the sandwiches though they were delicious. We used the clotted cream like butter and slathered it on first and then put on the jam. But Brenda noticed in observing (she is very observant) that the locals put the clotted cream on top of the jam. (No one really gives you directions.)

They served us on a two-tiered platter. While we were sitting there, a couple, June and Mike Hudson, was seated next to us, whom we asked to take our photo. He took one photo with my camera and then told me it said, “Battery Exhausted.” Now Jeanetter had told me to bring an extra battery, but I didn’t get it figured out in time. I just bought this new camera Nikkon Coolpix with an EN-EL Lithium Ion battery. It seems to me it should have held up better, but anyway, Brenda took photos with her camera for the rest of the day. 

We ended up striking up a conversation with this couple. They were from Scotland where they run a bed and breakfast, and this was their first vacation in two years. They had come to see their daughter who lives near Windsor. Their B&B is Liscara, a combination of their daughter’s names. You can see it a www.liscara.co.uk. Maybe we’ll  stay there our next time overseas (smile). We sat for a long time and enjoyed cup after cup of tea with milk and sugar. At this restaurant, they had put out a bowl of sugar cubes (white and brown sugar), well not really cubes cuz they were not perfectly formed, they were like “lumps” maybe. Anyway at our table all the brown pieces were under the white ones and there were no tongs or anything like that, so Brenda carefully lifted up the white pieces with her knife so she could get to the brown. Mike said, “Just use your fingers!” No ServSafe® here! (That's for Joy!)

Before the Hudsons left, they gave us their bowl of sugar (it had more browns on top) and their pot of tea which they had not finished. That’s why we have 3 pots of tea and 2 bowls of sugar in the photo.  The way they make the tea is to pour hot water over loose tea and let it steep. Then you use this little strainer over your cup to pour the tea through. Brenda has one sitting in front of her.

When you look at the photos, you’ll see a window and right to the right of the window was the door and that’s as wide as the downstairs eating area was. There we just the three tables of us and we all got to meet each other!

When we got the bill, there was a 10% service fee added on (the menu told of this). There was another group who had been seated on the opposite side of us, and I leaned over and asked them if they knew if the 10% was considered an OK tip or if I should leave more. They were like “No! You don’t even have to pay that 10% if you don’t want to. We’re not like you Americans about tipping.” I had read that on the Internet before I left, but here was confirmation. They had just returned from a 3-week trip to the United States, and one man said, “I’m done with tipping. ‘Tipped out.’” These folks had gone to the West Coast and seen Los Angeles, Yosemite, and several other national parks, then also flown to Hawaii and also to Las Vegas. They liked every place except Las Vegas. I told them they had seen more places than most Americans. They said they get 3 or 4 weeks “holiday” every year and said “You Americans don’t get that much time, do you?”

We were finished eating for quite some time before the waiter brought us our check. In fact we had to ask him a couple of times. I wondered if there was some type of special code you had to give a waiter in England so they would know you were ready to leave. Eventually we got our bill and were on our way.  Brenda asked me to take a couple of photos of the front of the restaurant. I took a picture of the "words" on the sign. She it turned out wanted a photo of the "crookedness" of the restaurant. That kind of is an allegory for how we looked at things. I was reading the signs and she was seeing the big picture!

This is the one I took

I borrowed this one from the Internet

This Internet one might even show it better.

After we left the restaurant, we made our way back to Windsor station/then Slough station/then Paddington Station.  From Paddington, we took the tube to Sloane Square and stopped at a big store called Peter Jones. It is laid out like a downtown Macy’s (not sure if we have any of those downtown stores anymore in the U.S. ). It was big and bright and full of “stuff.”  They were eagerly getting ready to close, so Brenda picked up a few goodies and we were on our way out the door and walked home to our flat. Of course, we couldn’t actually go to our flat without making our nightly stop at Tesco. This time Brenda picked up milk for her tea! I bought a voucher to add minutes to my cell phone. The phone company (Orange) wouldn’t let me add minutes over the phone with an American credit card, but I was able to buy the “top off” voucher with a credit card at Tescos, and then use that to add minutes. (It’s all learning, isn’t it?)

Oh, by the way, Brenda’s credit card worked at Peter Jones. No declining here. We learned before leaving the U.S. that  whenever you go overseas and plan to use your credit card or ATM, you’re supposed to notify the bank and credit card company of your travels. Brenda had done this. When we got to the flat, Brenda called her credit card company and they said they had no record of it being declined and had no idea why that would happen.
                       
And guess what was in a corner on the floor under the chair my suitcase was on? Yeah, my travel card.

This was a full and productive day, very enjoyable, quite “lovely.”