English Tea

Having read a lot of Enid Blyton books in my younger years ( sometimes, even now ;-) ), I was always fascinated by the English Tea and I remember how the kids used to love it in the books... I had the chance to experience such a high tea - thanks to the wonderful English Couple and my friends the Chaseleys.

Since the testing team ( our team ) did not have space to sit in the IT building, we were sitting in the Customer Service Area... And we were indeed a noisy crowd :-)....
One day, one lady came to our section and said "i may be a bit nosy - but we just wanted to know - what are you people doing - where are you people from - we have seen you sitting here for 3 months but we dont know anything about you people"... we told ( in vivek style ) the history of our testing and the geography of our country ;-).... She introduced herself as Maureen, a head nurse with the dental section, handling dental claims.. Since we were sitting near the entrance of the room, everyone has to cross us before reaching their desks.. So, every weekend, before leaving home, maureen, will ask us - what plans for the weekend... and we will tell her - "Rest"...Little did she know that weekends means working hours at onsite ( and at offshore also - if you are the unlucky ones !! )... the starting time of our proj was real hectic - 14 hours a day means - its an easy day... and we were working 7 days a week.... slowly towards feb, the pressure eased a bit - meaning, we will get a few days off - one cannot predict when a day will be off day, but we will get them.. so, roaming in england started and I have already written a bit about it in my blogs.. so, every monday, i used ot change the wallpaper in my PC and tell everyone abt the places I had visited....

The insider information for most of our weekend visits was provided by maureen - the best views in coastal areas, any spl weekend happenings etc.... and when the summer came, maureen invited whole of our team for a barbeque party at her place.. she told us that their family had travelled a lot and her husband would love to meet us and hear about India.... And somehow or the other, we were held up during the weekends ( she took 2 weeks off for a vacation ) and then we were roaming in europe :-) and then proj got hectic again... Finally, when we decided to have the BBQ, weather turned against us. So, BBQ changed to a high tea...

I was joined by Sethu and Mani... After a lot of brainstorming, the Indian recepie was shortlisted - just 2 sweets... Paal payasam and Rava Kesari... After thinking of making bajji etc etc, we finally decided upon just sweets - bcos bajjis are available even in superstores.. So, we made the sweets and started at 4pm... :-( We were supposed to be present at her place at 4pm :-(.. unfortunately, the cab was delayed - so, we reached her place at 4:10pm and we were greeted by the Chasleys.. And :-) they had a dog.. ( had !! because the dog was in its last few days... and is no more ! ).. Not highly trained like other dogs in UK, but still - it was still a proper dog ( love the owner no matter who it is !! )... Then, Barry ( Maureen's husband ) told me about its history - it was a rescue dog in some team - so, it was not trained for home activites..

We had a cup of tea - to start with.. And people if you think 'High Tea' means tea with biscuts, please change your mind.. When we went to the dining table - we could see a spread.. She had indeed cooked for an army.. To list some of the dishes - vegetable sausages, shepherd's pie, pickled eggs and onions, corn pasta, salad - and these dishes were only the main dishes.. she had desserts too - another big list :-)) strawberry something, home-made cake, scones.... It was a great evening... talking about india and UK.. they were surprised to hear about indian weddings.. to them, the biggest marriages had 400 guests.. They had travelled extensively and it was good to hear about their travel experiences...

After godd food and great company, we left the place at around 7pm - having visited a english family and experienced an english evening...