A very special afternoon tea at the Langham

My Great Aunty and her sister are amazing. At the ages of 90 and 83 respectively, they both travelled together to New Zealand from Canada for a holiday. They stayed in the city where I live for 3 days, so our family took them on tours and out for meals and re-lived memories from years ago.

Then just over a week ago they set off on a cruise around New Zealand, Tasmania and the rest of Australia in the lap of luxury, with a butler at their beck and call. If this isn't amazing enough, last year they cruised over 700 nautical miles down the Amazon. Each year they travel somewhere exciting.

We decided to treat them to Tiffin afternoon tea at the Langham Hotel. The setting was lovely with comfortable chairs and setees around low coffee tables and a huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling in the centre of the room.

Two cake stands full of little savouries and scones were placed before us and we were offered different teas, coffees and hot chocolates. I chose their special blend English Breakfast tea with a slice of lemon. My Great Aunty and her sister and my mum had hot chocolate with grated white chocolate and hand made marshmallows. They could choose if their drinks were to be made of dark or milk chocolate...Yummy!

There was a large variety of savouries, including tiny cucumber sandwiches and potted shrimps. But I don't know what the chef was thinking about by serving very sweet, bright green macaroons filled with salty smoked salmon! That was a little bit of a shock to the taste buds....eeks. A few gulps of refreshing tea helped me recover...tea is good for that.

The scones with jam and cream were lovely. There was a choice of plain or date scones. I like to put jam on my scones then top it with cream. Though some people say that you should put the cream on first then the jam. I don't think their is a right or wrong way though...Which way do you prefer?

Then, when we thought we couldn't possibly eat anything more, a huge three-tiered cake trolley, full of delicious petit fours appeared! The left-over savouries and scones were taken away and boxed for us to take home.

You may have noticed that all my cups of tea have a slice of lemon in (here and here).

I must confess that I judge a cafe or restaurant on their willingness/ability to provide me with the essential slice of lemon for my tea. I usually get blank stares when I ask for a slice of lemon instead of milk. Sometimes when they have lemon they give me milk as well! But I am slowly training them and they are getting used to me at my favourite cafes hehe.

My Aunty's sister told me all about her house in Canada. She lives in a forest next to a lake. It sounds so beautiful. She goes picking wild berries, including large and sweet blueberries. Just imagine being able to do that! And foxes and brown bears visit.

In Winter the lake freezes over. They bulldoze the ice at the edge of the lake, then flood the area with water for three nights in a row...and hey presto...they have an ice rink. They mark with a channel to show where it is safe to skate. Then they put candles all around the edge and ice skate by candle light...magic!

I hope that we are all just as fit and active when we are 90 years old! xxx