Ballet and afternoon tea

6 December 2009

My Christmas present from Suzy this year was a very posh one: a ticket to The Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House and afternoon tea at The Milestone Hotel.

We took a packed train to Charing Cross, meeting up along the way with some of Suzy’s work colleagues who would be joining us. Suzy spotted an empty seat and sent me to grab it. A gentleman’s briefcase lay on the seat and I touched his arm, trying to get his attention to move it. “Papa, Papa!”, called a couple of blonde girls in the seats opposite, getting his attention. He moved his case and I sat down. They were a German family of five and while Suzy talked to her friend from work, I did what I could to eavesdrop on the German conversation going on beside me.

An automated announcement came over the tannoy. “The next station is Orpington. This train terminates here. All change please.” But before everyone in the carriage had time to exchange more than a puzzled “Huh?” with each other, the train driver’s voice cut in and assured us we could ignore that message. My German neighbours appeared to still be a little perturbed though and so I told the father in German that it was ok, the train would continue its journey.

He was surprised to find an Englander who could talk German and we talked a little about language. Laut Herrn Imzug, Spanish is of no use anywhere except South America (sorry, Spain) and there were plenty of Germans who couldn’t speak decent German. Suzy joined in the conversation – surprise, another Deutsch-talker! – and we discovered that one of the girls was at school here and they’d all come to visit her and go shopping in London.

Once at Charing Cross Suzy, Esther and I jumped into a cab and Suzy asked the driver to take us to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Nothing happened for a moment and then a grumpy voice from the front demanded, “Someone gonna tell me where we’re going?” Sure, if you need that in duplicate.

At the Royal Opera House we joined the queue for security check – a cursory glance into my stuffed bag; DSLR and binoculars apparently not remarkable – among some decidedly la-di-da folk and little girls in shiny dresses and glittery shoes.

We took a lift up to the Upper Slips – or the nosebleeds, if you’d rather. Our view of the action on stage was only minimally restricted and we had the added bonus of (a) being able to see the orchestra and (b) being able to look down, both literally and figuratively, on everyone else.

The ballet performance was, as you might expect, wonderful and of course when you see such amazing elegance, strength and physical feats it just makes you wish you could do the same thing. So I’m thinking I’ll just get myself some pointe shoes and run about in them until my legs snap in two. It’ll be a good half second of fun.

I was able to get a closer look at the beautiful costumes, wigs and jewelry through my binoculars. There were layers and layers of net, tulle and sequins and so ok, if getting pointe shoes is a bad idea, maybe I’ll just get myself a big tutu and a glittering headdress. And maybe a dancing prince in tights.

After the ballet we said goodbye to some of our party and got a cab with Debbie and Richard to go to The Milestone Hotel for afternoon tea. It should have been a ride of about 10 minutes, but we hit the very moment that a huge climate change rally was passing through Trafalgar Square and a bunch of roads were closed. So our taxi driver had to take us on a tour through the capital to finally reach our destination about 45 minutes later.

The railings outside the hotel were covered in white willow and fairy lights, making the hotel look quite a winter wonderland in the grey rainy afternoon. Our cab pulled up and as we were paying the driver a smart hotel doorman in a top hat opened the door for us to get out.

Esther had reserved us the conservatory for our afternoon tea and when everyone had arrived (the other group didn’t have such a cool-headed taxi driver) we ordered our traditional afternoon tea. I shared a pot of coffee with Richard, while everyone else chose different teas – jasmine, Earl Grey, Darjeeling, etc – from the menu. The coffee was good. All three cups of it. (One has to be sure of these things)

Soon silver stands were set down on the tables, stacked with tiny sandwiches and tiny cakes, scones and pastries. Delicious. There was smoked salmon, egg mayonnaise, cream cheese and cucumber, ham and mustard and cheese and tomato, all on different types of bread. These were all finger sandwiches and there were also chicken sandwiches, cut into rounds, with a little layer of chopped nuts stuck to the edge. So delicious.

The top two tiers of the stands were given over to eclairs, fruit tartlets, cup cakes, meringues, Christmas cake, stollen, cheesecake, biscuits, brownies, tiramisu, shot glasses of chocolate mousse and scones, served with clotted cream and jam. At the end of our stay our waiter remarked upon how much we’d all put away. Apparently other people leave a lot more behind. That’s just crazy talk!

Click for the set

6 Comments Posted in: celebrate, encounters, food, friends, photography

Comments

6 Responses to “Ballet and afternoon tea”

Lindy
6th December 2009 @ 7:29 pm

Oh looks like a fantastic evening! The cakes look scrumptious.
Ricki
7th December 2009 @ 12:40 am

I probably would’ve enjoyed the ballet, but those scrumptious looking goodies at the hotel tea was what really captured my interest! I can’t believe the waiter commented on what you ate. Strange!
Thursday
7th December 2009 @ 4:36 pm

It’s been far too long since I went to the ballet (last time was, I think, at the ROH to see the Bolshoi do Spartacus). The Nutcracker’s my absolute favourite, such a pretty ballet. It all sounds delightful, afternoon tea is something that just Has To Be Done.
Lula
7th December 2009 @ 5:39 pm

“…being able to look down, both literally and figuratively, on everyone else.” totally made my day.

The tea looks so tempting, no wonder you guys put so much away! ;) (Also, Spanish is of great use here in the US, with our abundant immigrant population. Just sayin’.)
Carolyn J.
8th December 2009 @ 2:39 am

Proper high tea in England is on my life list. I think I might arrange some sort of plastic-lined purse with trays in it so I could take every. last. bite.
doow
8th December 2009 @ 9:13 am

After I’d stuffed a couple of biscuits into my bag wrapped in a tissue, a couple of the other women got proper posh hotel boxes in which to take the rest of the pastries home. So don’t worry, you’d be able to enjoy every last crumb!