It turns out that it's not so much High Tea as it is many pieces of scones studded w/various fruits, roll ups and a pasta dish. What really surprised me was how rude most of the women were. Not the staff, but the patrons. Granted, it's an old home, the boutiques were arranged in the small rooms upstairs,the staircases are narrow, the tea was popular, the tables were tightly packed, but I heard more imperious demands than civil requests. Not so much as an "Oh, excuse me" in the bunch. While we were having our tea, I had one woman standing over me telling me that she had six in her party and that her table was in the corner. I gathered she couldn't get past my chair, but do you think she could have said something like "I'm sorry, the tables are arranged so that I can't get to my table, could you please stand up, move your chair and let us by?" Even that would have been nicer. To be completely fair to the woman, she might have been standing next to me fidgeting around and thought I was completely ignoring her, because she was standing on my blind side, but still. I'm not deaf. An "excuse me" would have alerted me.

On the other hand, lots of knitted items for sale. Felted purses, hats, headbands, ponchos, it was quite heartening.

I would post pictures of us, but since I, with bad grace, consented, barely to having one of the four of us taken by one of the Tea Servers, I didn't take any. It's not like when I was in my 20's and thought I looked terrible and fat but really wasn't. Now not only am I both, but old to boot. Do I want this on record? I think not.

How many days until Christmas? Oh, my God, it's two weeks from today. The vest fronts for my dad are still only halfway done and now he's saying things like he wants a cardigan. I'm not even sure I have enough yarn, but I might. Or, as he has always suspected, he might get this for his birthday. (January babies. Always think their Christmas presents are held over for their birthday. At least they don't get schoolclothes like I always did).