A proper English 5 o'clock tea

…. is actually, in my opinion, quite satisfying, which may probably leave no room for dinner.  The last menu I saw of this 5 o’clock tea consisted of a glass of sweet wine, some sandwiches (salmon& rocket), some sweets (scones, roulade) and tea, of course. Enough?!  At the end, it is a 5 o’clock tea!  And obviously, it is a ritual. Everything about it is a ritual: the china,  the food, napkins, cutlery…. Good to see that people stick to such traditions.

Serving

Now, some different points of views:

My Turkish-self’s 5 o’clock tea: Simit (yummyyyy!!!) and Turkish tea. I would not say no to some cheese and tomato accompanying my simit! I would just have a bite and probably two “bardak”s- but Ajda bardak- tea and would go on with my life.  Then comes the dinner, when we are all together with the family.

My Spanish-self’s 5 o’clock tea:  Pardon me, 5 o’clock tea? I thought we would go for coffee, wouldn’t we? Yes, I consumed little tea when I was my “Spanish self”. It is not a complaint, you know, sometimes you just adapti or feel like adapting, to the general flow of the life wherever you are. I loved the coffee breaks when I was in Madrid- especially the ones with Alba. Or the ones  you would go for breakfast to get the updates from all or the afternoon coffees, which tended to be mini inter-departmental meetings, or a welcome coffees or farewell coffees… Tea? Yes, usually at the end of a nice lunch, especially mint tea…. Sip, I miss it all…

My English-self’s 5 o’clock tea: Absolutely would not be able to eat that much in! Unless I had lunch, maybe…. They are obviously delicious and which is better, it is the “tradition”: fancy and feel-good one.  A social occasion, going there, chit-chatting with mum, friends, sister… girly! Not dinner, not lunch, sweets involved…. Even better, when you have company- no, I would probably not do it alone, but you never know. Maybe one day to pamper myself? A break in the day, something different and uplifting. I like this tradition! I have now a list of some places where I am planning to take either mum or some dear friends when they are in London.

Last time I had a 5 o’clock tea ritual was 2 days ago :)  and here are the traces! 

Just a fraction of it, we didn't have a "regular" 5 o'clock tea but these scones are what and how you eat in a 5 o'clock tea

P.S. Reference for places available 

Rekabet- her yerde!

Bildiğiniz üzere şu aralar oldukça fazla boş vaktim var ve zamanı boşa harcamaktan nefret eden biri olduğumdan “hııımmmm… ne yapsam, ne etsem?” diye sürekli kafa yoruyorum. (ha, yapip yapmadığım ayrı bir yazı konusu ama kafa yoruyorum, yani istek var!) Son maceralarımdan biri “crochet” kursu.  Turkce cevirisi “kroşe” ya da “tığ işi” – ama öyle ultra super ince tığ işi değil tecrübe ettiğim kadarıyla. Neyse, asıl hedefim, bu işle yapılan bir oyuncak var, onu yapmayı öğrenmek; ileride arkadaşların çoluğu çocuğu olur, favori teyze ben olmalıyımmmm!!!! İşte o oyuncağı yapmak için bu ilk kursa gitmek lazımmış. Sonuçta gittim.
Gittim, sanatı öğrendim vb. ama tüm bunlardan çok benim dikkatimi , ben ve saz arkadaşlarımın (!) yakından tanıdığı “hırs ablalar” çekti. Burada da onlardan var. “Hııııımmmm!! Ben yapmalıyım en iyisini”, “en iyi tığ işini ben yapmalıyımmmm!!”, “hem kariyer ablasıyım, hem de tığ örerimmmmm!!”, “du’ bakim, şu Esin n’apmış?! I-ıh, olmamış, becerememiş!!”, “Örtmenim, bakın bakın ben en iyisini yapıyorum di mi?! Ama şurda sanırsam bir ilmek atladım, 1 milim kaydı galiba işim…heeeiiii n’apcem ben şimdi??”

Sonuç: Bunlara dikkat etmekten benim işim hafiften “beginner” oldu ama azimliyim! O oyuncak sınıfında kırmızı kurdeleyi ben takacağım!!! 

San'atım! 

Aslında örgü tarihim başarılıdır, elimin alışması lazım birazcık! 

Reading is good!

As the essence of this blog is my observations “here and there”, here is another thing that comes to my mind to share:  Reading- free reading, actually.

There are 2 newspapers that I have seen until now (Evening Standard and Metro) that are free (yes, the concept “free” is something new to me!) and they can be said to contain almost all the news that are “worthy of” being news (says my past as a journalist). They are distributed in metro stations, at least in all that I have been to. Usually someone hands them to you, sometimes you just go and pick up one. It makes me happy to see that such a service exists, so people are encouraged to read. Instead of just sitting in the metro for, maybe, an hour to get to your work/home, you do something else that also enriches you in various ways. Even if you read all the celebrity news, you’ll have at least practiced your reading skills! 

I have always believed in the power of educating oneself, to put differently, the difference between people/nations/countries who read and who do not. And I know, the difference is striking!

I absolutely do not want to be a harsh critic, this is jusy my humble opinion, yet I know the difference, one just realizes.... From the micro-cosmos (someone who reads) to the macro one (what I have just mentioned about the ones who read and who do not) and I am sure you do, too.

I am sure there are many dimensions of such a service: financial aspects (a free newspaper, widely circulated, salaries of the employees working on these newspapers....), distribution (available to all) or even simply, the content (journalists writing the news and comments). We see that it is possible, although I am not sure about the costs associated with this. My Turkish friends would understand me better: Do you think we could have such a service in Turkey? I wish we could….  I have faith!