The Tea Tour Continues

We continued our tea tour yesterday at the Grand Regency Hotel. We spontaneously formed our group while sipping our teas and coffees, when Kim offered the name, "The High Five". A nice ring, but please don't confuse our name with anything other than "High Tea" for which it was named. We definitely don't want the Mutawa after us. Now, on with the review. I've got advice for The Regency, don't invite Earl Grey to their next sitting. Now, I don't even drink hot tea, but I do know atmosphere. I'm sorry to say that I only have the Ritz to compare it to and that's a pretty tough act to follow. The hotel was very nice and the lobby cafe where the tea was held was ok (at best). The atmosphere was somewhat affected by the gentlemen smoking on either side of us. Qatar's trying to go towards smoke free, but people tend to ignore those no smoking signs. I must say though, I think it's improved since we visited last June. There were five of us sitting around on comfortable sofas and chairs. No fancy linens or lacy toppers for the tables like at the Ritz, just an undecorated coffee table for our "tea trays". No dessert plates were provided to hold our goodies in our laps...I guess there would not have been anywhere to put them with all the trays anyway. I took the time to arrange my little coffee pot, creamer, and cup perfectly so that I could take a picture of it to go along with today's theme song. The only problem was that I forgot to snap the photo. Imagine that. The tray selection had jam, scones, and clotted cream on the top plate. The second plate had two sandwiches each of salmon, egg salad, and cucumbers. The bottom tray had a really good looking variety of pastries and fruit custards. I brought most of mine home because I refused to have another sleepless night due to caffeine and a sugar rush. The bottom line was that it was a wonderful afternoon socializing and laughing with the local ladies. Though I must tell my friends back home that all in one afternoon I was accused of being anal retentive, a control freak, and having A.D.D.! The nerve of these women, calling it like they see it right in front of my face. At least my friends back home would have said it behind my back. You know how I like to argue the point, but I have to admit they're on to something.