Our head of state goes to England and invites people to ‘high tea’ – the English working-class supper
How I wish we could get one right. Our head of state will be in England next month and her people have organised something they’re calling high tea, between 2pm and 5pm, and for which the dress code is ‘lounge’.
This is the point at which I suppose I should call for the smelling salts, but I am made of much sterner stuff than that.
That the Spouse of the Prime Minister should organise a spate of events she calls ‘high tea’ at various important buildings in Malta is bad enough, but the cringe potential is limited as few people in Malta actually know what high tea is.
But to go to the land and home of high tea, the place where the meal and the name for it were devised, and hold one there? The head of state? Lounge? Starting at 2pm?
This is a Kill Me Now moment. Who are these appalling advisers? Our head of state is truly ill served.
High tea was the early dinner eaten by English labourers when they got home after toiling, literally, at the coal-face or in the mills. It was eaten at table in the kitchen.
It did not consist of fancy cakes and dainty sandwiches and scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. There might be a pot of stew, or some mutton, or cod and potatoes, or pies, and a pot of tea because the British working-class drank strong tea (the kind I love – builders’ tea) with meals.
The meal continues to exist: it is the main meal of the day in many English working-class households, eaten when everybody gets in from work at around 5pm or thereabouts. Except that it is no longer called ‘high tea’ but simply ‘tea’.
“I’ll get some sausages for my husband’s tea” means that she’s going to cook those sausages in the late afternoon, in substitute for the dinner/supper other sorts of people eat at around 8pm or 9pm.
It is so obvious that the Taghna Lkoll crowd think ‘high tea’ means a superior version of afternoon tea, with lots of fancy cakes, cucumber sandwiches and scones, biscuits and sponges.
But high tea is actually working-class battered fish and chips (another favourite of mine) eaten at around five o’clock in the kitchen.
Pulp those invitations, please, before you embarrass this country further. We needn’t export our excruciating ignorance. Please let’s just keep it at home, with the Spouse and her high teas at her husband’s office and so on.
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Lord help us. Where do I start?
High class = “low tea” or afternoon tea, around 4 p.m. Served on comfortable low sofas or garden chairs.
Low class (u ara min jiehu ghalih) = “high tea”, later, at 5 or 6 p.m., served at a (kitchen) table, with high chairs.
Knowing the Maltese penchant for excessive rigidity, it will be a seated event, perhaps with little name cards, and therefore, technically, a “high tea”.
Mela low class. But with dainty scones. Therefore high class, or more properly, mittelkless.
And the fairy tale continues.
In the real civilised world, we don’t have high or low teas in the afternoon. We have cocktails. Especially if the dress code is “lounge”.
Round tables, seated guests, and tea and cakes. For god’s sake, she might as well have organised a bingo party.
Maybe this is Muscat’s idea of a “new middle class”
It could be a High tea if served from the top floor.
What a load of morons we have representing us.
The Office of the President is riddled with fools of the first order who were accustomed to beggars coming into their offices at Social Security and who were collectively transferred with their then minister to the Palace.
I imagine these invitations are for people who live in England so why did they write United Kingdom under the address?
Don’t think anyone is going to fly over to England for this Alice in Wonderland tea.
[email protected]? What happened to gov.mt? Run out of paid licences? The state of Malta not affording a proper official domain on the .MT TLD? Seriously.
[Daphne – At the risk of sounding repetitive, gov.mt accounts are for people who work for the government. The head of state does not form part of the government, and her staff do not work for the government. If gov.mt addresses are indeed made available to the head of state, this is wrong.]
It seems that the reason for this dodgy email address is that Antonella Berry-Brincat is not employed with the President.
She is a medical consultant at the University Hospitals of Leicester.
https://www.facebook.com/antonella.berrybrincat
Presidenttamalta.mt would do…..
Employees of the Office of the President work for the government though. And the head of state’s email address is [email protected]
[Daphne – That’s very wrong.]
They could have had a neat solution: [email protected]
But don’t get me started on MITA. We’re talking Babbage engines.
Ah MITA/MITTS/MSU – that paragon of evil when the Nasty Nats were in power. Today, the paragon of excellence under the stewardship of the technobrain of the Labour Party.
Same people – different marketing. You educate them and they heap shit on you.
Technobrain.
What a SMASHING title for a hit tune.
And yet all Her Excellency’s staff have gov.mt email addresses…
“Let them eat cake”
Because, you know, an important Mass is a High Mass, so a High Tea must be more important than a simple Tea.
And anyway, a High Tea would start at 5, not end then.
Heqq, just like the “high tea kbir” they organise in the villages, hux. You get to play bingo there too. I wonder if Mrs. Preca will oblige.
How about the RSVP address? “@googlemail.com” on an invitation sent out by the Head of State? How embarrassing.
Muscat set the date of the referendum to before the start of the hunting season to help the Yes vote.
Hunters will inevitably commit numerous illegalities during the season and that would mobilize the NO vote.
However many people are indifferent and won’t vote if they are not reminded of the savagery of the hunters.
At the same time hunters intent on instant gratification know that when they vote yes they will immediately open the hunting season.
RSVP via a google mail. How unprofessional. Don’t they have a gov.mt account?
[Daphne – gov.mt accounts are for people who work for the government. The head of state does not form part of the government, nor members of her staff.]
Owen bonnici’s flaunting of his bit on the side is the typical behaviour of insecure individuals.
He knows that his adulterous relationship with Janice would not be tolerated if it were done by a decent individual so his ‘in your face’ behavior is an attempt at harm minimization.
And why is he insecure? It’s because he knows his days as a minister, no, as a politician, are numbered. Numbered until somebody decides to go public with all the real dirt on this man.
What is with the ‘googlemail’ email address? Spam and very unprofessional.
I sincerely hope that invitation is a joke. If not, between the high tea, the Google Mail RSVP address and the lounge dress code, this is a new low.
Which incidentally begs the question, why are RSVPs being sent to a Leicester-based ophthalmic consultant’s personal email?
It sticks out horribly.
Very tacky.
http://www.fortnumandmason.com/c-54-diamond-jubilee-tea-salon-afternoon-tea-london.aspx
Next time you are in London, treat yourself.
U tkun qed idduq high tea jew ahjar afternoon tea ta’ veru.
The google mail email address does not help either, in my opinion.
I would expect the head of state’s office to have its own address for matters such as this.
Surely he of Hamilton Travel should have learnt the difference by now, even if Merileweez tal-Macina never had the opportunity (or intelligence) of sussing it out for herself?
It would have been better to call it afternoon tea or a tea reception.
Afternoon tea was for the idle upper classes, particularly ladies who had nothing better to do than sit around drinking tea and gossiping. Dainty sandwiches would accompany this as the main meal of the day was usually eaten around 8pm.
A little research on the internet would not have gone amiss.
Which begs the question “What do Mrs Muscat’s researchers get paid for?” followed by “Does she have a researcher or does she just make it up as she goes along?”.
Anyway, as she and Joseph are on such good terms with Royalty a discreet phone call to Buckingham Palace would soon have sorted out the problem of what to call it.
Sorry, my mistake, I should have referred to the President and not Mrs Muscat.
I think you are both right:
http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/information/what-is-high-tea/
English High Tea usually involved a mug of tea, bread, vegetables, cheese and occasionally meat. Variations on high tea could include the addition of pies, potatoes and crackers.
So while Afternoon Tea was largely a social event for their upper class counterparts, high tea was a necessary meal in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This traditional high tea still exists for some parts of the North and Scotland.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO ADD THAT THE AFTERNOON TEA MENU SERVED IN THE UK TODAY IS OFTEN REFERED TO AS HIGH TEA IN MANY OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD. Because of this some hotels, such as The Ritz in London, use the term ‘High tea in London’ to advertise their Afternoon Tea because a large proportion of their customers are from overseas.
Some venues do serve a special high tea menu, in addition to Afternoon Tea, which includes additional savoury items such as Welsh Rarebit, English muffins, pies or omelette.
[Daphne – No, we are NOT both right. I am right on this matter and the president’s office is wrong. These are not matters I have to look up on Google. I grew up knowing them. The distinction you quote above is specifically for bewildered tourists in London. You have it right there. It’s not ‘afternoon tea’, either. That, too, is for people to whom the whole thing is alien. Tea is always in the afternoon. There is no ‘morning tea’ or ‘evening tea’. Growing up, tea to me was always just that: tea, some toast and maybe a slice of cake at around four o’clock. So I never had to have anybody explain it to me in later life. It was a while before I realised that this was not generally understood or practised even among people I knew. When I met my husband, I was surprised to find out that they drank coffee and not tea at that time of day (I soon converted him out of the habit; coffee is for the morning unless you’re actually in a coffee shop in the afternoon). But that went with the fact that they celebrated Christmas differently, too. Odd how the political sympathies of the 19th and 20th centuries found their expression in a whole way of life.]
The invitation also rudely implies that guests should skip lunch and eat pastries instead.
[Daphne – No, it rudely implies that its guests are the sort who eat a ‘midday meal’. At 2pm, the sort of guests who should be invited to a party by the head of state will still be at lunch. ]
Precisely. It is a rude imposition on the guests to change their standard eating habits to accommodate the President’s event.
Pastries? Good point. I wager it’ll be the usual pastizzi, sausage rolls, u fliexken Kinnie in the diplomatic bag.
If The Ritz in London does it , why can’t our president do it.
You are stuck firmly in your past. Trends evolve.
Italians won’t serve cappuccino after say eleven in the morning,that’s a no-no, but everywhere around the world cappuccino is served all throughout the day.
[Daphne – Because the head of state is expected to do things the proper way and not like a hotel that caters for Japanese tourists and matrons from Florida. The Ritz hasn’t ‘evolved’ in this respect. It simply wants to sell to its market. It’s not about to call lunch ‘dinner’ any time soon, even though dinner is precisely what the English working-class calls its midday meal.]
Why not give them “Watching the English” by Kate Fox chapter ‘Food Rules. – Dinner/Tea/Supper Rules’
” coffee is for the morning unless you’re actually in a coffee shop in the afternoon)”
Wow! You really are militant about the correct hot drinking habits. Woe betide anybody caught drinking coffee around you in the afternoon.
[Daphne – I meant in my world, not anybody else’s. Pick up the gist. I drink coffee in the afternoon when I’m out, but the main reason for that is that I associate tea in the afternoon with home, and I can’t bear the kind of tea you get in coffee shops. I’m very particular about it and have to make my own.]
Just to point out that there are countries who drink coffee in the afternoon and very rarely tea. Germany is one of them.
[Daphne – That was exactly my point. My husband’s family were pro-Italian/Nationalist. Mine were pro-British/Progressive Constitutionalists.]
And it is exactly so Daphne. In a pro British college in Malta which was run on the lines of an English public school, it was coffee/ lunch/ tea and supper.
At one point I thought it was the lady at the “Bouquet Residence” who was writing the answers in bold.
The difference is that Mrs Bucket was brought up in a working class family, while you were born and bred in a well off family.
You sort of convinced me, that a president should abide by the rules of etiquette. On that one you are right.
@ canon
Outside of the “High Tea” argument (our habits are identical to those of Daphne and Kalancc MA (cantab), same British style – nanny and all), and just as a matter of interest, Germany did beat the UK as a tea-drinking nation up to a couple of years back.
And Finland beat Italy as a coffee-drinking nation.
But then, it does depend what tea we are talking about, and what coffee.
________
I agree with Daphne that tea-making is so particular, and such an art, it is probably the one thing I do take with me, and want to prepare myself, when I’m travelling.
________
I’m looking forward to a good discussion on porridge next. Runny.. stodgy..milk…cream…tinned-milk…. honey….sugar…..fruit…..kippers?
I practically live on porridge. If wine is the nectar of the gods, then porridge is the food of the skint.
And how about the RSVP address, using a google mail account?
And what about that ‘googlemail’ account to confirm attendance? Tacky.
And the office of the President uses a googlemail addreas. Cringeworthy.
Quite apart from the mistakes (e.g. comma after “February”) and the horrendously informal googlemail email address.
Should the RSVP address be an official one too and not a google mail one?
Perhaps the tea will be spiked a la JPO, hence high tea.
Are we surprised these things become the order of day when officials with decades of experience are swept aside or forced to leave?
As a country we are becoming more uncouth by the day because laxity and shoddiness tend to work themselves from the top downwards, with all the ensuing unpleasant consequences.
Not that the majority care two hoots about our country’s image as long as parochial self-interests continue to be addressed.
Talking of parochial self-interest, the word going round among Labour supporters to encourage the Yes vote in the referendum is to spite Europe by underlining the fact that we are different and therefore the derogation should stay, preferably forever.
And while they’re at it can they get an official RSVP email address. @googlemail.com? To reply to a head of state’s invitation? Really?
At least its not a “High Tea Kbir” as permanently advertised on the band club in Victoria.
Tghid jaghmlu naqa tombla wara w t-tella n-numri Merrilwiz?
L-aqwa li ma jkunx gholi.
Could they hire Mrs Lilian Avellino as an advisor? She is the expert of high teas. I heard her myself on Radio Malta explaining to her audience all about high teas and how to organise one.
In reality these experts have always delivered the message that high tea means something very fancy.
Believe it or not I know plenty of Maltese families who eat a full meal at around 5/5.30 as soon as they return from work which I’ve always found very unusual.
[Daphne – Yes, that’s high tea. It’s a working-class habit even in Malta, but in Malta you’re not allowed to say that, unlike in Britain, where it is taken simply as documentation of habits. Non-working-class Maltese families have tea or coffee and some toast when they get in at 5.30pm and then eat supper at around 8.30pm.]
Yes, that is also how I was brought up. But all one hour before.
(4.30 and 7.30pm). I think this is the normal Maltese way of life.
The 4pm-5pm main meal of the day for the working classes can be found in most cultures as it is based on the affordability of light.
The upper classes could easily afford the candles required to light up the dining room at 8pm, while the working class would have already gone to bed by then, having eaten in the (free) light of day.
Not sure I can agree in full here, times are changing and so is health awareness. It is not particularly healthy to eat a heavy meal at 9pm. Not to mention having a toast, adding to the carb intake.
Having earlier evening meals is being recommended as the healthy thing to do.
[Daphne – This is not a discussion about healthy habits. Please don’t stray from the point. You don’t have ‘a toast’. It’s just toast. If you must use the indefinite article, then it’s ‘a piece of toast’. Otherwise, it’s ‘Would you like some toast?’ or ‘Shall I make toast?’ or, when disaster strikes, ‘You’re toast.’]
When in doubt, “tuna toast”.
I’m joking. When in doubt, brew kit out.
Oh my. She probably thinks that the word ‘high’ describes the event to be classy and posh, as in ‘haj kless’.
In reality ‘high’ is believed to differentiate between the afternoon tea served on low tables in the drawing-room or library or while relaxing in the garden, and taken by the sort of people who dined at 9pm because they didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to go to the mines or the mills, and the workers’ high tea served at the (high) kitchen table.
There are some questions that have to be answered by the Office of the President. Is the invitation for high tea at the Hotel Belmont, Leicester free of charge or against payment?
Are the expenses for travelling and lodging for the head of state and her entourage paid by the Community Chest Fund?
Madam President – sack all your advisors – they are doing you a disservice.
Although it’s a minor sin when compared to the ones you listed, it is amateurish that the RSVP is linked to a Google account. Can’t the Head of State use an official one, for example [email protected] or something similar?
[Daphne – The head of state does not form part of the government in Malta. The constitutional office is separate to that of the government unlike, say, in France and the USA where the head of state is also the head of government.]
I agree Sel. A more Stately email would have done.
I would take [email protected] … and not just because the domain actually does exist (your reasoning Daphne is totally correct but the President’s website is actually president.gov.mt so there you go). Using a gmail address for official functions is a no-no.
I indicated that email address since the official website is http://president.gov.mt, hence by deduction the email should be associated to it. The fact that it should have been president.mt, for the reasons you mentioned, is a totally different matter.
Sorry Daphne, as a matter of convention, you may be right that the President does not take part in day to day government business, but legally She is the head of the executive government (see art 78 of the Constitution).
In practice of course executive power is excercised by Ministers. But that is not the same as saying She is not part if the executive – and it is no reason to stop her from having a proper, government email address!
Didn’t all MPs have an e-mail account using the @gov.mt domain?
[Daphne – They shouldn’t. Gov should be for government only. It won’t kill MITA to have separate domains, but apparently associating ‘gov’ with government is what would be called undue fussiness.]
MITA. Sigh.
Did you know our Merilweez’s website link to the English version leads you to an empty government departmemt page? After she was enthroned (what?) they didn’t bother updating the English version and removed it altogether. Ghax ahna Maltin hi.
The Executive, The Parliament and The Judiciary are all part of the Government: indeed they are the three (notionally) co-equal branches of it. That’s not just Jeffersonian theorising, its reflected very clearly in the Constitution.
There is no good reason why MPs, Ministers/agencies, Judges and the President shouldn’t all have an official Maltese government email address, with some differentiation to demonstrate what branch they belong to (Eg: .gov.mt, @parl.gov.mt, @courts.gov.mt, @Presidency.gov.mt)
I believe in Italy they use name@palazzochigi or something similar.
For example why not name@sanantonpalace?
Because the official seat is in Valletta and we call it “The Palace”. [email protected] Just fancy that.
So much for the Republic, eh?
Sounds quite impressive actually.
You’d think that in the world of Internet and Google, they’d check some things out before they make an ass of themselves.
U ija! L-aqwa li ftehmna. Ahna mhux Maltin wara kollox? Heqq, hadna zball. Xorta kielu kollox.
Min daqsekk vera…I will not refuse such an invitation.
i wonder if on the flight to London she will be served with a ‘bezzun u flixkun ilma ‘ ?
In my opinion, that Googlemail address is also out of place.
The knack some people have in wrongfully giving a new meaning to established words and situations, is appalling, and that it is carried up to the highest levels of our society (wherever that may be), and now even exported, is a hallmark of the bunch of peasants who are in power.
You will see notices of ‘high tea’ events in the parish halls of the most backward villages of Malta and especially Gozo. Why not throw in a bingo session as well, while you are at it?
Maybe there will be tombola as well.
I can see how the confusion occurs.
In this case (only) I would have been a bit more forgiving than you.
“It is important to add that the Afternoon Tea menu served in the UK today is often referred to as high tea in many other parts of the world. Because of this some hotels, such as The Ritz in London, use the term ‘High tea in London’ to advertise their Afternoon Tea because a large proportion of their customers are from overseas.”
http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/information/what-is-high-tea/
[Daphne – I don’t think so, Mark. Malta was a British colony when that meal and its name evolved. Why and how do I know what high tea is? Precisely because of that. We really have no excuse, unlike some matron from Florida. And if the ‘lady-in-the-street’ gets it wrong, the head of state most certainly should not. Her consultant/adviser payroll is significant.]
That info appears to be outdated, Mark. I could not find any mention of a “high” tea in the Ritz’s current online advertisement for their afternoon tea.
Why is the RSVP email address a Googlemail.com one? This too makes it look like the work of amateurs. How embarrassing!
Is this a joke?
R.S.V.P. to a Googlemail?
That is the pits… Let’s count our blessings that at least it isn’t a Fejsbuk or Whatzappp address.
Sorry to disrupt your discussion about high tea but I think that this is important.
Dominic Ongwen is due to appear at the International Criminal Court this afternoon.
I think it’s a capital time to remind those who think that Christianity is far superior to Islam what the Lord’s Resistance Army is all about.
The Lord’s Resistance Army thinks that countries should be run according to the Ten Commandments. Since 1987, it has killed thousands in the name of this totalitarian ideology.
It is the Christian equivalent of the Islamic State.
Europe is so far ahead despite its Christian roots and not because of them.
I suppose holding the trial in the Stanza della Segnatura would be offensive.
Can’t have Sappho and Epicure, Plato and Ibn Rushd in the same room can we?
Or maybe Nietzche is as European.
Maybe it really is high tea; I could well imagine Her Excellency giving Mr. Creosote a run for his money.
And why “a High Tea”, not simply ‘high tea’ (no indefinite article or capital letters)?
Will you join me for “a Breakfast”? Cringe.
The event will be in Leicester?
In a 3* hotel?
Why are Labourites so fixated on the ‘upper class’?
After all, isn’t the abolition of class distinction and the establishment of equality the outcome of the “class struggle” (“workers unite” and all that)?
Have they thrown their Marxist ideals to the dogs or was it always “lanzit” pure and simple?
Has Malta not changed since the 1940s and 1950s in terms of how we see ourselves?
The only real class distinction I see now is that created by a lack of proper education coupled with over-inflated egos among most Maltese.
You’re right. They’re the ones obsessed with the ‘upper classes’ and yet they want class distinction to stop.
They are against having an upper class as long as they are not part of it. That’s why Joseph Muscat came up with the concept of creating a new middelkless and why it was so well received.
In Australia, High Tea is the same as afternoon tea. The colonies are different. The meaning has been distorted. Mr. Berry will explain that….all is well that finishes well.
U kollox mit-taxxi taghna.
OMG.
Should read:
Business Suit/Day Dress/Uniform
Tea party or afternoon tea party
The guest’s name should always be handwritten in black ink on an invite.
[Daphne – I’m going to get really nitpicky here, but I have to. You don’t wear a suit to go to tea, particularly not a ‘business suit’. The dress code for tea is informal. This doesn’t mean that the men turn up looking like tramps. It just means that they wear jackets (coats) and trousers that are not a business suit, and a good shirt. In the past, the dress code for women used to be a particular kind of floaty dress (hence ‘tea dress’). Now it’s anything attractive and not overdone or formal. Not too much make-up, hair not over-dressed, not too much jewellery. Shoes should be flat or have a medium heel. High heels or any kind of ‘big shoe’ are wrong for the afternoon. Given that the host is a head of state, more formal wear might be required and this would be tenue de ville, which varies slightly depending on where you are. A suit, yes, but not the kind you would wear to the office.
‘Afternoon tea party’: it’s never called afternoon tea in its natural habitat except when dealing with foreigners and tourists. Tea is always in the afternoon. There is no ‘morning tea’ or ‘evening tea’. It’s just ‘tea’. You’re supposed to know that it’s at around four o’clock, but then even so, you’ve got that on the invitation.
Which brings me to that despised INVITE. It’s an INVITATION not an ‘invite’. Invite is the verb. Invitation is the noun.]
Which is exactly which it should have been afternoon cocktails. Then the dress code defines itself.
In any case, if you wish to entertain large numbers, you don’t invite them to tea. Tea is an intimate affair. A cocktail party is the right way. In which non-alcoholic beverages are made available. If it is a garden party, you can have a tea tent.
A Head of State offering high tea is an “innovation” and that is what the Maltese electorate voted for.
‘Tea? So early?
And a cucumber sandwich?
My dear, I couldn’t possibly, but how clever of you to think of something so original.’
It’s not in London but in Leicester.
I don’t get why it’s in Leicester. It’s frankly a bit of a faceless city that’s not even the central city of the East Midlands. All Leicester is known for (apart from a very good university) is shopping.
The practitioner taking the RSVPs is based there?
Can someone please tell these people that “for a High tea” is not correct, grammatically or otherwise.
Also a bit of web research would have clarified exactly what high tea (not ‘a’ high tea) was/is supposed to be for the lower orders.
“English High Tea usually involved a mug of tea, bread, vegetables, cheese and occasionally meat. Variations on high tea could include the addition of pies, potatoes and crackers.”
Sourced from: http://www.afternoontea.co.uk
With that email address and the function held in Leicester, it sounds strangely “419” as we say in Nigeria.
Ah…I read somewhere that it was not unusual to serve crumpets with high tea.
What sort of an invitation is this? Is it a photocopy?
Why is there a cursor line just before ‘the’?
DCG really should do her homework and not bump her ugly gums before she knows what she talking about….If she’s stupid enough to think that the British Labourers were able to afford ‘High Tea” its laughable. High tea is served in reputable Hotels and the Ritz has changed the name to Afternoon Tea the same menu as High Tea and charges £50pp. DCG should really get a life instead of trying to belittle other people. Its such a shame that the custom of burning witches at the stake has ended, as there would be a queue waiting to light the pyre….DCG be careful with your words as Karma has a habit of biting back at nasty scum like yourself.
1) You don’t need to speak as if Daphne is not in the room. Address her directly because she reads all the messages.
2) Daphne Caruana Galizia is a name. DCG is not. You can address her as either Daphne or Mrs Caruana Galizia.
3) Don’t use ellipsis between sentences. Full-stops work very well.
4) Don’t be rude.
5) Daphne knows what she’s talking about so take your crass ignorance elsewhere unless you want to engage in intelligent argumentation and maybe learn something.
If she has not respect for other people why should I have respect for her.”Don’t be rude ha ha ha” what a stupid remark to make on her behalf she has to be one of THE rudest people in Malta. If you want to kiss her pattata so be it, but don’t dictate to me what I can and cannot say. And as for my “Crass Ignorance” you really are a brown noser if you agree with every thing that despicable writes….obviously you are 1 of her cronies.
YNWA, Matthew S agrees with Daphne because she is 100% correct.
Brown nosing is licking up to and sticking up for someone who is blatantly wrong – hence crass ignorance.
YNWA, Daphne doesn’t need my approval and I don’t need hers, and neither of us need your respect.
You should be respectful to others because it says more about you than it says about the person you show (dis)respect to.
I’m not dictating anything to you. I don’t give a damn what you do and don’t do. I’m just trying to help you be, or at least come across as, a better person.
Here are a couple more tips:
Patata (bum) is spelt with one ‘t’. Patattha (her bum) is spelt with a ‘tth’ because it is a blend of patata tagħha
When you use inverted commas, only put the words you are quoting between them. ‘Ha ha ha’ should not have been between inverted commas.
I hope that helps.
Goodbye.
It never ceases to amaze me how arrogance and ignorance are so correlated.
Correct One of us….. a brown noser is a person who agrees with everything no matter what. Some people spout a lot of manure and some people are stupid enough to swallow it all….so you are obviously 1 of the 100% idiots. Take your nose out of her Pattata and smell fresh air.
Thanks for the advice. I’ll hold on to it dearly.
YNWA – Arrogance, ignorance, stupidity, vulgarity all these words describe you!
You write so much crap I can’t be bothered to argue with you.
No doubt you will go away feeling exceedingly pleased with yourself and think you’ve won.
All you switchers, can you honestly say you enjoy being associated with the likes of YNWA?
Hello Clive Waters.
I think we shot the wrong goose, Baxxter.
In his second intervention that guv ain’t what H.E. Clive would sound like unless he’s in cover-up attire.
Hello Yana then. Or hello Mark Micallef.
Hawn ‘H.E.’, ilek ma’ tider.
Perhaps the fact that it is served in hotels (including the ones you mentioned) may indicate that it is a tourist trap…
Well this ain’t exactly the London Ritz, mate.
The Belmont is just a family-run old Victorian townhouse converted into a run-of-the-mill three star hotel. It offers three outside tables on a pavement so the garden party will have to be annoyingly contained.
Admittedly, it’s within walking distance of the city centre but I doubt many people will bother walking over 1.5 kilometres each way for the pleasure.
One final thing, please inform your guests that the hotel entrance is no longer in De Montfort street but in New Walk street.
I know the former street sounds classier but the original entrance seems to have been demoted to a side door now so – heqq, mhux sew li idahhlu il-President minn hemm.
A classic case of “I have an opinion and my opinion is as good as yours”.
Do you know, I always laughed at Michelle’s ‘high teas’ because I thought it so pretentious. I also thought that high tea refers to the teas that the English upper classes in the 19th century used to take.
After reading this post I did some quick research and lo and behold, Daphne’s right (as she usually is anyway).
Some reading and learning never did anyone any harm. It’s ok to admit that you’re wrong sometimes. However, insisting that you’re right when you’re obviously wrong is crass stupidity.
This only goes to prove that the storyline from the Taming of the Shrew is still valid in today’s scenario.
How can one switch from ‘coffee morning’ rabble rousing to become the epitome of etiquette as president of an EU country in a decade!
High tea, how nice! Will they serve mini pastizzi too, I wonder?
By what they calling it, they’re going to be serving space cakes.
It is incredibly hilarious to me how many people are discussing, so seriously, the wording on an invitation.
Yes, it’s come from the President, blah blah blah. But, even as a moment of humour to distract ourselves from real world problems, this is quite pathetic.
Satire, you tell me? Sure, but at least be funny about it.
Most of what I read here is people taking themselves so seriously, just like they do because Glen Bedingfield drinks red wine with sushi. Oh no! Stop the press.
And, even worse, how many contributors here actually knew anything about the difference between tea, high tea and afternoon tea before Daphne said anything.
[Daphne – That is exactly why this post proved so useful to so many, Nadia. It is this kind of post which many of my readers enjoy most, because it’s fun finding out about this kind of thing, and I don’t mean the President’s entertaining, but what high tea really is. I am happy to be of service.]
Daphne, I enjoy the humour, the satire, the poking fun at people who deserve it. But please lighten the mood at little bit in your replies when talking about (to quote you) ruddy tea.
[Daphne – Oh, you have no idea. These are VERY serious matters. They enable some others to read you like a book and pinpoint where you’re coming from…you know, the way Sherlock Holmes does it in the Benedict Cumberbatch version, but a whole lot easier. So I’d say swipe the chip and learn. It’s to your advantage.]
To be honest I didn’t find this post amusing at all. Rather, I thought it was cringeworthy. It is telling of how socially and culturally inept our current political leaders are.
Wanna brew and bacon butty anyone?
I’m sorry to break this to you during this tea party, but Demis Roussos has died.
It was common enough to see showbiz people before Mintoff came to power in 1971.
Roussos was one of them. He visited occasionally; others had a place here.
The Beach Haven, St. Paul’s Bay, for those who remember it, was one of their favourite haunts as were some top restaurants in Sliema.
This stuff is so far out it’s in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXfPO-thpZo
Correct me if I’m wrong but one is not invited to ‘a’ High Tea, but to High Tea.
[Daphne – Neither. It’s simply an invitation to tea; no ‘high’, no indefinite article and no capital letters.]
Noted.
Does anyone remember the Griffin tea rooms in Rabat and their fabulous pancakes?
http://gjones1.deviantart.com/art/Mad-Hatter-s-Tea-Party-268048833
That was a great tea party.
And anyway, what’s the point of the invitation? Is she fundraising ? Or just wanting to host “a high tea”?
Min jaf if she will serve a toast with the tea? Oh what the hack.
I think I would greatly prefer having tea with the Royle family rather than amongst this conceited lot, even if it’s their daughter’s Dairylea on toast tea.
[Daphne – I used to love Dairylea when I was a child. I couldn’t bear that other one – what was it called? Yellow box with brown, very 1970s. Ah yes, Ramek.]
“Your Excellency what would you like for your tea?”
“I will have beef , thank you”
” And what about the vegetables , your Excellency?”
“The vegetables will have beef as well “
As far as I know high/low tea has nothing to do (at least directly) with high/low society.
High tea is served on a high table, thus implying a full meal where diners sit at the table, whereas low tea is served on a low table, thus implying a light snack where guests sit on sofas around a low table.
[Daphne – No, high tea (now called simply ‘tea’) is a full meal with meat and potatoes or fish or pies or whatever, eaten immediately everyone gets in from work in the late afternoon. This is 100% associated with the English working class. No doubt meals were also eaten in the same way, at the same time, in the same kind of families in other countries but they obviously had another name for it and not ‘tea’.
Meanwhile, ‘tea’ (not afternoon tea) is literally a pot of tea, some buttered toast (or a small sandwich) and biscuits or cake at around four o’clock, eaten by the sort of people who have lunch at one o’clock and supper at eight o’clock or nine.]
I lived for a while in Northern Ireland around 2010 and the “tea” issue was confusing for a while as I was used to tea and cakes at four rather than a full meal.
In Belfast the term “tea” was not used exclusively by working class people, but also by professionals. I assume this is because of the history of the place and the rapid improvement in living conditions.
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I think what they meant to plan was a tea-party.
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JchKa8Ox3Hs/hqdefault.jpg
The term “high tea” is linked to the Opium Wars.
Leicester?
The church clock strikes ten to three,
And are there samosas still for tea?
John Betjeman?
Oh my. How terribly embarrassing. While they are in England can these advisors not take some lessons? I would be happy to allocate my taxes there to avoid these moments.
And why above all should they hold an event in Leicester?
I hope that after the High Tea at the Belmont Hotel, Leicester under the auspices of the President of Malta takes place, we will get some account of the event.
Anke l-ikbar salvagg Malti jghidlek li dak il-hin jiehu nasgha. Mela te w biskuttin.
“Dak mhux wara l-ikel ta’!” jghidlek. “Fl-erbgha jkun ahjar, ha jkun nizel l-ikel.” Imbaghad hemm min jibqa jiekol.
Lunch till 2/3pm. High tea from 2 till 4ish. Afternoon tea 4ish till 6. Supper at 6pm. dinner at 8pm. Drinks at 11pm. No wonder the large waistlines.
Aah and sushi and wine at midnight.
Madam President, here are a couple of tips for your people on how to behave at your high tea.
Always remember – never, ever dunk biscuits in the tea and don’t make any slurping noises – even if it is hot.
And definitely no teacup finger!
Methinks this is a storm in a teacup. http://www.sydney.com/sydney-life/food-and-wine/top-10-high-teas-in-sydney/
In my youth (many moons ago), high tea meant taking home fish and chips in newspaper and the landlady would make a pot of tea.
But I don’t think Hotel Belmont would serve that. They will probably have a good laugh and dish out high tea Labour style.
It’s very, very sad. What is it with these cockblocker events? The ambassador’s balls used to be the perfect hunting ground for a bit of crumpet. Now they serve the crumpets with tea and jam.
Bring back cocktails, I say! How exactly am I supposed to look louche with a cup a saucer? At a pinch, I could carry a concealed hip flask with something medicinal, but seated? The horror! How am I supposed to amble across to the rosy-cheeked general’s daughter? What am I supposed to wave at her? My spotted dick?
The beastliness of it. Badinage and parsiflage require cocktails. No doubt there’s been a directive from on high. The Puritans are in power. This ghastly tea business is blocking all social interaction – vertical and otherwise.
Besides which, it impacts government business. How are gentlemen in Her Excellency’s service to exercise their art and fulfil their remit? “Hello my dear, my name is Bond, James Bond. Could you pass the sugar? My saucer is shaken but my milk is not stirred.” No, no and no!
This is Malta GC, not the Women’s Institute. Down with teas! Let the stout boiler-suited yeomen have high tea. There’s nothing they love more after a hard day’s work scouring a ship’s bottom. Let the rest of us have cocktails, that we may scour other bottoms. And burnish them.
Very valid points Baxxter.
Is Ritienne a rosy-cheeked general’s daughter by any chance or is she the progeny of even more salubrious ancestry, or maybe just a floozy offering cheap thrills and gonorrhoea?
Would I be wasting my time here if a general’s daughter or a woman of salubrious ancestry would condescend to be my fiancée? Ritienne, I’m afraid is as high as I’ll ever reach. She isn’t cheap (kcina tal-pine jew xej’) and as for ancestry, I believe her great-uncle was one of the leaders of the glorious 1958 riots.
No gonorrhoea then?
Well, at least you’ve got that.