No gonorrhoea then?

Well, at least you’ve got that.

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.

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?

I practically live on porridge. If wine is the nectar of the gods, then porridge is the food of the skint.

The practitioner taking the RSVPs is based there?

@ 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?

John Betjeman?

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.

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.

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.