Afternoon Tea

Alex and I had spent Sunday morning painting and decorating after spending all day Saturday at it as well. The Leonard Cohen words from the Tower of Song, accurately summarised how I felt, "I ache in the places I used to play". Alex and me visited a Builders Depot and paid for some flooring to be picked up by our darling builder. Darling, my foot. But after weeks of stand-offish behaviour on both our parts, we decided it was in our best interests to sweeten him up so that he gets on and finishes the job.

In the midst of all this grout, paint brushes, white spirit and putty Jack rang about afternoon tea in his new apartment and to meet his beau, Nils. So rarely does one receive an invitation to the above than no sooner had we received we accepted it with an alacrity that could have been viewed by some as vulgar. On arrival we were taken on a guided tour. The late 30s block had several rooms and while none of them were too big, the picture rails and fireplace gave it a sense of period. We were impressed with his £2000 sofa specially ordered and imported directly from Italy. His dining table was imported from Vietnam, but not directly by him, you understand. I believe a certain John Lewis brokered the deal.

And so the afternoon tea. The Vietnamese table positively creaked with goodies. There were three varieties of sandwiches on offer. Beef, egg mayonnaise and ham was the choice, with not a cucumber in sight. Next there was a series of cakes. Fresh cream sponge, as light as the proverbial feather, then a walnut topped fruit cake, Scandanavian cinnamon buns, fresh cream eclairs, custard pies and Belgian chocolate biscuits.

Without doubt, the highlight of the afternoon was meeting Nils, who has put the spring into Jack's step along with the twinkle in his eye. He was absolutely lovely. Nils was warm and chuckled easily and we got the feeling that this was it for the two of them. They slipped into the "we" as if they had spent a lifetime together. It's wonderful to see Jack so happy. The conversation meandered to matters Swedish with ABBA coming up in the conversation. Jack mentioned a lesser known song of theirs, "The day before you came", which I think, he thought, summed up their coming together. What a romantic old soul.