Tea at the Wolseley

When I'd been running out to the Kit-Kat Club on Monday, I was stopped by a message on Facebook chat, from Q, saying that we needed to catch up. A bit of a surprise, for as much as I adore Q, we've never really done the one-on-one thing, but I hadn't seen him in a while and was keeen to do so. So he told me to pick a day, I suggested Thursday, and he suggested we do tea at 3 PM at the Wolseley. Not what I had expected (tea, instead of after-work drinks?) but thought it sounded lovely. I did have a conference call at that time, but I was sure I could skip it, so agreed to see him at the appointed time at the Wolseley for tea.

On Thursday morning however, I realised that we hadn't spoken since Monday, and so of course I was keen to confirm if we were still on. Yet I didn't see him online on Facebook, how to get ahold of him?

I guess it shows you how much I am attached to my laptop, for it was distressingly much later before it occurred to me to check my phone. Indeed, there was a message from him, saying that he'd just gotten a project that needed to be finished by 5 PM, so perhaps we could meet earlier? (In a really puzzling twist, the text was from a number not in my phone. So how on earth did he get my number when I didn't have his? Interesting...)

I also discovered I had problems on my own end. Although I'd originally assumed that the conference call at 3 PM would be something I could skip without notice, a closer look at my calendar revealled that everyone on my larger team in London was all supposed to meet up in the office to attend the call. So definitely noticeable if I skipped out.

Hence, I texted him back, and got ready to go to the office or for tea, unsure of which one would be which. Finally, having not heard from him at the time I would need to go to the office, I decided to set out for the office as the default option. And good boy that he is, he called me as I was out on the street heading for the office, and we agreed to meet for tea at 5. Perfect! So I would get to go to my conference call AND tea, and everything would work out beautifully.

I arrived at the office a few minutes after I was supposed to arrive, to discover a crisis unfolding. They'd instituted a new online office-booking tool a few weeks back, and were claiming it was having "a few teething probelms". Which could also be translated as: "It's a total disaster."

Despite having clearly stated repeatedly that we needed a room with Roundtable videoconferencing capabilities, as people from all over the world were going to be dialling in to see us, we'd been put in a room with no Roundtable, and none were available. Of course, all those of us present, assuming that there would be video provided of much higher quality than our web cams, had failed to bring our personal ones along. We then had to simply sit and watch the meeting on a large screen overhead, but also they couldn't make the sound work, so we just had to turn up the volume on one laptop. With not enough plugs for everyone at the table, we ended up swapping power cords around. And then, just when we thought the room disaster couldn't get any worse, another group showed up claiming to have booked the room. Apparently even though we got an official fascilities support person to book us into the office (so we knew it was done right), the system had failed to register it and released it for booking by others. In the end, we were able to stay in the room, but the whole experience made us all swear that the new system was a disaster from end-to-end. Not worth it!

At last, the call was over and I was able to escape. It did occur to me as I was leaving that perhaps it was a bit poor form to dash off at 4:30 when the work day officially does not end until 5:30, and some people had travelled great distances to come into the London office. Yet, I had someone to meet.

Holborn station was closed due to a fire alert, so I arrived 15 minutes late, but the genius boy walked down from the Lansdowne at 5 PM, meeting me perfectly at the Wolseley at 5:15. He's smart, that boy is...

We asked for a table and joked around whist they prepared it for us, and then sat down to decide on our tea options. There were quite a few! We could have cream tea, high tea, champagne tea, and then there were the dessert and tea options... For just a tea menu it was quite impressive!

I was going to go for the apple-blackberry crumble, but as soon as I mentioned it Q decided he wanted that (power of suggestion, as my father says), so I went for the lemon merenguie that Q had recently thrown over.

When they brought out the tea, we each had these massive silver teapots filled with loose tea, and had to pour it into our cups through these genius tea filters with a swinging "catch" under them to automatically catch the drops. Took a bit of skill to do it right, but it was definitely a nifty little bit of 18th century design.

Since we had so much tea, we talked for ages, mostly about Q's quarter-life crisis, as he's realising that although he gets to do amazing things for his age by working for himself, it's a lot of hard work and perhaps it's time to do something else for a while. He's apparently been offered a spot on the MBA programme at Johns Hopkins if he does well enough on the GMAT, yet he fears he might not do well enough for a full scholarship, as he's never considered himself an academic. To me, this was puzzling, because he's always struck me as being so bright and clever, yet I realise that doesn't always translate into an ability to do well in an academic setting, like I have. I realised that perhaps this was not the time to reveal that I "studied" for the GRE by reading a test prep book on the train from Cambridge to London (no seriously, that was it), and yet I did well enough to be awarded a full scholarship at Oxford. I think I scored in the 99th percentile on every section, but it's not like I expected anything otherwise, as standardized testing has always been ridiculously easy for me. But as I talked to him about what he wanted to do and where he could get in, I have to remember that it is not thus for everyone, not even for my very bright and clever friends.

I enjoyed the conversation, as someone who went through their quarter-life crisis and found it to be an immensely valuable experience, I strongly encourage those who are experiencing these feelings of crisis to fully delve in and embrace the choices and options that are open to them, and see what they might like to do differently. And I realise that's why he enjoys my friendship so much, as I'm a wise older woman he can talk to (the way boys only can with girls), but without the silliness of younger girls. And I like him because he's clever, witty, and oh-so-charming. If only he were 10 years younger...

At one point, he excused himself to go use the loo, while nearly at the same point one of the two men at the table next to us excused himself to take a phone call outside. (I'd thought he was being rather rude to his companion, by speaking for so long at the table, before finally realising that this was not going to be a quick call and taking it outside.) So, as I naturally do, I just struck up a conversation with this total stranger at the next table over.

I have to admit, part of me was curious about whether the two men were in a gay relationship or whether it was a business meeting, but I never quite figured that out from our chat. We did talk about live in London, how long we'd lived here, and whether wearing glasses made us look smarter. It was so funny, as when Q returned to the table, after having left me for quite an extended period of time, he just took in the situation of me talking to a total stranger, and just nodded as though to say, "Well, of course you would."

Q is the type who probably would have done the same (he's so wonderfully friendly), and it's part of what he likes about me, is that he knows I'm the same. Not a girl he needs to worry about leaving on her own for a while!

Finally, we grabbed the bill, and I had to praise him again for suggesting tea. It's always the naturally done thing to constantly go for drinks, but after the previous night at the RAC I was a bit unenthusiastic about more alcohol (even if the cold was doing much better). And the Wolseley was such a lovely place, I can't believe I'd never been in for tea before. Definitely will need to add it to my repertoire of places to go!

We parted with a kiss, having had a marathon 2-hour tea drinking session, so it was time to head home. I had originally been planning on going reeling later that evening, as the night before at the RAC, I'd found myself chatting to quite a few people about going to reeling classes. It's rather funny, as you always hear in Jane Austen novels about everyone taking dancing lessons, and showing up to dances where everyone knew all of the steps and filled out a dance card in advance. And you think those days are over, but actually they're quite alive and well, and hence the need for dance lessons remains! Most surprising, it was all of the boys who were talking about going to dance classes to learn all of the steps to these reels, not the girls. Having been to quite a few reels where I had no idea what was going on, I figure it's about time I start going to classes and learning the steps. But that will have to wait for another time, as it was far too late tonight!