A Tea Ceremony

Yesterday, we went to the beach.  It is not far to the sea from here, about 15 mins.  We did not go the way of the new road, we went the old way which was terrifying, the most pot-holed road ever and lots of traffic.  We were in fact very amazed to get there at all.  We turned left and drove along a highway with the road on the right hand side and a very dry hill on the left.  Imagine the pictures that you have seen of Afghanistan and that is the idea on the left - dry hillside with low stone buildings.  There are a series of very new ultra-modern houses being built right on the road.  It is quite windy.  At the end of the highway there is a turning circle and a mosque.  and a little road towards the sea.  The road went down steeply and was narrow and was lined with little shops selling the kinds of rubbish that people might buy to play with on the sand.  It was quite decrepit.  When we reached the turn-off to the beach we drove past becuase it just looked like nothing but a rubbish dump.  But that was the place.  The beach was a rubbish dump.  But there were quite a lot of people sun bathing and playing and swimming (it was very hot)  We went through the remains of a barbed wire fence to walk along for a bit but it was just too horrible.
Back to the car and we drove back along the highway to find somewhere nicer.  At the turning place (it is interesting doing a u-turn on a motorway)  we saw a track leading down and went on it.  Not so much rubbish and a nicer beach - with the added advantage that there is a group of oil platforms moored just off the beach.  There were lots of little shells to pick over and the dog loved bounding into the sea to bring back a stick.  Once he missed the stick and we thought that he might keep going to Kazakstan.  Luckily he is not such a dumb dog and he came back in but a few local people thought it was funny. 
You need never think that you are too fat for a bikini or speedos here.  In fact, you could almost believe that you can never be fat enough!  Certainly the men think so.
When we discovered that we could not walk out along the jetty to the platforms, we decided to find a cafe.  So back in the car.  Alomng the motorway again to a restaurant that looked nice.  It is a bit hard having meals here in the day as it is Ramadan and so Muslims should not be eating or drinking anything at all during daylight.  The reaturant was thus deserted but was very nice.  It was right on the beach - just like a lovely Noosa place and there were a series of private rooms and then a few elaborate gazebos.  We chose a gazebo, the chairs had rugs on the seats and were extremely comfortable.  The table had a lovely embroidered cloth.  Eventually we managed to order.  The word for 2 is 'iki'.  tea is cay (pronounced  chai) . so i said iki cay and about 30 minutes later the tea ceremony began.  the children had ice cream.  First they brought a plate of mixed nuts: walnuts, pistacios, almonds, hazelnuts.  The plate was made from cut glass so looked quite glamorous.  Then came a cut-glass goblet filled with a lightly set strawberry jam.  We each were given a small glass saucer and teaspoon.  Then another goblet filled with sugar cubes and topped with 6 chocolates in wrapping.  Finally the tea was brought.  It came in a lovely tea pot and we were given a saucer and a cut-glass glass to drink it with.  Another saucer with lemon slices completed the arrangement.  It looked lovely and was lovely. 
The idea with the jam is that you pour a bit into your little saucer and then slurp it.  Harry has been to a cultural awareness session and that is one of the things that you learn.  It was nice jam.  We had a lot of it.
The little beach that it is on was very clean and there was even a life guard - bored as no one was swimming at all.
It was a bit dearer than we thought, in fact it was hard to figure out what to pay, we just had to keep handing over notes until we paid enough, and it is more than possible that we were ripped off.  Next week I plan to learn numbers.