afternoon tea and its company

After a long and tiring day or even dull day, I often crave quality tea break. It doesnt mean that I will only stick to tea, I enjoy other drinks too such as coffee and chocolate. However, since I dont really fancy cold drinks and try as much as possible to moderate my cafein and alcohol intake, so voila.. only some are left, namely tea and chocolate.
Prague is quite pampered by extensive option of tea room and cafe. However, I need to admit that Australia is better in terms of tea'scompany. You can indulge in huge variety of cakes and sweeties to enjoy your afternoon tea. From devil chocolate cake to New York cheese cake, all serve to make your afternoon part of your satisfying epilogue. Boy, I miss those days:-).
However, I religiously visit sweet shops here to enrich my knowledge and assessment and to appreciate the tea break per se:-).
I like to notice the frequenters while sipping my warm drink and dug into my cake. Most are lovers and middle age people.This old group hangs out either to spend their afternoon or have chitchat. Some may meet up with friends, some will sit in the corner alone and look moony. Sometimes, they share the table or merely smile to other aged people simply because they are in the same boat. This kind of batch solidarity also appears on public transport in Prague.
Here are some frequent scenes.

Scene I.
Mr. A, an old, respectable guy with fancy suits and elegant walking stick gets on a tram in a bright yet windy day. The tram is packed but one young guy gives his seat for him. But Mr. A, a respectable man has a noble plan to give it to an old lady who barely stands straight. Then a very rushing old lady grabs the seat and sits nicely and pretends not knowing the situation.
Then the atmosphere becomes awful. All are coldly silent and occasionally stab each other's eyes with killer look. Two elder ladies save the day by giving seats to these old people. Ffuiihh almost!!

Scene II.
Some old people are getting on but the tram is fully packed. The youngsters automatically give seats, however still some are cheeky and do not feel obliged to do that.
Then we can see two groups of these elderly persons:
first one will remain standing and keep their dignities by not begging for seats
the second one will snap on these youngsters and deliberately ask for it and the youngsters will pout and reluctantly stand up hehehe..
What about for aged but not too old people? Seniority prevails mate:-).

Scene III.

Gradually people get off and leave some vacant seats for other not too old but tired matured group. Then Mr B, a very old and poorly groomed man gets on the tram. Mr. A, the gentleman, gives his seat for this guy. At the same time, the lady next to him also stands up and both go and face the other direction of tram. Mr. B then has plenty space for him and his heavy and old bag. I dont know whether he is given seat because people want to avoid sitting close to him or just a matter of honor.

Scene IV
This is the moment when Mr. C gets on the tram. He is a sleek, handsome matured man with a beautiful wooden stick to support him. But he is not old enough to entitle himself the right to request the seat:-). Me, myself, is standing all along too.
Then some old people get off and Mr A and B now can comfortably sit facing each other.
They start to smile and make friendly gestures even though I know they dont know each other. This is maybe some kind of ethical code of old times passengers.
They sometimes seem to struggle to make some conversations but then restrain to cross the border of privacy. But I notice that they secretly evaluate each other's outfit and hair color and walking stick and shoes. Since they are gentlemen, they attempt to do it inconspiciously throughout newspaper reading or dreamily looking to other direction or yawning.
If one happens to be caught by other, they will start awkwardly smiling and nodding to each other and stop watching each other for few minutes and then helplessly do it again:-).

Ups! I have reached my stop. That's my today's afternoon tea and its entertaining company. I bet I will encounter more interesting events. Next time maybe I will review the sweet shop but manana amigo, manana:-).