MAINTAINING STANDARDS

It is quite possible to live as an Amsterdammer anywhere in the world. But there are limitations, and some compromises have to be made. No starched ruff collars. No herring. No universally available Lebanese Hashish. No smoked eel or inexpensive cheese. Indecent coffee.
No imported Dutch cigars, hardly any gin.

Better weather, though.

After a wholesome Netherlandish lunch of bami goreng, with a spiegel ei and lots of sambal, the thinking man lights his pipe and settles down to read the news.

Shoot. Should have made some coffee or tea before I did this. I'm comfortable and don't want to get up. It will be teatime soon though.

A proper teatime is, of course, at four in the afternoon. And involves sherry as well as parlour games. Plus crotchetty old relatives with gout. But this is far more civilized; pipe, reading material, silence. And no cucumber sandwiches, because one is not peckish.
Just in need of the cup that cheers.

My erstwhile Parsee colleague would insist on a particular way of making tea, as well as the absolute necessity of a cookie. But she was fighting the blonde barbarians in the Operations Department with their Starbucks frappuventis and healthnut protein pastries, and probably needed energy to maintain standards in the face of howling yuppiedom.

If she could have arranged a cricket match and smoking a pipe indoors, she would have. She must have despaired of ever having a cricket match thirteen floors above the hurley burley of the Financial District. Oh, the barbarism!


I hope my apartment mate does not come home soon.
It will take this place a while to air out.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================