I have no nice tea cups and saucers. In fact I have none at all, nice or otherwise. I have a china dinner service which we got as a wedding present but that only has coffee cups. Over the years we have had various "everyday" tea cups but these are currently at an all time low. (None) Mostly this matters not as we drink out of mugs and have plenty of those.
However, at Christmas I was bought a lovely three tier cake stand, something I have always wanted. With Easter approaching and guests expected I decided it would be nice one day to serve a "proper" afternoon tea. Little sandwiches with the crusts cut off, home made scones and cake - you get the picture. In fact if that went well I thought we might do something similar at the Royal Wedding.
So, I had to address the tea cup question. I didn't want and couldn't afford to spend a great deal of money on new china so I decided to look around the charity shops to see what they had to offer. In the window of one (Help the Aged) they had a rather nice set of six Ainsley china tea cups and saucers for £25. I thought this was quite good but decided to look at all the others first. Nowhere else came close - either they were very ordinary and bleak or the sets were incomplete or contained only four of everything.
After thinking it over (and on receipt of a small win on the lottery!) I decided to go back today and buy the Ainsley set if it was still there. Well it was and on second viewing I liked it even more than I had at first. I did notice that since my last visit they had decorated the window on a Royal Wedding theme. Everyone is doing it aren't they?
But when I went in and told the lady at the counter that I was interested in the china in the window she said that she couldn't sell me anything on display there! When I enquired why she explained that as the window had been arranged to celebrate the RW they were not allowed to move or remove anything until after the big day. She could take my name and telephone number and I could go back and buy it after 29th April but that was the best she could do!
Well I left it. I need teacups NOW. But can you imaging an ordinary business taking that attitude?
Sorry if this is a bit of a long rant about teacups but I am quite disappointed and casting about now for ideas where I can get something as nice without spending too much 