Tea sets are a woman's right

I'm having an affair. A complete and utter love affair. It's obsessive. It's all I can think about. After years of tempering my desire, I've finally decided to embrace it completely. And it has absolutely nothing to do with a latin lover. It's about a tea set. Let me explain...

Is there anything better than a proper English tea? Fine china, cake stands laden with scones, cream cakes and cucumber sandwiches. Floral bunting, pretty frocks and pastel cardigans. It is all just so lovely and old-fashioned. And I want it.

However, despite consistent nagging for many years now, until the very recent past I've not owned a tea set. Or a cake stand. Or even a tea pot. All of which are quite important when holding a tea party.

So much to my husband's bemusement (annoyance?) I have become an eBay addict, bidding on all the little things I need to host a tea party.

So far I have purchased:
- floral bunting (a must have to set the scene)
- a tea set (adorned with little pink roses because this is all about being girly)
- a silver plated tea pot, sugar bowl and milk jug (because a bit of bling is good)
- a three tiered latticed-edge cake stand than makes me want to weep it's so beautiful

That should be enough to see me through. However, I've seen another, even more beautiful tea set which quite frankly, I just have to have. Now, my husband has been fairly long suffering up till this point. However, I have a sneaky suspicion that another tea set might push him over the edge. But that's a risk we're just going to have to take. Because I NEED that tea set. And it's not simply because I'm greedy.

You see, in order to justify buying all this tea paraphernalia, I had to have a reason. Something concrete that a bloke would understand (they simply do not get that women need pretty tea sets and cake stands the same way men need curries on a Friday night). So I've created a reason.

I've discovered that our local hospice holds an annual Tea at 3 in June in which you're encouraged to hold a tea party to raise money for them. So that's exactly what I'm going to do. And obviously, to raise enough money I'm going to need to invite quite a few people which means having quite a few cups. So really, buying a second tea set is fairly critical. It's an entirely selfless act.

I'm just not sure my husband is going to see it that way.