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Do you know the difference between high tea and afternoon tea? Both are traditional English meals but afternoon tea has probably spread to many other parts of the world whereas high tea, I think is particularly British. It’s certainly the meal I remember best from my childhood.

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Big Ben, London, UK

I’ve said before I like making quizzes on Squidoo so it’s no surprise that I’ve just done another one – How Well Do You Know London?

Like the other quizzes I’ve done, this one supports my existing pages on London. As I’ve done several of these, I hope that it will increase traffic to them.

One thing I’ve not done yet is to link to the quiz from my other London pages and that’s just because I’m away from home at the moment. I shall do it as soon as possible, though, so that people who are interested in reading about London are sent to the quiz.

I did list my other quizzes on the new one and they have all had increased visitor numbers over the last week so it shows Squidoo pages do send people from one lens to another. I never doubted this, actually!

For this week’s Squidoo Rocket Moms lens we have to write about a place we’ve visited.

This is so hard. My thoughts are whirling. Should I write about St Maartens, a Caribbean island I visited briefly but loved?

Maybe I should write something about Paris, France, a city I’ve often visited and one of my favourite places. I could write about the small French fishing town of Honfleur in Normandy, another place I’ve visited several times because it’s a favourite.

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The Moment of Zen Theme on Squidoo

Squidoo has updated its default template with a nicer shade of blue and better overall design. Not only that, lensmasters now have a choice of another seven themes with different colours.

The lenses look much better. I really like the new designs. The choice of themes means we can reflect the character of the subject of the lens now. For example, I wrote a lens called Should Art and Antiques be Restored or Not? I feel that it’s what is sometimes called a ‘think piece’ so I’ ve used the theme Moment of Zen which gives it the appearance of a newspaper article. I think it works with this kind of lens – of course, you might totally disagree.

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Tower of London

I was so excited this morning after reading an email telling me that my lens about the Tower of London had won the very first Barker’s Best award from the Carnival of the Squid.

I’ve never had a proper training in either writing or making web pages so I always have a bit of an inferiority complex about what I do. It doesn’t matter that I used to be commissioned regularly to write for UK antiques magazines or that I was also given a commission by a major UK publisher, who contacted me out of the blue, to write a book about the UK antiques trade. I stopped doing his because of ill health and a lack of confidence that I could always meet deadlines.

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The Café Royal in Central London’s Regent Street, is closing after 143 years and its contents are all being auctioned by Bonhams on January 20. Its closure is caused not by the recession but by the redevelopment of that part of Regent Street.

For most of its life, it’s been at the heart of London’s high society. Celebrities numbered among it clientele are as diverse as Oscar Wilde, Princess Diana, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Noel Coward, Elizabeth Taylor and Mick Jagger.

Charlie Thomas, Head of Bonhams Knightsbridge Furniture, says “…Bonhams is delighted to be selling the contents of the Café Royal. Bidders will have the opportunity to acquire a small piece of this iconic London institution”.

Everything must be sold so auction lots are as varied as magnificent Venetian chandeliers, furniture, brandy casks, cigar humidors, paintings, mirrors, photographs and even a full sized boxing ring.

Because everything must go, it’s all being sold without reserve. The good news is that some things have relatively affordable estimates. “A large collection of black and white photographic reproductions depicting celebrities including John Mills, Noel Coward, Gertrude Laurence, Lord Balfour and Princess Marie Louise,all mounted, glazed and framed” have an estimate of £100 to £150(approx $150 to $220). In contrast, “A pair of early 20th century Venetian clear glass twelve-light chandeliers” have an estimate of £3000 to £5000 ($4500 to $7500).

Even some of the furniture has reasonable estimates. “An 18th century Dutch mahogany tripod table” is estimated between £200 to £300 (approx $300 to $450).

It will be interesting to see, in these straitened times, if lots reach their reserve or the magic of the Café Royal name propels prices upwards in spite of the recession.