And like a Newstalk ZB phone line after a politician\u2019s ex has posted something on social media, he has an opinion on everything.<\/p>\n
Politics, sport, interest rates, weather patterns over the lower North Island since 1987 and, at some point, a very detailed take on paddleboarding conditions that nobody asked for but everyone is now part of.<\/p>\n
All of this is delivered while you\u2019re trying to decide whether the slice in front of you has coconut in it or not.<\/p>\n
We see you, Sarah. Photo \/ Pexels, Ivan S<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Sarah.<\/p>\n
Sarah hasn\u2019t just brought something along; she\u2019s brought something that has required planning, preparation and possibly getting up at 3am to ice.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t just home baking; this is a show. It shows that Sarah doesn\u2019t just watch My Kitchen Rules, she sends constructive feedback to the contestants like it\u2019s an anonymous office engagement survey (we know it was you, Sarah).<\/p>\n
She\u2019ll downplay it, of course: \u201cOh, it\u2019s just something I threw together.\u201d Which is another lie, Sarah.<\/p>\n
And while everyone is politely praising it, Sarah is quietly watching to see who goes back for seconds.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Mark.<\/p>\n
Mark forgot. Not in a careless way, more in an \u201cI didn\u2019t read that email\u201d kind of way.<\/p>\n
So he\u2019s arrived with something from the vending machine.<\/p>\n
A chocolate bar, a packet of chips, maybe one of those muesli bars that nobody ever chooses.<\/p>\n
He places the treat on the table with a confidence that suggests this was always the plan.<\/p>\n
It says he has both disposable income and very little concern for office emails.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Karen.<\/p>\n
Karen has stopped at the bakery. Not just any bakery, the kind that puts things in boxes and places a sticker on the seam.<\/p>\n
Inside is a perfectly arranged selection of sausage rolls, lamingtons and club sandwiches.<\/p>\n
Like Karen, it\u2019s a professional effort.<\/p>\n
No risk, no surprises, just solid, dependable morning tea.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s Jason.<\/p>\n
Jason has brought something that looks like a montage of leftovers.<\/p>\n
Now don\u2019t get me wrong, this isn\u2019t a collection of Monday nachos, Tuesday nachos, Wednesday nachos, Thursday nachos.<\/p>\n
This is more of a tasting platter from Jason\u2019s very structured and well-planned food week.<\/p>\n
This is Jason\u2019s way of saying my home life is as organised as my computer desktop, which, for the record, has one neatly labelled folder.<\/p>\n
You see, for me, that\u2019s the fun part of a shared morning tea.<\/p>\n
Lifting the lid on the metaphorical mini pie and seeing what\u2019s inside. Getting a glimpse of who we are and what we\u2019re really like.<\/p>\n
Which got me thinking.<\/p>\n
If a shared morning tea says that much about us, what would it look like if our politicians were asked to bring a plate?<\/p>\n
What would they bring to the country\u2019s table?<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, possibly encouraging others to partake in the lollies he brought to morning tea. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
Christopher Luxon, to me, feels like a man who would dig into his past and turn up with a bowl of Air New Zealand lollies.<\/p>\n
And let\u2019s be honest, in these slightly turbulent times, that might be exactly what we need.<\/p>\n
Because those lollies aren\u2019t just there for the taste. They\u2019re there to help with pressure.<\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (right) and then New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins with sausage rolls and tomato sauce at 10 Downing Street in 2023. Photo \/ Jenni Mortimer<\/p>\n
The answer for Chris Hipkins is obvious.<\/p>\n
Sausage rolls \u2013 the undisputed backbone of any morning tea. And if you think about it, like Chris, they\u2019re non-offensive and a party pleaser.<\/p>\n
But the question is, are they a morning tea winner?<\/p>\n
Has David Seymour seen a feijoa? Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
David Seymour would bring something controversial to the table.<\/p>\n
Something that will divide people.<\/p>\n
The perfect example is the feijoa.<\/p>\n
Some people will love his feijoa crumble, others will think he\u2019s the devil for even bringing it into the building.<\/p>\n
Surely Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick would have a side of greens with her quiche. Photo \/ Joe Allison<\/p>\n
I know you might think this is clich\u00e9, but I imagine Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick would bring a quiche filled with ingredients you\u2019ve never quite heard of and aren\u2019t entirely sure how to pronounce.<\/p>\n
Obviously, it would be vegan \u2013 and some would say it\u2019s flaky and lacks meat, while others would absolutely eat it up.<\/p>\n
Glenn Dwight reckons it’s club sammies from Winston Peters. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray <\/p>\n
And that brings me to Winston.<\/p>\n
Part of me hopes he\u2019d bring a packet of darts and just drop them on the table with a Winston smile.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019ll put him down for club sandwiches.<\/p>\n
Those slightly awkward little treats that are hard to define, where they start and where they end, so finding the middle is impossible.<\/p>\n
And just like that, you\u2019ve got a multi-party party.<\/p>\n
So if you get an office memo saying the entertainment budget has been cut and that Leslie\u2019s birthday celebrations have been downgraded from a lunch at a restaurant that sounds like it might be French to a shared morning tea in the staff room, don\u2019t feel like you\u2019re missing out.<\/p>\n
Look at it as a chance to learn a bit more about that new person in the office and see what they bring to the table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The microwave looks like the opening scene of CSI Miami \u2013 and not in a good way. Someone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1443,138,21935,21934,305,6036,1304,111,139,69,6270,9426,1517,3168,392,6100,27319,7563,6923,87539,197,15411,1959],"class_list":{"0":"post-375020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-about","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-dwight","11":"tag-glenn","12":"tag-have","13":"tag-know","14":"tag-morning","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-office","19":"tag-plate","20":"tag-reveals","21":"tag-shared","22":"tag-space","23":"tag-still","24":"tag-tea","25":"tag-those","26":"tag-what","27":"tag-worked","28":"tag-you","29":"tag-youll","30":"tag-your"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}