"Old Mother Ashby" > wrote in message
...
> Chatty Cathy wrote:
>> http://www.recfoodcooking.com/
>>
>> Vote now!
>>
>> Thanks go to jmcquown (Jill) for suggesting this survey!
> More terminology problems! In Australia "tea" is the evening meal, as in
> the usual family meal. "Dinner" has more formal connotations. Thus "Come
> for tea" means join the family and nothing fancy, while "Come for dinner"
> means get dressed up a bit and expect a three course meal with wine. Tea
> may be as early as 5.30 if you've got little children, dinner is around
> 7.30.
>
> As for "tea" at about 4.00pm, I presume you mean "afternoon tea" which I
> would normally serve about 3.30pm, and that would consists of tea or
> coffee and cake, possibly little sandwiches also if you're making a
> production of it.
>
> Christine

yes Christine got in ahead of me for this...definitely use tea to mean the
informal family meal

ditto for dinner and the afternoon tea (might have scones as well)