Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you're 40 (updated) | Thursday, June 01, 2006 |
On went the monkey suit (me) and the sparkly dress (Gillian) for Sarah's 40th birthday bash on Saturday night. Given that we've only known Sarah and Greg since we moved here, to be invited to what was a small and lavish gathering was quite something.
Fourteen of us sat down to a five course meal in the private dining room of Astral, the up-market restaurant at the casino in Sydney. On the 17th floor, it has a spectacular 270 degree view across Darling Harbour towards the CBD before encompassing the bridge. The chef had that week, won another industry award; gratifying for a guy from Huddersfield (in fact, many of the senior staff were English).
After dressing we had to dash into the city to put in an appearance at the party to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Gillian's employer. That was on the 41st floor of Chiefly Tower and has an exquisite view down to the Opera House. After a single glass of wine there, we hot-footed back to the casino for the main event.
Sarah worked with Sean (the chef, whose previous stints include crewing the QE2) on the menu. Delicious is all I can say, including the chef's signature dish of Yorkshire Pudding with Foie Gras and Greg, presumably raiding the company wine cellar produced a lovely selection of top tier wines to accompany. The setting, food, drink and most of all, company (most of whom we've met more than a few times now) were excellent.
Of course we had the camera with us, but the evil spirits were conspiring against us, and very few of the shots are flattering. Despite having a tripod, I didn't get a single shot of the skyline.
You know what? I don't care. We had an excellent time at the meal before retiring for a few more drinks at the apartment they had rented at the casino for the evening.
I feel something of fraud in a dinner suit but those were the instructions (in fact they were actually "glamourous as fuck"). This is now the second time I've had to wear one in Australia, and this time I splashed out on a gorgeous shirt from Herringbone and black and silver dress studs. The suit was hired, but a decent shirt makes all the difference. I've decided that if I need to go formal again within the next 9 or 12 months it will be time to bite the bullet and buy a suit. Formal events are quite common here, partly I suspect because there is much less of a work suit culture than the UK, so people really make an effort when going out.
Gillian looked super glamourous with a very fetching red evening dress. Red in itself is often striking but throw in sequins and a very pluging neckline, and it was quite the head turner). An hour at Anna's (our hairdresser), was well spent with quite the most extravagent hairstyle I've seen her wear.
The whole evening made me think that this is how the idle rich must spend their time. I'll have to ask greg given that he hob-nobs with the Packers and the Murdochs in his capacity as wine officianado.
So, Sarah is now officially too old to have lived fast and died young. This is something that we can all be greatful for, I think.
I should add, that the one person that we didn't get a decent picture of that night was Sarah (as I said above, very few of them were decent. Unfortunately sometimes you get days like that) . This means that you'll have to take my word that she more than lived up to her own dress code.
Fourteen of us sat down to a five course meal in the private dining room of Astral, the up-market restaurant at the casino in Sydney. On the 17th floor, it has a spectacular 270 degree view across Darling Harbour towards the CBD before encompassing the bridge. The chef had that week, won another industry award; gratifying for a guy from Huddersfield (in fact, many of the senior staff were English).After dressing we had to dash into the city to put in an appearance at the party to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Gillian's employer. That was on the 41st floor of Chiefly Tower and has an exquisite view down to the Opera House. After a single glass of wine there, we hot-footed back to the casino for the main event.
Sarah worked with Sean (the chef, whose previous stints include crewing the QE2) on the menu. Delicious is all I can say, including the chef's signature dish of Yorkshire Pudding with Foie Gras and Greg, presumably raiding the company wine cellar produced a lovely selection of top tier wines to accompany. The setting, food, drink and most of all, company (most of whom we've met more than a few times now) were excellent.
Of course we had the camera with us, but the evil spirits were conspiring against us, and very few of the shots are flattering. Despite having a tripod, I didn't get a single shot of the skyline.
You know what? I don't care. We had an excellent time at the meal before retiring for a few more drinks at the apartment they had rented at the casino for the evening.
I feel something of fraud in a dinner suit but those were the instructions (in fact they were actually "glamourous as fuck"). This is now the second time I've had to wear one in Australia, and this time I splashed out on a gorgeous shirt from Herringbone and black and silver dress studs. The suit was hired, but a decent shirt makes all the difference. I've decided that if I need to go formal again within the next 9 or 12 months it will be time to bite the bullet and buy a suit. Formal events are quite common here, partly I suspect because there is much less of a work suit culture than the UK, so people really make an effort when going out.Gillian looked super glamourous with a very fetching red evening dress. Red in itself is often striking but throw in sequins and a very pluging neckline, and it was quite the head turner). An hour at Anna's (our hairdresser), was well spent with quite the most extravagent hairstyle I've seen her wear. The whole evening made me think that this is how the idle rich must spend their time. I'll have to ask greg given that he hob-nobs with the Packers and the Murdochs in his capacity as wine officianado.
So, Sarah is now officially too old to have lived fast and died young. This is something that we can all be greatful for, I think.
I should add, that the one person that we didn't get a decent picture of that night was Sarah (as I said above, very few of them were decent. Unfortunately sometimes you get days like that) . This means that you'll have to take my word that she more than lived up to her own dress code.
