maoko: The Hotel Windsor

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Minggu, 29 April 2012

Date Night at The Hotel Windsor!

I cannot think of any better way to spend a Saturday night than at The Hotel Windsor in the Victorian Suite, reliving the memories of our wedding night.

I didn't take photos of the room on our wedding night, so I opted for photo over load in this post instead.

We were not celebrating anything, it was just an excuse to have a romantic night together and enjoy each others company. I think every couple needs to do this every so often!

This suite is about twice the size of our apartment. Maybe bigger now that I think about it. Sigh.

We could live here. We don't need a kitchen, I swear.

The living area, complete with 3 more arm chairs out of view.

Part of the entrance way.

Is that a spikey haired ghost in the reflection?

Dining Room to seat 6.

Many a good memory from our wedding night with our bridal party seated around here eating, drinking and laughing before heading down to the reception.

Master bedroom.

The windows all have a view of Parliament Gardens, not that I spent long looking out the windows.

This bed was damn comfortable.

We took it upon ourselves to fall asleep with the TV on as we don't have a TV in our bedroom at home so it seemed a bit naughty.

Another bedroom.

Surprised that The Husband did not end up in here last night, trying to block out the chainsaw noises that come out of my mouth when deep in slumber.

Ha.

I figure that he knew I was a rampant snorer when he married me, it's his own fault really.

Having said that, I do get sick of getting lightly jabbed in the ribs and being ordered 'Turn Over!!' 'Breathe through your mouth' etc etc in the middle of the night.

I am obsessed with this basin.

Obsessed I tell you.

I've already told The Husband that if we ever build/renovate, I want one just like this.

Whilst The Husband went to the gym, I relaxed in the luxury of having a bath (another pitfall to living in an apartment, no bath) and even after I found myself sweating whilst reading my book, because I used boiling water, I refused to get out until I was a prune in cold water.

I had a photo of me in the bath but decided that it was possible to risque, despite it not being sexy at all. I mean, I was wearing a shower cap and all bits were covered by bubbles and a book, but still.

My kind of mini bar, Haighs giant Chocolate Cookie.

Why am I out of focus? Why oh why. Blame the man that I married.

Room 307. The place to be.

I'm wearing my new Zara cardigan, the one that I am so proud to have snapped up from the childrens department, with Zara jeans, Caroline Morgan tee and Tony Bianco wedges.

I could not decide what color to wear with my blood orange dress so I went for a nude.

This is Sephora by OPI - Casting Call.

I love it! I actually don't have many colors like this.

I got this dress from ASOS which arrived last week but upon trying it on before heading to dinner I realised that I had no love for it.

Of course, I trusted that it would be awesome and only packed one dress so had no option but to rock it. Oh well, there was nothing wrong with it, I just thought the fabric was really thin (read: unforgiving) and the cut outs were annoying, meaning I could not wear a bra with it, and I wondered if the cut outs were a bit on the tacky side.

I need some new going out shoes.

Since the hairdryer blew up and I was not going out on date night with curly hair, I popped down to Nara Hair for a blow dry in the hope that they could squeeze me in.

They remembered me by name and were shocked that I had cut off my hair but gave it the tick of approval. Hair always feels so light and perfect upon leaving a salon.

I decided that it was as good a time as any to bust out the Peter Lang earrings that I got whilst using a voucher that I won from The Sea and Me Change blog give away (I blogged about them here) and they were the perfect compliment to my outfit.

I'm wearing Ardell Fashion Lashes (number 105) which are human hair, and that freaks me out.

Now, on to the good stuff, the food porn.

We dined at The Hotel Windsors signature restaurant, 111 Spring Street.

I have no idea what this is, as the chef sent it out as a taster but I think it has something to do with sardines. It was damn good.

Entrees:

Cumin flavoured lamb backstrap, butternut pumpkin purée, beetroot and Tarago river goat’s cheese.

The Husband: This was good. Very good.

Marinated cherry tomato tart Buffalo mozzarella and crushed pistachios.

Okay. This was so good. I wish that they had a giant serving so I could eat it all night long.

Fragrance Cocktail

Some form of midori, lime and pineapple juice.

Pretty good, fairly lime-y though. Who would have thought.

I felt like I should have been laying on an inflatable rubber ring thing and floating in an infinity pool.

The Husband had some red wines that were suggested to match the courses but wine is boring to take photos of.

Main Meals

De-boned roast quail stuffed with foie gras, mushrooms, cocktail potatoes, parsley butter.

The Husband: This was good. It reminded me of chicken. A tiny, mini chicken. A chick perhaps?

Gnocchi Parisienne gratin with Ratatouille and gruyère.

Oh yeah. This was the bomb. So good. Perfect serving size also after my entree.

Dinner was at 8PM so by then I was pretty hungry.

Broccolini with flaked almonds

Green salad with shaved parmesan

There was also Creamy désirée mashed potatoes but you all know what that looks like.

Dessert:

Traditional Tarte Tatin with yoghurt sorbet

This was fantastic. I won't lie, I am so uncultured that I have no idea what Tarte Tatin means, or how to pronounce it, but it reminded me of apple pie. Yes please.

Crème brûlée

I was definitely struggling trying to get through these two desserts, but the Crème brûlée tasted fantastic, even if I could not finish it.

All in all, an amazing dinner.

You can see the menu here.

111 Spring Street was not very busy considering that it was a Saturday night, and for a restaurant connected to a hotel the food was outstanding. I would definitely suggest going to The Hotel Windsor for both the afternoon high tea and dinner afterwards before a show or whatever you are doing!

Who doesn't love an action shot paired with an awkward facial expression. Yeah, we all do.

What do you do for random date nights?

Kamis, 09 Februari 2012

My Wedding Speech

Last night I stumbled across my wedding speech saved on my computer and enjoyed reading it back so much that I thought I would share some of it with you. I'll leave out the boring 'Thank You' bits and what not as they are probably the same as all Wedding Speech Thank You parts, and I obviously didn't call him 'The Husband' during the speech.

Apologies to everyone who was at our wedding and heard this speech first hand, you can just ignore this post!

I was really quite nervous before making the speech and opted to stand next to The Husband behind the bridal table, rather than behind the lectern. I found that once I started my speech with "I am really nervous, so please bare with me", the nerves started to drip away. I am all for both the bride and groom doing a speech at a wedding. I don't care that it is not 'traditional' for a bride to speak, why shouldn't she?!

"The date that it all began was Friday the 13^th of July 2007. Some may say that Friday 13^this bad luck but I clearly disagree. The night that we met, I was working and The Husband was with Zok, his best man today, at The Long room.

The Husband, being the gentleman that he is, not without ulterior motives of course, offered to help me out and fill in a survey that I had been roped in to doing. Once he filled it out, he told me to make sure that I kept it for myself, rather than submitting it to the boss. He asked if he could call me and then I did not hear from him for nearly 3 weeks.

*Insert 'Real Smooth' cat calls from the guests here*

Whenever we would arrange to go on a date, something would come up and I would have to cancel. I don’t know what caused him to continue to bother to try and see me, but I am glad he did. I was running an hour and a half late for our first date, certain that he would not wait for me, but he did and took me to Crown Casino to get me drunk, knowing that I was still on P Plates, could not drink and drive, and would not be able to escape easily.

*The Husband cannot believe I put this in the speech, he thinks it makes him look terrible!!!*

After our first argument, The Husband turned up unannounced at my house to talk things through. He told me he had a gift for me, and being the girl that I am – I expected flowers, chocolate or, jewelry if he was really sorry. Instead, he pulled out this…… A magic 8 ball.

I thought to myself, what am I going to do with this? It does nothing for me!!

He told me to ask it anything. I asked it the one important, albeit premature question, ‘would we get married?’ and the answer was “No”.

It didn’t offer me much clarity, but I am glad we proved it wrong and I should probably stop looking to it for guidance from now on as it is rarely accurate.

*Throws Magic 8 Ball*

The morning that The Husband proposed to me, we had just finished eating a big breakfast and I was lying on the bed rubbing my full stomach and complaining that I was a fat cow, and instead of saying anything to me, such as "No, you look great!!", He came and got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him.

It took a good 5 minutes to believe that he was serious, and after I made him get back down on one knee and propose all over again, I said yes as quickly as I could. The fact that I was complaining about being fat proves that love is either blind, or has selective hearing.

Up until today, the day that he proposed was the happiest day of my life.

We have been planning this wedding since January 2010, for 600 days exactly.

I didn’t think that I wanted the big white wedding, and whilst in Las Vegas last December I went as far as buying a white dress and trying to convince him to get married in a chapel by Elvis. He refused to do it, but after receiving the bill for the wedding, I am sure he is regretting that choice.

As we did not read vows as part of our ceremony, I would like to promise some to you now, in front of all the people who love us:-

When you laugh, I will laugh

When you cry, I will cry *This is where I really did cry during the speech*

When you sleep at night, I will be right there by your side

Wherever you go, I will follow

Wherever you stay, I will stay

I take you to be my best friend, my husband, my equal and my everything.

I promise to cherish you, honor you, love you, care for you, encourage you and bring you joy.

Whenever you are in need of me, I promise I’ll be there.

One constant in life, that I can guarantee you, is that I will be right there by your side.

Today has been the happiest day of my life, and I am certain that we will create many more happy memories together in the future. My life became better the moment I met you. I am so proud to be your wife.

I love you."

Did you do a speech at your wedding? If you are not married, are you planning on doing a speech?