Yawn. I think its past my bedtime...
But let me tell you of the story of a recent Friday afternoon / evening. Where the wine and food flowed. And the wine kept on flowing until around 9 p.m. Yes, for those who are mathematically minded, that is 8 straight hours of drinking. Now, if it was 1 drink per hour, yeah... I would have been fine. No such luck.
It was the widely anticipated Team Thank You for Q2 Lunch that was sponsored by our awesome MD & CFO. Very generous.
And we were chauffeured in a corporate car to one of the old wharfs by Pyrmont to a beautiful restaurant (can you guess which one yet?)... Flying Fish. We had an amazing 3-course lunch and probably about a bottle of wine each in the end. The champagne was flowing, then the whites and then the reds and luckily they served coffee at the end!
I chose Yellowfin Tuna with Pork crackling to start (the sauce was a tad too sweet for me) but the fish was perfect (well, it was raw....)
Followed by a rack of lamb and wilted vegetables and a fried lamb croquette kind of thing. SO YUMMY. But then, everyone else's choices looked really good too!!! This was served with hand cut chip and leaf salad.
And for dessert, it was a Rhubarb Compote with wattle seed and chocolate sorbet, gingerbread dirt and toasted marshmallow. It was sweet and very tart at the same time but the sorbet... BLEW. MY. MIND. I want to re-create it. It was like choc-lately but without the milky texture. But it wasn't sweet. And the wattle seed reminds you of sesame but not as fragrant. But it was so well-balanced. Wow. And about 5 glasses of wine later... we were heading for a very very good afternoon.
So the "non executives" (yeah... they had some excuse of needing to go back to the office...) meaning the rest of the group decided to cab it (we were actually going to be really really classy and get a water taxi until the waiter at the restaurant told us it'd be a 20-25 minute wait for one. We decided that was to long without a drink) to the Opera Bar where we enjoyed the last of the day's sunshine and smashed more 2 more bottles of rose, 1 bottle of red and SHOTS LIKE WE WERE TEENAGERS AGAIN. I didn't even know they still served wet pussys!!! Anyway... I don't know but we ended up with a stash of cash and a collection of borrowed cigarettes (don't worry, I didn't smoke) which became our kitty and pretty much just took turns going up to the bar. . .
All the while, I was actually texting my sister saying it was my last drink and I'll be home for dinner. Nope, didn't make dinner. Wasn't even close.
I think by the 3rd shot, I was pretty sure that there wasn't going to be a "I'll be home soon" ... rather, it was "I'll be home drunk... don't know when. Please leave the porch light on."
GREAT company though. And these drinking sessions are where you find out the real deal behind your colleagues. Who are friends and who aren't. And all the little bits of gossip that is taboo within the confines of the work environment! Who knew that lawyers could drink so much? Or talk so much? Or be so much fun? I don't remember having such an awesome work function in many many years.. would probably need to go back to my GE days to match this!
I think we called it a night around 9-ish. We stopped these tourists and made them take a group photo for us. I'm pretty sure they weren't Japanese but we were yelling random words to then in Japanese. I think they thought we were cray cray.
I vaguely remember us all walking around Circular Quay and making outrageous statements like we owned the place. (One David, Snr Legal Counsel: "I have the title of my property in my pocket. I could easily lose it or double it at the casino right about now.."). Yeah, really really responsible. Saw a flag for Don Giovanni and decided we all wanted to go see it together... A couple of us got cabs and I ended up with a couple of the others at Ho Star Fried Chicken. LOL. The chicken was good but nothing like the chicken in Taipei. Not the same. But we were starving by the time. Something akin to wanted a kebab after a serious drinking sess.
I was in a world of pain by the time I got home. I lay on my bed and it was like a tonne of bricks had crashed down onto my head. This went on for hours. And hours. I barely slept. And when I did, the morning after wasn't so great. I think it went by in a haze.
I somehow managed to get up around 11 to a least try and build and ice a respectable cake for mandy. It barely musters a pass..
And i thank Miss D and Mrs Hoho for coming along to pick me up and driving. It was an interesting party. Korean Variety shows... who would have known. And cooking monja (?). Interesting but I'm not convinced that was how it was supposed to taste! Nevertheless, a quaint little get-together. You get points for trying!
Came home and was itching to make macarons. But alas, most of them failed. I even had them resting for a good period of time. And followed everything to the tee. I think I'm losing my macaron touch. :( More practice required. But such a waste of beautiful ingredients.
Donna stayed and iced her own dome cake. It was really cute! Enjoyed tea and coffee as we planned this year's High Tea. Needing a lot of inspiration this year........!
But let me tell you of the story of a recent Friday afternoon / evening. Where the wine and food flowed. And the wine kept on flowing until around 9 p.m. Yes, for those who are mathematically minded, that is 8 straight hours of drinking. Now, if it was 1 drink per hour, yeah... I would have been fine. No such luck.
It was the widely anticipated Team Thank You for Q2 Lunch that was sponsored by our awesome MD & CFO. Very generous.
And we were chauffeured in a corporate car to one of the old wharfs by Pyrmont to a beautiful restaurant (can you guess which one yet?)... Flying Fish. We had an amazing 3-course lunch and probably about a bottle of wine each in the end. The champagne was flowing, then the whites and then the reds and luckily they served coffee at the end!
I chose Yellowfin Tuna with Pork crackling to start (the sauce was a tad too sweet for me) but the fish was perfect (well, it was raw....)
Followed by a rack of lamb and wilted vegetables and a fried lamb croquette kind of thing. SO YUMMY. But then, everyone else's choices looked really good too!!! This was served with hand cut chip and leaf salad.
And for dessert, it was a Rhubarb Compote with wattle seed and chocolate sorbet, gingerbread dirt and toasted marshmallow. It was sweet and very tart at the same time but the sorbet... BLEW. MY. MIND. I want to re-create it. It was like choc-lately but without the milky texture. But it wasn't sweet. And the wattle seed reminds you of sesame but not as fragrant. But it was so well-balanced. Wow. And about 5 glasses of wine later... we were heading for a very very good afternoon.
So the "non executives" (yeah... they had some excuse of needing to go back to the office...) meaning the rest of the group decided to cab it (we were actually going to be really really classy and get a water taxi until the waiter at the restaurant told us it'd be a 20-25 minute wait for one. We decided that was to long without a drink) to the Opera Bar where we enjoyed the last of the day's sunshine and smashed more 2 more bottles of rose, 1 bottle of red and SHOTS LIKE WE WERE TEENAGERS AGAIN. I didn't even know they still served wet pussys!!! Anyway... I don't know but we ended up with a stash of cash and a collection of borrowed cigarettes (don't worry, I didn't smoke) which became our kitty and pretty much just took turns going up to the bar. . .
All the while, I was actually texting my sister saying it was my last drink and I'll be home for dinner. Nope, didn't make dinner. Wasn't even close.
I think by the 3rd shot, I was pretty sure that there wasn't going to be a "I'll be home soon" ... rather, it was "I'll be home drunk... don't know when. Please leave the porch light on."
GREAT company though. And these drinking sessions are where you find out the real deal behind your colleagues. Who are friends and who aren't. And all the little bits of gossip that is taboo within the confines of the work environment! Who knew that lawyers could drink so much? Or talk so much? Or be so much fun? I don't remember having such an awesome work function in many many years.. would probably need to go back to my GE days to match this!
I think we called it a night around 9-ish. We stopped these tourists and made them take a group photo for us. I'm pretty sure they weren't Japanese but we were yelling random words to then in Japanese. I think they thought we were cray cray.
I vaguely remember us all walking around Circular Quay and making outrageous statements like we owned the place. (One David, Snr Legal Counsel: "I have the title of my property in my pocket. I could easily lose it or double it at the casino right about now.."). Yeah, really really responsible. Saw a flag for Don Giovanni and decided we all wanted to go see it together... A couple of us got cabs and I ended up with a couple of the others at Ho Star Fried Chicken. LOL. The chicken was good but nothing like the chicken in Taipei. Not the same. But we were starving by the time. Something akin to wanted a kebab after a serious drinking sess.
I was in a world of pain by the time I got home. I lay on my bed and it was like a tonne of bricks had crashed down onto my head. This went on for hours. And hours. I barely slept. And when I did, the morning after wasn't so great. I think it went by in a haze.
I somehow managed to get up around 11 to a least try and build and ice a respectable cake for mandy. It barely musters a pass..
And i thank Miss D and Mrs Hoho for coming along to pick me up and driving. It was an interesting party. Korean Variety shows... who would have known. And cooking monja (?). Interesting but I'm not convinced that was how it was supposed to taste! Nevertheless, a quaint little get-together. You get points for trying!
Came home and was itching to make macarons. But alas, most of them failed. I even had them resting for a good period of time. And followed everything to the tee. I think I'm losing my macaron touch. :( More practice required. But such a waste of beautiful ingredients.
Donna stayed and iced her own dome cake. It was really cute! Enjoyed tea and coffee as we planned this year's High Tea. Needing a lot of inspiration this year........!
