I think I have only had one other Melbourne Cup that rivaled the madness of this one. And that was when I attended the Cup about seven years ago GA. Learnt my lesson there – never go to Cup Day and especially, don’t go GA. Don’t even get me started on the bathrooms! Anyway…
So this year I kicked off (unexpectedly thanks to an 11am call up) at the Sofitel Brisbane for their Magnifique Race Day at Thyme2 Restaurant ‘At The Rails’ Luncheon. With an indulgent seafood buffet and incredible desserts and free flowing sparkling, we were in a happy place!! I made it there to meet Jay and her clients at 12 where we immediately started filling our plates with prawns, oysters, Morton Bay Bugs and crab. We eventually moved onto desserts with cheese, decadent bites but it was the giant chololate fondue that took centre place. We had our make up touched up by the girls from Tafe when we left the bathroom too – a nice touch. I had a fantastic time at their table for an hour 45 and then made a run to the uber at 1.45pm in order to make the race back at work!
Made it JUST in time for the race back to Wiley where unfortunately my horse lost the sweeps and then we all chilled out for a bit. A colleague had bought in some tablets that once sucked on the tongue, changed your flavour perception from sour to sweet for 45 minutes. A bunch of us had a going, trying limes, lemons and vinegars, which all tasted like sugar! The tomatoes were horrendous and it altered the taste of my champagne to taste like I was just drinking sugar – gag. That all said and done, Tom and I ubered in to meet Ka Lei, Kieran and their colleagues who had been at a all inclusive luncheon featuring Louis Roederer!
Needless to say they had been having a merry old time and most of them disappeared fairly quickly while we sipped on champagne and Nic came to join us. Next thing I know, we are up in Nic’s office upstairs enjoying some wine on the rooftop.
Our trio (we lost quite a few) continued on for a drink at the Osbourne, then attempted to eat at Nickel, Eleven and Gerard’s – all of whom were closed for private functions or weren’t serving meals.
We ended up at Tartufo (a favourite of mine) and Tony (the owner) joined us to help chose our meals and some wine. This is where I should have called it quits howeverrr….
I hopped in an uber on my own and went to an Irish bar to meet my friend Jay who I was originally with at the hotel. We partied on until 1.30am (ouch, hence why I should have gone home), dancing to live music – it was sooo much fun! Thank goodness I had stopped drinking after the restaurant or I would have been a right mess.
Do you know what wasn’t fun?? Work the next day.
