I had the St Kilda Football Club Best and Fairest on Saturday night at the Crown Palladium which was an absolute blast. I wore a beautiful red dress and I even got a spray tan.
Two of the five that we were heading in with were late to arrive and so we had to walk in amongst nearly 1,000 people to find our table. Not ideal. However once we were seated we had a great time, I knew most of the other people on our table and Billy Longer who is now with the Saints but was with Brisbane Lions when I was there, was right by me so I spent the entire night switching tables catching up with him and meeting some of the other younger Saints players.
We went upstairs to Club 23 at Crown where there was a VIP area for guests of the club. We partied the night away and before I knew it we were on our way to Boutique in South Yarra for some more dancing. We partied on and I got home at a ridiculous time.
Saturday I spent the morning recovering then met my good friend, Lisa for a picnic in the park to enjoy some sunshine! We grabbed some sushi and coconut water and lazed around on a towel before catching the All Blacks game at mine then going to The Serve for Indian. Brilliant Indian. I retired home to watch the footy finals and for an early night.
Sunday I was quite keen to stay in but Annabelle wanted to watch the footy at the bar. We tried out three bars in Richmond before giving up and heading back to our usual Sunday spot, College Lawn. I wasn’t feeling great so only had a couple of ciders and went home early.
Turned out not feeling great on Sunday escalated to a full blown chest infection come Monday and meant I spent the entire day in bed feeling absolutely spent on Tuesday. Now Wednesday I think I’m on the up!
I’m a week behind in telling you about my weekend and to be honest I can’t particularly recall my entire weekend from the week before but I have photos of Sunday to jog my memory so that’s what you get!
Sunday I hosted on behalf of a client a bunch of guys at the MCG for the last St Kilda AFC game in Melbourne for the year. Now by host I mean I found them all (no idea who they were but had meeting points around MCG) then took them up to the function, introduced them to each other and made sure they had a drink and someone to chat to. By the end of the first quarter they were all set so I was set to start with the champers!
Annabelle accompanied me and I had a great time watching the footy (even though Saints lost big time) as I’m now quite familiar with a bunch of the regular guys and their wives at the functions. I actually look forward to seeing some of them now.
After footy we cabbed to my fave local, College Lawn and were immediately busy chatting to a bunch of guys.
Turned out the guy I was chatting to and the guy Annabelle had met separately were not only friends but flatmates and they were also hungry. You should know by now I’m always hungry. So we all cabbed over to St Kilda where we got a table at Topolino’s on Fitzroy Street.
We were all quite intoxicated and thought we were hilarious, although I’m sure the waitresses thought otherwise. We had a dozen oysters and a bottle of Chandon to start. Then pasta mains and we shared two desserts between the four of us.
We partied back at the boys house until 3am. One of the best nights I’ve had in a long time. Lucky none of us had to work Monday.
Actually I just remembered. Thursday I went to No.8 at Crown Casino for the St Kilda AFL Match Committee end of season dinner. I ended up at Supper Club & Siglos for cocktails and oysters afterwards.
Friday I went out to Fog with some girlfriends for champagne and we ended up trudging on to Boutique with group of people we met there. Good times and too much champagne on everyone’s behalf! Saturday was relaxed and I stayed in sat night. Brilliant.
I still can’t believe how fast the year is flying by!
Friday night I had my lovely friend Lisa over for dinner. I made her a green veggie stir fry with veal stuffed with mushrooms and crumbed. She bought the wine. We make a great pair.
We went out on Chapel, trying my new favourite first, Katuk. I think I prefer Katuk during the week though. On the weekends it is really busy and there’s a lot of manipulating required to find somewhere to sit down. Next up we cabbed over to Cuba Cabana (or something? It’s on Greville) to meet a friend of mine. As it turned out there was a birthday party for someone from my home town at the venue so there were a few others I knew there too! Lisa got bored quickly though so we were on the hunt again, this time for somewhere to dance. Pawn & Co was dead, a short stroll found us at Temperance then we gave up and went home.
Saturday morning I went to Liar Liar in Hawthorn for brunch and it was hands down delish. Go there.
Lisa, Cheena and I went on a little adventure to Lysterfield Park/ Lake where we took some ridic selfies with kangaroos. Yep, look closely between our heads and you’ll find it!
The lake wasn’t actually as picturesque as I had expected, although it was nice to walk through the woods for 1.5 hours and get some fresh air. After Liar Liar there was no room for the bacon and egg pie I baked the night before for a picnic though!
Saturday evening Annabelle and I rushed around and made it to the Lions v Pies game for the 2nd quarter. I’m surprised we actually made it that early, we hadn’t even grabbed the tickets from the hotel 10mins before bounce!
The game was freaking fantastic. Being an avid Lions fan, it was super exciting to watch them kick the Pies butt!! Much jumping and yelling was had. And Champagne. After the game we raced home then met some of the boys at Eve for a post match drink, I hadn’t seen many of them for a year or so.
On a side note, what the frick happened with the Bledisloe Cup?! I was watching the AFL game at the time so was grabbing snippets from Twitter and the bar TV on the breaks. Disappointing.
So I got home at stupid o’clock and spent Sunday just chilling out knowing full well I had to be up and out for a Sunday session at College Lawn in Prahan with Nikita and Annabelle at around 5pm.
Come the time I got there I was delirious with tiredness. I was just laughing at everything and having issues with my vocabulary and putting my sentences together after one pint of cider so I gave up, ordered a leek and pumpkin risotto with gorgonzola and settled in for a sober evening.
In a stroke of absolute brilliance (Nikita found it mortifying) all three of us rocked up in ripped jeans to the pub!
Around 11, Annabelle and I headed off, stopping at a Japanese joint on Chapel for some sushi, noodles and miso.
AFL came to Wellington on ANZAC day with the Lions facing the Saints.
To start with, I must advise that I am slightly bias. Understatement of the year, I’m totally, utterly bias. I used to work for the Lions. GOOO LIONS!
I think it’s fantastic that St Kilda have the relationship and contract to have a game at the Cake Tin each year. It’s awesome for Wellington Tourism and for the sport.
Anyway the Lions won! WAHOOOO! Tell you what though, that last quarter was a full on nail biting experience! My heart was leaping from my chest. First win of the year and awesome to get the 4 points in the board.
My parents were happy as sitting with the parents of the Lions – I was lucky enough to be gifted tickets by some of the boys for my family and my Dad was loving learning all the rules and insights from the people who know best.
I was even luckier to be sat in the St Kilda lounge. Great food, great wine and great people. I met so many hilarious and fun people that night. I tried to keep neutral in the beginning with my supporting of the Lions but the cat was soon out of the bag, my emotions are on free flow at the games!
We partied the night away after, it was great fun!
Even more exciting, I actually get two Lions games in a row! I’m off to Brisbane on Thursday and will be catching their home game against the Swans.
We drove up to check out Portland for the long weekend. From Vancouver it’s about a 7hour drive so we left at 2pm on Friday to attempt to beat the traffic to the border crossing. Waits can be atrocious but luckily for us it was only about 45mins.
When we arrived at the border they asked us the usual questions – intentions in Portland, how long are you staying etc. We ended up being slapped with an orange sticker on our windscreen which basically means you have to go park so they can interrogate you more. I swear it was only when he saw Billy’s Aussie passport. Kiwi’s would be fine.
They take your car keys and you head inside where they ask you more questions and check your passport out. We had both recently been in the States so our Visa’s were fine.
The rest of the drive was beautiful, with an amazing sunset and Billy being an over efficient DJ – only the best will do!
Our hotel was great, the Marriott Waterfront. Billy went to park the car while I checked in. Guys should always send their girls in solo to check in. I got free wifi for the both of us for the duration of the stay and a water view. Room was large and the bed had heaps of pillows. Very important. They weren’t the best pillows but you could make a good pile out of them.
Saturday morning we were up early to explore the city. We went all along the waterfront, through the farmers market and into the city, stopping for breakfast.
I dragged Billy shopping – although I would call it purchasing. To save his whining I already knew what I wanted so we were in and out of Clinique & MAC in no time. USA is much cheaper than Canada for most products plus there is no tax. Yeww!
Exhausted from the 35 degree heat and 5 hour walk and some bevvies in the sun at a brewery we headed home for a nap.
Sunday was zoo day! Only $20 for the both of us, we spent half the day wandering around looking at the Tigers and monkeys. Crap food, but I don’t expect much at a zoo.
We made it in time to watch my mate Jimmy play in the Portland AFL grand final. Jimmy kicked a bag and we even joined in for their awards giving at the pub afterwards. He’s been living in Oregon for 7months so it was great to catch up with him!
After a few drinks we went to another brewery around the corner for some beers. We had one each and shared a tasting palette of 6, which was only $8. Love America.
Dinner was at Trader Vicks where we shared a Tiki bowl (by share I think I drank 3/4’s and Billy pretended to drink) and had delicious tapas. Poke and coconut shrimp for me, hummus and calamari for Billy.
Half cut we trudged back to the hotel for an early night before the drive back.
On the way to Portland there was a Starbucks at every stop so we presumed it would be the same on the highway back. Little did we know!
We stopped at McD’s for my breaky, I was hungover and hugely in need of some bacon and eggs. Billy wanted to be ‘healthy’ and was after a coffee so we stopped at the Starbucks. Unfortunately a group of about 20 school kids had just gone in so he abandoned that idea instead thinking to get one at the next exit. But there wasn’t one…. For the next 2 hours! I must admit to being slightly amused at first but he was so grumpy by the end even I was hanging out to find it!
Coffee and ‘healthy’ food down we hit the road only to stop at the premium outlet stores. Billy got lots of stuff, I didn’t buy anything. I nearly bought some fudge but saved by waistline the cm’s. Soo much cheaper in USA. The mall is only 2 hours past the border so lots of Vancouver-ites head there for their shopping sprees. Have to be careful though or they can sting you on the border for tax!
Coming back through the border was easy, a few questions and we were through. Only 40kms from there to Vancouver so we were home by 5.30 to celebrate Canada Day!
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