Well since the Rapture didn’t happen today, I thought there was no better time than to get back into this blog. I woke up to a sunny day thinking ‘well Jesus must’ve brought the good weather with him – sunny with a crisp air and slight chance of apocalypse’ but turns out there was no second coming and it was just another stunning Autumnal day in Wellington.

May has been a month of indulgence and it’s not over yet. It was my birthday earlier in the month and I’d been told there was a surprise in store for me – “surprise! I’m going to surprise you on your birthday.” “Oh. So now it’s not really a surprise, but just an annoying secret that you know and I don’t.” (conversation with Kiwi). But the day came around and Kiwi had to break the news that my surprise had been postponed due to the weather for 3 weeks. I still can’t guess what it is – from asking questions I’ve managed to deduce that it’s not a puppy or a motorbike and now I know it’s weather related but that hasn’t helped. He could tell I was disappointed from my pouty face, so we made a plan to do something really special that evening so I still had a birthday full of birthdayness instead of postponing the birthdayness for a non-birthday day. You get me? We rang round all the super expensive restaurants like Logan Brown and Martin Bosleys, trying to book somewhere for a degustation menu – something we’ve never done because it requires enough money for a down payment on a house. They were unsurprisingly fully booked as they usually are just hours before opening. But luckily for me I’ve made some friends who like the good stuff in life (the really good stuff, like they know good wine and food unlike me who loves a cheap curry and $5 wine deal) and had told me about a place called The White House so we booked there. It’s important that I mention to New Zealander’s that this isn’t The renowned White House that hosts ‘adult parties’ and ‘private dancing’ and to Americans that I didn’t dine with Obama. It’s a restaurant that sits upstairs from Beach Babylon on Oriental Parade – it serves a 10 course degustation menu with matching wines and it’s very decadent.

Before dinner, we spent the day with family. I received a lovely bag of gifts including Chanel No. 5, a box of chocolate, a birthday teddy and a cute book. And a big bouquet of flowers. We went for brunch at Cafe L’affare, where I had a muffin and bongo (I had to say it. A bongo. It’s just a very cute miniature latte in an espresso size glass), I was saving myself for later whereas Kiwi had the full breakfast. We tripped around Te Papa for something to do in the afternoon – it was very cold, and popped along to The Red Cross Shop where I found myself a top to wear out. I’d been given a handbag by my lovely friends from work in a gunmetal colour which I didn’t have anything to match or wear it with – incidentally my work friends are on my team, just me and the two of them. So when they went out for a ‘meeting’ without me, I was thinking ‘errr, I’ve done something bad. What are they saying about me?!!’ and ‘Or. oh no! one of them is leaving.’ At no point did it cross my mind that they’d nipped out to buy me a pressie until I found it sitting on my chair. Silly billy. Anyway, I bought an animal print style top in gun metal type colour. Pretty nifty find.

Our dinner booking wasn’t until 9pm, so Kiwi and I got dolled up and went to Vivo Winebar for wine and some nibbles – just olives and garlic dough balls to keep the hunger at bay and line our stomachs ready for the 10 courses of matching wines… FYI, you don’t need snacks before a 10 course meal. And you also don’t need 2 glasses of wine before the aforementioned 10 courses worth. but, when we eventually got to The White House, I was still hungry and ready for a big meal. I’m only going to tell you about the first course or you’d be here for a long time (longer than you have already), so here’s the menu. The ‘Crudite’ was a whole radish, including the sprouts/leaves that they’d organically grown in their rooftop garden. It was served in a terracotta flower pot in a pile of soil. Except it wasn’t soil, it was creamed goats cheese covered in a truffle mix of some description, and the whole thing tasted amazing. It was served with a sherry. My highlight was the seared scallops with red pepper harissa, smoked fish puree, fennel, date and orange salad. Kiwi’s was the Slow-cooked pork belly with ginger and lychee jelly and spicy cashew butter. I was only expecting 9 courses when we arrived, so after I’d be served our ‘final’ course of a Creme Caramel dessert, I had a food-drunk smile on my face. And then the actual final course came out – dessert number two, Molten chocolate pudding, buttermilk ice cream, malted chocolate soil and raspberries. Amazing. I can’t wait for our next degustation experience. I just need to wait another 5 years while we save up. Completely worth the excessive amount of spending though – we spent just one night living the high life and wishing we were rich. We’ll get there, one day…

It was definitely the best birthday I’ve had. And last birthday we got engaged so that’s saying something. And after it all, Kiwi turned to me and said “and your birthday surprise is more extravagant than this.” I’m SO impatient to know what it is, now only 1 week until I find out (weather-dependant!)

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