high tea and menopause

being the good daughter that i am *cough* i decided to spoil my old mum for her birthday. you see, she was turning 50 and the woman has never had a big deal made over her for a birthday in her life. in fact i'm willing to bet the woman has never had a big deal made over her full stop. and lets face it, as a mum of ... formally 3 bratty children... losing one of those children and raising the other 2 to be pretty decent people... whilst putting up with an asshole of a husband for years (he is better now) and dealing with a crazy (literally) family while your husband and kids just make it harder for you to do it (i'll admit it)... she literally hasn't had a birthday party since she was 12... she bloody deserves to be spoilt!

So apart from the massive festivities that will be happening at our house tonight, her present from me started at the Cortile Room at the Intercontinental Hotel in the city. we got all prettied up and i drove us to the hotel, pulled into the carpark and omg it was valet parking. I took one look at the fancy dressed man holding open my door, one look at my filthy car, noticed Robbie Williams was playing on the stereo and immediately turned it down, looked at the driver again and said... 'you want to get in my car?' my poor little car was going to be shown up by all these pretty, clean cars... she'd be so embarrassed.

so we get inside and mum is still all impressed with the valet parking... until she saw the waffle station and then it was all over kids. there was a chef in his little white uniform making fresh waffles and crepes on the spot. the woman must have eaten about 5 waffles. she even made me ask the chef for the recipe (which turned out to be a pre-bought packet mix). we gorged ourselves on the cutest little cakes and tons of tea. i found THE BEST citrus tart and mini pav.

so after we officially made ourselves sick we had a quick look in the gift store. my mother found a $20 watch that had a kangaroo on it and she decided it was the best watch she has ever seen and had to have it. the woman has 2 gold watches and a souvenir is her idea of a nice watch. so she got that and i bought a nice pair of earrings.

from high tea we went to star city casino for dinner and a show. before we got to the restaurant my mum tried her hand at roulette... she was all excited, got her chips, picked her birthday for the number, watched the wheel spin.. and lost her money in about 5 seconds flat. she decided gambling isn't for her.

so for dinner i had fillet mignon with a truffle jus. mum had the atlantic salmon with a cream sauce. the food was absolutely amazing. and i had asked the waiter about the truffle jus and mentioned i had always wanted to try truffle and would i be able to taste it in the sauce. he was nice enough to bring me a sample of their truffle infused olive oil with a bit of bread - on the house. it's a subtle flavour, a bit nutty with an earthy kick but i loved it.

after dinner we went to see Menopause the Musical. a few weeks before I had heard mum on the phone to her sister asking if she would go with her, but she wouldn't because it was too much money for her. so i took mum knowing its the only show she has ever wanted to go to (usually i drag her) so i sat there for an hour and a half listening to women sing about hot flushes and their "personal summer". it was good, it had some really funny parts and it was really cleaver how they used normal songs from the 60's and 70's and changed the lyrics . in fact i think that's what makes it so good. mum loved it though.. i just thought it was good.

so that was the end of our night. i scored about a dozen brownie points with her for it but it was really good to see her enjoy herself and do things SHE wants to do. normally she just comes along with us, no matter what we are doing, just to spend time with us.

so happy birthday to my mum! hahaha she's 50! (meant in the most affectionate way)