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The Langham Sydney Afternoon Tea With Wedgwood: Sydney’s Best High Teas

An Afternon Tea With Wedgwood #Sydney via christineknight.me

The Langham Hotel has under gone a significant refurbishment, and is now lighter and brighter than ever before. The Palm Court at the London Langham Hotel is heralded as the birthplace of the traditional Afternoon Tea, so it has been on my list of “must-do” Sydney afternoon teas for a while.

Mother’s Day is always a good excuse for an indulgent high tea, and so it was the location for an elegant lunch (yes, even with my 30 year-old in tow) to celebrate, well, me!

An Afternon Tea With Wedgwood #Sydney via christineknight.me

The Palm Court at the Langham Hotel offers guests an exclusive afternoon tea experience with their new global partner, Wedgwood. The beautiful tea experience was heightened with the serving of Wedgwood specialty teas in tailor-made “Langham Rose” Wedgwood teaware.

An Afternon Tea With Wedgwood #Sydney via christineknight.me
Our server for the tea was lovely beyond belief. She offered our testy preschooler a hot chocolate and made it on the lukewarm side without being asked. Perfect not just for Cheese to drink straight away, but also in case of spills.

An Afternon Tea With Wedgwood #Sydney via christineknight.me

Since we visited on a weekday, it was a quiet seating. Our tea and then food were brought out quickly. I particularly enjoyed our server’s attention to detail through out the tea, ensuring that we were happy with everything and asking if there was anything more we could do for us. She also made an effort to engage with Cheese, and complimented us on how well behaved she was (lucky Cheese saved her tantrum for refusing to wash her hands in the bathroom!).

An Afternon Tea With Wedgwood #Sydney via christineknight.me

With one vegetarian and one regular diner, our platters looked exceptionally pretty with the added variety.

An Afternon Tea With Wedgwood #Sydney via christineknight.me

Starting with the savoury, I loved the pumpkin tart the best. It was just a delicious morsel of pumpkin and pastry with nuts for garnish. Next was the corn and avocado cornet (delicious) and the sandwiches. The sandwiches were sadly the only part of the high tea that I wasn’t happy with. All three were a kind of vegetable medley – it would have been nice to have a bit of variety like an egg salad, or cucumber. The bread was also kind of on the dry side and god stuck in my mouth. The fillings were fresh and flavoursome however.

An Afternon Tea With Wedgwood #Sydney via christineknight.me

The scones were my favourite part of the tea, along with the pumpkin tart. They were freshly made that day (not warm, but obviously not made long ago) and came with the most delicious strawberry jam and cream.

An Afternon Tea With Wedgwood #Sydney via christineknight.me

Desserts included a pannacotta with lychee, blueberry tart, sesame macaron and a kind of pistachio cake. My favourite was the blueberry tart, which was nice and tart rather than sickeningly sweet. I wasn’t a fan of the macaron as I don’t like sesame flavour in general, but Alec really enjoyed his. The panacotta was creamy and light, and the cake a dense chocolaty way to finish.

An Afternon Tea With Wedgwood #Sydney via christineknight.me

All in all, it was a very enjoyable high tea.

An Afternon Tea With Wedgwood #Sydney via christineknight.me An Afternon Tea With Wedgwood #Sydney via christineknight.me An Afternon Tea With Wedgwood #Sydney via christineknight.me

Wedgwood High Tea at The Langham Hotel
89-113 Kent St, Millers Point,
Sydney NSW 2000
Prices: $$$ (From $55 pp Mon-Fri & $65pp Sat & Sun)
Phone: 02 8248 5220
Hours: Daily 12pm–5pm
Get Directions

South of France, The Highlights

After an amazing week in Paris, we flew south to Montpellier, picked up another hire car, and drove to Arles for a two-day stay.

Arles is famous for two things – most recently, Van Gogh lived and painted here, but a long time before that, Arles was conquered by the Romans. The remains of the Roman civilisation are still visible in Arles, including the theatre, baths and arena. We were lucky enough to see a gladiator match being put on in the arena when we visited.

Arles is a funny place – from the outside looks quite run down and old, but the narrow streets remind me a lot of Venice – a rabbit warren of streets, revealing treasures tucked into corners. The insides of the derelict buildings have all been renovated, so it’s quite the town of surprises.

The Roman arena.


From Arles we drove to Carcassonne, where we rented an apartment for four nights. Carcassonne is quite amazing to see when you approach the city. The old city is perched on a hill top and is quite majestic!

We spent a lovely day exploring the old city.


The area is rife with castles and is rich in history, particularly from the Cathar period. Many of the castles are actually more like fortresses, designed to protect the people, and the Cathars, from the religious crusades.

The castles are just amazing. Perched on the top of mountains in terrain that is so inhospitable it’s just extraordinary imagining people climbing up and down, or laying siege to, in every-day life.

One of the castles, Montsegur.

Sunflowers – everywhere!


Lastours castles.

Matchy-match at Lastours.

Final view of Carcassonne.

We ended our France leg by driving to Toulouse, spending the night, then catching a flight to London early the next morning.

Easter 2009 – Great Ocean Road, Day 3

After breakfast we head off to Cape Otway Lightstation for scones and tea, plus a stunning view of the coast.

We then head on up the coast to Port Campbell National Park, where the Twelve Apostles are.

Along the way we stopped at the majestic Gibson Steps and then at the Twelve Apostles look out. The Twelve Aposltes were very beautiful, but after seeing so many photos they weren’t as impressive as the rest of the rock formations I knew nothing about.

I really loved Loch Ard Gorge (below), named after a clipper ship that ran aground nearby in 1878. We also stopped by the London Arch (formerly London Bridge until it collapsed while people were on it).


We drove out of the park until we reached our destination for the evening, Warrnambool. Nothing much to report here – it’s a great place to stop during whale season, but that’s about it. The whales have their babies right off shore, so it would be great to pass by again at the right time.

Christmas BBQ Lunch

Every year I meet up with my high school friends for an Xmas get-together. It’s the one time of year we can all usually meet up, so I always look forward to it.

This year we decided to have a BBQ at Bicentennial Park.

Alec talks to little Buffers.

Enjoying the greenery.

Shelley on her last weekend before moving to London.

Jules and Ro.

Kaz.

Rosalie made these amazing reindeer cupcakes – chocolate with berries in them.

Group shot. 11 years after high school finished, who’d have thought we would be where we are today and still friends?

Kahlua and Buff were on their best behaviour.


Kahlua has had an ear infection for most of the year. We finally have it sorted out and after many many months of ear pain for her, she is finally on the mend. Yay!

Jumper

This was a Sunday afternoon reward for exercising and cleaning.

Hayden Christenson (David) stars in this sci-fi adventure movie, along with Rachel Bilson (Millie) and Jamie Bell (Griffin). At age 15, David discovers he is a “jumper”, which means he can teleport through space – although not time. This means he can quite literally jump from, say, London to the top of the Sphinx in Egypt, or he can jump a foot closer to the TV remote so he doesn’t have to actually get up and reach for it.

David is an outcast when we meet him. In love with Millie and with no friends. After discovering his talent he escapes his life to recreate himself. Eight years later he finds himself back in his home town and looks up Millie. He also discovers that he is being hunted by a group of religious fanatics who have been hunting jumpers for centuries.

Hayden has coped a lot of slack for his acting skills – or lack there of. I have to say I’m not a huge fan either, but I do think he’s awfully nice to look at! It’s Jamie Bell who turns in a really strong performance – I’m looking forward to following his career.

I really enjoyed the movie – it was lots of action, splashed with sci-fi and romance – the perfect movie for a lazy weekend.

Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

It’s worth knowing before seeing this movie that is based on a musical and is extremely blood-thirsty. Interestingly, Wikipedia says this may or may not be based on a real story (minus the singing I would presume). Spoiler alert below, so be warned.

Sweeney Todd is set in London around the time of Jack the Ripper, and centres around the character Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp), a barber who is returning to London after 15 years of enduring some kind of punishment/banishment that we never find out much about.

Sweeney in his youth was called Benjamin Barker, and he was married to a beautiful woman and had a gorgeous daughter. An evil high judge however has his eye on his wife, and charges Benjamin with something false (I’m not sure again what this was – it was skipped over) to get Benjamin out of his way.

Fast-forward 15 years and Benjamin now calls himself Sweeney Todd, and is back for his wife, daughter, revenge and some random serial killing.

Sweeney meets Mrs Lovatt (Helena Bonham Carter), who has opened up a pie shop under his former apartment (how is it his apartment is still vacant after being missing for 15 years? ), who tells Sweeney that his wife poisoned herself and the judge adopted his daughter as his ward.

Thus starts Sweeney’s cycle of violence, blood shed and revenge – although he takes revenge in an interesting way – by slaughtering his customers and turning them into pies… This was the point where I started to feel quite ill.

The singing was also really off-putting. Some musical translate really well to film, like Hairspray, which incorporated the songs into the action. In Sweeney Todd, however, I found the songs dragged on and diverted the attention from the story. The music actually was really great – as you would expect from an award-winning musical, and the cinematography was similarly fabulous, recreating gothic London in all its dirty glory.

I was hoping in vain for a happy ending so I could go home and not have nightmares, but it wasn’t to be. I had to watch So You Think You Can Dance on TV when I got home to distract myself and get to sleep!


After the bloody massacre, we were feeling ill, but still needed to eat. We stumbled upon this little place near the cinema – Mr Wong’s Kitchen. What a find it was! We will definitely be going back again – it was super clean, great service and fabulous food.

My vege fried rice and Alec’s combination chow mein.



I’m having trouble finding the address of Mr Wong’s, but it is in a little arcade just to the right of the movie theatres on George St, Sydney.

Atonement

I read Atonement, by Ian McEwan, while I was in Europe. It’s an older book that is being made into a movie, but I hadn’t heard of it until recently. I hadn’t read any reviews so didn’t know what to expect. What I found was a delicate, sensitive book with divine storytelling and rich characters.

Atonement tells the story of Briony, who, as a child, tells a lie that ruins the life of Robbie, a family friend and her sister, and for which she spends the rest of her life atoning for.

It’s a simple story, told in three parts. The first part takes place in a few days and is concerned with the family home. It has a languid feel to it, highlighting the lazy days when the family had few worries. This all changes the night of Briony’s sin, and the pace really picks up in the second part of the book. The scene changes to several years in the future, and is set against the war. The tone changes completely, and there is action on all fronts, both literally in the front lines in the war and back in London where Briony has followed her sister Celia’s footsteps to become a nurse. The final part of the novel ends again even further in the future and sums up the story nicely – ending with Briony’s gaining of wisdom, and eternal feelings of regret for the life she has lived and those she had ruined.

Not a particularly cheery book, but so beautifully written. I can’t wait to see the movie!

Easy Like Sunday Arvo

I had the puppies this weekend so Alec and I took them to lunch at The London in Rozelle with some friends. The London is a pretty cool pub – mostly because it allows dogs inside. The food was a bit pricey, but was still nice, and the company was great.

Girls looking glam.

The boys at the guys’ end.

I try on B’s sunnies.

Profile view. I think I must get a pair.

Fooooood.

All of the food groups. Sugar, chocolate and fat.

My boscaiola. It was supposed to be with chicken. I asked for it without chicken and they gave me bacon instead. Weird.

L’s vege nachos.

Alec’s schnitzel.

Dessert – mousse. It was yummy. Not sure it was $13 yummy, but still good.

The girls chill out.

Pat me muuuuuuum.

The girls meet a new friend. Butt-sniffing ensues.

B makes some new friends.