Doug & Jodie

Well I must admit I did get a little nervous about the big 3-0! However, in the end it wasn’t so bad; in fact I had a great birthday week – thanks largely to my family and my Doug

I woke in the morning to the smell of pancakes cooking, these were then served to me in bed along with my gift from Doug – a gorgeous Longines watch with little diamonds to mark the numbers, it’s stunning. Then I headed off to work and spent most of the morning taking phone calls from Australia and receiving packages from my family, flowers and champagne from Greets and eating birthday cake with my colleagues. I took a half day off and headed to the world renowned Sanctuary day spa.

This place was pure indulgence!! I snuggled up in little alcoves with cushions and blankets whilst wrapped in my robe, reading and being served food and drinks, I enjoyed some time in one of the lounges, fell asleep by the carp pool (above) – yes a huge pool of massive carp! I also fell asleep in a sleep lounge where you wear a headset with this voice that literally sends you to sleep and with a word wakes you up after 40 mins!! I soaked up the heat in the steam room and the spa and ended the day with a massage!
So, completely relaxed I headed off to meet up with Doug, Gareth, Kris and Liz for dinner in Brick Lane (yum curry).

On Thursday night the celebration continued when Amanda, Ben, Yumi, Eric, Laura , Julien and Doug and I went to the Anchor and Hope on the Cut at Waterloo. This was a fantastic gastro-pub, with great food. Laura and I enjoyed yummy pigeon (I checked, it wasn’t from Trafalgar Sq, apparently it was posh pigeon from Yorkshire), Doug and the boys had the lamb shoulder (for 5ish) – they made an impressive dent in it. The girls gave me a lovely gift of loads of Molton Brown products – yum!.

Thursday night Doug finally let me know where we were going for my surprise weekend getaway; we were off to Paris again to stay in the same palace we stayed for our engagement (St. James).
Plus we were booked into Moulin Rouge for Saturday night. So, Doug and I headed off to City Airport Friday night, with an initial glitch in the flight booking that we will never forget – a couple of tears and a bit of anxiety later we were a little poorer but actually booked on a flight to Paris for that day

We took a cab from Orly airport to St. James and it felt like coming home, it is the most gorgeous building in the 17th Arrondissement, near Ave Foch and Port Dauphine station – the posh part of Paris apparently. We weren’t given the room overlooking the fountain with little balconies but a great two story room with a lounge. We ordered some French cheese and enjoyed the complimentary red wine!

The next morning after a sleep in we strolled off towards Viktor Hugo (near Eiffel Tower) and enjoyed some coffee, hot chocolate and pastries for breakfast in a local patisserie. Then we walked to the opera house and did some shopping in Galleria Lafayette, ending up in St. Germain (near Notre Dame) and took some photos of the restaurant we got engaged in – it was then we realised it was a Guy Savoy restaurant (Frances most famous chef)! Later we enjoyed some savoury crepes in a great little creperie with a disco bathroom – had to be seen to be believed so I made Doug go wash his hands just to check it out, not recommended for epileptics).

We went home to watch Leyton play in the Australian open and had a nap (heaven), then organised for the concierge to book us into a ‘locals only’ restaurant in Montmartre for dinner. It was definitely only locals and we were looked at from down their noses but we applied our best French and I think they warmed to us – but we did have to take a punt on the meals, crème brulee for dessert was a safe bet. Afterwards we went to our 11pm Moulin rouge sitting, we found it a little disappointing – I would have liked to have seen it in it’s hey day 20 or 30 years ago before it became so commercial but still it was spectacular.

The next day we found another patisserie for our croissants and juice, lazed around in our room until 2pm then headed off to Charles de Gaulle airport. The most romantic and thoughtful birthday ever! Thank you to my beautiful boy who always goes out of his way to make me happy and I know he was thinking how much I would be missing my family at this time, he went to great lengths to make up for it –not that he needed to he just wanted to – I’m a pretty lucky girl Any trip with Doug is wonderful but it was pretty special to be in Paris and just do as Parisians do.

22nd of December

After a smooth flight from Stansted airport, Kris Gareth, Jodie and I landed in Salzburg. We almost lost Jodie’s skis’ but we did lose the car, before we had even taken possession of it! The car company couldn’t remember where they had left the car. We got my new Garmin 250W Sat. Nav. up and running (although it had some strange directions, due to me leaving it on pedestrian mode) which took us through the Kriskindle markets, on our way to the hotel.

The Dokorwirt Hotel was lovely, just outside the town itself. We spent the evening back in town, wandering around the markets (in the freezing cold), before taking in a traditional dinner of goulash, pork and strudel for dessert.

23rd of December

Kris booked us onto the 9:30am “Sound of Music” tour, which included a hotel pickup (not a return trip, as we found out at the end of the tour). The tour started with a visit to the site where the Von Trapp family fell into the lake (which was frozen), so we took some photos before heading to the Gazebo which the “I’m just 16 going on 17” scene was shot in.

The tour headed out of town, to view more sights of the movie. The last stop, before returning to Salzburg, was the town of Gilgen, where the movie Von Trapp’s were married in the cathedral. The town also has an small restaurant which has won award for its’ strudel (which we naturally sampled).

24th of December

We left Salzburg for St Wolfgang and the ski fields. We stopped in Gossau to see if we could find somewhere to ski. To Jodie’s delight, the ski lift was right next to the road. In a flash she was kitted up, and up the mountain. We’ve been in London for over a year, and Jodie has been dying to go skiing.

Gareth, Kris and I spent the morning learning the basics of snowboarding, and by the afternoon… we weren’t much better.  We had conquered the mountain (well half of it) which took 2 hours. Jodie in the mean time was wearing out the leather on the ski lift chairs, by the number of trips she had taken.

We left the ski field and headed to the quaint village of St Wolfgang. The Sat Nav thought we wanted to view the town from the goat tracks for some reason, but we found the hotel eventually. Jodie and I enjoyed a bath and some champagne, before dinner. We had a fantastic 5 course meal, before heading into town in the evening for Midnight Mass. The entire service was in German, but was lovely nonetheless.

25th December – Christmas !

We woke up and headed out of town for the ski fields again. Today, Gareth and I took on the entire mountain. Kris took the smart approach and changed the board for skis. After a great day of boarding, with mountain conquered, we headed back to the Furian hotel in St. Wolfgang. Once again, we had a fantastic dinner, before retiring to the rooms for some nightcaps.

26th of December

Sadly, we had to leave Austria. Jodie and I took a walk around the small town, to take some photos and enjoy the early morning light. The whole 5 days were filled with bright sunny skies, as the photos will show. We’ll have to go back one day, St Wolfgang is a fantastic place, with summer sports being dominated by water skiing. Thanks to Jode for organising the trip and to Gareth and Kris for being so easy going and great to travel with.

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On Friday the 21st (our last day of work) Fourth Hurdle ended the year with it’s annual and always extravagant Xmas party! The analyst team were itching to end the year and get on with partying, we were all emailing each other, starting at 12 noon with a group email from Laura “when can we start drinking!”…. and it went from then between 5 of us. Finally at 4pm I looked at David (Director)
and he agreed it was time to start the festivities. The Aussies as always (me) led the way and set up the library with Verve champagne and nibbles, the girls all got into their cocktail dresses and we all finally jumped into cabs to the Old Billingsgate Fish Markets. This old market is now enclosed as was the setting for a Circus themed black tie Xmas party. It was a gorgeous setting and as always insightful! Got to dance the night away with my colleagues who are hilarious when they let their hair down. A farewell was made to amanda who made it out for her last night at work then gave birth 6 days later!! Tom (office manager and who sits next to me) announced he and his long term partner of 30 years (Stuart) were getting married! The night ended with me being totally ripped off by Xmas cab rates but coming home happy and looking forward to heading to austria (that day, by then)…. Hard to believe I have been in this job for well over a year now.