It was a week of sweet treats in the depths of winter.  Last week my mother and I snuggled into the Museum Hotel to experience the latest thing in style.

High tea is back!  Don’t think sticky buns and a scone, this is a classic sophisticated take on high tea executed with a French twist.  There is only one place to really savour the experience, and that is tucked in the luxury of Wellington’s most artful hotel, the Museum Hotel.

Thanks to the French chef Laurent Loudeac the lightest of friands was partnered with mini fruit tarts;  a duck liver terrine on crostini was only a cake plate tier away.  While I could wax lyrical about the delicacies so beautifully presented, the Museum Hotel has a secret weapon;  dapper Frenchmen providing the atmosphere in this theatre of food and good taste.  Imagine selecting your preferred tea from a gourmand’s menu then the young French gent appears with a silver tea pot and pours with a flourish.  My cup was never empty and my heart was full.

What better way to delight?  Any man wanting to impress should book toute de suite!

Saturday 27 June was supposed to offer a concert to please many Wellingtonians;  the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra at the Michael Fowler Centre.

It didn’t do that, it simply THRILLED the audience from start to finish.  There are few shows which would keep my 7 & 10 year old enthralled, but this one did.  A fabulous performance for all ages.

These guys are the pro performers.  Glitzy and funny, uber-talented and visually impressive.  I did the unforgivable and sang along with “Ruby…… don’t take your love to town…” and worse, I knew all the lyrics to ELO’s “Livin’ Thing”.  Wonderful classics and some tunes which were new to me.  Where did that song Alabama come from?  I would love to know.

The big surprise of the night was the mysterious gorilla-suited being who was an expert on the gong.  When he did reveal all, it was Bret McKenzie, our home town boy who was a founder member of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra providing a very rare guest performance.  He stormed away along with the rest of the orchestra in the last set of songs and the whole spectacle had us on our feet in tribute to the performance.  Hey, this was the 6pm show and these guys had to do it all again at 9pm.  I am sure I wasn’t the only one who wished they had tickets for the second show.

We left the theatre thinking we had seen something special, but then, Wellington often does special very well.

Have a happy week,

Jennifer