~ Curious Charlie ~

The High Tea Party @ Hilton on the Park @ Sunday, July 27, 2014

We need this with a transparent bg...

It's nicer on the inside. Though the Sofitel or at least the new Hilton would have been much nicer. This reminds me of those high apartment buildings where low SES & old people live, not something pretty and glamorous. Also there was no grand staircase, which to me is an essential at a hotel.

In one word today can be summed up as disappointing. We went to High Tea, it was average. Scones were small and a bit on the dry side. Are my expectation too high?

We arrived and were seated in the ballroom for tea, there was a parade by Living Silk with all the models being everyday women with/or who had breast cancer. Great to see normal people up there for once, with clothes you can actually wear. This event's marketing is interesting. It seems to be for mothers, and yet the posters have a 30-something girl, girl not woman featured. So either she's a MILF (generally not good for advertising) or that's what they think women aspire to be?

Yes those are the scones.

3 Tiers. Starting at the bottom we have sandwiches (ham), green wraps, pumpkin quiche. As always there were scones, one per person. In the shape and size of the friand - flat, small and dissapointing on size. Skimping to make high profits. It's not like they're using almond meal - which is $$. Cream was freshly whipped but not chantilly. Jam was average, not my favourite brands from France.

At the top were the sweets, fruit tart with a soggy tart, vanilla slice heading in the same direction. The eclair was nice (I love eclairs) but was average. Macarons were meh, didn't have that fresh crunch almost that you get at Lindt. Didn't eat the brownie, as I'm not a brownie person.

Vegetarian Option

I had the vegetarian which had sushi - with no soy sauce. I did not come unprepared! But I did cloak my bag with the soy sauce... So instead I dipped it in the "tomato sauce" which turned out to be strawberry jam. But the sushi was average, meaning bad here as the sushi place I go to is great. Everything else was average. My favourite thing was the basic cream and eclair, though that was average too.

Emily ate most of the savories and not the scone or sweets. She also spent most of the time in the cloak room - and was not attached to the powerpoint charging her phone.

It was quite a rush with a 90min seating, as there was a show at the start. Showbags filled with stuff I mainly don't use and would give away. Last year they were much better and heaviler. There was also lots of chocolates. And cake from Sara Lee, and a roaming photographer.

Stalls & Help-Yours Champagne.

The Space

One of the two chandeliers. This was their one staircase. Hardly grand.

Services was a touch-up with make-up and dry shampoo, fibre lashes (mascara + fibres) and nails (one coat of red, already chipping). All the good stuff has being moved to the VIP section. Last year they had more hair, nails and massage.

Picture for a competition, random draw I think.

I like the look of those bracelets, Tudor-style/inspired.

Most high profit events team up with charities, otherwise they look bad.

Kate & Rose - Vintage Tea Cup Candles and Cake Stands

This lovely candle smells like my Crabtree & Evelyn, rose handcream (I prefer Jurlique).

Showbags

Someone said it's about the experience. So essentially (?) paid for an average high tea, some beauty services (the min.) and to get a bunch of stalls (mainly no-named) in the same place.

If you want to repeat the experience I'd go to a craft market ($2 entry normally) and go to high tea at the Windor for $70 (only $5 more) and the food is very good with an all-you-can-eat (challenge accepted) sugar buffet.

In one sentence the event was a marketing thing with average food and not enough drinks, dissapointing. Also I hate events where you pay for each step of the way - this is why we never go to charity balls and the likes. So you pay for entry and at every point marketers try to get you to buy their stuff - also attacking someone while they're forced to be there (in a line) is not cool.

The best part of the day was hair and make-up which I had done before the event. No pictures as we didn't see the photographer, seems they were on a break when we arrived, and not roaming.

We're not doing that again. It seems a lot better than it is - that or it changed.