Final flying thoughts.

This week has been pretty surreal. Alongside the wedding nightmares of my wedding venue being held inside a shopping centre with sick staff and my mum wearing a neon orange 80’s taffeta dress and my Australian nightmares of being trapped inside a house which flooded with jumping crocodiles and super quick sea snakes, we are also preparing to depart in 2 days, back home.

It’s been a strange year. I think every year that passes is getting quicker, and stranger. Maybe as you get older, your capacity to deal and cope with things becomes better. I have definitely mellowed out in this year – which is the complete opposite of most brides.

And of course, we are heading back to get married. That’s quite a big one I guess. The planning and preparation definitely feels big – as we discussed with friends over coffee at the weekend, it feels like we have been talking about the wedding for ages. It has been just over a year and a half and around 1 ¾ years from engagement to wedding. Which I think should be fairly average these days – give you a chance for it to sink in, do your research, figure out what you want and then save for it. And in our case, a big factor was allowing the Australian side time to plan their own trip to come over.

And on this note, I am extremely humbled. We have had an excellent response from the Aussies to come over, with only a few people unfortunately unable to attend. It was always a huge ask and we are grateful to everyone who put the time and effort into considering it as an option. Plus we will have a big Aussie party to celebrate – bring on the chocolate mud cake!

I was chatting with my Dad on Skype at the weekend too and telling him just this. Even though our overall guest list is small (just under 70), we have both been blown away by the excitement, love and generosity that everyone has shown us already (and we are not even there yet!). From the engagement parties last year, to the amazing messages, cards and thoughts before we have left – the wonderful conversations, support and advice – the complete support from all of our family and bridal party – the cost, the time, the effort that everyone has gone to ensure that they can be there on a Thursday (sorry teachers!), in the UK and be there to see us tie the knot.

I know I probably won’t comprehend this until the wedding is over (in the blink of an eye I am told!). But as I have mentioned on here before – I am most looking forward to seeing both of our worlds collide. In the best way possible, I already feel married as we have both made the commitment and sacrifices required to ‘prove’ that to each other – the wedding is an amazing opportunity to get everyone together, to celebrate how lucky we are, and to make it official.

For me, the strength of our love is really reflected in the love that we have around us.

And this is what I am most looking forward to:

 Walking down the steps during the ceremony with my beloved bridesmaids – best friends and sisters- being given away by my Dad (the best man I have ever met with the groom being the only exception!) – looking down at my husband-to-be to see him smile as he sees me for the first time – and then looking across the room to see the sea of faces from many lives, lifestyles, countries and see all the love that we are emanating come back straight at us – for us.

This is the moment that I am most looking forward to in our 9 week trip. Closely followed by the moment that we wake up together as Mr & Mrs, share a kiss and start looking at the photos from the day before – overlooking the sea in my hometown, with an Earl Grey Tea and a full English Breakfast. Then the rest of our lives can begin.

Melbourne coffee snob.

I remember the days where the smell of coffee didn’t do it for me. Instant smelt like burnt, bitter water and fresh was like a punch to the nostrils. It was after my 6 month residence at an art school in Barcelona that I became partial to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

Thick, dark, creamy with a hit that is more satisfying than any other hit. “Cafe con leche, por favour”. This is how I became a fan of coffee.

However, I was dismayed at the “coffee” that could be found back at home in the UK. I remember when you’d meet up with uni friends over a “coffee” at Starbucks of Costa. With all the creams and syrups and marshmallows galore. To think that I thought that was coffee.

Flash forward 6 years to my current residence in Melbourne – the home of the flat white and a million pop up coffee stands. There seems to be a new cafe, a new coffee opportunity on every corner, with more and more opening every week.

Side street sitting, coffee vans, takeaway rushing with the business man, slowly sipping, never spilling, different roasts and different blends in the many hidden laneway gems, steaming, frothing but never bubbling, skinny latte to an elegant chai there is a coffee for every eye. Turn a corner, another blend, the Melbourne coffee never ends.

Melbourne is a place for serious coffee drinkers. Where school kids pick up a takeaway latte on the way to class and every other person has their own ‘Keep-Cup’ to save the environment whilst they enjoy their tri-daily brew. Because one is never enough.

There are so many cafes and so much coffee that my daily strong skinny latte doesn’t seem to make my heart skip a beat anymore. However, not being a born and bred Melbournite, I am not quite the hardened coffee snob that many of my colleagues are – forgoing the free work coffee machine (an actual coffee bean grinding, espresso making, with hot steamer supplied – just like in a cafe) to choose to pay for their $4 coffee from an actual barista. (In Australia you have to be a trained coffee barista to serve coffee in a cafe. It’s actually quite an art and a popular career choice amongst hipsters. No judgment!)

I am surrounded by coffee snobs – and I have become one! I can now taste the difference in the various ‘brews’, whether that be from Ethiopia or whether it is the popular local St Ali blended roast from St Kilda. And I can definitely taste a bad coffee. It’s a personal choice and an art –just like tea, except it’s easier to make a bad coffee I think.

I like my coffee:

Latte: (Daily choice and go-to-coffee)

-           Strong (double-triple shot)

-           Skinny

-           Hot (but not burnt)

-           Medium-large (a small just isn’t small enough

Macchiato: (After a big heavy dinner following desert and red wine)

-           Strong single shot

-           Skinny froth and a tiny bit of hot milk

-           Hot (but not burnt)

-           Single expresso size

-           Half a teaspoon of natural raw sugar

Flat White: (Very occasionally as a switch from a latte)

-           Strong

-           Skinny

-           Hot (but not burnt)

And on that note, here is my personal list of coffee favourites in Melbourne so far:

Go get one here:

-           Brother Baba Budan – Melbourne CBD

-           Verve Spice – South Yarra

-           Dukes – Windsor

-           Beans and Blooms– South Yarra

-           Globe – Prahan (now changed hands)

-           Little Mule – Melbourne CBD

-           Grace – Fitzroy

-           French Fantasies– South Yarra

-           Padre – South Melbourne Markets

-           Claremont Coffee - South Melbourne Markets

-           Old Barber Shop Cafe – Richmond

-           The Bunyip Cafe – South Melbourne

-           Cafe Sweethearts – South Melbourne

-           Gas – South Melbourne

My not-so-favourites:

-           Drugstore espresso  - South Yarra (not my kind of blend – too citrusy for me)

-           Pillar of Salt – Richmond (terrible service – don’t even bother at the weekend)

-           Tivoli Road Bakery – South Yarra (amazing  bakery but average coffee. Get the croissants though!)

-           Chez Drez – South Melbourne (nice enough but too busy at the weekend where you have to queue in a wait line at the weekends)