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A year has passed since that amazing day in the sunshine on the Wirral when Rach and I got married, and what a crazy, memorable and exciting year it was. I haven't written a blog for a while so thought I would write one about the things we got up to to celebrate a year together.
Obviously, living in London opens up a whole host of things to do and we started our weekend with a trip to see Rachel's favourite musical 'Phantom of the Opera'. I'm not really a huge fan of the theatre but a marriage is as much about compromise as is it anything else, so we dressed up nice and made our way to Her Majesty's Theatre for the 'Greatest Love Story Ever Told'. The seats were great (although even for someone at 5' 9" like me, the leg room made EasyJet look like luxury!) and we had a perfect view of the cast as they wowed the audience with spectacular costumes and set and incredible singing. The interval brought one of the most cringeworthy/amusing moments of our marriage to date! Let me explain..... We hadn't had time for dinner before the show so decided that we would get a tub of crisps from the bar and stood in our seats enjoying them as we waited for the second half to start. Rachel, to my right, was holding the tub with her left hand as she rummaged around for remnants of the crisps with her right. Somehow she dropped the almost empty tub and instead of letting it hit our feet, I tried to grab it and proceded to bat it through the air towards the audience in front. It arced through the air with the grace and finesse befitting such an occasion and hit a couple five or six rows in front of us. As that happened I managed to free myself from the stock still, frozen position I was in and moved Rachel in front of me whilst whispering "Apologise, apologise!" Needless to say the people around us were highly amused and thankfully the couple on the receiving end seemed to take it quite well! The second half of the show passed without incident and we walked out into the bustle of London's West End Friday night having really enjoyed our evening.
After a quick pit stop in Prezzo for food we made our way to a funky little bar called Jewel, just off Picadilly Circus. The decor was cool and the drinks prices extortinate, so we enjoyed a cocktail, laughed at the group of work colleagues trying to emulate each other with various dance routines (none of which would have made it past the first audition on Britain's Got Talent) before we made our way back to our own little corner of Kensington for bed.
Saturday was the day of the FA Cup Final and Rachel's Stoke supporting parents and auntie and uncle amused us throughout the morning as they prepared for their big day at Wembley before Rachel and I chilled in the afternoon ready for the evening's fun ahead.
We had booked a table at Dans Le Noir, a restaurant with a dark side in Clerkenwell. I'll pop a little bit of text from the website here to help explain:
"You are going to live an unbelievable experience: eating or having a drink in the pitch darkness.
If this idea seems to be a little strange to you at first, it is maybe because by suppressing the dominant sense of the sight, each person naturally starts a deep self-questioning.
With the help of our blinded guides you are going to completely re-evaluate the notion of taste and smelling through our gastronomic and pedagogical process."
We were so excited as we got ready to go out (not without it's disagreements and dramas!) and jumped in a taxi (planned engineering works on the tube) and made our way across town for our 7.15pm sitting. Typical then that the traffic was a nightmare and we crawled through central London, worrying that we were going to miss our sitting and ruin our 'anniversary meal'! When we arrived at 7.50pm, the staff were great and we were allowed in as planned.
The concept of Dans Le Noir is to choose a menu from meat, fish, vegetable or mixed and then sit in a pitch black room and enjoy the food! We chose the Gastronomique Surprise Mixed Meal (to treat ourselves) and relaxed with a glass of champagne after the manic dash to get there. We were introduced to our waiter for the night (Go) who was completely blind, who led us to our table. The darkness was really disconcerting and the noise level seemed to be several decibles higher than usual as people in the room compensated for the lack of sight by reassuring themselves with the use of sound!
Our mis en bouche was served soon after and it became apparent to us that we couldn't hope to use our cutlery with any great success to eat this and we proceeded to use our hands in what was probably a disgusting example of table manners! The texture of the food and the smell were so much more noticeable as we gobbled the food down. The skill of Go was even more apparent as he collected our plates and navigated his way around the room with consumate ease.
The starter and main were equally intriguing and equally difficult to eat using conventional means. I was very lucky not to stain the light grey trousers I was wearing or spill red wine all over my fellowe diners! The starter particularly was a very strange experience involving jelly, meat and salad! Over the next 40 minutes or so, we started to feel more comfortable and relaxed as we fought our way through the main course and dessert and discussed the experience with the people sitting near us.
Soon it was time for Go to lead back out into the dimly lit reception area, and the shock of that first bit of light for over an hour was almost painful, we must have looked like newborn rodents as we rubbed our eyes and tried to adapt! We were shown pictures of what we had eaten in the dark and were completely surprised! The Mis en bouche consisted of Foie Gras on toast, scallops in parma ham and guinea fowl - only one of which we had managed to guess (the scallop). The startee surprised us the most as it was an octopus and lobster terrine - we had no idea what the jellified mess was on our plate (I'd guessed at dog food!). The main course was wagyu beef, shark steak and ostrich meat, followed by a dessert of Gran Marnier and chocolate mousse and raspberry macaroons.
As we left the restaurat we discussed how strange and exciting the experience was. I loved it and loved the food, made even more fun by having to guess what we were eating and having to use our hands. Rachel wasn't so keen, despite loving the concept and the experience, she was uneasy at just how dark it was and didn't enjoy the food as much as if she had of been able to see it.
We finished the night with some amazing cocktails, great music and incredible views from the Harvey Nichols bar in the Oxo Tower on the Thames. The place was classy, the clientele respectable and the views of St Paul's, Westminster and the Thames at night were spectacular. It's certainly a place that we will be frequenting again and the views more than make up for the expensive drinks prices.
The weekend drew to a close, with a very lazy Sunday spent getting ready for the week ahead and relaxing on the sofa watching rubbish telly and a glass of wine. Ah, married life!
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Chris and Nikki
Chris
Nikki & I have been to Dans le noir a couple of times. We took two of our friends there & set them up on a blind date. It was hilarious seeing their faces the first time they saw each other.