Pip's 40th

It's been a month of 40th Birthdays so far. We celebrated Donna's 40th in early Feb, followed by Anthony's and now Philippe's.

Birthday Boy!

We met up with Philippe, Guy and Troy after work on Friday and headed to the Minus 5 bar at Circular Quay. This place is a bizarre concept where you rug up in Ugg Boots, gloves and a huge jackets and then enter a bar made entirely of ice! The hefty $30pp (for 30 minutes no less!) includes a vodka cocktail (in a glass made entirely of, you guessed it, ice!). All goes well for the first 5 minutes then after the cocktail has finished and you have to amuse yourself in an ice cave overlooking the best sunny harbour in the world it loses it's shine somewhat. It should be called "5 Minute" not Minus 5.

Troy and I posing at Minus 5

After that 'experience' we all got cabs to Surry Hills where we had a table booked at Cochin, a Vietnamese restaurant. Now, I'd like to say that it was fantastic however, it took the ONE waitress around 15 minutes to bring the menus and then she hovered over us trying to take our order straight away! Odd!!

When the food did arrive, it was pretty good but the atmosphere seemed tarnished by the obvious lack of wait staff. Guy, Troy, Jodie and I bought Philippe a really nice Pierre Cardin watch for his birthday. Philippe was over the moon with it and took off his old watch to replace it straight away! We did enjoy the food and a few drinks but I can't say I'd rush back.

We made our own entertainment at the restaurant

We all headed out to Oxford Street post dinner and this was the night before the annual Mardi Gras so everywhere was packed. We tried to find somewhere without a queue that ran the entire length of Oxford Street and finally find a place and settled down for a few birthday drinkies. We ended up getting talking to a nice selection of random strangers before heading home and leaving the partying crowds to it.