bbq / Georgina Does

Our Private BBQ Experience At The Elysian, Seminyak

Sunday, 23 October 2016

During our time in Seminyak, we spent five nights at The Elysian resort & like our villa in Ubud, it had a private pool and a pretty incredible bath situation. While they were both just as amazing as each other, our villa in Seminyak had a much more modern and luxurious feel to it.

We only had one full pool day and the first thing we did was open the big front room windows which covered two whole walls. We loved that our whole garden was in the sun during the day but turning the living room into part of the garden meant we were able to lay in our air conditioned lounge when it got too much. The resort also supplied an Ipod dock so we hooked that up with my nano that I haven’t updated since 2009. The first song that came on with from the Lizzie McGuire movie which had us giggling; Andrew actually loves that song.

After reading a few trip advisor reviews, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my one pool day at The Elysian. They offer private in-villa BBQs and at £35 we booked up for lunch! Everyone seemed very confused as to why we didn’t want to book for dinner, I supposed it’s more romantic but we didn’t want to stay in the villa all night so decided to book ours for 2pm so there was lots of pool time and sunbathing before and after.

Right on time, a whole team of people turned up at our villa and all got to work at once, it was a bit of a whirlwind five minutes actually as we were just expecting a some food and a DIY BBQ to arrived. Two men brought in a big gas grill and got to work setting that up, our sunbed was moved out of the way and replaced with a table and chairs, complete with tablecloth and flower, someone else brought the food (we went for seafood option), another person came as swept the garden and one more cleared any leaves that were floating in the pool; they all did their jobs and then disappeared, leaving Andrew and I with a chef and waiter.

After waving them all off; (everyone was so friendly) amazed, we both sat down in our swimwear whilst the chef got to work putting everything on the BBQ and drenching it all in melted butter. Our waiter first brought all the sides up to the table; garlic bread, potato salad, avocado and a bowl of steamed rice, it wouldn’t be Asia without the rice! I thought it might be a little bit awkward having them there but they made us feel comfortable and we really enjoyed chatting to them.

Once salad was served, the first round of fish was ready! There was so much food. We started with tuna steaks, Mahi Mahi, jacket potatoes and grilled squid followed by king prawns and half a lobster each and every piece was delicious.

Once all the food was cooked, they asked if we wanted anything else and then left us to enjoy the afternoon together telling us to call them when we were ready for someone to come and clear up. They even had dessert delivered half an hour later but I was honestly too full by then!

We spent the rest of the afternoon the same way we had spent the morning, playing around in and out of the pool and relaxing in the sunshine (and in the shade). It was all very honeymoony but such a wonderful day!

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Friday, 4 September 2015

My last Five Things post went down pretty well so I've decided to make it a regular thing! This month, lots of exciting things happened so I had a super hard time cutting it down to just five - beware, there are lots of photos in this one!

BBQ

On Saturday, we had our last BBQ of the summer and it was a great one to end on! Our friend, Terry (the one who got married last month, remember?) loves a BBQ and went down to one of Londons big meat markets to pick up supplies! He has also just built a bar in his shed so as soon as the rain (What would a BBQ be without a little bit of rain?!) started, we spent the rest of the afternoon in there! I took up bar maid duties while we played darts and beer pong all night!

Carolines Hen Party!

Andrews sister is getting married in a couple of weeks and earlier this month she had her hen party! We went out for dinner and drinks at a Moroccan restaurant in Knightsbridge. It was my first ever hen party and I was a little bit worried about not knowing anyone else but that all dissapeared as soon as I met everyone - they are all really friendly and we had a great night! Now its time to start getting excited for the wedding!

Holiday

August finally arrived and so did our big family holiday - Andrew came along too! We flew to Barcelona and boarded The Allure Of The Seas! It is the biggest ship in the world and had so much to do on board. We had heard loads about it and done loads of research so we were super excited to see it all finally. My favourite place was Central Park - literally a park running through the middle of the ship! They also had a high street with all sorts of restaurants and shops, a hot dog stand, a carousel and so much more! Cruising for us is all about the food and it didn't disappoint - every meal was delicious!!

I hope you all dont mind the personal photos here - I guess that is the whole point of this sort of post!and soz about the blur, obvs my phone photos dont like being stretched.

Birthday

I like to make my birthday last as long as I can and I managed to drag it out until the end of the month! This weekend, Andrew took me off to a hotel for the last installment of my birthday! We spent the afternoon having an exfoliating scrub in the spa, followed by some jacuzzi time before dinner at Benihana! We then spend the evening in the room watching X Factor and Rush Hour! He also got a big red rose delivered to the room for me! Perfect way to finish Birthday Month! Obvs I didnt take many photos as I was too busy relaxing!

As for the rest of my birthday, I was on holiday for the actual day but on the Friday before one of the girls at work cooked me this amazing cake and they all sang happy birthday haha. and that evening, Andrew took me to Big Easy for dinner too and got a little candle in my dessert! Cute.

As for the actual day, Andrew and my parents packed all my cards and a few little gifts so I could open something while I was on holiday! We were on the cruise and stopped off in France for the morning so we had a little wander before getting back on board to eat some more! There was a Kate Spade shop on board and that evening, Andrew bought me the cutest little black leather bag as an extra birthday present! When we got to the till, I spotted this super cute little key ring which I couldn't get out of my head so on the last night, I popped back in and bought it for myself!

A Viewing At The Shard

Avios is a rewards point scheme where you collect points on everyday spends such as groceries and holidays then you can spend them on more holidays or experiences!

They have recently launched their DoMoreWithAvios campaign in which you can send an invite to your favourite person to help you spend your points and so of course when the lovely guys at Avios recently got me a couple of tickets for a viewing of the Shard, I took my favourite person!

Andrew and I had been meaning to do it for ages so it was a great opportunity for us to finally go! We both really enjoyed it and the views were incredible - Luckily we had some sunshine too!

How Was Your August?

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Monday, 1 September 2014

Having lots of BBQs in the garden with family and friends is one of my favourite things to do in the summer but sadly, for some reason, this year, we really haven't had anywhere near as many as usual so when I got an invite to a blogger BBQ I was super excited since it was probably going to be my last one for this year now that they weather is going all strange!

This BBQ was a little different - instead of the usual burgers and sausages, we had Quorn ones! As always with Quorn, I wasn't too sure to begin with, I've now tried it cooked a few times and its certainly not bad but with the BBQ I thought it was just crumble through the grill - but it didn't! The chefs also marinated the food before they cooked it so both the burgers and the sausages had an extra yummy flavour on top!

I was also very impressed with cocktail sausages - which they have absolutely perfected - and the scotch eggs although I'd never had a real one before to compare it too haha but they tasted good! As well as the Quorn they laid on free drinks from the bar, crisps and nibbles with lots of dips, all the buns, cheese and sauces we needed and for dessert, cheesecake and trifle!

Anyway, we grabbed our food, got a drink (my new favourite thing is a Passion fruit Rekorderlig - soo yummy) and sat around eating and chatting all night!!

Such a lovely way to spend the evening! Big thanks for Quorn for having me!