A Magical Night of Well-Mannered Frivolity ϟ

Last night I fulfilled what must have been a dream since 2000, after the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (holy hippogriffs, how did that come out thirteen years ago?). I got to metaphorically step into the world of witchcraft and wizardry, literally step into a beautiful floor length gown and party with my fellow HP loving friends, as well as some new faces from two other schools. 

Last night, I went to the Yule Ball.

The Harry Potter club at my uni, along with the clubs at two others, got together and organised this incredible, magnificent night. I'd only ever been to one fancy event in my life (Year 12 formal) and was therefore greatly excited to dress up and pretend to be a dignified, beautiful and classy young lady again. Mostly I just wanted to rock a pretty dress.

We all gathered at my friend's house, where we were welcomed warmly with questionable mixed drinks, took a couple of photos and hopped into the maxi taxi. Not exactly an enormous ship or flying-horse pulled carriage, but I'll take it. It's probably more of a challenge to take selfies when inside a submerged vessel, anyway.

Upon arriving at the venue, inside the door stood a life-size replica of the trio, a table full of goblets, owls and fake cobwebs, plus a board with our table numbers and names on it. It was created on beautiful old parchment (aka coffee stained paper that we used to make for projects in grade 5) and was even embossed with an owl stamp. My friends and I were originally seated at Hagrid's Hut, but graciously relocated to Godric's Hollow to accomodate some seating shortages. 

One of the first things I noticed on the table was our menu. It was a legitimate replica of the marauder's map (I made sure to bring two home) and each dish was written out as though fit for the back-to-school Hogwarts dinner. It included blast-ended skrewts (spinach and ricotta cannelloni), dragon-flamed augery (lemon pepper chicken) and Dumbledore's Lemon Sherbet Surprise (lemon curd tart), among other magical and delicious things. We definitely got our money's worth and I think I may have been one of the only few to actually finish all courses plus dessert. No one else would stand a chance at the Halloween feast.

In between all the tables was the dance floor, where we grooved to all the typical event songs; Jesse's Girl, Stacey's Mom, Sk8er Boi... there was even a Grease medley. The most special song of the night (and my personal favourite) was non other than 'Do The Hippogriff' by the Weird Sisters. Amongst a bunch of fully-fledged potter-heads, that one went off. Between courses, one of the organisers hosted a Hogwarts dance-off, where each house got up together and boogied their best for one song. The Hufflepuff's got the Macarena, Ravenclaw had the Nutbush, Slytherin danced to Barbie Girl and The Gryffindor's got down to Single Ladies. Understandably, Gryffindor took the (metaphorical) cup.

I felt like Hermione any time I walked down a set of stairs (and prayed internally that I wouldn't fall), slightly wishing I'd forked out the $345 for her ruffly pink dress from the store at Wizarding World last year, but I did enjoy rocking a more Pansy Parkinson-eqsue black number. I ran into some high school friends, even some primary school friends, and for the most part made some great new ones. I stayed later than the rest of the girls at my table, so I hit the dance floor with a mix of kids from other schools. I danced for a while with a nice Slytherin boy, and even took a photo with a Ron Weasley doppelganger. It was just so exciting to be surrounded by like-minded people, equally as enthusiastic about something and just having one heck of a good time.

All in all, it was one terrific night!

Scroll below for photos :)

I'm super good at photos.

Me and Ron plus some photo bombers

THIS WAS THE MENU YOU GUYS

Our table was number 7, aka the most magical number of all.

Selfies are just more fun when you're wearing a floor-length dress

Me & Haz.

No sign of Myrtle, thankfully.

After almost having a heart attack seeing this on the D-Floor, I scored this awesome ring.
Ron's not a big fan.

Swiped this on my way out!

Winter Wishlist ❄

If it were December I'd be sending this to Santa, but since we're only halfway through the year,
it looks like I'm just going to have to get these presents for myself.

1. A bright yellow coat. I've wanted one for years and always tell myself I'll get one for winter but still haven't found quite the perfect style. I love vibrant colours and yellow is my favourite, I think it would bring me some sunshine on those cold, gloomy days.

2. A Vitamix. These bad boys are pretty much the holy grail of high performance blenders. Early in the summer our blender broke, meaning I missed out on months of potential smoothie and juice creating. Now that my health is quite poor and my throat is especially suffering, a great bix giant mixing machine would be the easiest way to get in a big veggie fix and provide my body with nutrients in a fast and delicious way (plus then I could stop spending $5 a day on my spinach, grape and coconut water concoction). Unfortunately these come in at anywhere up to $995 a pop, but if I'm to get one I think I'll go for the cheaper versions found on Amazon. I know you can't put a price on health, but damn a girl's gotta spend her money wisely. I think I'll start a 'vitamix jar' fund much like my 'jonas jar' of 2008.

3. A camera! Sadly my good old trusty Canon IXUS broke (they tend to do that when you drop them repeatedly) some time last year and I've been relying on my grainy iPhone 4 camera since. It does the job okay, but my selfies really aren't what they could be. As I'm taking off overseas in less than a month (!!!), I'll need to be properly equipped with the tools to capture my adventure. I really loved the simplicity and quality of my old digital camera, so I plan on purchasing another one of those bad boys and maybe a lil something extra. I'd love to get a DSLR and take amazing photos on my travels, the only problem is I really don't know much about how to use them. Maybe someday I'll make the upgrade and get someone to show me the ropes, but for now I'm considering a mini Fuji Instax polaroid camera. I love the wallet-sized photos and the camera itself reminds me of those groovy i-zone cameras from the early 2000s. Did anyone have one of those? That, along with a girl-tech password journal, was at the very top of my childhood wish list. I think I want to get one in white and cover it in little stickers. Or maybe cover the photos in stickers. I take photography very seriously.

                    

                           

4. Books, books, and more books. It's officially Winter, which means hibernation is now socially acceptable. Honestly I like cold weather about as much as Severus Snape likes shampooing his hair (aka none) but I'm trying to make the most of it, which means embracing movie nights in fleece onesies, an endless stream of hot chocolates and curling up by the fireplace with a good book. By 'fireplace' I mean ducted heating vent and by 'curl up' I mean crouch over, because sadly I don't live in a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie. This means entertaining myself in other ways, such as cracking open a good book or two. While it being gross outside is the perfect opportunity to catch up with old friends on their tales of witchcraft and wizardry, so is three weeks of long flights, lying by the pool and enjoying some shade at the beach. I head off overseas in just over a month now, so I really need to get cracking on finding some good reads. Last time I think I read four books in the first week, whereas here I've been reading the same book every night since March. So far, these are what I'm looking at getting for hibernation season/my trip:

1. The Yellow World by Albert Espinosa
2. You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers
3. Before I go to Sleep by S. J. Watson
4. Don't Worry, It Gets Worse by Alida Nugent
5. The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee by Sarah Silverman
6. Girl Walks into a Bar: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters and a Midlife Miracle by Rachel Dratch
7. Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me by Chelsea Handler
8. Man Up!: Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence by Ross Matthews
9. Adulting by Kelly Williams Brown
10. The List by Siobhan Vivian
11. This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
12. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
13. White Girl Problems by Babe Walker
14. Reshaping It All: Motivation for Physical and Spiritual Fitness by Candace Cameron (aka DJ on Full House... I might just be reading this in the hopes of finding out how to get her hair)
15. MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search For a New Best Friend by Rachel Bertsche
16. The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy: Hogwarts for Muggles by William Irwin
17. How They Met and Other Stories by David Levithan
18. Everyday by David Levithan

 

 

5. Big delicious breakfasts all day everyday. This isn't so much a Winter thing, more just an excuse for me to look at food porn on Google images and talk about the love of my life - breakfast. Bircher muesli, granola, porridge, acai bowls - you name it. If it's got grains and some sort of yogurt or berries, I'm all over it. Since we're well and truly into the colder months now I'm transitioning into hearty cooked feasts that will get me out of my toasty bed and keep me full all day (or at least until brunch time). As of this time I will be on holidays after a long, hardworking semester of uni (I went two days a week and don't think I did any readings but still) cannot wait for my freedom. I have absolutely no problem spending days on end, eating my body weight in piping hot, delicious bowls of oatmeal, topped with goji berries, chia seeds and a nut butter of choice.

Now I will leave you with some mouth-watering bowls of goodness.

~`* explicit content *`~

((food porn))

                          

 If that didn't make you want to go and devour a great big bowl of bircher or perhaps some steel cut oats with millions of toppings, then you're a liar and we can't be friends.

Just kidding.

That means more for me.

☮