Doing It In Style.

Chalk off another few list items if you will, because I killed two birds with one stone yesterday. To start with, I had my first Kirby catch-up, and am proud to announce to the internet that I didn't get lost ONCE. I made it all the way to her place, without heading in the wrong direction and in record time. I'm proud of myself. You should be too.

(I probably needed to add 'stop being so bloody useless when driving to unfamiliar places' as an item on my list, although I was trying to be realistic with my expectations, wasn't I?)

Stupid Aly idea of the day: Ordering a caramel macchiato from Starbucks. In grande size. With extra sugar. I don't drink coffee, ever, especially not 'gourmet' coffee, so I was hyper before even beginning our movie adventure. Just ask Kirby.

Yep, a good month after everyone else, we finally watched Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix. In Gold Class. What is that exactly? Basically, it's a really overpriced option of seeing a movie at any old theatre. You pay double the price, but get cushy seats and the option of being catered to while you enjoy the movie. I had a rough idea of what to expect, but yesterday's movie experience turned out to be much more extravagant than I predicted.

Firstly, we were told to bypass the candy bar and head towards the sign on the wall saying, yep, Gold Class. Once there, we stared around blankly, wondering where to go next and if we had to walk through the fire exit, when a sliding door magically opened in front of us. Once we shuffled awkwardly inside, we were greeted by a huge bar with one hell of a lot of wine bottles on it, and dozens of funky lounges with giant cushions. The lounge also had faces on the walls, roof and lamps, which was a little creepy and warranted me taking a photo.

(Unfortunately for you though, until I figure out how to get the images OFF my phone and onto the computer, you'll just have to imagine seeing Audrey Hepburn's face made out of dots on the ceiling. And random babies in lamps. Was weird.)

Feeling completely overwhelmed, we wandered up to the bar and asked what to do next. Here, we were given a menu (!) by the usher and asked to check it out and decide whether we'd like to order anything. As fascinated as I was by the $12 meat pies & $18 gourmet pizzas, all I wanted was my standard movie fare of popcorn and a drink. Which weren't on the menu. I was dismayed. And too embarrassed to ask for it. Especially since I was at this stage giggling like a schoolgirl because it was all so darned fancy. And because of caffeine. Lots of caffeine.

We eventually decided to be brave and ask the usher if we could have our popcorn, after which he proceeded to ask us at what time in the movie would we like our food? I was like, er, whenever? To which he sort of raised an eyebrow and probably thought about how I was a big stupid moron. We sat back down on the comfy lounge suite, singing along to Kylie Minogue on the speakers, and were soon showed into the theatre.

I thought we'd just be in a special section of the normal theatre, but I was way off on that one. We had our own private movie theatre! Well, not just Kirby and I. But there were only about 32 seats in the entire place. And boy, were they seats. Full reclining lounge chairs, with a table in front of them for food. It was just crazy. Sitting there in the big chairs playing with the recliner button, I felt like a little kid who was being naughty, I don't think I've laughed so much in a long time. (Kirby's fantastic company is to be commended.)

Despite a few minutes of mild panic when everyone else was delivered their gourmet food and cocktails (!) and our popcorn hadn't arrived, we did finally get our food. And it wasn't just in your standard cardboard packaging, either. Oh no. We got our popcorn in a big serving bowl, and our frozen cokes in tall drinking glasses. How's that for service?

All up, the movie itself was fantastic, the lounges were so comfortable and the whole experience was such a good day, I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to watching movies in 'economy class' anymore. But with a $36 price tag (plus food) I don't think I'll be able to afford the movies very much, either. I think Gold Class is excellent for longer movies, but definitely not a weekly thing. It's a shame though. One could get used to the luxury!