At last I'm posting about my amazing Alice in Wonderland experience. I've been going on and on about this for weeks. In the end I didn't wear the pretty Warehouse dress, or the beautiful John Lewis wellies I had bought for the occasion. We were pre-warned that it would get pretty cold in the evening and it hadn't rained for months so the wellies seemed a little unnecessary. But it didn't matter, as we had a fantastic evening and I was nice and warm with my winter coat and scarf.
As we walked into the stunning grounds of Elsing Hall it really felt as if you had stepped into Wonderland. We strolled through beautiful topiary bushes as Alice peeked around the corner looking lost. We walked past wooden gates with heart shaped peep holes, we passed lily ponds and huge clusters of fragrant lavender, and then we saw hundreds of tables set up for a feast.
We were welcomed with a glass of gin and ginger ale and huge bowls of kettle chips. And as we stood and mingled waiting for the Queen of Hearts to arrive we told to memorise our number and colour. I think the organisers were psychic as they chose PINK for me.
A fanfare sounded to announce the Queen's arrival. She was joined by all the other fantastic characters from Alice in Wonderland - the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Duchess. The only character that was missing was the Cheshire Cat. I was actually quite sad about that, he is my all time favourite Alice in Wonderland character.
It wasn't long before dinner was served and we found out what our numbers and colours meant. We were all assigned a waiter for the evening. And mine was pink number 4. My friend was purple number 12. I soon started to realise why there were so many tables dotted everywhere.
For my first course of Mock Turtle soup and quail egg I was sat completely alone, with just a pineapple for company. It was great. I spent some time reading all the riddles on the table, so much time in fact that the gong sounded for us to move on to the next course and I hadn't eaten my quail's egg.
Alice could be seen peeking around the trees every now and again.
I was led to my second course of 'After the Caterpillar' which was a mushroom pate, I think, and sat with a nice lady, but a complete stranger, it was very surreal but such a fab idea.
The gong sounded and I was led to another table, through the heart shaped peep hole gate. This time there were four seats and I was joined by my friend Rachel. We were then joined by two nice gentlemen who'd travelled up from London especially for this event. I had 'The Unmeatened Leak' which was gorgeous and everyone else had the 'Pie of Hearts'. It was a huge meat pie that they had to share between them. It was so well organised and thought out. It was such a great food sharing experience and really made you interact with the people you were sat with. Luckily these guys were very nice.
It was now pretty dark and we were guided through the gardens to the most incredible view of the house. There were fairy lights everywhere and our dining tables were in the middle of a huge moat.
And here was the only jelly of the evening. I was a little worried when I read that Bompas and Parr were doing the food, as they are very famous for their jelly creations. I thought I would be eating jelly all evening. This jelly got a few giggles. It really did look like a boob and the 'nipple' wobbled around like crazy! It tasted amazing - violet and elderflower. Yummy.
Sorry about the final few pictures. My camera is rubbish in the dark. It was such a wacky evening. It was definitely more about the dining experience, I wouldn't have called it a play. The characters would come up to your table while you were eating and interact with you. The mad hatter was hilarious, he just spoke crazy nonsense, but then I guess that's the point. We had such a fab time, if you ever here of 'Dining with Alice' near you then you really must go, it was amazing. It was also in such a beautiful setting that the public don't normally get to see. I hear they do weddings there though ..... te he.
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