Almost a year ago (I have a somewhat tenuous relationship with time on this blog), my grandparents celebrated sixty gorgeous years of marriage and togetherness. Sixty years spanning multiple states and houses, sixty years that have taken them from the days of fresh milk dropped off at the door by a man with a horse and cart to today’s world in which a myriad different soy milks can be ordered over the Internet.
Sixty years, three children, three grand-children, laughter, tears, games of Cribbage and Five Hundred, dinners, lunches, breakfasts, and, above all, love.
My parents, brother, uncle, aunt, cousin, and I joined Grandma and Grandpa at The Boathouse By The Lake (previously reviewed here) to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.
As our anniversary gift, E.TeacherLord and I secretly planned two pieces to perform at the restaurant. To this end, we all arrived smack-bang on opening time, hoping that the vast formal dining would therefore be empty. We didn’t want to make a ruckus, you see.
Alas, there were three other groups already seated, but each very kindly encouraged us to go ahead when I dashed over to politely ask if my brother and I could play some music for a few minutes.
And that is how E.TeacherLord and I came to serenade our grandparents, immediate family, quite a few strangers, and some rather attractive waitstaff in the middle of one of Canberra’s fanciest restaurants, performing Moon River and Taylor Swift’s Love Story then, after calls for an encore, With A Little Help From My Friends.
Food time now! (No segue for you.) Ooh, let’s call these candle-lit photos “blurrily romantic in the spirit of a 60th wedding anniversary”, yes?
The above just-baked bread roll was heady with truffle, and blew my mind. This was the first time I really understood the truffle thing. Scrumptious.
I’m an oysters natural devotee, but acquiesced to have three of my nine Coffin Bay oysters served as per the menu, with Jamon Iberico, balsamic, goats cheese, and semi-dried tomatoes. Not bad, Boathouse, not bad.
My brother started with the Seared Hervey Bay scallops on cauliflower puree with black pudding, red onion jam and pinenut brittle, baby leaf salad. He generously let me try this and, golly, the flavours popped.
Next up for me was the Alaskan King crab, fennel, basil and Yarra Valley salmon caviar tian, with tropical lobster and cognac bisque. Who says Canberra has to suffer for being landlocked with only an algae-infested man-made lake for water?
Of course, with ten people at the table each having three courses, there was more deliciousness involved here than I can show you. So let’s skip ahead to the best part: dessert.
I had a silky crème brulee topped with shavings of chocolate, served with poached cherries and almond bread. Mmm, almond bread.
My grandpa’s chocolate mousse with macarons and cherry nougat appealed strongly to my inner snack-fiend. My grandpa gave me his nougat. I love him.
When I saw the pistachio ice cream and pashmak belonging to my brother’s molten chocolate fondant, I experienced what is commonly known as “envy” but which I call “aren’t you a lovely brother for letting me have your fairy floss”.
And then I spotted spun toffee across the table and realised that life isn’t fair.
Happy 60th Anniversary, Grandma and Grandpa. You are wonderful and all things good. Thank you for helping me believe in love.
What a lovely night – and recap post. I love that you and your brother performed, especially as it’s something I don’t think I could ever do (even if I was musically talented, which I’m not!), and I bet the rest of the restaurant loved it too. And I also love the look of your grandpa’s dessert. A lot.
Thank you Kari
It was rather nerve-wracking; the original plan had been to perform in their house but events conspired to make the restaurant the better option. I only hope the other patrons didn’t complain about us afterwards!
There are some Lovely moist looking dishes there.
Oooh, I’m not sure you you are, but I applaud your dedication to poking fun at my hatred of the word moist.
Aww what a wonderful night! Grandparents are so important. I don’t have any left and I miss them!
Oh Lorraine!! I’m so sorry. You can come have fancy lunch/dinner with mine and me anytime
xo
It was a lovely night — starting with the music. You are a great and wonderful pair.
Aw, squish! We come from a great and wonderful pair.
What a terrific way to celebrate two obviously awesome oldies!
Truffle bread – want!
Before this, I’d had truffle cheese, truffle butter, and even straight truffle, and had never understood what the fuss was about. But that bread was crazy delicious!
How wonderful that they are not only alive and well but still together! What a wonderful example to you. I wish you had recorded your singing and uploaded it – I would have loved to have heard your performance xx
Such a shining example! I don’t think I’ll be quite able to make 60 years myself, considering my still-single state at almost 25, but I can certainly hope for their level of love and kindness
P.S. I think Dad did actually record some of it, but I don’t think I have the courage to post a video of myself singing!!
What WAS the spun toffee dessert?! I WANT. Plus your hair looks very foxy
Clever Hannah took photos of the savoury menu but not the dessert menu! I so hoped no one would call me out of my vague dessert descriptions
And thank you! Right now I want a straightener; my curly hair is misbehaving badly at present.
what a delightful evening – to mark such a special occasion!
It was wonderful night and this post reminds us all over again of what a beautiful family we have and how wonderful it is that everyone wanted to share it with us – some of them even coming from far away Tasmania. The memory of the serenade is something we’ll always treasure (you sneaky pair, you).
I wish I could spend moments with you and Grandpa every day, dear Grandma! And you know I’ll happily serenade you any day
P.S. Though our outing today was a smaller gathering, it suffused my soul with such happiness and joy! We shall have to plan another soon for the purpose of showing off our new sparklies
xoxo
Oh wow. I wish I could say of myself I’ve been married for such a long time. But now I’m almost 30 and single (although not unhappy with that). So probably not this life, except I’d get *very* old (but I’m not sure if I want to get that old anyway).
I love that you played music for your grandparents! And E.TeacherLord plays the guitar. Nice! (I’ve started to notice things like that, now that I’m playing as well.
)
As I wrote to Charlie above, being almost 25 and still (happily) single myself, I also don’t think the 60 years of marriage is in my future either! But hopefully we’ll get to experience something like their level of love one day (when we’re ready
)
My brother has played almost all his life, and is still going strong. It helps with the laydies, I think
Why is there no video so we can hear your performance?
Looks like you and your family had a great time
Actually, I think my dad did record some of it, but I don’t think I have the courage to post videos of myself singing!!
How gorgeous of you and your brother to perform in the middle of a restaurant!
Those desserts all look like they’re straight from MasterChef, and all give me dessert envy.
Thanks Theresa. It was mildly nerve-wracking!
I want all of the desserts again myself…
That is the bravest and sweetest gift to give such special people – well done my friend
As for the food, I am not going to talk about that considering I just really wish it would come out of the screen
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thank you; that’s a lovely thing to say
You could always try licking the screen.
What a sweet present – and lots of lovely sweet desserts – I think I loved the look of the chocolate fondant best (I am predictable when it comes to dessert and always veer towards chocolate). Sounds like a wonderful celebration of a wonderful marriage
S’cool, just means you and I are like yin and yang when it comes to dessert. At least we’ll never fall out fighting for the last bite!
Gorgeous
your grandparents as well as you & your brother. Love moon river. & you know my feelings about tayler swift. i hate her. sorry i can’t even joke about that, I adore her. And you.
Heidi xo
Teehee! Thank you for the giggle. Next time, dear heart, you and I are going to walk down the street with our Tasti D’Lite singing Mine and You Belong With Me. Then we can go home to watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s, cringing at the awful racist parts but sighing over Audrey Hepburn. xo
Your brother looks so devious in the first photo, hah.
What a bunch of terrific-looking desserts. Poached cherries and almond bread sounds completely fabulous!
Oh, cribbage. So enjoyable. Alas, my cribbage-ing with my father has now come to an end for now!
Hmm. That’s possibly because I did the “correct red eye” feature in the photo-editing process and we went from devil-red-eye-children to demon-black-eye-children. It was lose-lose, really.
Shhh, don’t tell anyone, but it was the almond bread more than the brulee that I wanted
I’m sorry about the temporary pause in the father cribbage-ing! There could always be Aussie cribbage-ing at some point, maybe…
YES YES YES YAY!
What a cool gift for your grandparents… and how cool that they are together after all this time! If my husband and I make it to 60 years together (because we’re still alive, not because I might kill him for talking so much during MasterChef) I’ll be 84 and he’ll be 89. It could happen!
I love that you’re an oysters natural girl! Me too. Anything else is just gilding the lily!
Exactly; why can’t chefs just leave oysters be?!
84 and 89? Totally doable! My grandpa is in his 90s. You can do it easily!
What a lovely post about your grandparents
. Sounds like it was a wonderful occasion and I would love to hear you sing one day 
. LOVE those desserts *drool*
Thanks Ames
Hey, you could always come to one of my choir’s concerts… teehee, gotta drum up an audience wherever we can! 
Oh man this is quite possibly the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. What a great milestone for your grandparents, congratulations to the whole family! And it’s so special of you guys to sing for them like that in front of everyone. Can you pls pls pls put up a recording of your singing that we’ve been reading about all this time! I’m sure it sounds nothing short of angelic hehe
Oh Winstons, thank you! It was quite nerve-wracking, but I think my grandparents were really happy and touched
Aaaaaaah!! I’m honestly nothing like, say, a contestant on The Voice, I’ve never had any training! I really didn’t think I had the courage but so many people has asked… I’ll see if maybe Dad can cut a tiny bit from my solo at my choir’s concert last December. But I’ll probably chicken out 