Paddy’s super duper down under lux-fest

Paddy Power are running a leader board comp in their live casino at the moment.

The grand prize, which goes to one of the top 5 place-getters is, in Paddy Power’s words a “VIP trip to Australia”.

Now I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this, but casinos tend to be pretty liberal with the use of the term VIP when describing prizes.

A VIP trip can sometimes include such things as economy seats on Ryanair, meals not included. How many very important people have subjected themselves to this kind of luxury?

It must be said though, that Paddy’s VIP trip to Australia is truly VIP.

Having either sampled, tried to sample, or been too scared for financial reasons to sample the items on this trip’s agenda I do feel at least partially qualified to offer a critique.

So here goes…

The winner and friend get…

• Return Business class flights and transfers from London Gatwick to Melbourne for October 30th – November 6th 2015.
  – Keyword here is of course…Business. A 26 hour economy class flight is NOT a prize, let me assure you.
• 7 nights’ accommodation at the five star Grand Hyatt Melbourne. Grand Twin/King Room with breakfast included
  –  Can attest to the location, not the rooms as never stayed.
• Garden View Pavilion hospitality at Melbourne Cup – executive transfers also included
  – Big event, dubbed the race that stops a nation. Derby or Oaks days possibly the better Cup Carnival days from a crowd perspective, but after 10 beers a hundred thousand Aussie bogans won’t bother you in the slightest.
• Fine dining experience at Vue de Monde, Melbourne
  – This is the kind of restaurant that strikes fiscal fear into the hearts of blokes trying to impress their significant other with a swanky night out. You do not want to be picking up the  bill at this place.  You won’t believe the prices of some of their wines.
• Fine dining experience with accompanying wine at the Attica Restaurant, Melbourne
  – This is rated the best restaurant in Australia and the 32nd best restaurant in the world. I know this because my girlfriend told me many times. We lived close by. We also walked past it many times to dine at the Nando’s about 200 meters down the road. Attica doesn’t have PeriPeri sauce I assured her.
• Overnight stay in Sydney, including
• Return internal flights from Melbourne
• 1 night stay in a deluxe room at the Four Seasons
  – Sure to be very nice hotel.
• Sydney Harbour Luxury cruise with barbeque lunch
  – Sydney harbour cruise is a bucket list experience. Many beautiful things to see while kicking back, stress free on the boat.
• Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk
  – Don’t do it if you’re afraid of  heights, or wary of wearing overalls worn by someone else who is terrified of heights
• Lunch at Michelin Star Quay with accompanying premium wine
  – By now very expensive food will seem like McDonald’s to you.
• 1k in spending money.
  – Perhaps don’t take it to the Melbourne Cup

One final handy tip for the winner …2 glasses of red wine followed by 2 Temazepam plus 1 Nurofen can put a nice sleep dent in a 26 hr (+/-) flight!