Seychelles + Cologne, Germany
It's a very festive time of year, as both Alison and Lulu are in Christmas shows right now. You can see Alison in The Winter Wonderettes at Stageworks Theater in Tampa, and Lulu is in The Christmas Carol at Hanesbrand Theater in Greensboro, North Carolina. So if you are in either of those places, come see the show and say hi!
Lulu says this has never officially been her obsession, but everyone in the world knows that Lulu loves romantic Christmas movies. She breaks down where you can find them...Hallmark, ION, Freeform, Netflix, and Hulu. Clearly she is the expert on what she calls "fairytales for grown-ups". I mean all the protagonists are women her age, which is nice to see. Lulu loves them, and chronicles her viewing of them on her insta story - quite hilariously might I add. Alison is obsessed with Lumify Eye drops. She has allergy issues and with two pets and two kids, she could use a little help. So after research and shopping she finds the Lumify Eye drops whose sole purpose is to make your eyes whiter. Lulu asked Alison if there are any soothing properties, or if it's just cosmetic? Alison replied that "they soothe her soul", so there's that. And it's not just her, one reviewer on Amazon states "this product made me believe there was a God". Well, then we're sold!
Alison is apparently on a whitening kick, because in addition to being obsessed with her eye-whitening eyedrops, her wishlist this week is to get her teeth whitened. She doesn't like the whitestrips, so does anyone have a suggestion on a good alternative method that won't break the bank? Lulu recommends this one called Plus White. Alison is grateful for the suggestion and is really just looking for a way to improve her wine and ketchup stained teeth. Aren't we all. Lulu is wishing for every item from this list of the best drinking chocolates of 2018. But while some require a special order, the one named "best powder" is a Ghiradelli Hot Cocoa Powder that you can easily add to your next Prime shipment. She might just get some to indulge while watching her next Hallmark movie.
Okay, is it Seychelles or The Seychelles? Alison googled the correct pronunciation, and nails it by the way, but forgot to look this one up. It's just Seychelles, no "the" needed. It is a small island east of mainland Africa, though she decides to go even further and stay on a tiny island off of Seychelles, called Fregate Island. It is a mini Galapagos Island, with just sixteen secluded villas to choose from. Alison's favorite part of this place is that they "invite you to dine wherever you want". What does this even mean? Oh, you can eat breakfast in a banyan tree, or head to a torch lit barbecue on the beach, or pick your own produce and dine in the fields. You can even eat at your pool. Wherever you can imagine to eat, you can. Oh and you get a private butler, who can arrange boat rides, beach parties, and night safaris for you. Oh, and you get a private assistant, a private chef and maid, your own personal buggy, a welcome massage, guided nature walks and a free yoga session. Do I really need another “and” or are you already fantasizing about your escape too? Here's the thing though, all of this for the six adults that could fit in this villa is 16K. Reminder, she only has 10K. So she is going to invite five people to join her, but require that they pay their own portion. Lucky them...I guess?
On this island she found the Rock Spa where she gets the creole facial, a coconut & banana body mask, and a bread fruit and yoghurt hair treatment. Wait is this a list of spa services or a restaurant menu? Either way, yum. And the good news is all of her guests, while they had to pay for their stay, are getting treated to the same spa day. Not mad about that! Especially since it is done in the villa with glasses of champagne! Now, apparently the best way to see the area is to charter a helicopter, so she gets her private assistant that came with the villa to arrange this for her and her guests. As a gift for her guests she buys six 180-degree view full face snorkel mask - that come with an action camera mount, by the way - so that we can snorkel in the reefs off the coast. You can even swim with the harmless whale sharks, and very special to Alison, the sea turtles. We also get to enjoy Anse Macquereau beach, which she read is very secluded, and at the beginning of the walk down, there is a sign you can flip over that says "beach occupied". You know what that means? After our snorkeling fun we are going to go nude sun bathing (good-bye tan lines!) while sipping on a $500 bottle of Roederer Cristal Rosé. Not bad, not bad at all.
We take a sharp turn from Ali's sunny vacay to head to Cologne, Germany. Lulu loves a car and driver, so books with Blacklane for the whole day. She stays in the Dom Suite at Kalthoff Grandhotel Schloss Bensberg where she receives a champagne welcome. Her first stop is at the Schokoladen Museum where she takes a tour of the museum that covers all you could possibly want to know about the culture & history of chocolate. A visit to the in-house (or “in-museum”?) Hussel Chocolate Shop is a must, where she had a chocolate bar custom-made with the 10K Dollar Day tagline “With friends like us, who needs amenities?". She buys some one for everyone on #Team10K and one for each of our Patreon supporters.
Cologne is famous at this time of the year for their Christmas Markets. Yes, that is markets, plural. There is the Cathedral Christmas market, with hundreds of performances, there is an 80 foot tree with 50,000 lights, there is even a market where angels wander around, and perhaps most importantly, there is Glühwein (mulled wine) everywhere. This sounds like a scene from one of Lulu's favorite Hallmark movies. She decides she wants to leave her mark on these Christmas markets, so she flies Alison to meet her, as well as friends Jerome and Adam of OneUp, and they are going Christmas caroling. Not one to do anything half-way, Lulu has Alison pick up some Dickensian costumes from freeFall theater on the way over. Oh, and she's bringing two pitch pipes, four thermoses, and four iPads, which Alison will fill with lyrics to all the Christmas songs. She has to have something to do on the long flight over. Oh and perhaps she can hollow out some old books so that the group isn't in 19th century costumes holding 21st century technology. Lulu gives Alison, Jerome, and Adam the choice of filling their thermoses with Glühwein or Rheinherz (a hot drink of moxxa coffee, plum juice and honey) and then they are off to spread some holiday cheer through song. If you didn’t know Lulu loves Christmas, then this 10K day has made it very clear.
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