The week that was...

... busy!

Wow... Well, that was some week. I spent almost no time at home so Saturday day-time and today has just been catching up on household stuff (you know, boring essentials like washing). Found out my brother's now got ADSL over in Canada this evening so caught up with him. Haven't chatted in quite a while, since they moved out there in fact - a few months ago.

The whole week was full of clubbing, meeting people, and oh yes, two Christmas dinners. I can tell you about the dinners, and I can tell you about the clubs in general, but anything beyond that isn't really safe content for this blog... I need another one to log stuff like that. Say, on a site more dedicated to the topics. Oh! (does a little fake double-take to self)

The first dinner was our annual bellringer's Christmas do for my local tower I ring at, which we had at a good pub in Crondall - The Plume and Feathers. Very nice food indeed, ok service (there was a longer delay between courses than would have been ideal, but it didn't matter much). My duck, cooked like a steak, was amazingly tasty - it's a long time since I've had duck that tasty. A good evening all round.

The second one (the very next day - so I didn't bother to eat much breakfast or lunch) was my work dinner, at Dover St. Restaurant, Mayfair, London. We were fair packed into one end of this jazz themed place on three long tables. The food was quite decent, and they have live jazz music (although some of it varied from pure jazz) playing til 10pm. Then the band packs up and they open the space up as a dance floor. I had good fun, and we ended up having a shot-drinking competition between the tables.

Luckily this challenge didn't outlast everybody's sanity or stomach health. Each table tried to concoct up their next drink and then they'd order a table's worth of it so 15 to 20-odd (rough guess) shots arrived with the poor waiter trying hard not to spill any. They were getting more special or exclusive to try and beat the last one and we ended up with a pear liqueur and something-else (that I completely forget, yes I was getting tipsy by this point) specially made for us by the barman. We also had some colula (spelling?) which I rather liked. I don't think I've tried that before. Very warming, in a nice way. It almost reminded me of goldschager - which is completely evil, by the way and not served at many places. That's the one that contains little shards of gold metal in it to make it sparkle and tend to have a not-entirely-health-giving effect on your throat as you swallow - gets it into the bloodstream quicker, so someone said on my birthday a few years ago.
We didn't win quantity wise (just 2nd), but I thought we were far ahead in originality, which I like to think of as the superior win... Intellectually at least :-)

Just a pity I left before the end of the evening to catch the last train back from Waterloo at 0:05, as it went on til 3am (though I don't know if any stayed that late). I got back at 1.40am. I didn't really want to go, but with the busy days I had planned ahead, I thought I should. Luckily I'd booked Thursday and Friday off work, but Thursday (and part of Friday, with an unplanned stopover) was still taken up meeting a good friend and being introduced to someone else I'd chatted to before but not met. Another very good couple of days, with another nice meal out in the evening (in Arundel, this time)!

I'm glad I had Friday late noon and Saturday daytime free to rest and do stuff at home, 'cos I went out clubbing in London last night and didn't get back home til about 3pm today. I was just leaving home to go out as everyone else was coming back from the pub. I usually leave earlier for my club outings, and I only just caught the last tube trains on my way there from Waterloo. I'm not sure how easy or hard it would have been by night-bus or cab and I'm glad I didn't have to find out.

I did get some sleep early in the morning after dancing and chatting/chilling, but not quite enough - I hope I caught up enough with a nap earlier but I really should be getting to bed now.

Tags: reviews restaurant