Birthdays, Amaretto, FISH and Oz

You can tell when I can't think of a clever blog post title can't you.

I was toying with 'IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!' but I dismissed it as unnecessarily self-indulgent.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!

:D That's better

Yesterday was fantastically awesome!! Lunchtime came and went in the form of the following:

Bottle of Peroni

Macaroni cheese and another bottle of peroni

Amaretto

Free sambuca care of the landlord

Amaretto

Then....just as I thought I may be able to escape the seemingly neverending beseigement (real word...I checked) of lunchtime alcohol, the landlord wandered outside with the now-familiar bottle of Disaronno Amaretto....and promptly poured me a double.

Woooo!!! Luckily amaretto is a liqueur and not a spirit.

The Wilf was taking Linda and I out for dinner later...would I make it? Or would I be a crumpled heap of lame rubbishness?

The saving grace was that we were dining relatively early as Linda needed to get home and do some packing for her big adventure, and so I didn't have too long to wait.

More drinkies were had before we headed off to LiveBait.

Incidentally, the shennanigans picking a restaurant were quite interesting, emails flying back and forth:

Wilf: Couple of fish restaurants here *linky* *linky*

Linda: I don't mind, you pick, you know best

Becki: FISH FISH FISH!!!

Wilf: Here's another one *linky*

Linda: I'm not choosing, I shall not decide!!

Becki: FASH FASH FASH!!!

Wilf: Here's one closer to home *linky*

Linda: *silence*

Becki: LiveBait, Livebait!

You wouldn't guess at my mastery of the English language if you were merely confronted with a couple of my emails.

So, a couple of guinness were sunk before we waddled over to LiveBait fun and games in Covent garden.

We arrived and I had a quick looksee down into the restaurant and then Linda and I had a giggle about the fact that we'd booked when the place seemed to be essentially empty. Though, in their defence, they're a theatre-based restaurant and so hoardes of people had just left for a performance.

This sympathy soon dissipated when they asked us to wait in the bar while she checked *something mumbled under her breath*. Whilst she left us in the bar, presumably to buy drinks (pointed out to me by Linda..I'm a sucker for these scams....DRINK!!), some other people were taken straight in. So Wilf had a convo along these lines (we'd been in the bar quite a long time by this point):

'Why have we been left waiting in the bar when other people have been taken straight through?'

'I wasn't here'

'I don't think it matters that you weren't here, you all operate in the same place right?'

'They have booked'

'WE'RE booked!'

'Er.....would you like to come through Sir?'

'Tee hee!!'

Ok...that last line probably isn't true, if it is then he did it silently in his head, along with the invisible jig of victory we all secretly perform within the confines of our brain.

Dinner was partly a birfday celebrations for me, and partly good lucks for Linda, though we're doing a pub crawl on the 11th Dec too which is Lindas main doo. In case I haven't mentioned here already, in about 4 weeks Linda is off to Oz to do a masters in Environmental Science. This is part of the reason I'm spending a week in Sydney after my travels. I've conveniently managed to time it right over her exam period....but we'll figure it all out somehow. I'm sure there'll be a Linda and Oz-dedicated blog post up and coming soon, mostly detailing the spiraling craziness that's likely to occur over the next few weeks, followed by the dead calm...the kind of calm you get just before you go into an exam and you reaslise there's nothing more you can do. Adventure!!

It was all very civilised, Wilfy was a perfik gent and even ordered for all of us. A far cry from the usual, sachets of ketchup being thrown at me roughly from the other side of a booth in Burger King, and thats the guys that even bother taking me out.

I ordered crab cakes for starters and cornish sardines for mains. As is my usual style, I forgot to take a picture of my crab cakes and dove in like a starving gannet. I must get out of this habit before I begin to wander SE Asia, I'll have no records of all the weird and wonderful dishes I consume. I DID however, manage to photograph my sardines before they disappeared down the gullet of DOOM!

As you can see, the sardines didn't last very long!! They were bloody delicious, if a little bony! Bony little bastards. Om nom nom. I shall be barbecuing sardines this summer.

Wilfred had steamed seabass, and Linda had roasted salmon. By all accounts, all food was delicious! One curious little thing they has was anchovy butter in the breadbasket, I quite enjoyed that, very salty, but gooood :)

As you can see, satisfaction was had all round.

Check out the beard...he can't deny it's him!

Thank you Linda and Wilfy for a fabulous pre-birthday day, and thank you so much for a delicious meal Wilfy :D Hopefully see you both tonight for a wee drinky or two xxx

Image cred