alexist

So Neil's here. :-) His flight arrived on time, at 16:30, but he took almost an hour to get through immigration (no, they weren't that tough--just too many flights coming in at the same time).

Had some Chinese for dinner. Then my father called, but we got cut off after 5 minutes. It was weird... he sounds exactly the same as I remember.

Neil's now in bed (he's staying in my room tonight) and I'm downstairs watching Dead Like Me (can't believe I got into this show right before I left) and spodding on Jen's laptop. This is cool. Normally, if I'm in the den on the PC I can't watch TV. The TV's in a little recess along one long wall, and the PC is in the corner at the end of the same wall. This way, I can have the laptop on the coffee table and watch properly. :-) The only problem is that there's no power point nearby, and the battery lasts 3h max.

I have had a lovely birthday thankyouverymuch.

First, I am now the proud possessor of a 17" PowerBook. It is gorgeous and shiny and fantastic and I adore it. Though, it has to be said, this proves my geekiness: Jen has the bigger ring, but I have the bigger laptop. Muwahahahaha!! Plus a barbeque chicken sandwich (with crispy fried onions) at the Cheesecake Factory. No cheesecake though, because I wanted to save room for dinner.

Which, by the way, was superb and well worth going into the city. After 2 mini taster appetizers (ratatouille bruschetta and pesto pasta with some kind of beans, the name of which I didn't catch, but were green--possibly skinned favas, but wouldn't swear on it). I had sweetbreads with honey-roasted onions, Jerusalem artichokes, and bacon (which I ate without even noticing at first that it was bacon!) Main course, roasted sirloin with cranberry beans, wild mushrooms, and shallots or onions (can't remember now, too full). Mushrooms a bit too mushroomy for my taste but gorgeous if you like strong mushroom flavors (as Neil did). Would have preferred potatoes to beans, but as beans go these were actually very good. Dessert (after a mini strawberry panna cotta with strawberry sorbet) was a milk chocolate ganache tart. Mmmm. Chocolate shell, cookie-dough-like top, and molten ganache filling, with chocolate and barley malt (sounds odd, was delicious) ice-creams. Plus petits-fours, but instead of the usual cakes, white chocolate ganache squares and mango jellies).

Probably the only negative thing I can say is that the choice of mains should have been a little larger. There were 4 fish, 1 beef, 1 lamb, 1 chicken and 1 rabbit. Everything I ate was delicious though so I can't really complain. It was the sort of restaurant where they're so good that you clear the plate of things you normally don't even like! (Except me and the wild mushrooms.)

All in all a great day and Neil is wonderful :-) :-)