Pink & Blue

I felt a bit better today, and headed out and about to clear my head after the bout of sneezy snuffliness. I have no idea why I decided to walk around my immediate neighbourhood, nor why I then decided to get a bus in to town far too early for my arrangement to meet my friend Tom for one of our chew-and-chat get-togethers. Whatever the reason, that's what happened. I honestly don't remember where I spotted this rather garishly painted wall and the hugely contrasting blue thing which I presume houses a roller shutter. The sunlight was remarkably strong and bright. It was chilly, but wonderfully refreshing. This touch of colour is not at all to my liking, and is certainly not the sort of thing I'd do if I owned this building. It looked good in the camera, though.

I met Tom at 7.45 in Le Cirk, a recently opened bar on Dame Street which has been doing only slow business since opening but for some reason decided to be loud and noisy and busy and altogether not such a nice place to be. We had a good chat all the same, and went from there across the road to The Mermaid restaurant. Tom had been there for lunch before, but never for dinner, while the place was new to me. The staff were very pleasant, we were given a really good, generously-sized table, and the night got off to a good start. There was a list of specials on a blackboard across on the far side of the room. The items were displayed in over-florid handwriting which was difficult to read even with the best of eyesight. A couple at the table beside ours noticed our difficulty and the girl very kindly read out what was on the list.

Our starters were good (halibut for Tom, beetroot soup for me), but our mains were disappointing (halibut for me this time, rib-eye beef for Tom). The main problem was that both dishes were served on an identical bed of mashed potato with a few under-cooked scallions draped over it. The actual fish and meat were okay, but the presentation was really bad, and the overall effect was poor. We decided to check out the dessert menu. I had some sort of fancy bread-and-butter pudding which was really very nice, though a bit small. Tom, though, went for a rich chocolate pudding which he was warned would take forty minutes to prepare. It wasn't worth the wait. Rather than have the liguid, gooey centre which we both expected, it was dry right through. Tom described it a glorified muffin and (most unusually for him) didn't finish it.

While all this was happening we became engaged in conversation with the Simon and Shannon, couple beside us who'd earlier provided blackboard assistance. They were really nice, we had a great chat, and somewhere along the line I happened to mention that I was going to Lisbon in March. They immediately recommended a restaurant there which they said simply must not be missed. None of us had pen or aper at the time, and we all forgot to ask the staff for writing materials before Tom and I left. I realised this quickly, contacted directory enquiries, got the number for the restaurant and managed to speak to Shannon, our table neighbour. She gave me the name of the place in Lisbon, I've since checked it out and made a note for future reference: Alcântara Café.

We finished the night in the brilliant and always-reliable Japanese saki bar on Exchequer Steret. I got the Nitelink home at 2.30 am.