Sunday, May 25, 2008

a different crowd for dinner

I went out for dinner last night. When I left the neighbours were out the back with every light ablaze. When I came home they were still there but it was VERY, VERY quiet. I had a great night's sleep and I have no idea what time they all clambered into their own house. This is progress for me!

Dinner was at an inner city pub. It was a great night. I went with the social group and had myself a ball. Actually the usual suspects were nowhere to be seen. I don't think this was the type of place for Healer Man or Teacher Lady. It was really nice to be somewhere and not have to hide from their dulcet, sweet tones. I caught up with a few people I haven't seen for ages and met a few others that were quite nice too. It was a very different crowd and one I think I will track down more often.

The food at this particular venue was yummy but the delivery time for food was just all wrong. A number of people on my table had warm chicken salads or calamari salads and their food came out really quickly. I had a burger which was very yummy and it was freshly made so it took a little longer than the toss together salad mix with fish/chicken. The intriguing meal in terms of time ordered to time to table was bangers and mash. I am not sure when sausages and mashed potato became a gourmet item that takes forever to cook but last night it took abut 30 minutes from ordering to the time it arrived on the table. (This is compared to the 10 minutes for the salads and 15 for my burger.) The girl who had it said it was worth the wait. Thank goodness.

There were a large number of women there as part of the social group and we all looked around the venue at the large numbers of men there. If the conversation at my end of one table was anything to go by then we were all laughing at the situation.

In the front bar there was a large screen where some rugby match was being televised. Every male that was there was hugging their alcoholic beverage tightly and calling out whenever something heroic happened. Suffice to say these men were not able to see the ladies in the room. They confirmed their state of being by leaving when the game was over. The ones who stayed were not desirable and had their beer goggles firmly attached to their faces. Well avoided!

There were two other tables FILLED with men in the dining room with us. Not one of them were interested in any woman in the place as we were not men. They were beautifully dressed, well spoken men and I felt disappointed that I didn't have a chance with them. I did have a great moment with three gentlemen from their table. I went to order a hot chocolate with a shot of baileys (this is my dessert). As the barman was making it two men came to order lattes. They watched the man making my hot chocolate. The barman asked if I wanted marshmallows. That's when it got amusing.

"Is that yours? You realise that marshmallows will make you fat." asked one man. His partner then chimed in with "That smells like it has liqueur in it. Does it?" I went on to explain that it was a hot chocolate with a shot of baileys in it. "That sounds delicious." " I don't think you will be able to finish that." "It's so nice compared to our boring lattes." "If you can't finish it then come on down to my table and I'll help you." (Please note I have colour coded so that you can see the two of them chatting to me.)

At this point another man from their table joined us and he asked what was going on. Purple man, with some assistance from blue man, told him about the fact that "this lady is having a hot chocolate with a shot of baileys AND she has marshmallows too!" "How decadent! Will you be able to finish that? I think you will need some help."

The barman was having a jolly time, laughing at the reactions this drink order was getting. He then handed me my drink and told me that I had to come back and give him the rating on this hot chocolate.

I enjoyed the hot chocolate, although if I did go back and rate it I would have to say that it was too sweet with too much chocolate.......oh well. As the purple and blue men left they gave me a wave but they didn't ask about the chocolate. I was disappointed that I couldn't gloat to them.

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