A social life

It’s been a busy, social week!

Pat was in town for one night on Monday, so we had dinner with him at Wahaca. It’s basically the Mexican version of tapas! My recommendation: steer clear of the beef, but definitely get the pork pibil (effectively pulled pork). Anyway – as with pretty much all Pat recommendations – it was top notch. Pat was on his way to a conference in Limerick, and as such, I thought it only fit that his next blog entry would be done as a Limerick. Good luck with that dude!

Tuesday was forecast to be the last full day of good weather, so Kristy and I made the most of it by heading to Hyde Park for a picnic after work. We were kept amused by the squirrels – so much so that we gave one of them a peanut M&M. He nibbled on it appreciatively.

Wednesday night we went for the original style of Tapas at El Metro in Fulham. We were joined by Penny, who I’ve known since I was about five! It was great to catch up with her, as we’ve only seen her one other time since moving to the UK. After dinner, we ended up in The Slug and Lettuce, where they were showing the State of Origin. Up the maroons!

Here’s a particularly bad photo of Penny and I at the pub. Now I know that I’m wearing a blue shirt, but it’s actually a poorly coloured Brisbane Broncos shirt. Had I have not been coming straight from work, I would have, in fact, been wearing my Broncos jersey. I know where my loyalties lie. Just to prove it, here’s a photo of my reaction when the maroons won.

Clearly – impressed.

Continuing with the social theme, we caught up with Jaimee and Damien on Thurdsay night, at Michelle’s favourite restaurant (claims may not be valid) – The Gate, at Hammersmith. It’s vegetarian! Both couples arrived early and waited for each other in completely seperate places – unfortunately for us, Team Jaimien were the ones who cleverly decided to wait inside, where the wine was being served. D’oh!

Anyway, as usual, the meals were awesome. I had a tofu laksa with mushroom dumplings, Kristy had vegetable tortillas, and Jaimee had an aubergine teriyaki concoction. We all had meal envy though, as Damien’s risotto was clearly the winner. To be fair, I usually have the pasta of the day (and it’s usually brilliant), but unfortunately they only do that at lunch times now. Hmph!

So last night, the pinnacle of the week – we watched a movie at home. It was Into the wild – a story about a kid who graduates from college, decides that the working life isn’t for him, and just hits the road. It wasn’t bad – actually on reflection I quite enjoyed it – though perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea. gerrod.com rating: 8/10 – with a bonus point since the soundtrack was by Eddie Vedder.