Not so bad after all...

It's occurred to me lately that this blog's turned into less of a worrying insight into the byzantine workings of my 7-year-old mind, more a sort of 'this is what we did on the weekend isn't it nice' thing, which isn't what I'd planned at all. I'll do better in future I promise.

Despite that, this weekend has been fairly pleasant; tapas and cocktails on Friday night and a bit of a drinkathon with Keef on Saturday, strangely woke up feeling bright as a button this morning which sort of made up for Friday morning, when I woke up feeling disastrously hungover having (purposefully) not drunk a drop the previous night.

So we made use of the day, wandering out around Kensington in the sun, downing a massive, largely fried brunch at Café Continenté after which I'm fairly sure I went into shock for 30 minutes or so, heading to Oddbins for some of their amazing own-label rosé, and slowly winding back home via Tesco for lots of exciting spicy things to cook over the coming week.

So just before I wrote this, I was in the kitchen watching the Kiwi bake some banana oat muffins. She's wearing a gorgeous royal blue maxi-dress with a halter neck, the afternoon light's coming softly through into the kitchen and she's a perfectly beautiful image of femininity to me, and just at that moment, I hear the living room stereo, with Adele singing 'all the wonders of my world...', and it occurs to me, not for the first time today, that stuff can get pretty good really, can't it?

Grumpy, stress, but some good news

Ooooh something of a day of contradictions today. On one hand, the Irish project I'm on is becoming somewhat tiresome, with fiddly bits of detail bothering me slightly and those who know me will know that I'm so not in the detail. So this is bothering me. I'm also seeing things going on in the business that I'm sure could benefit from my input but instead I'm here counting servers and adding up license costs.

Bah.

Anyway, if I'm seeming a little bit ungrateful and unwilling to do the necessary grunt work to get ahead career-wise, that's because I am. I reckon I just need to get my head down and plough on through it for a month or so before pulling the 'been there, done that, now show me something interesting' card and we'll see what happens.

That said, I am learning a ton of stuff at the moment, not only in terms of the techie stuff I'm being forced to read up on (who knew how useful an MVC Model could be?), but also in the whole project management, business analyst sense. Much though it galls me to say. It's a bit like muesli - you know what I mean, good for you but no fun.

On the other hand then, I've passed my six month probation period, which means I'm now officially an employee with rights and everything. The feedback I've had has been really quite good too, and constructive, so I'm feeling an odd mixture of massive smugness and huge inadequacy as I make my shoddy attempts to write technical specifications.

So woo for that. And for my Kiwi, who despite her monthly headache, presented me with a pretty good-looking bottle of wine as a well done present. No drinking in the week right now mind... GOD I'm so dull right now. I'm going to have to have a moment of irresponsibility soon, I can feel it coming on...

Flying

There's always something a little unreal about travelling to Dublin like this. I think it's got something to do with getting up at 0445 and stumbling dreamlike through the passages from home to tube to plane to bus to office. It doesn't entirely leave one in a suitable frame of mind for presenting complex multi-million Euro business models.

This morning, though, has been unusually calming. I've found that as I've got used to the journey (although I've not been too much lately), I've started to notice littler things about it which sort of take the edge off - the example this morning which prompted me to get out the laptop and document it before coming back down to earth was on take-off.

London was covered in thick fog this morning, the resultant gloom confusing the mind into thinking it was earlier than it was. Surging off the runway, the Airbus 321 broke through the fog within 10 seconds or so, into glorious sunlight and clear blue skies.

I don't think I'll ever get bored of flying. I know it's quotidian and mundane to many of us these days, but there's something about the seeming impossibility of getting off the ground, travelling so fast and ending up in a completely different country (and in Dublin's case, a completely different century) that never ceases to fascinate. You'd have to be pretty dull-minded not to marvel in childish wonder at it all, you really would.

Anyway, today's the last day of this sprint. The Irish project is still barrelling forwards, alarming some and exciting others. The Project Manager, with whom I'm getting on much better now I'm more comfortable in my role, is on holiday next week, leaving me to pick up from him and drive the project forwards into the next phase. Hopefully this time I'll be able to get a proper handover and won't end up feeling like the idiot I did last time.

And tonight - the perennially amazing Maximo Park at Brixton Academy. I've not seen them since the release of their last album earlier this year and, although I've seen this lot more often than any other act, I'm still so looking forwards to it - it's guaranteed to be brilliant.

More gardening, dinner out, weekend

It's slowly opening... and developing a lovely deep blood red colouring alongside the yellow. There are about 7 more buds coming up too - although I'm a tad concerned for the health of my marigold as it seems to start looking a bit despondent if I miss watering it for as little as 24 hours. In the background you can see a bit more of the Kiwi's herbs, which are starting to look visibly cowed by my amazing gardening efforts.

On to other things. For one reason or another we've not been going out as much of late, and the other day decided that as we couldn't actually remember the last time we went out for dinner we should do so. A dinner party last night was cancelled and so at amazingly short notice I managed to get us a table at the recently opened and Michelin-starred Arbutus on Frith St. It was sort of a 'hooray for new job' thing.

Oh. My. God. Best meal out ever? Possibly. We couldn't fault this place, from the relaxed but supremely professional staff to the really really clever habit of offering more or less everything on their judciously chosen wine list by the 250ml carafe... and of course the stellar and *shock* reasonably priced food.

I'm going to make you both hungry and jealous now. I kicked off with a squid and mackerel 'burger' with a delicately dressed light salad - whopping chunks of meaty mackerel surrounded by perfectly cooked (ie still tender) squid pieces. The Kiwi opted for the Dorset crab salad, fresh as a daisy and with a nice dollop of garlic mayonnaise to set it off.

Next up, Elwy valley lamb for me, sweet and melting, and accompanied by its sweetbreads and a couple of baby artichokes. On the other side of the table was a hefty slab of sea bass which by all accounts was about as good as it gets.

Wine-wise, an Albarino (Spain) sorted out the seafood starters, a Kiwi Pinot and a 1er Cru Santenay worked wonders with the main event; chosen as much for their affinity with the dishes as for a good old fashioned NZ vs France Pinot-off. Personally I reckon it was a draw. The Kiwi felt otherwise, but there you go.

Desserts (Cashel Blue and Mothais cheeses for me, chocolate soup - more of a warm mousse really - and caramelised milk ice-cream for her), liqueurs and coffees followed. And the bill.

Now, let's see. London (Soho, specifically). Michelin star. Hard to get into. Rave reviews all over the place, excellent wine list, top-notch ingredients. By any normal standards you'd be starting at £100 a head, and with our lording it up a bit, surfing the top end of the wine list and sneakily finishing with a 15yo Armagnac, you'd be pushing £150 each. It turned out about half that, and you really could've got away with £50 apiece without too much trouble. Amazing.

So there you go. A little luxury that turned out not to be all that expensive, which has to be about one of the best things in the entire world. To be honest, it was worth the full price just to see the look on my girlfriend's face on the first mouthful of that dessert...

And so to the weekend; currently contemplating breakfast to the sounds of the brilliant Scott Matthews, will be heading to the shops later on to continue my never-ending hunt for trousers. Work? Let's not go there, it's the weekend. All good though - big week next week.