Created: 10 Jul 2004
Since the readership of this blog largely consists of Sally and myself, I’ll cater to the more attractive 50% of my readership and write a short account of what happened on her birthday.
On the day itself I had arranged with Sally’s friends and family to meet in Soho, so we could eat at Busaba Eathai. We met in The Ship, just a few yards down the road from Busaba. Sally still didn’t know where she was going to be eating, so we told her we were going for a kebab. Anyone who’s ever met Sally will know that a kebab is possibly the least appropriate meal to celebrate Sally’s birthday. So, we went in at about 9pm, didn’t have to queue for very long and enjoyed a relaxed meal, while Sally was showered with gifts.
Arriving back at my flat, I gave Sally two of her presents; an allen key set and a pocket guide to London restaurants. Now, you might think that a set of allen keys is not the most appropriate present for a professional woman with a love of fine clothes, dining and wine who has never indicated much interest in DIY, but Sally has a history of door handles becoming detached and never seemed to have allen keys to fix them. What girl could be disappointed with a high quality set of Draper® tools? I left the big present to be opened in the morning - an Ice Cream Maker, which she seemed delighted with. It’s still in my flat, as it’s a big, heavy beast and will be difficult to lug down to Winchester.
The following day we had planned a morning of swimming in the Hampstead Ponds, however we were slow to rise and dawdled over breakfast in the excellent Wet Fish Café, so we had a walk through Regent’s Park, where we spent time watching the various ducks and one huge fish in the lakes, before catching the tube to Charing Cross.
As a surprise, I had booked a table at the restaurant on the top floor of the National Portait Gallery. The food was excellent and the view is fantastic. I’m not normally fond of restaurant desserts. Quite often they arrive on a very cold plate, direct from the fridge, taste OK, but aren’t worth mentioning. The blueberry cheesecake, however, was a quality way to finish the meal off. We wandered around the gallery after easting our meal and watched some of the video of David Beckham sleeping. It seems you need to be a woman (or maybe a homosexual man) to appreciate it most. Several american women were commenting that “he’s so cute” and they seemed to be enjoying it more than I was.
In the afternoon we went swimming in the Parliament Hill Lido, which is a fantastic outdoor pool, built in the 1930s, which is now in need of a refurbishment, which it will be getting in the autumn apparently. The pool is pleasant, as long as you avoid the debris in the corners and very long: 60 metres. I realised how unfit I am and vowed to do more exercise.
We rounded the day off with a drink in the Gallery (or rather, outside on the pavement, as it was as ridiculously crowded as usual) and a takeway pizza from Saracino’s, which is the very pleasant and popular Italian pizzeria around the corner. They even brought it to us as we stood outside the pub.