Chie's Birthday

Posted on 2007/05/08 08:21:28 (May 2007).

[Friday 4th May]
Neither of us were feeling that well today, but after a short bout of present opening in the morning we both struggled into work regardless.

In the evening I met Chie on her way back from work - given that it was Chie's birthday we thought we really ought to go out and do something, even though we were both feeling a bit under the weather. As it was sort of on the way back from her office, we decided to meet up at the Whisky Society, and sit there for a while with a couple of medicinal drams, reading through the restaurant guide books I'd given Chie for her birthday.

Chie took the Michelin guide, and I took the Time Out guide, and rather pleasingly we both seemed to settle on the same place - a Lebanese restaurant called Noura. It occurred to me how much better these sorts of books are than the web for finding restaurants - recently I've had many frustrating experiences trying to find a place to eat in London on the web, I think there is still a lot of work to be done there.

So off we went to Noura, which turned out to be very much to our liking. We had a big table full of mezze, all done to a very good standard - my particular favourite was the foul moudammas (a rich stew made with fava beans) which despite its name was very nice indeed. Oh and we had a quarter bottle of arak (the Leabanese answer to pastis/ouzo/sambuca/raki) - which despite being only 20CL was hard work to finish (but very nice). The staff were even quite friendly, which was a pleasant suprise as it was a reasonably upmarket establishment and I was pretty scruffily dressed.

So that was a great success. Back at the flat we had a second present opening session. It turned out that of all the presents I gave to Chie, she liked the rather childish looking handmade umi no tori the best. I believe Mum had made a similar observation in the past - in a way it's no real effort to just go out and spent a lot of money on someone's birthday, but to actually sit and make something takes real time and effort.

Pass my happiest birthday wishes to Chie please! :)

Posted by Lox at 2007/05/08 09:30:25.

Bon anniversaire, Chie. Mes voeux les plus sincères.

Posted by Sheri at 2007/05/08 16:35:39.

Many Happy Returns Chie!

Hope you are both feeling up-to-speed now, John.

Posted by Nigel at 2007/05/09 12:48:17.

Happy Birthday Chiesan!

Posted by Rob Lang at 2007/05/10 09:37:06.

Isn't amazing how kids don't pay any attention to you when they are little and then quote you when they grow up and your memory is fading?

Posted by John's Mum at 2007/05/10 15:35:51.

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