Extremely Good Pizza and Some Other Less Good Things

Posted on 2009/05/23 10:27:26 (May 2009).

[Friday 22nd May]
Went to the hospital for yet another scan this morning. I think this is my third time, and the process is becoming depressingly familiar. Although, that said, as an added novelty the admin staff at the hospital this morning were spectacularly inept at sorting out the necessary paperwork. It took them half an hour, involving at least 5 different people, to find my referral form - I kept telling them to just phone my GP and get them to fax it again, but they didn't appear capable of "thinking out of the box" like that. The whole thing was pointless anyway as I was quite capable of explaining exactly what the issue was in much more detail than the two line summary on the referral - but no they've "got to have the form". It seemed eventually that the form had been filed in a different place to usual either because it had been posted through rather than faxed, or because this was not my first visit to the hospital. Either way they really need to get their bloody act together.

Anyway, after all that pointless bureaucracy I eventually got seen to. It was a different radiologist (if that is the right word) this time - a little less aloof than the guy I'd seen the previous two times. It looks like the original operation probably had done it's job - the mesh didn't appear to have come loose or anything, which was a slight relief I suppose - but it looked like the hernia was occurring in a slightly different area. So it sounds like another operation is probably inevitable but I guess it is at least slightly reassuring to hear it ought to be an incremental thing, rather than just redoing exactly the same thing again.

Went back to work after that, but was feeling decidedly out of sorts and it was a pretty unproductive day. Went for a pub lunch with my new team members to get to know them a bit better etc. The usual end-of-the-week beer and pizza thing was a very brief affair today as no-one I knew was hanging around for more than 20 minutes or so.

So I trundled off home somewhat disgruntled. I decided on a whim to try out the local's pub near our flat that we have always avoided, despite having lived there now for over 2 years. I discovered we hadn't really been missing much, and headed home after a short while there.

Arranged to meet up with Chie back at Victoria with the vague plan of going somewhere for dinner. I really wanted to go to my favourite place this evening - Oliveto - but getting in any time around 7 or 8 on a Friday is nigh on impossible. So I took Chie on a brief tour of some of my favourite Belgravia pubs to fill in the time - starting off with the Horse and Groom and then the Grenadier.

We were eventually able to get a table at Oliveto at 9:30, and I think it was definitely worth the wait. Started off with a nice simple penne dish in a very rich tomatoey / basilly sauce (and I think Chie had something involving crab meat), then we shared a Pizza Caprino (goat's cheese and aubergine - although both are quite subtle). The pizza was just incredibly fantastic. So good it made me want to cry. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

We went home after that. Like the previous evening it seemed I had been successfully cheered up - at least temporarily - by a combination of good food and drink.

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