acechick

before/after

I've been working on Kim Hargreaves's 'Blithe' pattern. This is how I started the day:

And this is how it ended:

I fcuked up the increases (you can see the pins on the first pic), they weren't even, so out it came.
It's called tinking, ie un-knitting.

Today is Fred's birthday, and upon reading this review, we decided to try L'Anima to celebrate.

Fred had the black pepper aged beef tagliata, marrow bone & mash:

The marrow bone is filled with mash:

TASTY. As was the fried zucchini.

Now that I re-look at the review, we ate pretty much the same. Fred had the pappardelle with three shrimps and colatura to start while I had the taglierini with garlic, chilli & crab. My main was the tuna veal. The dessert of chocolate hazelnut frozen truffle was divine.

Birthday

Birthdays (and attendant celebrations) tend to last about a week around these parts.

This year started with fondue at the Bs on the preceding saturday. We tried out a new recipe, "Goat's cheese and thyme fondue with crispy bacon baked potatoes". It was as mind-boggling as the name suggests, and good for a change, but I still prefer the traditional swiss-style.

 

Having stayed overnight (what, it's almost in Hertfordshire!) we then went... somewhere else (generic home counties small village) to pick up Mal and his daughter Liv who were visiting from Norway (you might remember Mal from such places as 'university' and 'wedding in Oslo').

 

A weekend full of gorgeous blonde girls! It was incredible to hear Liv fluent in two languages before the age of 4. And of course, great to catch up with Mel. We saw them in Oslo last July for Mal and Eirinn's wedding (renewal, they had eloped the previous year). Liv was understandably quite shy and Mal understandably quite busy, so it was nice to spend some time with them. And warn them of our plan to visit next May for Eurovision.

The actual birth day was low key. Fred and I went to dinner at the Great Eastern Dining Room.

you have been warned

I look forward to when I see my birthday as the "best before" date.

Why yes, I do have a wishlist.

(Note, it's called a wishlist for a reason.)