Dinner is Served

We were one witch down tonight...Danielle had decided to stay at home. After breaking up with her boyfriend she was struggling to find the energy to be sociable and so would be missing this month's dinner. It was a shame as the menu had all of Dani's favourite foods on it...including a very naughty sticky toffee pudding. Our giant plates of food were brought over to us and we ooohd and aaaaaahd as we were served our slow roasted belly pork...complete with crackling and black pudding, roast pheasant with duck fat roasted potatoes and a chestnut mushroom pie with enormous hand cut chips. The food was fantastic, the restaurant cosy and warm, it was all perfect in our little nook by the window where our conversation turned to...smelly people on buses!  I am sure that many of you will share our loathing of public transport in the winter...the parting of the hair on your head when a person coughs behind you, or the dubious stain on the last seat available at the back of the bus, next to the boy with his underwear riding high above his waist band and his mobile phone blasting out some tinny hip hop. Yes public transport in the winter is a joy we have discovered. Unless you are Caroline who is willing to get her little car out no matter how bad the weather to avoid the smelly journey of a bus ride into town and who one year was rescued from the snow by some rather cool people in brightly coloured, fancy eighties ski wear...the thought of which caused me to nearly spray winter vegetable mash across the dining room. After a truly amazing dinner...dessert was absolutely necessary. The choices were so delicious we were tempted to ask for a little bit
of everything on the menu, but Caroline and I both settled on the chocolate and amaretto sponge pudding with white chocolate icecream and Phoebe on the modern banana split. Amanda (as always) chose an Amaretto liqueur coffee...Amanda is very particular about her coffee and how it is prepared. God help the restaurant if it is not served correctly...however we were all able to breathe a sigh of relief when it arrived lovingly prepared and thankfully in the correct receptacle.