Went to bed last night with one of those headaches where you have lines of light in your vision and the pain is behind your eyes. This morning the flashing lights are gone, thankfully, but my head still aches dully. I wish I could stay home today but I have a presentation to do (on journal impact factors* – ugh).
We went out to dinner with M’s parents last night. A place called Limoncello, in Fremantle. M’s parents know the owner and one of the waiters, so we had super-friendly and efficient service, although, watching the waiter from time to time, she was so attentive to all the other diners in the restaurant I think she would have served us really well whether or not she knew us. The restaurant was full because they have a “lamb shank special” on Tuesday nights – soup (we had a choice of chicken or potato and leek), lamb shanks with asparagus, mashed potato and red wine gravy, and a glass of Sandalford Cabernet Merlot, for the low price of $20!
The meal was good. I enjoyed it, although I wished I was hungrier (too many peanuts and cashew nuts at M’s parents’ home before dinner). The meat was really really tender and just fell off the bone when you touched it, and the flavours were strong and rich. The wine was nice too – what I know about wine is summed up in this sentence: I either like it or I don’t. We had a cheese platter to nibble at after dinner. Not sure what the cheeses were: there was some blue, cheddar, and gouda, and a couple of varieties I wasn’t sure about, maybe colby, and havarti. I’m just going by appearance here because I was so full I didn’t eat any cheese (although I might have been tempted if there had been any camembert or brie). Nunzio, the owner graciously served us some sherry, Pedro Ximénez by Valdespino. I’d never tasted this before and really enjoyed the sweetness and flavour of raisins (it made me wish for summer).
M in particular had a good chat with his parents. The talk was about family and spirituality and it was interesting to hear what the Ws had to say about it; I didn’t say too much as I was happier to listen and I didn’t want to say something stupid or flippant and spoil the conversation. M’s granddad was jailed as a conscientious objector some 60 years ago, for refusing to be sent to fight for the Dutch colonial government in Indonesia. He spent 3 years in gaol. M’s dad talked about how he admired his father’s principles and how he wished he would talk about his experiences (he refuses to, apparently – we can only imagine what he must have gone through).
It was a good evening, although the slight headache I had before dinner intensified by the time we got home, a bit after 10pm. (I’ve had a light headache on and off for the last few days. Maybe I should stop fighting this cold that keeps trying to afflict me, and just let myself get sick.) I went straight to bed, leaving M to mollify Baubles the Cat who was grumpy at being alone for so long.
*Warning: the article this links to is somewhat boring and not really light reading – I thought I’d include it in case you’re curious.