jack

For my birthday Liv and I went to alimentum. We weren't sure, but our first thought was closed, and we'd said we'd like to try alimentum again at some point. I'm really glad we did, it was a really nice evening!

I didn't live blog the food, but I did take notes :) I'm sure I didn't look like a restaurant critic (in my frilly red larp shirt) but I guess there's no harm if I did.

Olives and very nice bread.

Amuse bouche, potato and something soup, extremely tasty, different and interesting than usual potato soup.

Caramelised Beetroot, goat's cheese, and lovage (apparently). And granola which wasn't mentioned, but was one of my favourites. The caramelised beetroot was really good! I don't usually like beetroot especially, but this version was really good.

Turnip, apple and maple something. This was good; I liked the combination of everything more than each part which is the point. The sauce was very good, I mopped up all I could.

Roasted cauliflower, and some other things. This was really good -- I've always somewhat liked cauliflower, but thought of it as a fairly neutral food. The roasted version was excellent.

And mushroom risotto turned up to 12. With, um, pasta risotto? And fancy mushrooms? And anyway, if anything it smelled even better than it tasted but it was really good.

And three deserts plus chocolates/sweets. Which were also really good but I didn't have a lot to say about. The gin and tonic sorbet was really good (and I don't like liquid gin and tonic much). The battenberg mirrored the presentation of the beetroot dish earlier (I think?)

Ironically, when I eat a fancier meal, I find myself more strewing crumbs everywhere. I think just because there's more different bits going on.

Lots of the dishes definitely did "these parts are ok, or not something I'm a big fan off, but they did something really good with them". Which I guess is a lot of the point!

I don't think I'd choose an £80 meal over two £40 meals. But I'd rather have two £40 meals and one £80 meal than four £40 meals (or two £80 meals). But then I guess, if the prices were swapped, I might pay £80 for the £40 meal at least sometimes if it was the only way to get it -- I appreciate the variety, and if the £80 meal is more expensive to produce, it's worth paying to get it.

Happy New Year. In a traditional reprise of the Christmas party, Jack's 26th birthday party will be next Saturday, and involve dressing up.

* In the same place. 66 Sherbourne Close (http://semichrome.net/~jack/social/directions.html)
* At the same time. From about 8pm.
* Next Saturday, Saturday 12th Jan.
* Take the opportunity to dress up in something nice if you like. Black tie or fancy dress encouraged but not necessary.
* Again, everyone is welcome, apologies to people unable to come but reading this anyway
* Featuring more food, drink, decorations, and lovely people
* Please continue to bring your own food, drink, and lovely people

The party was fun. Twenty or thirty people turned up, and, as far as I could tell, mingled happily with each other, some of the most disparately connected people chatting happily.

Thanks to everyone who came. Thanks to the girls who who sent hugs and Mole for conveying them. Thanks to people who helped out answering the door, mulling wine, and serving drinks. And to people who brought presents, though I asked not to, they were very well chosen (though actually, neither of you read this).

Unlike thursday, when going to the Carlton on an empty stomach I cunningly only had one pint, switching to the delighfully quenching lime-and-lemonade, last night I got very drunk, as much as I ever do, I think. I felt rather ill -- and was actually sick -- last night and today, though had a nice time staying in and sleeping it off. But I don't remember the last half of the party, and think I may have behaved terribly -- sorry to Ian, Mark, Naath or whoever I should :(

The flat got tidied reasonably beforehand, slowly junk is being discarded and post is being collected. And I did some pottering about tidying up today.

And on tuesday I mail-merged about 80 invitations. I felt a bit guilty, but I would have sent the same email to everyone as far as I could tell, so there's not really any difference. About 60 "You are invited", half-a-dozen "You almost certainly won't be able to come, but", and a score of ones written out because I had something specific to say.

There's about 10 roleplayers, 10 poohsoc (many of whom likely won't be able to come), 10 tolkien, 25 sinister greenenders, 10 friends from Trinity (half won't come), 10 mathmos from my year (most have moved away), about 10 other halves and some non-categorisable people -- with some overlap between those estimates.

I generally divide people into probabilities of coming to get an estimate, depending what they said, or if I think they'd be likely to come if they haven't. Summing estimated probabilities gives about 20 people from those who replied positively, and maybe 15 more from people a few of whom are likely to turn up.

That seems about right, we should all fit, but I might prop the bed up in the spare room to make another mixing room. And everyone who's coming should know some other people.

I know I'm thinking about this too much. I always feel worried to make sure everyone will have fun, and to make sure I'll speak to everyone, and still have time to cuddle who I want to. I'd really rather be at someone else's party, but this way I get to see the people I know, and do my bit for entertaining.