If not now, when?
Tonight (or this morning) I'm taking a leaf from a good friend's book – and asking myself “if not now, when?”. I'm talking about the blog of course, and writing a blog post.
It's 1am. We got back from a night out a couple of hours ago. Dinner out to celebrate putting up with each other for 21 years.
We went to a small thai place in town called “Giggling Squid”, which was filled to the gunnels with a very noisy birthday party populated with women between perhaps thirty and forty years old. Given the length of their table they shouted conversations at each other – which caused the rest of the restaurant to shout conversations too. Sitting at an otherwise intimate table for two, we had to lean towards each other and shout in each other's faces to hear each other. Once the birthday group left, it was quite difficult to stop shouting – we had got used to it.
On my way out of the restaurant – which is housed within an old victorian building, the lady in charge of the serving staff wished us a good night, and seemed quite anxious that I might bash my head on a roof beam. As I unfolded from my chair, she exclaimed “and mind your shoulders too!” (I think I may have been a good deal taller than she initially imagined).
Anyway.
We had a lovely night out, a great meal, and then wandered along the high street to a bar we have often seen people sitting outside of, but never had a reason or the time to visit. We've never been in most of the newer places around town. It was... “meh”. I imagine if you went with a group of friends it wouldn't make any difference – but being there on our own it was curiously without atmosphere. We wished we had stopped at an earlier pub that had cosy corners to sit in while drinking a night-cap.