Had dinner at Holy Smoke in Wimbers last night with the hockey girls – Vicki, Nicky, Soph, Vicki's other half Tina and Soph's new girlfriend Laura.
First time of meeting Laura, an RAF conquest, who managed to cope remarkably well with the fact that Vicki, Tina and I are all easily old enough to be her mother as she is a mere babe at 25. And did keep saying things like 'I haven't grown up yet' just to ratify the fact. Tina does in fact have a daughter of 23, so the whole thing was just a tiny bit unusual – Soph, your cradle-snatching of girls with nice lips and teeth continues to impress us all.
Anyway – there was indeed Holy-ish Smoke, starting with the smoked sherries on arrival – thank god Tina managed to neck several of them as they're a nice idea but not everyone's cup of tea, and ended with a much nicer smoked whisky that smelled fantastic, arriving in a bell jar with much finesse.
I had a good night out, which doesn't happen too often these days – we went out at pretty much the time I tend to go to bed – but luckily the pre-dinner cocktails sustained me through, hurrah.
Now trying to get a date in to use the 'Climb the O2' voucher the girls got me for my birthday last year – I will be pretty damn slow but reckon I might be able to actually do it, with a following wind. Would not have been remotely possible even a week or two ago, so this is a chink of progress. We will see x