Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

God, my sleep patterns are so screwed. I made a valiant attempt yesterday to stay awake until at least noon today (which would have made my day about 23 hours long), planning to then nap for 4 hours and force myself up. I would then go to bed at midnight and thus get myself back in synch. This is my tried and trusted method for getting out of my nocturnal habits. Alas, I keeled over about 7am and then woke up at 3pm. Bugger.

Oh well :)

No news on the job front, I didn't get an interview from any of the 3 jobs the agency put me up for but there's another one that came up this week, temp leading to permanent, in the booking in garage of the local council. It would be booking in all council vehicles (which would range from dustcarts to Ambulances) for their maintenance and service. Sounds fun, actually, if not very demanding. I'm not sure if the salary will be high enough, the agency was a bit vague about what it might be, but at the very least I'd hope to get an interview. We'll see.

Thursday I was in London for food and booze with Rik and Carol, Thalia and Ayo. It was Carol's birthday on Wednesday, hence the gathering. We went to a Turkish/Mediterranean restaurant called Sarastro's, on Drury Lane. The food was well cooked and very edible, but I was a bit disappointed with the menu. Frankly, for those prices, I felt they could have done a lot more with the food than they did. Only three dishes had a sauce, everything else was WYSIWYG which was kind of dull. I can speak highly of the Classic Lemon Tart I had for dessert though, which was lemony without being too tart or too chemical flavoured. Impressive.

What really brings people to Sarastro's is the outlandish decor, which is all gaudy colours, fabrics and very theatrical in theme. We sat one of the balcony tables - you literally climbed up a set of steps to a balcony and wedged yourselves in at the table crammed in there. Nice view, I guess :)

ETA: Rik, Carol's other half, has a way with a description, so with his permission, I've swiped this from his travelogue so you get a better picture of the restaurant:-

Anyway, we arrive at Sarastro, and we go in, and we meet Ayo, and we're led to the ladder which leads up to our table. Sarastro is, as restaurants go, just a little eccentric. Or totally barking mad, depending on how you look at it. It's fairly long and narrow, and they've built a raised gallery around three sides, divided into boxes, a little like an opera house, only with the seats facing each other instead of at a stage. The steps up to the boxes are quite steep (interestingly, they got steeper around the time the second bottle of Pinot Grigio arrived. Strange, that), and gauzy hangings separate you from the people next door. Of course, some people have to sit downstairs, admiring the beautiful people (ie, us) upstairs. Sadly, the boxes are a little too small for any lolling, but they are comfortable. Generally, the colour scheme is scarlet with an overlay of gold; like most magnificence, closer inspection reveals flaws - there's some peeling wallpaper, and some of the tiling isn't actually tiling. But this doesn't matter. Some days they have real live opera singers, but luckily we just have a recorded opera.

Thanks Rik :)

Anyway, Carol enjoyed her birthday meal and that was the main thing!