Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

It came to pass that March 4th was bytepilot's 40th birthday so thalinoviel, with her usual flair and skill, organised a gathering at Belgo Noord. 12 of us came to om and nom and inhale vast amounts of flavoursome beers. And a very good time was had by all :) It was particularly good to catch up a bit with smokingboot whom I met once about 3 years ago and we've spectacularly failed to get together since, despite repeated attempts. It was also good to see bibliogirl and rotwang, who I also haven't had a chance to natter to for ages, outside of LJ.

I was a good mousey, I only had 1 and a half beers - possibly having learned my lesson from the other week that too much booze + usual Belgo food servings = unhappy mouse. I ordered one beer that was just too beery for me but maviscruet was on hand to gallantly take the beer off me and give it a good home *g*. I did, however, do the food full justice *grins*. I had cheese croquettes to start (Janey: I can't decide on the starter! *does eeny meeny miny mo* Me: Cheese soaks up booze better..... Janey: Good point, well made. I'll have the cheese croquettes please!) The main course was possibly the best main course I've ever had at a Belgo's. It was a mussels platter (a March special so not going to be around long) of mussels in the half shell topped with cheese, bacon and chives. OM NOM NOM! I'm a big fan! There was happy scoffing but ooooh I was full! I skipped dessert although I was planning on an irish coffee but they weren't serving them for some reason *big sulk*

bytepilot decided to skip dessert too but instead he went for the schapps selection - 24 schnapps shots brought on a long wooden board that stretched nearly the length of the table. He had some help with the drinking but even so, as the birthday boy, the responsibility of finishing the drinks was left to him. It was an obligation he took up bravely. I'm only sorry I neglected to take my camera with me. (Also missed out on the chance to take a picture of maviscruet hoovering up the last of the mussels and liquor at the bottom of the mussel pot with a straw....:D)

Anyway, the best bit of all is Janey had organised a Secret Cabal of Present Giving and a number of us had clubbed together to buy bytepilot this. And he even gets to fly the plane a lil'! He was thrilled to bits :) He's threatening to find a way of strapping a camera to his helmet so he can show us how the trip goes :D

Happy birthday bytepilot! Well organised that thalinoviel! I hope your hangovers aren't too violent today! *hugses*

I had my belated birthday dinner yesterday, when I was joined at Belgo's by several good chums and much food was scoffed. And there was fruit beer, oh yes!

Note to self: starting off at a pub before going to Belgo's is silly. I had the best part of 2 pints of cider on a mostly empty stomach before ever reaching the restaurant. Will not make this mistake next time! I was joined at the pub by thessalian, who'd been more or less dragooned into coming and was still slightly cranky from having been prised out of bed rather abruptly. However cider soothes all :) There was also thalinoviel and a sudden Steve! (tyrell), although Steve couldn't stay long and had to scamper back to Ware *sulks* We did try and kidnap him!

We met up with adelpha and kelemvor at Belgo's although there was no sign of minmorton. We didn't have to wait long for our table and were soon pouring over the beer and food menus and cackling amongst ourselves. Fruit beers of various types were acquired and I tried the apple beer which I'd not tried before. Not bad, very sweet though, I think I prefer the raspberry. Anyway, food was ordered. kelemvor and I both chose the puff pastry with haddock and mussels in a cream sauce, Janey and Thesski went for the salmon fish cakes and adelpha (as the non-fish eating vegetarian, he was a bit limited in choice, poor chap) had the cheese croquettes. There was happy slurping and scoffing noises for several minutes as we did full justice to the food.

We'd no sooner finished our starters when minmorton arrived, having got slightly delayed and slightly lost. But she made it, yay! We hastily procured her the menus and the wait staff were excellent at getting her main order to her only five minutes after we received ours. Both myself and Min opted for the wild boar sausages with stoemp mash. kelemvor went for the spit roasted chicken with sweet chilli and ginger sauce, adelpha had (I think, I forgot to ask) the grilled goats cheese starter as a main course, while Janey and Thesski shared minds again and both had the mussels Marinière, which they kindly let me try. I'm a big fan now! Mussels for the Mitchy next time I'm there :D

I didn't have room for afters but did indulge in one of Belgo's decadent Irish Coffee's (slurrrp!), while it was noticeable the three people who DIDN'T go to the pub first were the only 3 to have room for dessert :D Min had the bread and butter pudding, which looked lovely; kelemvor went for white chocolate mousse and adelpha did full justice to the excellent waffle with chocolate sauce.

It took a while for us to want to move but eventually we waddled off. We aimed for the Sailisbury, as I didn't feel like trekking to the Captain's Cabin but the Salisbury was the wrong side of "insanely busy", so we carried on towards the Captain's Cabin anyway. Unfortunately, I had to pause in Leicester Square to give my digestive system a minute or two to decide if it was going to make me throw up or not *sigh* It didn't, but after several rib loosening retches and belches, I felt lots better. Harrumph. Everyone was far too kind to mutter something about "lightweight" :D Anyway, we safely made the Cabin with no more adventures and after some superb steath table hunting by adelpha, we nabbed a table we could all sit at and we nattered for a while. Thesski had to leave as the poor girl had a killer migraine, and the rest of us didn't stay too much longer, toddling off on our separate ways around 9pm.

All in all, it was a fantastic afternoon evening and it was particularly lovely to see kelemvor and adelpha because it'd been a ridiculous amount of time since I'd seen them. Thank you for coming, folks! It was great!

And I didn't even have a hangover today. *happy*