TWENTY NINTH

The Old Girl and I celebrated our 29th anniversary yesterday and went out for dinner.

Battling on

She arrived on the early Friday morning bus and worked from home up here. The restaurant we chose for dinner last night was booked for regular sitting times but had free tables later (from 8.30) or earlier (6pm). As it is indeed our 29th and as we are getting on a bit I chose the earlier sitting. This turned out to be an inspired choice as the restaurant is based above a yacht club and as such is by the water. At 6pm there weren't many other diners and the late afternoon sun was lighting up the water nicely and shining, not too brightly, into the restaurant. We had been given a nice table by a window looking out to an island in the bay. Perfect*.

Foregoing appetisers or entrees (excellent as the offerings were) we decided to do a main and a dessert. Normally we don't eat desserts either at home or in restaurants but the menu looked very inviting. I chose gurnard as my main and apple and cranberry filo tart as dessert. The Old girl chose duck for main and affogato for dessert. Man were these the right choices.

My fish dish was served as pan seared fillets of gurnard topped with whitebait and capers served in a broth with roasted tomatoes. The Old Girl's duck was oven baked and sliced and served with mulberries in a mulberry type sauce - magnificent. These dishes came with a side of roasted potatoes and a warm salad.

The deserts were great - mine an individual filo pastry parcel of apple and cranberry served with home made vanilla ice-cream. The Old Girl's favourite affogato being espresso coffee which she poured over scoops of home-made vanilla ice cream. It came with home-made biscotti.

We had a couple of glasses of excellent wine to match each course.

* No violin players came around the tables