Good First Half...

God knows I really needed a good weekend. And for a change, He obliged.

I know, I know, the weekend isn't quite over yet but I'm so glad the first part of the weekend has gone well that I'll share it with you (no, no. No need to thank me. It's my job to entertain you readers). So in a slightly forgotten tradition where I recount to you the adventures of my weekend and you ooh and ah and write comments like:

"What an adventurous and exciting life you live Swapnil!"

"Oh, I wish I did half the interesting things you do on one typical weekend...in a YEAR!!"

"Oh Swapnil, I wish I was as good looking as you"



Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a tad on the last one.



Anyway, moving on (sic), I finally succumbed to my low spirits and left office a bit early on Friday evening. Plans were already afoot to meet DU but they were affected by the little case of she losing her cell phone and hence going incommunicado.

(As an aside, how dependent have we become on the cell phone even to meet up with people? I was actually struggling to remember how humans used to decide on a time and place to meet AND then stick to it instead of constantly changing it based on the current location of the people, traffic, weather and what not, which you constantly check by calling and re-calling the cellphone)

So we (eventually) managed to reach the same point in space and time and after checking out a few cell phone stores decided to ditch necessity in favour of pleasure - umm, decided to get something to eat rather than continue our quest for the elusive phone. Priority was clearly on unwinding after the rather rough week both of us had had.

Finally, the evening got interesting! I have been moping around the house a bit and haven't really tried many new eating places in the last 3-4 weeks.

We went to this place called 64 near my house but had to come out because, I don't know, the menu just didn't seem any different from any continental place you go to.

So next we decided to go to Pizzeria Romano which is actually a multi-cuisine restaurant and not just a Italian place as the name suggests. Now this place is really amazing to look at. Great decor (they have sloping mirrors on the ceiling!). The pictures of the food were sublime and we walked in with extremely high expectations. Actually, we should've gone with lower expectations - though I don't know how low we'd have to go to reach the levels we encountered (especially in context to the exorbitant prices).

Each course and cuisine was a disaster. Over-toasted bruschettas laden with thick cheese (Cheese? On Bruschettas? Really? It kinda kills it's fresh tomatoes appeal)without even a faint smattering of olive oil. We thought we could try some arabian cuisine - again based on the spectacular pictures on the advertising board outside. So falafel was ordered hoping for redemption. Never came. The redemption I mean. Very very ordinary. Nothing to write home or on this blog about.

So we put our head together and by sheer combined brilliance decided that considering the place is called "Pizzeria Romano", we should order a pizza.

And though the pizza was good, the service really killed it for us. The steward actually dropped a slice (toppings side down) and then instead of replacing the placemat, just wiped it!And then, I missed noticing it, but they actually charged for the whole pizza! That's just really really bad management - it kills any chance of a repeat visit.

So the food was definitely not helping in improving the bad taste (pun intended) of the week gone by, but it was just so good to finally get out of the house and not fester there that I didn't mind too much.

Wrapped up the evening by getting a couple of pints at a new pub nearby called Olio. Recently opened, the place is nice. And the best part was that they didn't rush us out as the dreaded deadline approached. They let us nurse our pints at our own pace and I really liked that about the place.

A good evening, and SO good to go out for a bit.

Saturday dawned nice and early because we had to meet again as DU was to compete in a corporate challenge. She's an amazing singer (mentioned earlier:http://swappinglives.blogspot.com/2008/01/karaoke.html ) and was representing her company in the contest and I thought I'd go see how such things work (I mean let's be serious, there is no way that I'm ever going to see such events from a participants viewpoint!). After the normal no-cellphone confusion of the morning we managed to meet again and went to the contest in far off Whitefield. It started late but was a good contest with some good singers. DU sang really well, as usual. She sang: You're so Vain.

The contest was really going on and on, and the more we stayed there the more we bought stuff that was depleting the wallet, so we got out and had lunch at this hotel called Zuri. Very nice hotel with good buffet food. Was a good place.

But the best was yet to come!

They have a pool on a terrace midway up the hotel. A brilliant breeze was blowing across it and the sun was just the right temperature. The inviting deckchairs just could not be ignored and we just lazed around for an hour (or two). I'm not sure but I think I dozed off for a while as well...

Ah, to enjoy the beach in the heart of the city!

Really nice Saturday after quite a while.

And tomorrow D is coming down from Mumbai for some work! It's always fun to catch up with her, and it's been a while as well. Should be great!

This type of weekend just couldn't have come at a better time! Yay!



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