Home alone, and lovely treats...

So the Monkey and I are now home alone; DH is on his way to South Africa for work and we're going to miss him a lot. The last week has been filled with lovely experiences. On Thursday night DH took me out on a Top Secret Date. We went to the O2 arena to see Keane in concert! I had a fantastic evening, we had brilliant seats and tickets to the aftershow party. Unfortunately we couldn't hang around long enough to see whether the band came to the party, but the concert was great. MIL babysat and we came home to a very poorly little Monkey who had been infected with another cold, cue a very sleep deprived night. 

As if Date Night wasn't enough, we had a lovely Valentine's Day and took a trip into central London for the day. We nipped into a little pub pre-lunch, and were 'greeted' (I say greeted, it isn't really the right word, grunted might be more appropriate) by one of the most bizarre bartenders DH or I had ever met. Not prone to displays of even moderate hospitality or warmth, our new friend spent the next fifteen minutes giving us an impromptu lecture on 1) baseball, his favourite sport and 2) spiders, his all-time-favourite-things-ever (and my all-time-least-favourite-most-phobic-things-ever). We listened intently, although the 8-legged subject matter sent shivers up by spine! 

Lunch, oh lunch...

Lunch was here, at Bocca di Lupo in Soho. I am very fortunate in that I am often able to eat out at fantastic restaurants, courtesy of my foodie husband, and this one is definitely a new addition to my top five. The standout dishes were sausage on a bed of lentils, the sausage being Essence Of Sausage and Everything a Sausage Should Be and it just melted in my mouth; a beautiful, tender piece of swordfish topped with capers and ricotta cheese, and the piece de resistance: almond granita with a chocolate sorbet. A dessert so beautiful it made me cry. Well, I probably wouldn't have cried had it not been for 3 glasses of prosecco, but darn it I love my gelati and this one was just on another level completely. I'm getting misty eyed just thinking about it. Afterwards we went to the National Theatre to see 'Every Good Boy Deserves Favour', which was another surprise and very good indeed. 

Thank you, Dave, for such a wonderful day and for being the best husband and daddy ever.