Nothing bigger than your elbow

EDIT (14/8/2011) I noticed the other day that the title to this blog is wrong, it should read nothing smaller than your elbow. That's the saying, it's funny because people try and put their elbow in their ear when they hear it and that is just stupid. So anyway, it was bugging me for a while but I decided to leave the incorrect title on the blog but put this note in just for my own peace of mind.


What an eventful day we've had.

It actually started last night. I was out for a curry with a few mates when I got a text from Jackie, it read:

"Hi darling what time do you think u will be home. I think I have cotton bud end stuck in ear and need you to try and get it out. Might need to do to doctors or a&e tomorrow."


So I called Jackie to check her level of hysterics. She seemed reasonably calm and in no pain so I went back to my curry. I got home about an hour later, smelling of curry, and peered into Jackie's ear with a torch and tweezers, I didn't see anything and tried to be reassuring.

Me, trying to clean out Jackie's ear.

 Jackie was quite worried having read some horror stories on the internet of exactly her problem and was particularly concerned about getting an infection that would require antibiotics, a no no with a bun in the oven.

We went to bed, me smelling of curry despite having specific instructions earlier in the evening that I would need to have a shower if I stunk of curry - whoops.

Waking up the next morning, me still smelling of curry we got ready (including me getting rid of the curry smell) to go to the local doctor that does a walk in weekend service.

We were told we would have at least a 1 hour wait which wasn't too bad given we didn't have an appointment. While waiting we were able to talk about a couple of surprises I had arranged for Jackie's birthday.

The first was a lunch booked for today at 2pm. That's all I had told Jackie, but while waiting at the doctor's I told her we would be going to Chez Bruce, http://www.chezbruce.co.uk/ which is often voted by diners as the best restaurant in London and it is just a 15 minute walk from our house. We've often talked about going there for a special occasion but never found the right time. I figured we better go before Baby Bush arrives otherwise we might never get there. Jackie was very pleased with this first surprise but had to start fretting about what to wear.

While waiting I let slip the other birthday surprise, the conversation went something like this...

Simon: I wanted to take you to a nice restaurant for your birthday so I thought we'd go to Chez Bruce cause I didn't know of any nice restaurants in Bournemouth to go to.


Jackie: So have you just told me where my surprise birthday trip is to?


Simon: Ahhh, shit.

As Jackie was embarrassed about her cotton bud situation I had to go into the doctors room with her and was quite pleased when he gave her a stern telling off for using cotton buds, he checked her ear and confirmed what I already knew - there was nothing in there, and no cotton bud either ;). The doctor finished the consultation with the old story that you should never put anything bigger than your elbow in your ear. He was quite chuffed with that little anecdote, although both Jackie and I had heard it before.

So off we trundled, Jackie feeling comforted by the fact that we'd had it checked out.

By this time it was pouring with rain so we went up the road to a cafe, a pecan pastry and two flat whites (decaf for Jackie). However it was taking a long time to get our coffees so I went up to the counter, where all the wait staff were having a good old chin wag so I told them, in a very curt voice that we were waiting for our coffees, the person that took our order seemed oblivious, a couple of others jumped in to action, I returned to make sure one was going to be a decaf which gave the owner (who had been involved in the chin wag) the opportunity to give me our money back for the coffees. That was a good result I suppose but still disappointing that this nice new cafe can't get something like good service right.

After our coffees we went home to get ready for our special lunch.

Jackie (and Baby Bush) ready for yummy lunch

It was still pouring with rain so we got a taxi the short ride to the restaurant like proper posh people would. We then sat down for a wonderful two and a half hour lunch with exquisite food, we had:

Entrée:
Jackie: Courgette and sorrel soup with garlic and parmesan
Simon: Crisp fillets of bream with cod brandade crostini, sauce vierge, tomato chutney and shrimps

Main:
Jackie: Warm roast chicken salad with deep fried egg, bacon, aïoli and tarragon
Simon: Sauté of calf’s kidney, sweetbreads and bacon with sage beurre noisette, shallot purée and cocottes

Dessert: 
Jackie: Raspberry, vanilla and almond tartlet
Simon: Cheeses from the board (there must have been about 30 to choose from, I just had 5)

From their 40 page wine list Jackie had a glass of rose (special treat for her b'day). I had:
2009 Riesling Kabinett Trocken (Dry), Georg Mosbacher, Forst, Pfalz, Germany
2008 Quinta de Tourais, Touronio Tinto, Douro, Portugal (I asked the sommelier to suggest something to go with my main, I'm pretty sure this is what he gave me)
2007 Recioto di Soave, Le Colombare, Pieropan, Veneto (I think this is the one I had, again it was the sommelier's choice)

The food, service and setting were all exceptional. We couldn't have asked for anything more. We didn't feel at all out of place either, most people there seemed relatively normal, even the American's sitting next to us weren't annoying, one table had a little toddler who was extremely well behaved.

Probably the most unfortunate aspect of the lunch was the person in the restaurant who got the most drunk also had some form of physical disability, which created quite a scene when she needed to go to the toilet and couldn't move her legs at all which was a result of her disability and the wine she'd been quaffing. As we left she was still knocking it back though, her friends looked a little fed up by this stage.

Jackie looking glamorous and windswept outside Chez Bruce after lunch.