Homeopathy

I never thought I'd see the day when I'd turn to alternative medicine, but I didn't hesitate when the doc suggested that homeopathy might reduce the hot flushes which are the main side-effect of my hormone treatment. The pharmacy closest to his surgery weren't able to provide what he'd prescribed, and recommended me to this place in Duke Street. Sure enough, they were more than happy to charge me a measly eleven euro for a supply of tablets which I'm to take two of twice a day. The tablets contain infinitesimal amounts of Bushmaster snake venom (known by its formal name of Lachesis in homeopathic circles). Like I say, I'll try anything which might make the hot flushes more manageable.

While enjoying a pint of shandy after my bit of health shopping I took a notion to text my Chew & Chat mate Tom too see what country he's in right now. He'd actually got home yesterday, and spontaneously suggested that we meet for a meal later on. Our six-weekly meetings are usually organised well in advance, so this notion was a big shift from the norm. I was delighted, said yes immediately, and waited to hear where we'd be going (we take it in turns to decide the venue, and this time the choice was up to Tom). We met in the Old Stand pub at 7.45 and went on to eat just two doors away from there, in The Green Hen, a place new to me. My starter (Pickled Pear and Walnut Salad with blue cheese, rocket and pomegranate) was delicious, but my main (should have been hake but that was all gone and was replaced with Cod, poached and served with mashed potato, spinach, poached egg and béarnaise sauce) was disappointing, mainly because there was far too much mashed potato and too little sauce. Also, we had to wait far too long for the starter drinks which we'd ordered as soon as we sat down. It's a shame that such an intriguing and adventurous menu (heavily weighted towards the fishy end of things) should be let down by insufficient attention to detail.

Still, we had our usual great time together, with me boring Tom silly with stories from Norway and Russia and Finland and Tom filling me in on his recent experiences in Portugal and France. A quick stop-over in the Japanese bar Carl and I hadn't been able to get into on Saturday, and then I introduced Tom to Doyle's late-night pub in College Green where we whiled away some more quality time before I got the NiteLink home at 3.30 am.