Belt up

Last night turned into a fun night. I met up with Alan at 8.30. We moved on to Citrus restaurant in the Fitzwillian hotel after a couple of drinks (okay food, excellent service) and had an after-dinner drink in the bar downstairs. Going on for one more in the Westbury seemed like a good idea, but it was 11.35 at that stage, there was a Residents Only' sign stuck to the door and a very unfriendly doorman enforced this policy rigorously. So it had to be the Bailey after that refusal, and then there was the tiny little Centre Stage bar which is great fun but which, according to recent rumours, has been sold and certainly had all appearances of being in that state and just remaining open to clear the shelves. Alan went across the road to another place, but I had enough by then and got the 1.00 am late bus home, hit the bed, and slept the sleep of the just.

I'd changed all the clocks before going into town last night, so didn't suffer from any confusion when I woke, after which I spent a gloriously lazy day, the highlight of which was watching The Fellowship of the Ring from my complete 'special extended DVD edition' of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I don't know why, but I decided to watch on my iMac rather than on the flat-screen telly (probably to test Leopard's new DVD Player). I'm glad I did, because I got totally immersed in the action, enjoyed it thoroughly, and once again came away in absolute awe at the glories of the New Zealand landscape.

By then it was touching evening and time for me to head over to Carl's place. It was 7.30 by the time I got to Sandymount, where the moon was shining brightly and I thought may be I had the blip for the day. Carl dug a chicken out of the freezer, I lent a hand in true commis-chef style, and we ended up digging into a fabulous late-evening meal. During a pause to change the music, I spotted this pair of belts which Carl had neatly rolled up on the ottoman and blipped them.

Happily replete, we retired upstairs to what has become known as Carl's Kino (he has a fab home cinema set-up, with a 72" drop-down screen and a suspended projector) and watched the 1922 classic Nosferatu (with symphonic musical score added). A nicely apt end to a rather good day.