Strumpets who lunch

13 February 2006

Yesterday was Let’s-go-back-to-Zizzi-because-Helen-didn’t-get-dessert-last-time-day. It was a lunch date for me, Lauren, Helen and Suzy. Suzy lives within walking distance of the restaurant and was thus naturally the last to arrive. Lauren is a grownup and was thus the first to arrive.

As is customary, we talked and talked and talked. So what’s the news? Lauren’s got a house, Suzy’s got a fella, Helen’s had to revise cakes for her bakery job over half term and I’ve knitted a tabard for a cold orphan somewhere. Lauren couldn’t quite get over how many children there were in the restaurant, Suzy couldn’t resist eating off other people’s plates, Helen couldn’t keep still and I couldn’t stop going to the damn toilet. Oh, and our olives took a year to arrive and came without pokey sticks.

I’ve found that the perfect way for me to eat out, is to have a starter for a starter, then another starter for the main course, then pudding. That way, I get to have all the courses, but I actually have a chance of clearing my plate. Usually main courses are so big for me that I stuff myself full and then have to try and pile up the remaining 3 meals worth of food around the edge of the plate so it looks like I have actually eaten something.

Naturally I had taken my camera with me, if only to annoy Helen. The camera has five auto-focus areas: centre, top, bottom, left and right. Yesterday, it seemed to revel in choosing whichever of those would focus on the background of a scene, ignoring whatever hilarity or vision of beauty was occurring before it in the foreground. I’ve got some great pictures of the family at the table behind Helen…

Watching people through the lens, you suddenly pick up on their habits and gestures. Lauren rests her chin on her hand while she listens to you, then, when she replies, she barely moves from that position, but her fingers fly busily in front of her face as she talks.

This was the first time we’d done lunch, rather than an evening meal and it was a nice thing to look forward to at the weekend. I just wish that restaurants would provide big squishy sofas for their well-fed patrons to slumber on after their dessert. That would be perfect.