A better day.

As usual, I was dreading going into work today but it's been much better. Perhaps I'm getting the hang of it?

I was finished at 2pm and Keith and I drove over to Kettering to get some diesel. We took a different route to normal and I drove on roads I hadn't been on for ages. Once home I had some lunch and as I'd been sitting down for most of the day I went out to sweep up loads of leaves that had gathered in the garden. Monty kept me company and after I'd finished we sat in the garden for a little while. The weather has been dry and overcast today but still very mild.

In the evening I went out with Fiona and Lynda to Akasaka, the Japanese restaurant I'd visited with Sophie and Mike back in September. I picked Lynda up from her home and we drove into Northampton where I found it very difficult to park. In the end we found a space in the Albion Place car park opposite Derngate and walked the short distance to the restaurant.

Fiona was already waiting and even before we looked at the menu, Lynda showed us some risque photos on her phone! She's found a new lease of life by online dating and regaled us with her stories, some of which were a bit shocking! She's lost over three stone in weight which is brilliant and I could definitely see a difference. I think both Fiona and I were a bit shocked by what she was telling us, but good luck to her! I just hope she finds someone genuine and trustworthy.

We had a good meal but I think I made the wrong choices. I started with chicken skewers served in a soy sauce which were delicious, if a bit salty. For my main course I opted (after a great deal of thought) for the Teriyaki chicken served with beansprouts and boiled rice. Again, it was very salty but certainly filling. I'm not sure either Fiona or Lynda really enjoyed their meals so maybe we won't be going back to this particular restaurant again!

After the meal we suddenly remembered that it's the start of Come Dine With Me season and I confessed to not being that enthusiastic about it this year. When I said that my theme was going to be Scotland, Lynda went a bit white as she hates haggis and whisky, both of which featured heavily in my dinner! Fiona then asked if we could give it a miss this year and I was filled with relief. Although we've had fun in the past with the different themes, last year was all a bit too much as we seemed to cram the evenings into a very short amount of time and I felt guilty about dragging Keith out to pick me up. Fiona said that it was proximity to Christmas that was the problem, so even though Andrea was unable to make it this evening we decided to postpone all the meals until some time next year but go out on Lynda's evening in December to a good restaurant to celebrate Christmas.

Back home (I was much earlier than normal) I told Keith and Sophie of the demise of Come Dine With Me this year. Yippeee!