An evening out; meeting Swedish relatives

[ailbhe]

This evening we went out to London to meet Rob's cousin Erik, who was over from Sweden with some friends for a brief holiday. We went to My Old Dutch for dinner; it's a traditional Dutch pancake restaurant near Holborn tube station. The head chef is called El Habib.

We met Erik and his girlfriend (Sara? I can't remember, how horrible) and got to the restaurant, where they faffed about a bit before seating us. Actually, surprisingly (an unlike most other times we've eaten there) the service wasn't particularly good. I've had worse, of course, but never there.

Erik and Sara (I shall have to call her that until someone corrects me) had been staying in a hostel. Apparently it wasn't very nice; I'm not surprised. There's a huge variety of amenities available in most cities, and it's impossible to find the nice ones without local guidance most of the time. Anyway they'd been staying in a hostel and eating out because the kitchen was too disgusting to cook in. So they were very hungry, so I was able to have a main course and dessert because I knew someone would eat the halves I couldn't fit into my stomach. This was wonderful; I had a lovely cheese and spinach pancake to start, and a banana and maple syrup dessert with icecream.

Then we went to Gideon's, to stay overnight and hang out a bit. It's a lovely flat; their living/dining room is a nice generous size and can accommodate two sofas, a table, and some bookcases without seeming the least bit crowded.

I found a lovely selection of Georgette Heyers on the bookcases on the return, and immediately swiped a stack for reading in bed. We played about a bit with Gideon's computer and I admired his really very impressive CCNA results. Then we went to sleep.