big four-oh

Tonight (well, last night technically, since it's after midnight now) was the "social event I said yes to, but I wasn't sure I wanted to go" that I whinged about on Saturday...

To be exact, it was Stu's 40th Birthday Party at a fancy smancy restaurant with a room full of people I didn't know. I knew it was going to be one of those evenings, at worst incredibly dull... and I wasn't completely wrong...

But it actually wasn't a complete and total waste of an evening. I had a very nice, if overly fancy looking and sounding, dinner... met some slightly interesting, if mostly beige people... and helped a friend celebrate his birthday. Plus it got me out of the house for the evening, doing something different...

As far as the food goes, I had Prosciutto Luganese (finely sliced Parma ham placed on tomatoes, lettuce and bocconcini, with basil paste, olive oil and balsamic vinegar) for entree, followed by lemon and passionfruit sorbet topped with sparkling wine (which was interesting, coming between the courses as it did), then Chateau Briand (the finest fillet roasted to your choice, which in my case was well done, served with bordelaise and hollandaise, served with grilled herb tomato and asparagus) for main and Crème Caramel (made with fresh milk, farm eggs and vanilla beans) for dessert.

I actually just frightened myself, I found the prices of the dishes online and, well, that was enough to scare me silly... but like I said, the food was very nice. And Stu paid, so that was even better...

And I managed not to spill anything on my nice new white shirt and ecru pants ensemble too... which I was a little worried about, and also why I shied away from anything on the menu that came with a high degree of sauce... and Stu complimented me on the shirt at the end of the night, which, coming from someone who's usually very well turned out (especially for a straight man), obviously it was a good look... nice and summery feeling too.

As far as the other guests... well, I was one of two single people (the other being the Amazingly Annoying Frenchman), everyone else was couples... one of the couples even brought their baby... which was okay, because babies like me for some reason... babies and small animals... I don't know why, they just do. And there's nothing like being allowed to make stupid faces and noises to amuse the baby... and probably the rest of the table as well. Actually, that might be why babies like me, because I make with the faces...

It also didn't hurt that said baby's father was probably the most attractive person at said table... which honestly, isn't saying much... and I was sitting next to said father... but he did have very well shaped hands... and I'm always a sucker for that.

I'll have to check with Stu to see if that (the relative attractiveness, not the hands thing) factored into his thought process on the seating allocations at all... possibly not, but with Stu you never know.

I hadn't actually expected to hang out very long after dinner, but you know how those things go, they leave big gaps between courses so that all the food has a chance to go down (which means that I have no doubt I broke the whole "No food after 8:30" rule tonight, but to be honest, I wasn't paying attention) and the whole thing lasted around three and a half hours or so... so I ended up leaving right at the very end with Stu and his associated party, and the Amazingly Annoying Frenchman... who, as you can tell, annoys me... although he's not actually French, I think he's actually Czech, which kind of explains some of it... but doesn't make him any less annoying.

Anyway, I ended up (because I just couldn't avoid it, although I would very much have liked to) having a conversation with him for about half an hour standing at my car, and I learned far too much about him that I really didn't want or need to know, and he asked me far too many questions about my current situation and, scarily enough, gay sex... don't ask, I don't even remember how we got there, but if someone asks a question of that nature I'll try my best to answer it, so I think it was a conversation that could best be described as overshare.

It did start getting a little odd because I ended up telling him some of the stuff from my frustrated diatribe, without meaning to or wanting to confide in him... I don't know how he does it, I don't even like the guy, but he seems to be able to focus in and ask just the right questions that I end up telling him more stuff than I'm necessarily comfortable with, and somehow I don't realise I've done it or am going to do it until it's happened.

And now I need to pour my ass into bed, because it's much later than I would like...

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