rogan josh christmas

J came over again yesterday... came over, stayed for nine hours, went home after midnight... so about the usual really...

And we probably had more of a "J and Yani Chat" this time around than we have the other three times I've seen him during this visit... a little bit stupid, a little bit "here's what I've been doing since last we were in the same country", a little bit deep and meaningful (although probably less of that than we have been guilty of in the past... but then, there's only so much meaningful you can be deep about the longer you know somebody).

I did manage to work references to at least three of the items within his Christmas hamper into the conversation at various points... not so much to drop hints, since I don't do that as a rule (okay, I did mention the fact that once his present was all "wrapped" I just looked at it and went "oh... my... god" but you could take that to mean just about anything... his first thought was that it meant his present wasn't "G Rated"... but with the exception of one piece, it all pretty much is), just to make sure that the reference is swimming around in his brain when he finally does get around to opening it.

And it doesn't look like that's going to be until after Christmas now... they're having relatives over from somewhere (places interstate I think) so he has familial crap going on. You never know though, he might suddenly decide he's had enough of family togetherness and run screaming over here.

He did make mention of wanting to see The Golden Compass (with me, around the same times as me, something like that)... so I'll possibly drag him along with me and Ma when we go to see it the day after Boxing Day... just need to run through the logistics of what's going to be happening that day with Ma first...

I know I've said this before, but as much as I do adore J, good lord but he annoys the crap out of me too... always has to be "right", always has these grand plans that never go anywhere except costing him time and money and the current one seems to be skating rather precariously over the edge of the abyss of legality and I'm fairly certain will end in either tears or a dismal failure, and as his mother said the other week when I was over there he never lets the truth get in the way of a good story.

Through a combination of the fact that supposedly I'm difficult to buy gifts for (or maybe it's because I give pretty stellar gifts when I can... so things I get given in return can seem a little less thought out and inappropriate on occasion... I'm setting the bar too high for everybody obviously)... and the fact that J is highly disorganised at the best of times, and this Christmas specifically... and added to the fact that there really isn't anything I NEED (or even really want for that matter) for Christmas... he took me out to dinner as my "present" instead.

And because I don't think I've been to eat at Beyond India since the last time I blogged about it over two years ago, and we both like Indian food, we toddled down there.

J's never big on the whole concept of the vegetable (or possibly just the potato, I don't know), so we ended up with two meat dishes instead of one meat and one veg like I would usually order... Lamb Rogan Josh (my favourite Indian dish no matter what meat it contains, and obviously the inspiration for the post title) and Saag Chicken along with some rice and my favourite Keema Kulcha naan as well as just a plain naan. And because J has something of a fetish for them, we ended up having two glasses of Mango Lassi each.... mmmm thick and mango-y. All in all it was really, really nice. Partially because it's my favourite Indian restaurant EVER, partially because I haven't been there in forever... and it was nice to have a Christmas "present" that was an experience rather than a "thing"...

Hmmm... maybe I need to mention that to J for next Christmas... a present that's an experience instead of a thing... that could be a plan.

After we got back and the conversation had kind of petered out (which always takes a while with the pair of us) I inflicted The Producers on him... which is also the reason that he didn't leave until after midnight.

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