Highlight of the day - at the risk of sounding like an obese alcoholic, a glass of white wine and a some NEW DELICIOUS Double Chocolate Digestives (I mean, it's a crime not to try new things), at the end of a looooong day at work.

Lowlight of the day - First world problem I know, but, semi-skimmed milk shortage at work meant that I had to compromise.  I've always drunk semi and for me, skimmed is like water and whole is like cream.  For my cereal, I thought I was being really clever by mixing some skimmed and whole by pouring a splash of both on.  Should that work? It tasted like runny cream to me.  It did, however, lead to much hilarity with two of the people I sit with at work as I was talking about 'semi', which their dirty minds turned into semi-hard-ons, only exacerbated by the introduction of '(w)hole' to the equation!  Innuendo galore!

Not too much to report today, so, I thought I'd tell you about a weird experience I had a couple of weeks ago.  I've been to a bar on Frith Street called Sofa King Cool (read it out loud if you haven't got the pun).  It's got luminous sign, but looks like it could be anything (particularly a sofa shop), but it's an underground basement bar.  It's supposed to be a lesbian bar.  However, the clientele is so small that when I went with a gay friend, it was a gay bar and when I went with a straight friend, it was a mixed bar (i.e. we were the only people there).  Both times, the staff were lovely and the decor's pretty cool - it's a bit futuristic with lots of neon - something like walking into a Kylie Minogue video.  Anyway, I walked past it about 3 weeks ago and a menu had popped up outside! The food sounded delicious and, even though I thought the atmosphere and neon might be a bit odd for a restaurant, I told my friend we should try it. 

Last week, we took the plunge, however, it was sofa king weird.  We were walking up and down Old Compton Street (we couldn't remember which street it was on, but knew the neon sign stood out when you looked down the road) and we couldn't see it.  We finally decided it was definitely Frith Street and as we walked down, we spotted it! It had changed its name to the Ultra Lounge.  The bouncer/manager/stray Australian invited us in.  I asked if it was Sofa King Cool.  Straight away, she was really quick to say it wasn't, how it had changed its management and was COMPLETELY different.  I told her I'd walked past a week previously! It's pretty quick to change completely.  The same menu was outside...I asked and she said it was the same food!! Completely different, but with the same decor and menu?? She was very cagey about it all and seemed a bit taken aback when I said that I knew it was Sofa King Cool one week ago with the same menu, but anyway, she was still friendly and we went in.

In fairness, they had toned down the lighting to make it more restaurant-y.  The waitress was really friendly, but someone about it oozed 'we are brand new and we don't know what we're doing yet'.  The food was really tasty and very good value.  For £20, you got three courses and a complimentary passion fruit shooter.  I had tempura prawns, tuna steak burger, which was very flavoursome, and chocolate gateaux.  I enjoyed it all very much.  The only slight problem (bar the identity crisis) was the WINE.  I am NOT a wine snob at all, but we ordered house white and they brought us an £18 bottle of GALLO wine.  If they were going to try and palm us off on cheap wine, I honestly wouldn't be able to tell the difference, but they should at least be sneaky enough to choose a bottle that isn't a famous cheap brand.  I mean, they are usually on 3 for £10 in the off-license! To make matters worse, when we wanted a second bottle, we very Britishly said that we weren't overly keen on the first bottle and ordered the next one up (not that we're cheapskates!) which was £20.  To our disbelief (although we were wetting ourselves laughing by now) she brought out a different Gallo! We asked if she could just tell us which bottles she had that weren't Gallo.  She came back a couple of minutes later and said they'd had a rush on (which usually I wouldn't believe, but there were about 4 tables seated there which is a rush by their standards) and the ONLY wine they had left was Gallo.  I think this probably means that had we ordered the most expensive wine on the menu, they would've just brought out a Gallo bottle.  We got cocktails instead which were lovely(they were on offer).  It was a very strange evening, but the food and cocktails were really lovely and very reasonable.  The staff are also really nice on the whole, I'd just recommend that you don't get the Gallo and for some reason, don't mention Sofa King Cool.

Highlight of the day - chilling.  Doing nothing for a change made me VERY happy.

Embarrassing moment of the day - being IDed in the Co-op for wine.  I'm 26.  Usually I'm flattered and often offended when I'm not IDed but I'm standing next to a sign saying "If we ID you, it's because you're lucky enough to look under 28".  That truly is rude.  However, this was embarrassing because he didn't believe my (embarrassingly provisional) driving licence was mine! He asked my age and date of birth - it was an interrogation! He said I didn't look like my photo.  That's because that's what I looked like when I  was under 18!  Fear not: Wine was bought in the end.

If this was 7 Days by Craig David, this would be Sunday.  I had an extra day off work.  I did nothing.  Well, I spent a long time looking at figures for ISAs and deciding, in my wisdom/confusion/not being bothered-ness to stick with what I've got, I also spent quite a bit of time organising an extravagant birthday surprise for a friend and, erm...did some laundry and some cooking.  I also napped a lot.  It was a real catch-up on admin and rest day.  It was lovely.  I would write one of my backlog of interesting things I did before I started the blog, but I'm going to carry the chilled vibe of my day through to my blog entry.

My proudest achievements of the day were finding that I was quite good at Pointless (on random TV show Challenge!) (I also had a big crush on the contestant, Raj, and managed to find him on Facebook...I didn't add him) and getting the chance to see Meatloaf be really weird, big-headed and opionated on Loose Women, whilst everyone else missed it at work.  I felt very priveleged.  I also think it's very healthy that I'm going back to work tomorrow before I become a full-time daytime TV addict.

UpDATE - Man 2, the one I like, text back..woo.  I feel big time like I was the keener of the two, but we've agreed (even if he's forced with his arm behind his back) to go out for a drink next week.  :)

Highlight of the day - The return of Jonathan Creek! The ending was a bit weird, but, in my memory, they often were.  Alan Davies also tweeted that there are three more new episodes planned!

Embarrassing moment the day - Does anyone else feel that a different, more angry and impatient person takes them over as soon as they enter the tube system? I always feel as though I'm in a rush, even when I'm not (I more than often am, but still...).  Today, in the distance, I saw a huge crowd of tourists gathering as I was coming down the escalators.  A man had his hand in the air and was signally, tour-guide-stylee for everyone to meet there.  I immediately knew that I HAD to get past them before we entered any sort of corridor.  I JUST missed the opportunity and found myself directly behind said man, right in the midst of the slow-paced group.  He was the only person between me and huge, promising clear space of corridor, which would allow me to reach the platform at least 6 seconds sooner.  Typically British, I didn't want to be rude by asking him to move aside, I wanted to be super-polite, by standing almost on his heels, huffing, puffing and pulling faces.  He turned around a couple of times and failed to notice (the idiot! I was being so Britishly obvious) and then the third time, he realised, looked mortified and apologised, whilst moving aside.  For a brief second, I felt guilty, remembering that just because we are on the tube, does not mean that we have all become horrible, idiotic people, but are in fact all normal nice people.  I said sorry too and moved past him, only to in some catastrophically clumsy motion hit the end of the wine bottle that was in a carrier bag I was holding onto a funny bone in my knee (I believe that's the technical term).  A shock went down my leg, I let out a hugely embarrassing groan and stood clutching my knee.  I almost fell over! Needless to say, I was then getting in the way of the big tourist group, clutching my knee and my pride.  Silly tuber.

Today, I went to The Bridge Coffee House in Shoreditch.  My awful phone camera mustered up the courage to take the awful picture above.  It's a quirky little cafe, which is supposed to be in a Victorian/Dickensian style.  The decor really is something.  It's a feast for the eyes, that sort of makes them want to vomit.  It's quite dark, very kitsch and opulent and certainly old-fashioned.  The decor does look Victorian and you could spend quite a while looking at it all.  The cakes felt quite 70s in a way, but delicious nonetheless.  The music was a mix of 70s-90s - we had Nina Simone, Abba and Celine Dion.  Quite odd.  I enjoyed it and it certainly is an experience.  You wouldn't think that would all be hiding in there.  However, I'm not entirely sure I'd be in a rush to go again.

This evening, I went on another date.  This is another guy I've met on the internet, this time on OK Cupid.  OK Cupid is a website that has a straight and a gay section and, unlike most gay dating sites, is not focussed on sex and even has profiles without cocks on them...quite original! I felt that I had a lot in common with this guy from the start.  We both speak German.  We both work in marketing.  We both like language and puns and he seemed pretty intelligent, witty and good-looking.  We have the German and the marketing in common at least.  We went to Soho Joes on Dean Street, which does delicious pizza at a good price.  The staff are really nice too.  I've been before.  I suggested it, I hope it went down well with him.  I thought it was going really well.  I suggested, very casually, almost as if I didn't want to (trying to be cool, perhaps came off as freezing cold) that we move on for another drink.  He said he should get home as his flatmate was ill.  Then, I can't quite remember what I said after that, but he did a U-turn and said let's go.  I can't work out now if it's that I was being cold and he thought I didn't really want to, until he saw my reaction to him tentatively saying no, or if he didn't really want to, but said yes out of awkwardness/pity when he saw my reaction.  Anyway, we went to The John Snow pub which is really nice (if somewhat overcrowded) and we just seemed to chat and laugh all evening.  I made the very uncool mistake and texting him this evening to say that I had fun.  He hasn't replied.  I had a really good feeling about this one and am a bit concerned already now.  Hopefully he will text soon.

I don't always go on two dates in one weekend by the way! In fact, this may be a first, but it IS Easter, and I'm sure Jesus died so that gay people could meet strangers from the internet, didn't he?

UpDATE from the last one (pardon the pun, would be way funnier with the power of voice for emphasis, not capitals), I text him, he text back, I text again, nothing since.  I don't feel that bothered though, which is a sign I'm not that bothered about him.  I feel quite bothered about tonight's one though, so I'm keeping my