Oops, we did it again

Managed to lose the tab that is.


In our usual book group haunt, Le Chat Noir, the tab is left on the table, added to every time more is ordered (frequently in the case of bookgroup, not for us the stingy local habit of nursing a sinle Bionade or herbal tea (shudder) all night) which is fine. We commented last night how they've got more organised about it now, not scribbling it all down on a beer mat any more but a compartmentalised slip pf paper, split into three - alcohol, drinks(!) and food.  I made the comment that it might look more organised but it still doesn't prevent the tab getting lost...* and so of course the tab disappeared, we hunted high and low for the damn thing, even under the table (Jason gleefully using the torch app on his phone) but it wasn't there, although it did give everyone the opportunity to admire my new Italian boots.   Fortunately it was easy enough to reconstruct the tab due to the fact that all our empties were still on the table, it didn't stop the waitress being displeased though, "have you found it yet?" she asked, like it as our fault the tab had disappeared.


So what did we talk about last night? 


The book (Life of Pi) of course, although not for long, we had very mixed opinions about it, S declared it to be a fable (note to self, look up definition of fable) A said it was boring (she prefers crime) M had studied it at Uni (mainly because the author went to her Uni I think) J had read the whole book he said and when I doubted him (he normally reads the 1st page and then extrapolates) confessed that it had been on Wiki and then we got into a debate about whether the tiger on the boat was an animal or a person.


At some point in the evening A turned to me and asked,
"are you talking about the book?"
To which I was forced to (honestly) reply,
"no, incest"
Which got us all onto the subject of another book, Middlesex, whose title confused me momentarily as I couldn't understand why a Yank was talking about English counties and why pick that one, why not Warwickshire or Norfolk?  We'd been talking about incest because in the news here at the moment are a brother and sister who have had four children together, two of whom are handicapped, the brother has been jailed for his crime and there's some crazy priest or politician (the whole idea of it repulses me and so I have read little more than the headlines, hence my vagueness) who thinks it shouldn't be a crime.


I started off the evening unamused, S declared I was dressed like a kindergarten teacher, not quite the image I had been aiming for when I had teamed my bottle green (and slightly shiny) Desigual (i.e. loud print) top with jeans**, however as the person who made the comment is male and of antipodean descent he is not the first person I would look to for sartorial critique. Revenge was sweet, he described himself as a half wit and I quickly retorted that he'd have to work his way up to that.


This month's book is The Help, suggested by A (Yank) who wanted us to read an American author, it's a good choice, I've already read it (last summer I think) and have the dvd waiting to be watched, so I shall be reading Middlesex instead, although I might actually have to read it  the old school way as it looks as though the only Kindle version is in Italian and I do hate reading translations!




* this has happened to us only once before, the waitress was not amused then either, understandably, but we hadn't done it on purpose, we are regulars and we do spend/drink a lot.
** I have been working hard at abolishing black (apart from jeans, trousers, footwear & undies that is) from my wardrobe and embracing colour. This is mainly in retaliation to the amount of black and greige that surround me very day out and about here, black is not just the most popular colour choice for cars in Germany but also it would seem for apparel, dull, dull, DULL.