Going Greek

Friday night was a long awaited night out to celebrate the 38th birthday of our good friend Tim.

I caught the bus to Brian's and got there around 6.15 I think. We had a sit down and a glass of Cointreau before leaving to meet Tim and others at the restaurant.

When we arrived at the restaurant there were a couple of other people in the bar but the restaurant itself was empty. We figured out that the other people in the bar were also there for Tim but we didn't know them so we sat at the far side of the bar and ordered drinks. It was on bottled Beer - Budweiser - but not bad at £2.80 a bottle. AS we sat and chatted, the bar filled up and pretty soon the man of the hour arrived.

Mutual friends of Brian and Tim - Helen and her hubby Nigel - arrived and it became apparent that whilst I am a Rams fan, Nigel was supporting Forest. (Oh yeah forgot to mention that at this point the 2 teams were playing each other in the 4th round of the FA cup) The air became briefly frosty then but it was all good.

Finally it looked like we were going to our tables. There was 2 choices of menu. They have a shared option (Mezze) where you could pay £16 per person and share a few platters of food or you can order separate courses. Brian and I opted for ordering our own food so we were instructed to sit at the end of the table so that all the people sharing could sit together.

There were a few other people ordering their own too and we got chatting to them as we hadn't met them before.

For my first course I had the garlic mushrooms which was a huge pile of Mushrooms in this garlic sauce with some salad and I also got a basket of bread with it.
It was delicious but of course I dribbled it down my new top with the first mouthful.

In between courses I nipped to the loo and got talking to someone in there. She was a friend of Tim's and we were just chatting about how we knew him, then Helen came in too and we were discussing my Banking problems.
When I got back to the table they were bringing out the main courses but they realised that they had given mine to someone else and he had started to eat it. SO they offered me the meal he should have been having but I knew I couldn't afford that so I said I would wait for them to do me another one. They couldn't have been more apologetic and even brought me a complimentary bottle of Bud.

When my mixed kebab arrived it was well worth waiting for. 2 large skewers of meat mixed with Tomatoes and mushrooms on a bed of rice with Pitta bread and salad.

As mine had arrived late, the entertainment started while I was still eating. Yes ENTERTAINMENT! first of all we have the greek waiter doing a traditional dance with this wooden tray that he puts 2 drinks in and then proceeds to chuck it around.


After that we then have the waitress who come out and gves us a lovely display of belly dancing. She was very talented. I wished I had been able to record her too but the batteries were going already.

The Belly dancer then got Tim and Alan up along with 2 others from our party to have a go at the dancing with her.

After the belly dancing they usually get everyone up to do Zorba the Greek but I don't know what happened as on this occasion they didn't.

It was almost 11pm by now and even though Tim and Al tried to persuade us to go on to another pub with them, neither Brian nor I had any money left so we said our goodbyes and took a walk through Notts to see if the late Tesco was open but unfortunatley it was just closing so we went back to his place for a coffee and bed.

It was a great night out and although it isn't something I would do often, it is good for a special occasion.