A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk

Kesler, a colleague who is over from the Shanghai office, very kindly offered to take us out, before he flies back to the Far East, to a Chinese restaurant. The plan was to go to a place just across the road by the name of Terracotta, which has two members of this famous army outside facing King Alfred, but it turned out that they were open every day except Tuesdays. What are the chances, eh? There is only other one is Mr So, at the other end of town, but when I was out yesterday evening I saw that they were closed for refurbishment so we decided that the Chinese evening had to wait until tomorrow night and we set of in search of alternative victuals. I was a bit perturbed to find that Mr So was actually open, making me think I had dreamed it yesterday, but this turned out to be their opening night after the place had been taken over by new management.

The food was excellent, thanks to careful selection by Kesler, but the service, I'm afraid, was less so. We saw one group threaten to walk out after waiting for over an hour and I'm sure that at least one other group did. We did wait (for over an hour), which was fortunate as the food was, as I have already said, excellent. I don't go in for taking photographs of my meals as I have noticed that some people do on Facebook, but two particular highlights were a steamed fish (trout? I'm afraid I don't know my fish very well) and oysters, which for me is a new experience. I would like to say that the poor service was due to being particularly busy on the first night but I don't really think another night would be much better. However, if you are willing to wait it is worth it.

Finally, after the photograph from yesterday of the cathedral surrounded by fire engines I thought that I should have another one without obstruction, so here is one from the other end, taken this morning. So far, the beautiful weather is holding, but for how long I cannot say.