An outing and a non-outing

A few non-routine events recently: On Friday, I took Anne to the Yeronga club again.  I took her there just before her trip to the Arctic as a birthday dinner but it was a two-for-Tuesday night so all she got for her dinner was two sausages!  So I took her on Friday 9th for a buffet night.  And buffets there are as good as any ever in my opinion so we really did well.  So her birthday was in the end appropriately celebrated.

Then on Monday I had a trip to see a hernia specialist and he agreed that my hernia was so small as to be of no immediate concern.  That was a big relief.  I was not looking forward to being hospitalized.  Been there done that.

Also on Monday a pesky keratosis on my index finger turned out to be a keratocanthoma.  That's good?  Yes.  The keratosis was closely adjacent to a knuckle, which meant that it would need a graft to replace it when excised.  And grafts and I often do not get on well.  I lose them. But a keratocanthoma goes away of its own accord.  It swells up, sort of explodes and then fades away. And it started to die on Monday and it is now only about a half of its former size.  And it was due to be excised on Wednesday.  So I just squeaked in on that one.  But it was a very pleasing outcome.

Then on Wednesday I went in for a couple of other excisions, both on my face.  No fun at all but expert surgery meant that I felt pretty much back to normal on Thursday morning.  I had to skip the booze on Wednesday night and sleep on my back all night but with the help of two Temaz I managed it.

Also on Wednesday, however, was Valentine's day.  I prepared  for it by buying in a bunch of red roses the day before and had said that I would take Anne to a Chinese restaurant for  Peking Duck as a special treat.  When the time came, however, Anne could see that I was feeling a bit unfit after surgery only a couple of hours previously so very kindly gave up her treat to cook me a dinner at home.

I had in my freezer some Jamie Oliver chicken fillets marinated and coated so we had that. I made up a cold collation on a big platter with Rotkohl etc to have with it, which seemed to go well. 

Because we were not opening wine, Anne requested a Martini. I don't drink them myself but the ones I make seem well-received.  I gave Anne a tropical Martini. 

As is well known, a Martini is basically just gin and Vermouth poured over ice cubes.  The proportions you use and various other factors do come into it however.  Everybody has their own recipe. You should, for instance, use fairly small ice cubes so that the liquor and the ice have maximum contact, making the drink cold.  Normally the ice is filtered off rather than left in the drink but for a tropical Martini you leave the ice in.  In hot weather it helps to keep the drink cold.  Whether you can do that may however depend on the size of your cocktail glasses.  Mine are a bit on the large size so everything fits in nicely.