A Lovely Lunch

If you have never travelled with Janice, then you may not know this but...

she can be really mean when she is hungry.  Just look at that fixed grin on her face.  That is her 'shut up and read the menu' grin.   It would have been far more menacing if she hadn't already had a swig of her Diet Coke.  Thankfully, this was also one of the few places that had some Diet Cokes left, as Janice can be really scary if she doesn't get her Diet Coke.  I'm sure Roger and their children will back me up on that one.

Since the floods in Thailand, they have managed to get stocks of nearly everything that was in short supply back into the shops.  Everything that is, except Diet Coke.  It is still at a premium.  If you see it, you but it, all of it or as much as you can get in your trolley.  Wow, did this bring out the worst in Janice.  Not only did she drink all my rations at home (yes that's right!  My vintage Diet Coke, circa early 2011  (gone, gone, GONE!!!), but she also took any can of Diet Coke that was offered, even if I had claimed it first.  

One day, after a hot and exhausting walk, we went to a pub for lunch.  What don't believe that Janice was in the pub?  

I ask you, is this the face of a sober woman?

Anyway, I digress.  I asked first for a Diet Coke, and then Janice asked for one.  When the waitress returned it was with the only Diet Coke left in the establishment.  Now, even though I asked for it first, I acted like a lady and offered it to Janice.  Now, you would think that as a lady, she would have declined,  saying 'no, go ahead, you ordered it first'.  Oh no.  Let's just put it this way.  If Janice had been on the Titanic, she would have been first in the lifeboat.  Wow, the woman moves fast!  She grabbed the Diet Coke off the tray, popped the top and swigged it before the words had left my mouth.  The waitress looked positively stunned at her behaviour.  Then Janice turned to me, gave an earth shattering burp and said, "thanks Kim, I needed that."  Can you believe that??!  

Anyway, back to our meal.  Janice referred to this nice restaurant in her post, that was seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  It was part of a hotel, one of those huts in the garden sort of places.  It was lovely, a little paradise really, surrounded by hills and greenery.

The owner of the hotel had lived in the UK and had trained there as a chef.  We were somewhat surprised to find a western menu, albeit with a slight twist.  Above is my paprika chicken, which was delicious.

Poor Janice was having a bit of a bad morning, annoyed that the guide had wasted our time taking us to the souvenir village.  The woman needed some comfort food, and quick!  Well, you can take the girl out of America, but you can't take the America out of the girl.  Janice had a buffalo burger and fries for lunch.  Actually, now I think about it, I may have eaten most of her fries!

I'm sure she enjoyed it, even if Buffalo wasn't what she had anticipated for lunch.  We both however, enjoyed the peacefulness of the setting, and the chance to regain our sense of humour.

In the midst of writing this blog I heard "Oh no, oh no!" shouted in the kitchen.  I ran through expecting to find that Alan, who making his breakfast, had either broken some of my new china (instant bad Khama  for him) or that he had burned the hairs on his hand again, whilst igniting the stove.  Nope, none of the above.  He had boiled a couple of eggs for his breakfast, put them on the plate, and before he could stop it, one of them rolled off the plate, onto the floor and cracked open on the bottom of the stove.  Given that it was soft boiled, there was a horrible mess to clear up!  See, if he had walked around to Starbucks to get me my muffin liked I had asked, that wouldn't have happened.  Ha!  Don't you just love it when you are right?!