The elegant and the abject

Here is the wrap up from last night's dinner with Lil, AB and Chambo at Izakaya Den.

Lil is pregnant
This, we already knew, but it was our first dinner as a foursome since she broke the news so we had a little celebration. Apparently she had been to the obstetrician today and the matter of whether she would like a cesarean or a vaginal birth was discussed. Lil advised that she is considering both, but wants complete assurance that if she had a vaginal birth they could give her an epidural that would last the whole time, and that it would be totally pain free. This from a woman who has a pathological fear of injections. We explained how epidurals are administered. I told her that my Mum reckons that the needle they put in her spine was the size of a pencil. When I was little and would hear this story, I always imagined that the pencil would be massive, like this.

Lil went quiet. AB noted that she never really thinks about the pain when she thinks about giving birth. Lil said "I do. I think about it all the time. I don't want a bar of it. Haven't you ever done a really big poo? It kills!"

AB said "I know, but then you feel so relieved."

We ate this delicious eggplant and mushroom thing

I don't know exactly what was in that orange topping but it was nice and spicy. The dish was served cold, in that good way.

Chambo advised she wants total privacy to watch the royal wedding
Chambo is going to her Mother's house to watch it so there will be no distractions and she can totally focus. Those Chambos love the royals. I think Mrs Chambo even met the Queen once. Anyway, she asked us all what we were doing.
I casually advised that because Pickle and Minderbinder are having a going away party tonight, I wouldn't be watching the royal wedding. I hadn't said that out loud to anyone and as soon as I did, I realised how badly I wanted to watch the royal wedding, and how disappointed I am to be missing it. I kind of love the royals a little bit. Its my dirty shame. As is the fact that I like to watch movies like Eat Pray Love at the cinema, and get really disappointed when I miss them and have to watch them on DVD. Anyway, no royal wedding for me. Such is life, as the tattoo on Ben Cousins' stomach always says. I'm sure I can just watch the replay on Saturday.

AB did a gross thing
We ordered the ox tongue, which was served in thin, matchbox shaped slices topped with finely shredded spring onion. Lil looked a little queasy when the waitress said it was ox tongue. This is very unlike Lil, but I guess she is pregnant. AB, Chambo and I dove in and sure enough it was super yum. Have some! We chanted to Lil while shoveling more of it in to our mouths. Lil timidly picked up a slice and placed it on her tongue, then closed her mouth as if to chew. I guess she had a change of heart, because straight away she leaned forward and spat it out on to her plate. We sat there in silence for a second or two because that's not something you see every day. Then AB stretched out her chopsticks, picked up the discarded ox tongue and popped it straight in her mouth. Girl hates to see good food go to waste.