Saturday 24 March 2007

Hot Bath, Hot Sex, Shame About The Curry

It's the run today. The Charnwood Marathon at Quorn. There's a full marathon option of 26 miles but we are doing the shortened version of 15 miles. Doggo is very very excited. L is very very nervous. I’m just thinking of my reward for completing the distance - Hot bath, hot sex, hot Thai curry.

We are supplied with tea and biscuits before we start. Some of us have more than we should, e.g. the four-legged member of our team wolfs down three custard creams to prepare himself. We consider starting early because you can do that at these ‘friendly’ events but in the end we start at 9am with the masses. We intend to tag along at the back so Doggo doesn't leg anyone down. Well we try to. We are still walking out to the start line when the starter, who is the local town crier, signals the ‘go’. There's no rush so we don't react but Doggo does. Worried that the rest of the field is about to leave him behind, all four of his paws are off the ground and spinning furiously. He forces us to follow. We do so but accompanied by so much tumultuous barking that he gets warned about this language.

There are five checkpoints on route but only two are cake stops, which is disappointing. Neither is very impressively equipped with refreshments. Tea at one, only blackcurrant at another. Other races like this, do it better, with as much cake as you can eat. Some even have cheese. We get lost once, looking for a Leicester round sign, that didn’t exist. Either that or we missed the pun. We complete the event is 3.40ish. L will have the exact time; I'm not so precise. It was however slower than last year but as L considers herself an unfit, injured person it's not too bad. Soup and a better selection of cakes are supplied at the finish.

We drive home and then its reward time. The bath is good and hot; the sex is positively scorching. Just hope the Thai curry can continue the tempo.

Daughter is bored and wants to cook for all of us. So while we are holed up in the bedroom, she cooks a terrific risotto with ham, white wine and cheese. Only problem is we don't want any because we have booked the Thai restaurant for the final part of our reward. We daren’t tell her this; they'd be risotto up the walls. In the end we are so starving that we both have a portion and luckily Daughter always follows the quantities on her recipes, which means that a meal for four rarely stretches anywhere near that far.

We head out into town and sample Everards new stout called Pitch Black, which is rather nice. Then we head across town to Broadway where we have a Leffe in their cafĂ© bar. On the way we stop off in the market square for our paddle but as predicted the 'water feature' is off and its hard to see what it’s supposed to be. All is not lost though because to celebrate our achievements today they have laid on a fireworks display for us.



Or maybe it's something to do with opening the new square.

After Broadway we end up at the Thai which is a new big, dining room style restaurant. A bit like a school dining hall but with water features. The water features are probably more impressive than the one in our new square and they are at least in working order. However they must be expensive to run because they have had to cut back on the lighting or perhaps they've just dimmed it romantically low. They hand us some very decorative menus which are printed in white italics on black paper. We very chic but unfortunately in such poor light, totally illegible. As I head out to the bar area to read my menu in the better light there, an irate waiter goes to haul me back. Presumably thinking I’m about to escape or perhaps he's just an usherette, like they used to have in the cinemas, sent to guide me back to my seat by torchlight. After I complain, he momentarily lifts the lights for us but eyestrain has already set in and our patience has been exhausted. Against better judgement we opt for the £14 for 2 platter as a starter when knew better options were there, if only we could have read them. We do manage to pick a few curries for our main course, purely because they are conveniently marked with a chilli symbol.

I think the platter is quite good but L thinks something that came wrapped in green leaves is inedible. As for the main courses my duck red curry is superb, if a little too mild. L's chicken jungle is definitely too mild, a jungle curry is supposed to be really hot. We have two Singas to wash it all down. Overall the food is not too bad but we don't like the place much, so we probably won't return.

We head home but stop off for a night cap, another Leffe at Scruffys on the way.

A good day. I enjoyed the run and I enjoyed the rewards, it's just a shame about the curry.

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