VCN Ethnic Dinners go to Thailand

And so, yesterday at least one of the two VCN-related projects I was working on, codename "Ethnic dinner", was realized. It wasn't easy. First of all, the "I'm coming" "I'm not" process was more confused than the one, already not exactly linear, that had taken place for the Eritrean dinner. Then, an underground debate took place about which restaurant we should had gone to. Finally, as the dilemma was solved, the restaurant wasn't reachable until a few hours before the actual dinner (A restaurant closed on monday and with no one to take bookings until 4 pm of tuesday.. bah).

Anyway, so it was that, after having picked up Liesbeth at home, I found myself way ahead of time at the Thai Inn. We got inside anyway (it was cold) and got some wine with which arrived the first of many little gifts by the restaurant's owner: some appetizers accompanied by a kind of peanuts' jam. As time passed by, people begun to arrive. Eventually, we had 12 people from three different continents (3 americans, 3 italians, 1 Belgian, 1 Dutch, 1 Maltese, 1 Iris, 1 Brazilian, 1 Philippine). Food came in an abundant quantities, soups apart, and averagely good quality, wine was pouring and conversation flowing. Too much wine, maybe, as, at some point, one side of the table was exchanging tongue twisters in the respective languages (and if you have never heard a Maltese or a dutch tongue twister... it's kind of an experience).

Time passed nicely and we even celebrated someone's birthday (which triggered another wave of little gifts from the restaurant, included more wine and some small pastries) and we arrived to the after dinner shots. Now, despite someone's efforts aimed at being served a sambuca (5 , which met all the time with a counter-offer of whiskey), we eventually were served with a half dozens of mysterious bottles wearing long labels all strictly in chinese (or some similar language). the only one we were able to identify was some ginseng liquor, and just because there was a ginseng root floating in the liquid and because someone met it with a "Oh! that must be the aphrodisiac one", causing a second of silence and a volley of laughter right after.

As the dinner came to an end, we were pleasantly surprised by the lightness of the final bill and by yet another present.. each one of us walked away with a bottle of red wine.

On another news, while the atmosphere in my office reached sub-Arctic temperatures, today I had a kind of interview for the new position... which might be delayed up to one month. I must say, I had to summon quite a bit of strength to keep my poker face and reply with a "Well, ok, if that's what is really needed for the technicalities...". Now, I'll be a block of ice if I shall have to stay much longer on here, with my present and hopefully soon former superior hitting me with laser beams every time he looks at me.

And, to top it all, Susanne's net is dead once again.