fajrdrako | Meditheo...

I went out to dinner at the Meditheo restaurant in the market. It was a sort of unprecedented occasion....

There is a gentleman who comes to our theatre, a subscriber, who often buys art and interacts with us enough for us to get to know him. His name is Robert. A very friendly man - he actually reminds me of my old friend Robert Walsh, whom I met in Italy long ago. This current Robert decided that since we were always so nice to him he would take us all out for dinner - the four of us who work in the box office, subscription department, and administration. How nice to be appreciated.

So we went to this lovely restaurant in the Byward market area, and had a great time. It was fun to just socialize with the people I work with, outside the theatre environment. I don't think this has ever happened before, certainly not with this particular group - we often talk about possible restaurant excustions, but since the Box Office people usually work evenings, it isn't feasible.

We shared ten appetizers, with wine; I was thrilled that one of the appetizers was calimari, beautifully and delicately cooked, and unbreaded. I had rack of lamb as the main dish, and it was as delicious as any I've ever tasted. For dessert, my old favourite, creme brulee.

Heavenly.

We talked about the theatre and the plays coming up, and art we have bought in the Ottawa Art Association shows, since they exhibit at the theatre every play and Robert often buys their art - I would go so far as to say he collects it. He confessed that a lot of the art is still unhung, and sitting in his closet.

So then we talked about our pets. I heard a lot of cat stories and went through some of my repertoire of budgie stories - being encouraged, you understand, by all these cat owners. Then late in the evening we got onto the interesting stuff - religion and politics - we talked about sex being the other forbidden topic but we really didn't talk about sex. Much. Pam floored us by describing herself as a Jewish Buddhist. At first Robert was afraid he would offend us by being against organized religion, which just goes to show he doesn't know us, free-thinkers, pagans and pantheists every one. Pam said, "I don't think anything ever offends Elizabeth, except maybe budgie-murder."

I'm trying to figure out if that's a good thing, or not.