Is it a good time to write a blog entry when you're feeling ill & sorry for yourself? Let's find out. Because, dear readers, I've got a nasty cough & a sore throat - so much so that I was off work yesterday and today. I knew I shouldn't have let those pigs stay in my living room the other night!

Yesterday was mostly about sleep, but today I've managed to be alert enough to do some paperworky stuff in the flat and now I'm taking the opportunity to write a few words here, having decided that I'd be best off not going to my choir rehearsal tonight.

So, what have I done recently that's noteworthy? Well, the first thing that springs to mind is a wonderful evening spent at my Peruvian friend Elmer's house last weekend. Elmer invited me & Christian to dinner, promising to cook some Peruvian delights. He served up a pastel de choclo (a sort of savoury rice pudding with ground sweetcorn instead of rice) with some delicious shredded chicken, and there was plenty of food for all! In fact, we all ate enough for three people EACH!

I hadn't seen Elmer for a long time, and it was great to have a chance to catch up. We spent the whole evening sitting out on his terrace, enjoying the distant rumbles of thunder as we chatted. Amusingly, his company and my company used to be part of the same division of Siemens. And even more amusingly, he lives just around the corner from where I now work, and I live just around the corner from where he now works! If only we could office-swap...

The other highlight since my last blog was a delicious dinner at Bénédicte's house to pre-celebrate her birthday (her proper party is next weekend). Now, those of you who know me (and I doubt many people who don't would bother to read this - but email me if I'm wrong) will agree that I am a bit of a bon viveur, but it's fair to say that Bénédicte outclasses me in bonvivicité - and if that's not a word, it should be. Let me set the scene for you:

No sooner had I walked in her door than she started slicing the limes for a round of caipirinhas, with finger food to go with them. Next came a round of blinis with sour cream and smoked salmon, washed down with a bottle of champagne. We opted to skip the main course (which would have been cassoulet) because we'd both pigged out on the salmon, but we didn't skip the red wine that would have gone with the main course - OH no!

Then came the cheese course - obligatory in any good French household, I should say. Well, the red wine was just a touch too wet all on its own. And to round the evening off we had banana splits to go with our digestifs. Small wonder, then, that I managed to break my saddle in half on the way home!

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I've just remembered something that HAS to go in this blog!! We've rediscovered Mama, my all-time favourite Vietnamese restaurant that used to be round the corner from my flat! After a hiatus of almost a year, Anna the proprietor has found new premises and reopened. And the best thing is, it's not even that far from me either! Just a short tram ride away.

Christian, Edith & I saw the signage as we happened to cycle past a few weekends ago, on our way into town to meet up with their old Uni friends from way back when, Birgit & Wolfgang, who were in town for the weekend from Vienna. We couldn't stop there & then, but we decided to go back the following night.

While I'm on the subject, I should say that the Saturday we spent with Birgit & Wolfgang was lovely! The weather was hot & sunny, and we spent all afternoon sitting at an outdoor café just near the synagogue, drinking refreshing drinks & chatting. This was followed by a huge Indian meal in Haidhausen, where we were joined by Bine, Anja, and Chris.

But anyway, back to Mama: Christian & I turned up on the Sunday evening (at a time Anna herself suggested) to discover that her new place is less than salubrious. It suffers mainly from having been a dodgy dive of a locals-only bar in its previous incarnation. Anna's only had it a couple of months, and she's in the process of remodelling the kitchen area so that she can offer the full range of food that she used to in the place near me. For the moment, the menu is a little limited, and the quality wasn't what it was in my mind either. But I'm sure it will pick up.

Anna herself seemed a bit preoccupied and not the chirpy, mad thing she used to be. But she seemed to cheer up as the evening progressed, not letting the drunken banter of her regulars-for-now get her down. It really was a shock to the system though! A whole group of people who I generally don't have anything to do with. My, don't I sound pretentious! Well, maybe I am a bit. I just don't have anything AT ALL in common with those people, other than that we were in the same restaurant that evening.

Anna wants to tart the place up, so that she when she invites all her old regulars back she can be confident that they will come again. And she's hoping that her local patrons will "learn how to behave in a proper restaurant" (her words) if they start rubbing shoulders with people who are there for the food, rather than because it's the nearest watering hole to their flat. I'm going to take a leap of faith and go back there from time to time, to support her worthy aim of turning the place around. But I have to admit, I think it's going to be a long haul for her.

Right, let's stop there shall we? I'm feeling a bit tired after all this typing. I think I'll have a little lie down now. Got to look after that throat of mine! Else I won't be able to go to work tomorrow. Tootle-pip!