Aidan Williams - High Acuity

John and Vanessa watched, their fingers intertwined, as the sun composed the tropical sky into an exquisite meld of scarlet and blue. The soft, warm sandy beach remained empty around them, just as it had been for the whole day. Now, as the wind whispered to the leaves on the palm trees, John and Vanessa lingered over hot and tender kisses. A moment later John stared deep into Vanessa’s eyes. Sensually, he slid his fingers behind the nape of her neck, slowly leaned her back and…

…And if these two people were given a taste of the dessert I had last Monday evening, they would have stopped what they were doing and paid due attention to this heavenly pudding of the gods.

Sanj and I had our second business meeting at the Gaucho Restaurant in Piccadilly and I’m glad to say the place hasn’t changed since the last time we were there; they still make the best steak I’ve tasted.

What I didn’t know was that they also make the best dessert I’ve tasted. A few months ago I had dessert at the Japanese restaurant Yauatcha in Soho, which had the best dessert I’d ever tasted at the time… But Gaucho Piccadilly has this incredible Dulce De Leche Cheesecake… I’d had the Pancakes and Ice Cream dessert from their menu last time, which I thought was quite nice, but this cheesecake is on a-whole-nother level. It’s almost rude how tasty this dessert is. Everyone should go to this restaurant immediately and eat them out of Argentinean steak and Dulche de Leche cheesecake and then have the place closed down because otherwise I’m going to be a very very fat man very soon.

Sanj has been a very good influence on my health lately – a small area of his desk in our office is covered with natural nutritional supplements, seeds, nuts and oils and he’s got me taking some of them. We also have a healthy juice drink every lunch time from Gogo Juice in the local mall, where they make the juice in front of you with fresh fruit.

Sanj set me the challenge of trying a shot of wheatgrass after he did last week and after having my first shot, it’s become a regular fixture in my lunchtime menu. I think it tastes like peas, while Sanj thinks it tastes a lot like another word beginning with P. It’s not the best-tasting beverage in the world, but it does taste a lot better then a shot of Aloe Vera – the English language lacks the words to describe just how horrible that drink is. But hey – it’s great for your skin!

With no prior engagements, I was able to spend the whole of this last weekend with my girlfriend out in central London. While picking up some new clothes, I came across a ‘captain’ school badge keychain that instantly reminded me of the one I had when I was cross country captain in prep school (at age 11). These are classic! In British schools all of the badges were made in this exact style: “CAPTAIN”. ”PREFECT”, “HEAD BOY”, etc.

Does anyone know if they still use these in schools now? I’m pretty sure they died out at the end of the 80s/eary 90s – such a shame. I was so proud of my PREFECT and CAPTAIN badges at the time. Both were yellow to represent my house colours. As soon as I saw this badge I was taken back to a simpler time: living in the countryside where we had endless adventures in the school playground and Saturday mornings were about cartoons and diabetic-coma-inducing sugary cereals.

To go with my British badge, I picked up some very nice Paul Smith shoes. (you can’t get more British, or London then designer Paul Smith!) and we went to see the new British comedy-horror film The Cottage. It’s not the best film in its genre and it is certainly no ‘Shaun of the Dead’, but it was funny and worth seeing once – perhaps not in the cinema though.

The last few weeks have been incredible for myself, my partner and our company. We’ve really upped our game, had some great meetings, taken on a few new clients and our existing ones are extremely ecstatic about the work we’ve produced and how easy we make the whole process for them.

Unfortunately after two weeks of having a mild form of the flu, I contracted the 48 hour vomiting bug that’s been going around London and I’d like to share all of the gory details with you all, so you can truly appreciate your health. I started vomiting rather violently at 4am on Sunday morning and when I say violently, I mean so hard that it was coming up through the back of my nose… beautiful.

After a couple more vomiting sessions and painting the bathroom in the kinds of colours Jackson Pollack would be proud of, I eventually started vomiting blood. I called the National Health Service Direct number and after telling them my symptoms, they told me to get a taxi into the nearest Accident & Emergency hospital.

My girlfriend took me in and soon after taking my details and bringing me into a room, I promptly vomited more blood on the floor, passed out, collapsed and bloodied up my knee.

After taking my blood for tests, re-hydrating me with a litre of fluids from a drip, a couple of injections to stop the vomiting and a 4 hour stay in the hospital I said I would like to rest at home and the doctor seemed okay with that, saying I should take a couple of days off work to get my energy back.

It probably didn’t help that I’ve had a mild form of the flu for the past couple of weeks that hadn’t really taken, so my body’s defenses weren’t at their best.

This is the first time I’ve been ill for any length of time or with an illness of this severity in a good few years. Aside from my work hours, I tend to think of myself as a relatively healthy person.

I don’t mind the whole being ill thang, but what did upset me is that I missed the 32nd birthday party of one of my closets friends. I did make it up to him though.

So… incredible week, but crappy weekend – I guess you have to take the rough with the smooth in this life eh!

Enjoy your health guys!