Steak, Friends & Family
On Wednesday night, one of my work colleagues and a close friend, Katie, took me out for a belated birthday meal at an Argentinean steak house; Cavas De Gaucho, near Piccadilly Circus – winner of Time Out’s Best Steak Restaurant award in 2006. It has the most amazing selection of Argentinean beef and a brilliant selection of wines – the menu of which contained full details of each wine including the height of the vineyard above sea level – apparently the higher the vineyard, the better the wine. It’s a relatively expensive restaurant, but well worth the price, provided you can put up with the annoyingly loud lounge-bar style music – not great if you want to chat – although the live jazz band was quite good when they played later in the evening. The décor of the restaurant is quite interesting – a strange eclectic mix of modern design with lots of randomly placed black and white cow hides. I had a great time with Katie, chatting and catching up – we’re so busy at work we rarely get to tactually talk. She’s an incredible, kind woman, and a lot of fun.
I decided to stop doing anything healthy for me, lately – I stopped going to the gym a couple of months ago, ran out of my vitamins (and didn’t buy new ones), ate more fast food when arriving home late, have been drinking a lot more, and have had a few very stressful weeks at work. The result was a pain on the right side of my chest on Friday, which I’ve had three times before (roughly once every 9 months) in the past couple of years. It only ever happens when I’ve stopped exercising, taking vitamins, eating well, and have been very stressed. I went to the doctor about it the first time; she told me I was stressed, exhausted, should join a gym, take vitamins, eat properly and take time to relax. As soon as I did all that, the pain disappeared, each time I’ve had it. I usually treat it as a warning that I’ve been too stressed and need to relax and rest a bit.
I won the Above & Beyond Award at work for the third time on Friday. I’m very grateful to those who voted for me.
My girlfriend and I had lunch with my siblings and their significant others at my sister’s house today. We’re not going to get to spend Easter together, so this was our family Easter gathering. I love my niece so much – she’s grown so much too! She’s six months old now. When I walked in, my sister held her up to me and she grabbed my face and started smiling with her beautiful big wide blue eyes staring at me – I love seeing her smile. We shared some stories and laughs, I danced around with my niece a bit, we ate and then my girlfriend and I headed off for a quiet Sunday in with our friend David.
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:03 am
Hearing about your health deteriorating was not what I was expecting on your blog; it concerns me and as your friend it makes me sad to know you’re suffering in any way.
I’m a firm believer in learning life lessons, however, so I am sure you know what to do – and if you don’t I hope you’ll seek out some sound advice (AND TAKE IT). Essentially there’s no point if there is no you!
It’s good that the doctor gave you that advice way back when on how to look after yourself. A major part of it is also balancing play with work (it should be that way around, hrm?). You’re very lucky in that the career you have is as much your hobby as it is big businessman stuff. If you need anything to help you relax, let me know – I’m only ‘just around the corner’.
Spending time with family over Easter is great. My family don’t really celebrate Easter but relish the national bank holidays to spend time traveling about to visit relatives. Seeing babies and spending time around children is something I particularly enjoy – sometimes they’re so much more fun to interact with than adults, hahaha.
Maybe that’s just saying something more about me, rather than children, lol!
Happy Easter, Aidan.
I hope you have a fantastic time over the holidays, no matter what you do. I also hope you’ll feel better soon and that you’ll get to spend time with those who’ll make you feel better, as well.
With kind regards…