Kick ass

Which is the one time I don't spell it "arse" like a true Brit. Somehow "kick arse" looks wrong.  Although "arse kicking" is correct.

As you can probably tell, I'm feeling decidedly gung ho this week, after work treated us to personal safety training. We had instructors from Resolute Training in, which psyched me up immediately as whenever I feel the need to buoy myself up I always silently chant the "be bloody, bold and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man" line from Macbeth. That and Lady Macbeth's "but screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail". I love Lady Macbeth, she's so wonderfully vicious. She and Medea are probably my favourite female characters in literature, which is probably telling.

Anyway, feeling highly resolute we were given very sensible advice on how to stay out of trouble, and also how to escape from strangleholds should you get into trouble, and how to inflict damage with "maximum aggression" (go for the face). Pity the fool who tries to tangle with me now.

Time for some more restaurant reviews!

On Tuesday we were invited to L's birthday celebrations at Mildreds, a vegetarian restaurant in Soho. This is somewhere we've wanted to go for a while, but never managed to since you can't book tables in the main restaurant, and the queue is always out the door and we get too hungry before we get to the front. Thankfully the private room upstairs is bookable for parties. The food itself was pretty good - I had artichoke crostini followed by stir-fry teriyaki tofu with brown rice, which was exactly what I had at the Rootmaster too, but I think the Rootmaster was slightly better. Again, brown rice! Sometimes I just want refined carbs with my tofu, you know? What was most excellent was that the walls of the room are covered with little pictures, which on closer inspection reveal themselves to be top-notch Victorian and Edwardian pornography. (For those with whom I was debating the difference last Saturday, check it out.) Terribly amusing, to me at least, to eat dinner surrounded by black and white daguerreotypes of ladies' maids exposing their fannies, and top-hatted gentlemen with rampant cocks. Great fun.

Thursday night was dinner with the girls at Thai Square in Islington, which is part of a chain, but generally very good. I don't think I've ever had a bad meal there, or at any of the others. Nothing stunning, but if you want a regular Thai curry, it hits the spot. I had the "Disco Duck", which sadly didn't come with flashing lights and a mirrorball, but instead had onions, peppers, cashews and chillies (so why "disco" I have no idea), and coconut rice. Lovely.

Finally, a couple of very exciting things: firstly we have booked our trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos for May, and secondly I've been offered a volunteering position at a butterfly house! Must buy more camera memory cards, I can see myself running out very quickly indeed...