The 17. Day

S.'s colleague was supposed to come to dinner. He smokes. He of course knows S. is trying to quit. He will want to smoke in the flat.

How is this going to work? That was my worry.

Nevertheless, I prepared a delicious meal. Hungarian paprika beef stew (marhapörkölt, I have yet to find a good recipe in English, none of the ones I found so far mention red wine as one of the main ingredients, although that is how I make it!) and tiramisu (yes, tiramisu, the Italian wonder). I even asked my Mom to tell me the recipe of galuska (or nokedli, or Spätzle) which I have never made before, but is the traditional side dish. If you want to make pörkölt, you gotta make the nokedli, too. It's a must. Main and dessert were both ready a day early so that they had a relaxing day to spend in the fridge. Both the taste of stew and tiramisu improve over time (but don't leave it to rot for weeks, that's overdoing it a touch). Somehow the ingredients come together better if they get to sleep on it. The galuska and a cucumber salad was to be prepared before the meal. I have never been ready with the main dishes of a dinner one day early. I also cleaned the flat. Good food in dirty flat, no, no, no. Bad combination. Good food in nice flat, oh, yes, oh, yes.

Last minute S.'s colleague cancelled. He had a very bad cough and wanted to go home. So he did. So no more worrying about him smoking in the flat.

But what to do, what to do? There lay an empty evening ahead.

I wrote to S. on chat that I would go meet him on the way home. No answer. Thankfully, I had an even better idea. How about I ask D., B. and B. if we could come over AND bring dinner. It might be a bit too late for 1,5 year old B. by the time we got there, but still. Yes, they said and were happy to hear from us. Yes, S. said and was happy to hear about this lucky change of events.

Lucky was me being flexible. But never mind. I am the quick thinker, the organizer, oh, my!  What to do, what to do? Think! Quick.

S. and I met at Green Park station, on the westbound Piccadilly platform. That was his suggestion as standing by the station, on the street might have resulted in him thinking about smoking.

The evening was great, another fun night with friends.

Phew.

No. PHEW! with a smile. My smile.  (Oh, and the food was great, too.)

Sigh.