May 3 - Mmm Japanese

  Thank god it's Friday.  A long day, made slightly longer at the end by the arrival of another large 'to do' item - a reconciliation of an expense that it seems has been being allocated slightly incorrectly at our head office.  I dreaded it for a few seconds but a cursory investigation showed it would be pretty easy to fix up going forwards, it's a job left for Monday at this stage.
  Friday quiz night at work was fun but a bit short.  There were lots of laughs and rambling conversation and then all of a sudden I was the last one in the office!  Luckily for me, rescue was at hand so I went down to the square to meet TwoWrongs for dinner.
  We weren't quite hungry yet so we decided to do a spot of window shopping first.  I found a really cool pop-up Liverpool card for Mr Smart and an equally cool pop-up Everton card for Miss M.  It was an awesome coincidence because on Sunday we're going to watch the Liverpool vs Everton derby match!  After that, TwoWrongs remembered a cool off-beat clothing boutique and we went off to have a quite look around.
  Antons, as it turns out, could be quite a temptation for me.  They sell divine and somewhat quirky clothes, skirting the realms of goth but far too colourful to properly qualify, and along with their dapper beelzebub mannequin I can see why TwoWrongs was keen on it as a store.  I only made one mistake.. and that was going far enough in to spot the rack of seriously gorgeous corsetry.
  Since losing all the weight, my previous corset definitely no longer fits, even laced to its tightest fitting.  I like corsets.  They look good, they feel good and they are damn sexy.  I've been talking about getting a new one now for a little while now and it seemed like there was no time like the present to start looking in earnest.
  Ana, the lovely very helpful (and I expect very effective) sales girl, took my measurement as being now 39 inches at rest, so she loosened the lacing on a 34 inch and a 32 inch corset for me to try on.  She also tied me in and took photos for me to show Mr Smart.  Now that is what I call customer service!  She did also try to talk me into a layby but I am not ready to pick between the first two I see and like.
  After discussing the matter with Mr Smart, I've decide to post the pictures so you can see the two I tried on.  They are both European imports, pure silk, sprung steel boning.  The purple one is embroidered with flowers and butterflies and is the 34 inch, and ties up with black ribbon, the red one is plain, 32 inches and ties with dark red cord.  And of course they are both expensive.. the purple one is $650 and the red one is $420.  Ana was very quick to point out that they offer extended layby on a pay 'something' once a fortnight basis.

  Not that I am necessarily going to pick between these two, I do know which one I prefer, and I know which on Mr Smart prefers, but I am very curious to hear your thoughts too.  Which one do you prefer?  Anyway, after all that fashion and debating how much cash I was truly willing to part with in the pursuit of looking fabulous, as my tummy returned to it's normal non-restricted state, I decided I was now hungry so we headed back to QV for dinner.  Big thanks to Ana for being so lovely and helpful and to TwoWrongs for patiently browsing while I tried things on.
  We went to Meshiya Japanese Restaurant on Lonsdale Street and it was bloody good.  We had to sit outside in the slightly breezy Constance Stone Lane, but it was actually warmer after dark than it hard been during the day, and with my coat on it was fine.  Meshiya is TwoWrongs favourite Japanese so I did what I felt would work best.  I closed the menu and said "I will eat whatever you order".

  Not many people feel confident ordering for others, or likewise placing themselves culinarily-speaking, in someone else's hands, but I'm not a picky or fussy eater, a gourmand rather that a gourmet.  I find it can be a very exciting adventure letting someone else do the choosing.  I certainly wasn't disappointed.

  Friday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's Classic fruit muesli bar and a 45g Carman's Original fruit-free muesli bar.
• Morning snack was a pluot.
• Lunch was a 300g mild Indian masala dhal soup with a toasted English muffin spread with one portion of The Laughing Cow cheese spread (17.5g).
• Afternoon snack was a green nashi pear, cored and sliced.
• Dinner was at Meshiya Japanese Restaurant at QV and comprised:

• Miso soup and a big bowl of edamame.  Edamame are fresh soy beans steamed and salted.  You pop the beans out to eat and discard the pods.
• Spicy avocado sashimi - cubes of assorted raw fish sitting atop half an avocado dressed with a spicy mayonnaise.  The flavour of this is amazing and vaguely reminiscent of rollmops.
• A 375ml Calpis Water, a Japanese soft drink.

• Nasu dengaku - fried eggplant with a sticky sweet warm miso dressing.
• Unagi avocado maki - broiled eel with a sticky glaze atop avocado filled sushi roll.  Extremely yummy but very filling so I'm glad this was shared!

• Dessert was 15ml of Laphroaig Quarter Cask Islay single malt Scotch whisky (that was all I could take) and about 15 squares of Haigh's dark chocolate with cardamom.

  After dinner we headed back to my place for dessert and movies.  Dessert comprised yummy chocolate and a very good quality whisky.  Drinking whisky was a new experience for me.  While I'm glad that I've now had that experience, I'm sure TwoWrongs wasn't devastated to find that I would not be guzzling away large quantities of his favourite whisky.  It was a bit like drinking a campfire while someone strangles you.  It was hot, firey, smokey, amazing and vile all at the same time.
  Our viewing pleasures this evening were the slightly strange and off-kilter choices of Mystery Science Theatres 3000: The Movie and Meet The Robinsons (another underrated Disney animated feature) followed by two episodes of first series Saturday Night Live hosted by Rob Reiner and Candice Bergen respectively.
  That's all for Friday, now on with the blogs for the rest of the weekend.  Thanks for your patience guys but lately I just seem to be a teensy bit of a social butterfly!
  Jess