Aidan Williams - High Acuity

“THREE MONTHS!!! THREE MONTHS AND NO UPDATES!?” I really thought John was going to slap me when he said this to me last Friday night.

Sorry for the lack of updates guys! I have seen most of you recently though, so it’s not like we’re completely out of touch!

It’s been so busy lately: new clients, admin work, etc, although I’m not complaining!

I can’t remember the last time I had a complete weekend to myself, so last weekend I took my girlfriend out for a well-deserved day in the centre. We weren’t too hungry, so we treated ourselves to a light lunch in Soho. Which consisted of king prawns with a wasabi mayonnaise, satay chicken, mushrooms with a soy sauce, and cubed beef with a hickory barbecue sauce, along with two incredibly tasty non-alcoholic cocktails.

I’ve been meaning to see the modern French re-make of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, ‘Hors de Prix’ (Priceless) for a while and we finally got the chance over the weekend. It’s every bit as brilliant as all of the reviews say and well worth seeing (although not necessarily in the cinema).

A few months ago we stopped using our unlimited pass at our local cinema altogether, so in the last month we’ve caught up! Here are some very short movie reviews:

Iron Man – Best super hero movie of the year.

Incredible Hulk – Far better than the first.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian – Far better than the first.

Kung Fu Panda – So much fun. Well worth seeing.

Wanted - Terrible – Wait till it comes out on DVD. Worth it for a laugh if you’re interested in seeing something truly ridiculous.

I’ve yet to find time to play Team Fortress 2, but Will has been sending me these classic videos:

Meet the Sniper
Meet the Soldier
Meet the Engineer
Meet the Scout
Meet the Heavy Guy
Meet the Demoman

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.