After a brief visit to the Kashmir to verify our booking for two Khurzi lambs on Saturday I walked down to Strada and was the first to arrive for our group Christmas meal - It's very unusual for me to be early for anything... After about ten minutes everybody had arrived, by which time I had already donned a christmas cracker hat, and we all started on drinks; I opted for Peroni beer rather than wine. We had lots of baskets of garlic and rosemary bread delivered to the table followed by large plates of classic Italian antipasti (grilled artichoke hearts, prosciutto, mozzarella, sun-blush tomatoes, baked garlic etc). I ordered a rare Bistecca di Manzo (rib-eye steak with rocket and shavings of parmesan) for my main course which was very nice and cooked pretty much how I like it although I'd say it was more medium than rare. For dessert, I had a little chocolate brownie cake with a warm gooey centre and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top - Yum! I was also tempted to sample a Strega Liquore from the Digestif menu, which didn't go down well at all, in fairness!

Ed asked if anyone at the table played computer games - He's quite a fan of on-line gaming, I gather, as are many other past and present employees of the company that I work for, I was surprised to learn! I mentioned that I had recently dabbled with my first on-line gaming experience with World of Warcraft, with some success. Anyway, he plays a game called Eve which is now available for the Mac apparently - It's subscription based, like WoW, but the style is very different. It seems they have a 14-day free trial available so I might give it a go over Christmas as I have one and a half weeks off work...

Before taxis arrived to take people home there was just enough time for a beer in the Old Buttermarket Inn. Don't think I'll be going in there for a while - The bar itself is badly organised, the bar staff are losers and the beer isn't very nice... I tried the Yule Fuel and it was awful!