Maggi and I picked Bernard up from his house at midday. I had booked a table for three at The Griffin in Amersham. Maggi and I had eaten Sunday lunch a few months ago and enjoyed the food. I expect Bernard would have preferred San Remo in Denham.
As I drove away from his house I turned on the satnav and asked Bernard to suggest a route. He said turn right the satnav said turn left. I decided to follow the satnav. He became quite cross. I had not taken his advice. His route didn’t involve driving down tiny lanes. His way would be much faster. He thought up another couple of reasons why he was right and the satnav was wrong.
Eventually we merged with the main road and found an enormous traffic jam which by following the satnav we had avoided. Bernard did show a little contrition.
We arrived in good time for our 1 pm booking and ordered our meal. The restaurant had a deal, a free glass of rosé if you choose two courses. We had intended to have two courses, so Maggi had 2 glasses of wine and as driver I just drank water.
My two courses consisted of a mushroom gyoza in a soy sauce with sesame oil and sea bream.
Both dishes tasted really good. In fact I only realised that I hadn’t taken a picture of the sea bream with peas, and chips when I had finished. I had been too absorbed in eating the food to think about photographing it.
On the morning of the meal I had phone the restaurant to tell them that my guest would be 100 in a week’s time and could they do something to celebrate. The lady on the phone said they would. We had eaten our meal and ordered coffee. Nothing arrived to suggest anything other than that the bill would turn up pretty soon. I left the table to pay for the meal and nothing.
It’s not enough to just give good food. They should have acknowledged Bernard’s birthday. In addition the waiter managed to combine polite responses with a surly attitude. I am not sure how he managed this trick but none of us warmed to his presence when he hovered around the table.
I drove back to Croxley to drop Bernard and didn’t ask him for his advice on directions.