Day 33 - Not Feeling It

Maybe it was second day blues but I didn't feel on form today. Work seemed to go on forever and I didn't quite feel myself. I think perhaps it's because everyone else has been working together for quite some time and I'm the new girl. Working on fitting in is actually tiring work. I know in this industry when you enter a new job you have to go in all personality guns blazing but I'm getting older now and my drive for this sort of thing has waned slightly. Don't get me wrong I love meeting new people but as always it takes me a little while to get into my groove, knowing who to trust. There are people in TV who gush from the outset and treat you are though you are simply the best thing since sliced bread, their new best friend. It's nice to be welcomed but this type of friendship is short-lived as they soon move on to someone newer and seemingly more interesting. My friends have always said that mostly, at the beginning, I am a little more reserved, I scope people out before committing. I know this can sometimes comes across as a little serious and unfriendly and it's something I've worked on hard over the years to overcome. I think I've achieved it mostly but it still takes me a little time before I let people in. Take this new job, I've a feeling I'm going to really like the people I work with, two or three in particular, but I've not given much away up until now. At some point I will mention Gerry, but not right now. It doesn't feel like the right time. It's not because I fear their reaction or judgement but because I'm not sure I want to trust people with that level of knowledge into my life just yet. We'll see, I'm there with them for a while so it might happen at some point.

Anyway, that's the introspective moment over. To this end by the time I came home I didn't feel like cooking at all. Gerry had her friend T over and they were merrily playing Mario Kart on Xbox. She had suggested we go out and I was in no mood to resist so we all went up to Strada brandishing a 2 for 1 voucher. As it happened we didn't end up using the voucher and I plumped for 2 courses for £12.50.

Once seated we were attended too almost immediately and given no real time for decisions. With the pressure of the waitress hovering above me I made some hurried choices. First off I went for the Insalata di Spinaci which comprised of baby spinach leaves, sliced avocado and pancetta with parmesan shavings in a mustard dressing.  This which was actually pretty good. The avocado was lovely and ripe, not too many leaves and the mustard dressing not too overpowering.

I had problems deciding what to choose for main course and opted for a Spaghetti al Ragu. This is not normally one of my preferred dishes, so much so that I don't even really cook it at home but today it seemed like the best option. The braised minced beef ragu was rich but fairly sparse compared to the mountain of spaghetti that it adorned. I also could have done with a slightly chunkier consistency, however, there were pleasant herby flavours in the tomato sauce.

We opted to forgo dessert because the service was patchy at best and we had quite a wait between courses. I thought this a little poor considering the restaurant was only half full. We left sated but slightly dissatisfied because poor service will always leave a slightly bad taste in my mouth. Strada I probably won't be back for a little while.