Can you spot the freak out?

Have just spent a wonderful day of drinking espresso on the patio, catching up on some emails, a little barbequeing, meeting up with friends at the local and helping decorate a cake for someone's birthday.

It's been several months since I've had a day to myself at home. A true day off. It's hard for me to think of anything nicer. Ok, there are some other pretty nice things, like the day I had yesterday with a certain somebody. That was very nice.

I wasn't sure what I was going to write about today. I struggle with the direction of this blog... is it simply an accounting of the cool things I do from day to day? Do I write these things down because I want to be able to look at the goings-on of Oliver and be proud? Is it vanity? Partly yes, I'm sure. I think deep down I really like talking about myself. Not in a boasting way though.

Let me tell you about a fantastic meal I had the other day with my friends Tim and Sarah. It was at a restaurant called The Living Room on 17th Ave. in Calgary.

First we had steak tartare. I was chopped raw beef, served with mustard, chopped oinions and pickles, and capers. It was creamy and fresh tasting and awesome. Then we had duck confit cabbage rolls, which were delicious yet simple, without too many other flavours getting in the way. We also had a crab and mascarpone ravioli with truffle oil that was to die for.

Then we proceeded to a seared scallop and spinach salad with bacon and red peppers. Tim had foie gras that was served on a pecan bread pudding (incredible, but a bit cruel to the geese I suppose). I had oysters. The east coast ones were superior to the west coast ones.

For desert there was a trio of creme brulees (grand marnier, chocolate and rosemary!) and a warm moist chocolate cake that oozed chocolate lava when pierced. Unbelievably good.

We washed it all down with a bottle of really nice red wine, the name of which escapes me because I'm bad like that with wines. Whoever I end up marrying will have to choose the wine when we go out, because while I love the stuff, I can't keep track of the details (grape, region, name... it's all too much).

For the past week I've been feeling kind of anxious and weird... like something big is about to happen, but I don't know what. Like I'm waiting for a big new change to happen, or a huge life challenge to appear. Even today, a very relaxing and easy day, I've had this funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. It's not a negative thing really, I'm just feeling a little squirelly, a might jumpy and just a little bit sleepy.

If you leave a comment, why not also include details of recent meal you had that you enjoyed.