This was not one of the more successful evenings. In some ways it was a reprise of the charming Kim & Micky & ossobuco evening which helped cement me and Janie together…but a sort-of dystopian version of it.
It was not dustopian because of the food. Oh boy, the food was terrific. Janie’s Friday diary reads…
…collect ossobuco & Langues de chat biscuits & mascarpone [from La Pasena]
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It was the company that made the evening dystopian.
Rita is one of Janie’s colleagues – even 25+ years later Janie still refers work to Rita when appropriate.
Now don’t get me wrong, I liked Rita. Rita is absolutely fine.
The problem at that time was that Rita was with a chap named Tony and Tony liked far right politics of the most venal kind. Rita and Tony as an item didn’t stand the test of time for all that long beyond this dystopian evening…
…nor indeed did Tony make it very deep into middle age. Stonk in the brain or something of that ilk. It isn’t ONLY the good who die young.
But the Rita and Tony partnership had, by then, lasted long enough to produce young Mark who was 10-12 years old. By all accounts, Mark has subsequently settled down but at that time he was a fully paid up member of the Tony-Loony-Tunes-Yoof and not averse to doling out a bit of lip.
None of the Mark and Tony shenanigans went down very well with me and Micky. I don’t think it went down too well with Rita either when the extent of the mismatch inevitably spilled over into the evening.
I seem to recall Kim subsequently finding it all rather amusing; she rather thrives on conflict in a funny way. Not to say that she found it acceptable; just that she preferred to laugh it off afterwards while Micky and I sought solace in incredulity.
That particular evening grouping was a one-off.
The food was terrific though.