The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Feliz Aniversário Para Nós
Happy Anniversary to us! Today marks twenty-nine years since we were married (and 31½ years since we first met). When
people ask, I say that I met her at a party, she followed me home, and I kept her. Her version of the story is longer!
Since we arrived, we've been hearing a lot of bar-type noise late into the early morning. We figured it was from the wine
bar on the street level under our apartment and just did our best to sleep through it. Last night, though, we were both up
most of the evening (more on that below). I heard the crowd and was surprised when I looked out the window.
The epicenter of the crowd seemed to be the restaurant diagonally across the street, not the wine
bar right below us. I took this photo about 1:00am and by 2:00am the crowd had expanded to all four corners of the
intersection. I have no idea what the attraction of this particular might be. It may just be that everyone comes here
because everyone comes here.
John Lennon once said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." So true. In our case, the bit of
life that's intruded on our plans is Margene coming down with what appears to be a case of food poisoning. It's not unusual
for her sensitive system to have a reaction to something she eats on one of these trips, but the strange part of this
incident is that the only thing she had to eat was part of a sealed bag of potato chips!
Anyway, we were both up all night dealing with the attendant unpleasantness. As long as she needs help getting off the bed
or up out of a chair, this is a two-person project. Fortunately there's a pharmacy half a block from the apartment with a
very helpful [English-speaking] pharmacy assistant who asked all the right questions and gave me a few remedies for the
various symptoms ailing my child bride.
Needless to say, we stayed home all day today. She slept and I read. This surely wasn't the Lisbon trip we had imagined,
but it was sure the one we ended up with ... so we might as well enjoy it. Margene seems to be in a little better spirits
tonight and the pharmacist predicted that whatever it is that's laid her low will have run its course by tomorrow evening.
I hope she's right. We start for home at 5am Thursday morning!
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