Dinner and a Show

You may recall that J and I exchanged "events" for Christmas gifts this year. He gave me that amazingly beautiful helicopter trip in the Coromandel (for that post, click here). I have just realized that I never posted about my gift to him, possibly because it was notably less impressive than his. Nonetheless, we had a wonderful time, and so it should be shared.

I bought J tickets to see comedian Jimmy Carr, who I had never heard of at the time, but whose performances J has loved for years.

 

These posters were all over the city centre, and J saw one as we were walking and was very excited and announced that he wanted to go. I immediately decided that I would get him tickets for Christmas, but then started worrying that he might be excited enough to buy them himself. As tickets were expensive and non-refundable, I found this thought frustrating as I planned my surprise gift. However, I knew I could count on two things; 1) that J would ask me before spending money on rather expensive tickets, and 2) that J's flighty memory would win out over his enthusiasm, and he would forget entirely about the show. This second one, as I expected, was the winner, as evidenced by his total shock when he unwrapped the tickets.

The next surprise was when J suddenly realized that Jimmy Carr specializes in offensive humour, and I specialize in avoiding the use of vulgarity for entertainment... meaning we may not be a good match. He didn't want to take me to a show that would upset me, so he was concerned. I therefore did some research in the form of watching his stand-up routines online to see how I would cope with some of his harsher jokes. Fortunately for our hopeful date night, I found that Jimmy Carr's wit, comedic timing, and ability to mislead the audience right up until the unexpected and clever punchline more than adequately balanced out his vulgarity. 

We got all dressed up for the occasion - more special for me than for J, as he has to wear fancy clothes to work every day. But he usually changes into gym clothes to work out before coming home, so I rarely see him dressed up for more than a few minutes each day, before we both head to work. 

I, on the other hand, probably have worn fancy clothes about twice in the 2 1/2 years we've lived in NZ, so it was a special occasion for me. I even bought this rather fantastic dress at a second hand store for the occasion, and so I could surprise J with it on the night. 

In looking at these pictures, all the way back in January, I am remembering that J was trialling a goatee at that stage. The jury is still out on facial hair in my opinion, but he still looks handsome.

We went to Nicolini's Italian Restaurant for dinner, downtown on Courtenay Place. It had been enthusiastically recommended to us by a friend of Kirsten's, and we thought the candlelit setting would be nice, and it was. Sorry for the crappy picture - I was trying to snap a quick one, and it does not capture the lovely ambiance at all.

The food lived up to the recommendation we had received - probably the richest, most wonderful pasta I've ever had in my life, actually.
You'll notice that this is an impressively unattractive picture. What you do not realize is that I actually had J take a good four or five pictures, thinking that I'd look at them later and surely one of them would be passable. This believe it or not, is the MOST attractive picture of me that was taken while I enjoyed my pasta. 

When it came to dessert, J could not take his eyes off of his amazing cake for even a moment, although I am appreciative of the herculean effort that it took for him to wait to actually start eating until I had snapped the picture.

After dinner, we went to the show (right across the street at Saint James Theatre), only to find that the enthusiastic Jimmy had gone way over time on his first show of the evening, so ours would be about an hour late in starting. Given that it had been originally scheduled for the unfathomably late hour of 10:00pm, the concept of staying up an additional hour was a bit challenging for J and I, who are usually solidly in bed by 9:30. However, we were having a wonderful time, and endorphins will get you a long way, so we did just find.

We went to The Library, which is a lovely bar that is set up like a library - not so much like one you'd go to to check out books, but like an library or study in an old house. The main part of The Library was quite full, so we ended up in this back room which, while comfortable, seems to have been forgotten when they applied the "library" decor. All the other rooms have books covering most of the walls, but perhaps they ran out? Anyway, it's a great place, where I've often gone for book clubs, and we had a nice time having drinks and chatting while we waited for the show to start.

I took not one single picture of the theatre or anything connected to the show. I'm not sure why this happened, but pictures don't really capture much about a stand-up comedy show, so it's not a big loss. The show was hilarious, and J was absolutely delighted to see a performer he had loved for years perform in person. 

By the time we got home, it was past 1:30am, which is a good 3.5 - 4 hours later than we've stayed up in years, so we just fell into bed and slept for ages. But it was all worth it for the wonderful evening together.