Last minute rush

A million things to do today before we leave. So how do I spend my morning? In front of the computer reading through my blog roll. But I have to brace myself for holiday- 2 weeks with no internet access. I figure I may have the shakes for the first couple days, B has been instructed to tie me to the bed and shut the door if I start screaming for a fix, threatening to break in to the hotel office and grab a laptop. Actually, the entire island of Malé has free Wi-fi access which is good to know. If it comes to that.

So my dear sisters came to my rescue and I won't have to worry about taking any of the clothes back. At least that is one thing I don't have to worry about today. Besides, at least that stuff fits. Last night I started going through a box of summer clothes and realized that lots of it is too big for me now. I guess the Pilates has helped and I have lost a bit of weight since Christmas but I was surprised to find skirts literally falling off me. And not completely happy about it either. I quite liked lots of that stuff. I could take it all in to the tailor to have taken in, but that would require lots of confidence that this is a permanent weight loss. Also, that is lots of work and the surest way to get fat again.

Speaking of which, B and I took advantage of our baby-less house and decided at the last minute to go out for dinner last night. First B called to ask if I wanted to meet him at Baan Boran, on rue Montpensier just off the Palais Royal, our absolute favorite Thai restaurant in Paris (and apparently, Jacques Chirac's fav Thai as well. His photo is on the wall, and our friends saw him there on more than one occasion.) On the metro ride over, my mouth started watering as I imagined the gorgeous green papaya salad. So I met B at his office, we ran to the restaurant as it had just started to rain, and when we got the door I remarked "Good thing you reserved. It's almost completely full." Thats when B told me he hadn't reserved, finally, since it was a Tuesday he decided that there was no point in calling ahead. Well, of course there wasn't any table free. I could have murdered him! I was practically fainting from hunger, we could smell, practically touch, the green papaya salad on the table in front of us, and rather than sit down to eat, we had to go back out in the rain and tramp around looking for another place to eat. Lucky for him, Maceo was just around the corner and I had been wanting to try it for ages.

It was a nice meal- the food was gorgeous. I had the vegetarian menu and loved it. Everything tasted really fresh and like itself, if you see what I mean. It wasn't smothered in sauce, but all the flavors were really interesting and well thought out. The way the same ingredients kept coming up in all the different dishes makes me think that this restaurant must mainly do "market menus" every day- change the menu based on what looks good at the market. Its good to know of a restaurant like that, which is quite fancy (by which I mean that it is a tablecloth restaurant, not that it is particularly snobby in any other way. I take that back- it does have a very long and snobby wine list. Easy enough to overlook though when they have a nice list of wines by the glass/carafe) although reasonably priced (I think the veggie menu was 30 euro for 3 courses) and does creative vegetarian food. I hate when veggie friends come to visit just because I feel like such a disaster when I can't find somewhere nice for them for a dinner out. The only bad thing about the place is that there is no background music and the lights are quite bright so it seems like an old person restaurant.

So- off to tackle today's to do list. Post office, book store, sun screen store, shorts for B store, actually pack bags. And if I am a very good girl and get everything done, we are going to the movies tonight to see La Mome. Or Dreamgirls. Bald howling French lady or Beyoncé? Tough call.