Eating Italian, then Mexican (1/18,21/1982)

Monday, January 18, 1982

Met Jan and Kirby after work to go to dinner, this time for his birthday! Kirby asked if it was okay if Christian, who had unexpectedly dropped by, could join us. It was Kirby’s birthday; he could invite whomever he wanted! We went to the Pizzeria da Carlo/Restaurant du Pont, the same place where I celebrated my birthday. We were seated in a different room with a waiter who had worked in England. Because of all the languages in use, the ordering seemed somewhat confusing, but the waiter got it all right. We made a birthday toast, switched out the dirty forks, then Kirby knocked over his wine glass. The waiter changed out the tablecloth and placemats, and gave us new napkins and silverware! Kirby started with the Tortellini in Brodo/broth soup, and Jan and I had Minestrina in Brodo/a noodle soup. Christian tasted the soups, but settled for the bread that he sprinkled with Aromatic, a yellowish seasoning powder. We wondered aloud if the waiter forgot Kirby’s salad, when he appeared with it. Main courses: Jan had a Pizza Calzone a Sorpresa, the surprise being green peppers. Christian had Pizza alle Quatro Stagione. Kirby again had the Maccheroni che piacciono noi/Macaroni How We Like It, but it didn’t seem as saucy as before. He had to specifically ask for a piece of the crust which the waiter seemed reluctant to give him! I had the Spaghetti Carbonara which had a cheesier sauce than before. Kirby divided up the third helping of my spaghetti. We split two banana splits among the four of us, and had Café HAG/decaffeinated coffee. This time Kirby treated for the wonderful meal.

Wednesday, January 20, 1982

After my French class, I hurried to the Kongresshaus/Convention Center to see if there were any more tickets for the Vienna Boys Choir performance, but they were sold out. It looked like the ushers were handing out stickers and candy bars to the patrons.

Thursday, January 21, 1982

Kirby surprised me with an invitation to a Mexican dinner he was preparing at Sylvia’s house for the Kindergarten staff. She is an assistant in the Kindergarten. I met Kirby at 18:00 and we carried bags of groceries to the car. Jan had been sick all week and was not coming. We first stopped at the post office where Kirby had to park illegally to run in. A postal truck came to find his way blocked by the car and I was readying to move the car myself when Kirby came running back. We then drove to Ipsach to get ice cubes from the S family. While Kirby ran in, I rummaged around the back to pick up some items that had fallen out of the grocery bags. Madelein came out to get me asking if I was celebrating something. Umm, no?  Inside Mr. S said something about my party, so I may have messed up an alibi Kirby had given them.

Once we had the ice we returned to Nidau to find Sylvia’s apartment. We took an elevator to the 6th floor and had to walk the stairs to the 7th floor. Sylvia has a large modern well-furnished apartment that she shares with her fiancé, Eugin. They are getting married in May and want to honeymoon by camping across the U.S. Roslyn, the Kindergarten teacher, was already there and she was set to work cutting the pineapple as Sylvia grated cheese for the enchiladas. Kirby mixed the chicken into the enchilada sauce, and I rolled up the filled tortillas to put in a baking dish. The pineapple, rum, coconut milk, and crushed ice were put in a blender for Piña coladas. Esther and her husband Pierre arrived. Esther used to work part-time in the Kindergarten before Kirby arrived. Pierre spoke English well, and he spoke German with a “German” accent, since he learned the language in Germany. He was a French-speaking Swiss. I heated up the meat sauce and refried beans as Kirby chopped tomatoes, lettuce, and onions, and mashed the avocado. I grated cheese over the enchiladas and more cheese into a bowl. Kirby fried the taco shells and demonstrated how to fill them with the meat, beans, avocado, onion, tomato and lettuce, topped with a bit of hot sauce. We fried the shells one by one and eventually everyone had tried a taco. People shared the remaining tacos. By then, the enchiladas heating in the oven were ready, and everyone tried one of those. Kirby felt they were too dry, but no one would have known any better. There was tea and coffee, and for dessert we had chocolate chip cookies made by Jan’s mom. We finally were done about 22:30!