Last Monday (29th September) we experienced our first official bank holiday – a day that seemingly has no historical significance, just a reason to not work. Ok, I guess some bank holidays have significance, i.e. Christmas, New Year’s and Good Friday. But there are the occasional randoms that get thrown in, such as the “early May” bank holiday. The weird thing about those random UK bank holidays is that they are different from city to city. Edinburgh, Glasgow and London all have different bank holiday dates. There are also “substitute” days, which I can only assume are like make-up days for bad weather in Northern Michigan.
But I’m not going to complain about an extra day off. Unfortunately, I spent most of the day writing a paper for my Leadership class (which takes place Monday nights, midnight – 2.30) but we did get the chance to check another City Centre restaurant off our bucket list. Originally we had set out to go to Tropeiro for an all-you-can-eat meat fest, but when we arrived they had a sign saying they were closed until further notice. Not to worry, for Glasgow has two Brazilian meat houses!
We spent the next two hours at Viva Brazil, where £14.95/person (at lunch) gets you unlimited amounts of 15 different types of meat and access to a full-blown salad/side bar (plus dessert). While the food was awesome, I can’t say the same about the service. At some point between the second round of parmesan pork and dessert, our waitress went on a 20 minute break and we didn’t see anyone until she returned. We were in full-on meat coma at that point and neither of us really had the energy to care.
With the bank holiday also came payday. To celebrate, one of my co-workers organized an office outing to the bowling alley. There was a lot of speculation that Steve and I were exceptionally good at bowling. Maybe it’s because we’re American or because my family bowls every Christmas, or perhaps the fact that I told someone that our average combined score was 150 (oops). I was also told not to expect much from Glasgow’s local lanes, warned that it has “weird carpet, strange clientele and too many video games.” Uh, clearly no one has been to a bowling alley in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. It turned out to be a pretty classy establishment, but we didn’t reach our 150 average. Although Steve did impress everyone with his technique.
“Payday pins” left me pretty much useless on Saturday, but we did make it downtown for dinner at The Raven. Surprise! They serve slow-smoked BBQ plates with a pretty decent beer selection. You know it’s bound to be a good place when your table setting involves wet-naps, paper towel and six different types of sauce. On the menu for us: pulled pork sandwich, jalapeño burger, spicy cheese fries and Drygate brews.
Home just in time for the Notre Dame game at the early time of 8.30pm (but we all know I watched three episodes of Gilmore Girls on Netflix). Cheers to another week!