Birthday Month

It's Sue's birthday month. In another time and place, she seemed to have an ongoing celebration as different friends would have her for coffee or some such at different times. I jokingly said that her birthday seemed to last for the whole month. And so, it became a bit of an ongoing joke and tradition that we have tended to carry on to some degree.

The events or even non-events can be simple. She might say, "It's sunny out, happy birthday to me." Yes, it can be that simple. Or we might go out for coffee and even an occasional meal. Some things might be what we were going to do anyway, and a few might be added extras.

Her birthday won't be until the 25th, but I felt that we were lagging a bit this year with regards to those added extras. There seems to be only so much you can do in the Ottawa Valley in March, and most things that I might think of involve food, and I have been trying to watch my figure lately. Goodness knows there's plenty to watch.

But it was time to do a little something special, so off we went to The Glen for fish and chips. It's in the city but not deep in the city, and we can drive there in about 20 minutes. We had gone to The Glen almost 14 years ago when we first arrived here and were greatly disappointed and hadn't been back. Others, however, have mentioned it praisingly, so we finally decided to give it another chance.

I don't know what happened all those years ago, but we had great service and we really enjoyed our meal this time around. The fries were fresh and plentiful, and the fish portions were a good size. Sue ordered her fish with the crispy breaded batter, while I decided on the beer batter version. We halved and shared our portions and enjoyed both. Sue liked the breaded variation while I slightly preferred the beer batter, but we both enjoyed both,

Fish N Chips are not something we would want to do often, but we had a few good places back in Sarnia which we would visit every now and then. We've had less luck here, however. We have found one other good spot, but they don't tend to do the batter as crispy as we prefer, and it's farther away to boot.

Fifty years ago, when we were first married, and I was still a student, there was a chippie very near where Sue used to work. It was just a carry out place, where we would frequently stop on Fridays. The cost was 50¢ per order, so even as students, it was well within our budget. We would happily carry our meal home and enjoy in our small basement apartment.

Yesterday, our cost was almost $60. It was a full restaurant with good service and did include non-alcoholic drinks (coke and coffee) and one shared dessert. And then there was the 13% tax plus a fairly generous tip. But still, if I recall correctly, the cost per plate was $16 or more. What a change in 50 years! It seems harder to afford now than it was when we were poor students.

I'm glad we did it. but for the most part, sunshine and coffee dates will have to suffice for Sue's birthday month. Not completely but for the most part.