Hiya,
Now we're past the half way stage it's time to be thinking about the end. I know, I know, a lot of you are a bit behind and don't want to have to think about the fact that November is half gone. I don't want to either, but that's because I'm having too much fun and don't want it to end. :-)
Last year I held a poll to ask people where they wanted to get together for the TGIO and by the time everyone had said, "Let's go the same place as last year" it was too late to book it. So this year, I went ahead and booked it anyway. :-)
So, the TGIO (Thank God It's Over) get together will start at CB2 from 4:30pm on Saturday the 1st of December, then around 6:30-7pm we'll move on to Cafe Adriatic on Mill Road where I have booked a large table for us all. We'll see what time we leave there and will probably move onto a pub of some description after that, where we'll stay until they kick us out and one or more of us has to accompany Arathalion back to the station to make sure he makes it onto the last train home!
What I need from you:
1. Whether you intend to come or not. I have to finalise numbers with CA by the Wednesday before, so please reply to this to say whether you'll be able to make it or not. If you can't make it to the meal, but want to come along to CB2 please tell us that too so we can make sure we have a big enough table in the cafe.
2. I need to know if you have any special dietary requirements. I had a very nice chat with the Manager and he assured me that as long as we give them a couple of days notice, that they can meet any special requirements you might have. So please take a look at the menu:
http://www.cafeadriatic.co.uk/
and if you do have special requirements (e.g. vegan, allergies) please choose what you want from the menu and let me know by the end of the 27th November. They will then make a special version of whatever you want just for you. :-)
Please be assured that you do not have to get to 50k in order to come to the TGIO. It's as much a chance to offer commiseration those who don't make it as to celebrate with those who do. Everyone will be welcome (even those who haven't made it to another meet all month )
Thanks
Lottie
----------
*Hugs*
Lottie
ML for Europe::England:: Cambridge
cambridge_england[at]nanowrimo[dot]org
2007: Rising Angels, Falling Apes - ??
2006: An Ordinary World - 84k+
2005: Dreaming of Jack - 83k+
874 / 50,000
nov. 18, 2007 - 15 09
Don't think I can make it, I'm working that Saturday until 6pm unfortunately, so I'd be arriving in the middle of a meal...yeah.
Plus, *looks at wordcount*, yeah. =P
----------71,343 / 50,000
nov. 19, 2007 - 09 09
Um. Right.
I would really like to come, but Italian food is about the worst possible nightmare for my food intolerances because it revolves around ingredients I can't eat, namely tomatoes and dairy. Pizza's out, pasta's out (even pesto, it has cheese in it), I don't like seafood and I can't always eat fish.
Looking at the menu, I can find maybe three dishes I think it would be *possible* for them to make in a way I could eat without them becoming something completely different; and those are the most expensive on it. The other problem being that my partner and I are very, *very* poor just now.
Does it have to be Cafe Adriatic, or could we go somewhere less Mediterranean-tastic? Thai and Chinese are much easier for me to eat.
----------NaNo 07: The Thief and the Blood
160,056 / 50,000
nov. 19, 2007 - 09 47
Hiya,
Sorry that you don't like the choice of restaurant.
I have no problem with going somewhere else if everyone agrees. Unfortunately the only Thai restaurant I know that is any good is out of town. Could you perhaps suggest somewhere, and we'll see what people think? It has to be somewhere that caters to vegans though. :-)
Thanks,
Lottie
----------*Hugs*
Lottie
ML for Europe::England:: Cambridge
cambridge_england[at]nanowrimo[dot]org
2007: Rising Angels, Falling Apes - ??
2006: An Ordinary World - 84k+
2005: Dreaming of Jack - 83k+
52,503 / 50,000
nov. 19, 2007 - 10 07
If we need vegan, could we book out the whole of the back room in the Rainbow Cafe on King's Parade? They're very good with dietary requirements (they're the only place I know where my wife can eat in complete safety - they even mark gluten-free items on the menu).
Their back room (past the kitchen) is large enough for us without being so large that we wouldn't fill it, and so scare other customers away...
----------2005: The Wolf and the Rose
2006: Dig for Victory! Winner!
2007: Freedom is a Sweet Word Winner!
130,341 / 50,000
nov. 19, 2007 - 10 43
I'll be there!
If people are going to be wanting us to be booking some other venue for the TGIO, we'll be needing the venue suggestions (and pile of votes in favor thereof etc etc) pretty darn sharpish - since the reason we couldn't go to Cafe Adriatic last year despite it being the overwhelming winner from everybody is because by the time all the to-ing and fro-ing had finished, everything on our list had been booked solid with Xmas parties.
Cafe Adriatic was very nice, flexible and accommodating when we had the TGIO there several years ago, so they will no doubt be able to cobble something together for the special people this time as well!
----------______________________________________
Anne-Lise [ML for Europe::England::Cambridge]
~2007: the umbran alliance
~2006: adaptation
~2005: a life in the day
~2004: trinity
130,341 / 50,000
nov. 19, 2007 - 10 50
Rainbow Cafe is indeed a nice place, but unlike standard restaurants that can provide a vegan option if asked, I suspect they might get a wee bit touchy if the opposite situation arose & we were to ask for slabs of roasted meat ;-)
----------______________________________________
Anne-Lise [ML for Europe::England::Cambridge]
~2007: the umbran alliance
~2006: adaptation
~2005: a life in the day
~2004: trinity
57,602 / 50,000
nov. 19, 2007 - 13 36
Hi guys, I won't be able to make it, the late afternoon is a bad time for me - kids tea time and bed time, baby can't get to sleep without me , as, try as he might, my partner is no good at breast feeding!
If it was lunchtime, I would be able to come, but never mind, I'll come next year.
21,330 / 50,000
nov. 19, 2007 - 14 17
I'd like to come but where are we starting, going, staying now?
Sat 1st then
52,481 / 50,000
nov. 19, 2007 - 14 23
I plan to come :) I also have no dietary requirements.
Shame there are no tattoos this year, but at least Café Adriatic has squid! ;)
50,418 / 50,000
nov. 19, 2007 - 15 59
I would like to come along. Not been able to make any of the midweek events, but can make the Saturday.
I am veggie, but I don't really have any preferences where to go - I can usually find something on most menus.
Cal
52,361 / 50,000
nov. 19, 2007 - 17 06
Technical point -- Rainbow don't do bookings.
I'm a bit disappointed that Cafe Adriatic don't do budget menu options anymore.
I like the place, though, so hopefully I'll be able to say if I can make it soon... |8)=
--PB
----------71,343 / 50,000
nov. 20, 2007 - 04 44
I have no problem with going somewhere else if everyone agrees. Unfortunately the only Thai restaurant I know that is any good is out of town. Could you perhaps suggest somewhere, and we'll see what people think? It has to be somewhere that caters to vegans though. :-)
It's not that I don't like it, it's that it gives me exactly two options: pay more than I can afford, or don't eat. I don't know about you, but Hobson's choice doesn't exactly feel like a fun way of celebrating to me.
Charlie Chan is an excellent Chinese place on St Andrews Street, a few doors down from the Arts Cinema; they have veg-only and tofu-based dishes, and they do take bookings. Chinese food isn't ideal for coeliacs, though, IIRC - I don't know if we have any coming with us?
----------NaNo 07: The Thief and the Blood
160,056 / 50,000
nov. 20, 2007 - 05 22
Charlie Chan is an excellent Chinese place on St Andrews Street, a few doors down from the Arts Cinema; they have veg-only and tofu-based dishes, and they do take bookings. Chinese food isn't ideal for coeliacs, though, IIRC - I don't know if we have any coming with us?
I don't know either.
So everyone, what do you think? Would Charlie Chan be okay for you? I've never been there so don't have an opinion, but I'm happy to try it if everyone else is.
*Hugs*
Lottie
ML for Europe::England:: Cambridge
cambridge_england[at]nanowrimo[dot]org
2007: Rising Angels, Falling Apes - ??
----------2006: An Ordinary World - 84k+
2005: Dreaming of Jack - 83k+
*Hugs*
Lottie
ML for Europe::England:: Cambridge
cambridge_england[at]nanowrimo[dot]org
2007: Rising Angels, Falling Apes - ??
2006: An Ordinary World - 84k+
2005: Dreaming of Jack - 83k+
130,341 / 50,000
nov. 20, 2007 - 05 29
ah yes, I haven't kept the calendar up to date! Apologies.
Stuff will be on there shortly, although as you can see below we seem to be experiencing a bit of churn at the moment.
----------______________________________________
Anne-Lise [ML for Europe::England::Cambridge]
~2007: the umbran alliance
~2006: adaptation
~2005: a life in the day
~2004: trinity
50,614 / 50,000
nov. 20, 2007 - 05 39
I have an idea but I do not know if everyone would approve of it. Is there a hall in Cambridge that we can rent and then everyone brings a favourite dish of his or her choice?
I wish I knew Cambridge better or I would recommend a place to hold the TGIO party.
----------Take care,
Snarfgirl2007
709 / 50,000
nov. 20, 2007 - 05 56
Just as a suggestion (and feel free to ignore me, because I'm not actually coming to the party), as the manager has said he'd be flexible to dietary requirements, would it be worth letting him know what your needs are and seeing if the chef can accommodate you with something that isn't the most expensive thing on the menu? If they can, it seems that would be the best solution all round.
130,341 / 50,000
nov. 20, 2007 - 06 04
CB2 also serve food, however, so if people are already feeling peckish at that point & just can't wait, they could have a giant burger or whatever @ CB2 & just move on to the wine or dessert or crudité stage once we have gotten to our table at Café Adriatic.
That said, it's not necessarily quite so festive as joining in a celebratory meal with the rest of us, but it is an option if you feel so inclined
----------______________________________________
Anne-Lise [ML for Europe::England::Cambridge]
~2007: the umbran alliance
~2006: adaptation
~2005: a life in the day
~2004: trinity
71,343 / 50,000
nov. 21, 2007 - 11 16
I'm ahead of you there, unfortunately. The cheap options on their menu are, basically, the pizzas. Now perhaps you know something I don't, but I'm not sure I can tell how to go about making anything *like* a pizza that doesn't have both tomatoes and cheese in it; and it looks like the restaurant charges more for anything that isn't pizza.
----------NaNo 07: The Thief and the Blood
130,341 / 50,000
nov. 21, 2007 - 11 26
but have you actually *asked* them, rather than just fixating on the current configuration of what's on the menu?
they presumably have a range of ingredients on site, and could stir a bunch of them together for you without milk or tomato garnish. If you ask them nicely.
----------______________________________________
Anne-Lise [ML for Europe::England::Cambridge]
~2007: the umbran alliance
~2006: adaptation
~2005: a life in the day
~2004: trinity
50,152 / 50,000
nov. 22, 2007 - 04 54
I don't mind where we eat (though something a bit nicer and healthier than McDonald's is definitely preferred!). I can come on Saturday for the meal - not sure about CB2, I might just meet y'all there just before we go to eat.
----------2006 Winner (undergoing revisions)
2007: Treasons, Stratagems and Spoils (alt history fantasy)
Three brothers, two murders, one stolen necklace - and a shipload of trouble!
~o~o~o~o~0~o~o~o~o~
160,056 / 50,000
nov. 23, 2007 - 03 21
Hiya,
I called in at Cafe Adriatic last night asked asked them about this, and apparently a pizza with no tomato on it is called a 'White Pizza' and is very popular on the continent. In fact, the manager prefers them because she doesn't like tomatoes either (i hate the things!).
She basically said that they will start with a pizza base and put anything that you want on it (and leave off everything that you don't like/can't eat). Plus they do a pizza which has goat's cheese on it, and I believe that you are able to eat goat's cheese, right?
So they will happily leave the tomato out, substitute the cow's milk cheese with goat's milk cheese and then put anything else that you want on it for you.
Plus, she also said that they would happily do smaller portions of any of the main dishes for anyone who wants it, and only charge half price for it.
Would either of these be a solution?
----------*Hugs*
Lottie
ML for Europe::England:: Cambridge
cambridge_england[at]nanowrimo[dot]org
2007: Rising Angels, Falling Apes - ??
2006: An Ordinary World - 84k+
2005: Dreaming of Jack - 83k+
71,343 / 50,000
nov. 23, 2007 - 06 12
The white pizzas I've seen (Pizza Express) had a white sauce base under the cheese to keep the base moist - if Cafe Adriatic do it similarly they'd have to make that sauce with soy milk or somesuch instead of dairy. I can eat goats' cheese, yes, but only in fairly small amounts; it still contains lactose, just not as much as cow's cheese and fewer other contributing factors as well.
I suppose it's worth a go, though I tend to be skeptical about the ability of people who don't actually *have* intolerances to spot all the places ingredients like to hide; dairy's a bit of a basic assumption in Western cooking. There's lactose in pepperoni, for pity's sake - I mean why? - and even my bread machine tells me to put milk powder in the dough.
Sniglet - the problem with ordering things that aren't on the usual menu in restaurants, especially when you're part of a large group coming in at a busy time like a Saturday in December, is that they tend to lose track and get it wrong. That's fine if it's just a question of taste, but rather less so if the results can make you ill. I don't really appreciate being told I'm "fixating", either - a menu tells you what ingredients a restaurant will have to hand, and this is a health question for me. If the restaurant get it wrong, or forget there's milk in the pizza dough, or citric acid in the stock, I'm going to be the one who can't finish the meal, wastes the money she spent on it and suffers the next day. I'm sorry if this seems like some idiot being difficult, but I'm afraid I didn't choose to have these problems and I don't have a choice about what I can and cannot eat.
----------NaNo 07: The Thief and the Blood
709 / 50,000
nov. 23, 2007 - 09 56
The pizza restaurant I worked for didn't put a white sauce in place of the tomato on the white pizzas, so it isn't necessarily going to be a problem with that.
I do appreciate how frustrating it can be - my son had an egg allergy (which he has thankfully grown out of) and I couldn't believe how many things had egg in, nor how little sense there was to what did and didn't. It frequently seems as though people pick ingredients entirely at random. I know we found some places much better than others, and these people seemed to be very willing to be helpful. I haven't ever experienced busy Saturday service syndrome though, so hadn't thought of it in that way.
Just another thought, as they seem to be quite willing to be helpful, would it be worth you phoning to speak to them and seeing if you could decide on your order in advance and the chef could prepare it early, before things got busy so it could just be put in the oven at the right time. I don't know how practical that would be (though I know the pizza would be fine, because the restaurant I worked in used to make up some of the popular ones in advance), but it might help to combat the errors that can be made when they are busy.
160,056 / 50,000
nov. 24, 2007 - 10 08
I wish I knew Cambridge better or I would recommend a place to hold the TGIO party.
Hiya,
Just to let you know that we're not ignoring you. :-)
It's a valid suggestion, but it's probably a bit late for the TGIO this year, especially as I also have no idea of a place that we could go. I don't know Cambridge that well either. :-)
We'll keep it in mind for next year. Russ is going to be doing a lot of work on the site over the coming months so hopefully next year it'll be working a bit better and we'll have access to polls and other stuff that will enable us to ask all of you for your opinion more easily than this year.
The issues with the site have made this year's nano rather more stressful than I was hoping it would be. :-)
Thanks for the suggestion though.
*Hugs*
Lottie
ML for Europe::England:: Cambridge
cambridge_england[at]nanowrimo[dot]org
2007: Rising Angels, Falling Apes - ??
----------2006: An Ordinary World - 84k+
2005: Dreaming of Jack - 83k+
*Hugs*
Lottie
ML for Europe::England:: Cambridge
cambridge_england[at]nanowrimo[dot]org
2007: Rising Angels, Falling Apes - ??
2006: An Ordinary World - 84k+
2005: Dreaming of Jack - 83k+
50,158 / 50,000
nov. 24, 2007 - 16 49
Hey, I'm new to the Cambridge part of NaNo, but I'd love to join you on Saturday. Any place works for me. (I'm much like the dog: "eats anything, loves children.")
52,361 / 50,000
nov. 25, 2007 - 14 53
Just to say I'm in for the meal...
--PB
----------52,503 / 50,000
nov. 25, 2007 - 15 33
I'll be along, but won't be eating with you. I'll probably arrive at Cafe Adriatic while you're all eating. You know, like last year...
----------2005: The Wolf and the Rose
2006: Dig for Victory! Winner!
2007: Freedom is a Sweet Word Winner!
160,056 / 50,000
nov. 27, 2007 - 16 00
So, I have on my list of attendees:
Me
sniglet
lark_ascending
fabcat
Arathalion
PurpleDaisy
redfox1593
Tales
Platypus Bill
Snarfgirl2007 + 1
With Solidus joining us at some point but not for food.
Moonlight, are you going to join us for a drink afterwards as well?
If I've missed anyone, please let me know. If you haven't RSVPed yet and would like to come along please let me know in the next 24hrs as I need to confirm numbers with the restaurant.
Also, if you have any special dietary requirements, can you let me or the restaurant know what they are by Thursday night so that we can make sure that you're catered for?
Thanks,
Lottie
----------*Hugs*
Lottie
ML for Europe::England:: Cambridge
cambridge_england[at]nanowrimo[dot]org
2007: Rising Angels, Falling Apes - ??
2006: An Ordinary World - 84k+
2005: Dreaming of Jack - 83k+
50,024 / 50,000
nov. 28, 2007 - 02 14
Hiya
Both me and Senji woudl like to come too if I'm still in time. Sorry for leaving the decision so late!
----------The Shadowlover
1,655 / 50,000
nov. 29, 2007 - 05 46
Hello there
Thanks for the invite. Sadly I will be in Wales, otherwise I'd have loved to have come along and say hello, I'm always on the look out for other writers as there's nothing like swapping notes and ideas to keep up the enthusiasm! Never mind, enjoy your meal, anyway.
Cheers
Sweary
----------Life's too short to drink bad wine.