Dinner with the Senior Counsel was simply beautiful...

The Acacia provided a great Al Fresco experience. We were in an oasis, dining amidst verdant palms and the fragrance of Frangipanis. Thankfully, no mosquitoes came to bug us...it would have ruined this wonderful setting.

The food definitely needs to be improved. A credible rendition of Aglio Olio was marred by rubbery mussels that were unbearably dry...The Caesar's salad was pedestrain and lacked panache. It was also missing the mandatory poached egg. Needless to say, I was unimpressed. Worse, we had to pay for chilled water...and that came in a bottle of Ice Mountain...The pauper's Pellegrino...

The menus were quite tatty as well...I spotted at least half a dozen spelling and grammar errors...I don't usually do this, but these mistakes were just too glaring and obstrusive...

"Ceasar's salad" anybody?

"Muzzles in white wine"?

When a menu contains too many typos, it reflects quite badly on the establishment.

The saving grace of the bistro is the warm and unobstrusive service. The wait staff were attentive to our needs and even placed a mosquito coil under our table. Of course, this was after they overheard me complaining! Rather vocally, if I may add.

After dinner, we went for some sweets at Olivia's in Serangoon Gardens. I am a big fan of gelato. I've always had a soft spot for lemon and tiramisu, but I decided to give other flavours a try. The emerald green apple looked enticing enough, but it was cloyingly sweet. There was no semblance whatsoever to the taste of green apples. It tasted as fake as a silicon implant. The Mocha was not too bad...I was pleasantly surprised by the thin topping of rich coffee dust.

The Senior Counsel had the Oreo gelato...she got her teeth black, which I found really cute.

At the end of the evening, I sent her home. It was very dark and I could not tell which house was hers ( I swear I know the difference during the day!). I sent her to the wrong house...but she was cool about it.

In a sense, the past two weeks have been surreal. I still can't believe that we are doing stuff together. It seems as if we never lost touch in the last three years. I don't know what the future brings. As of now, I am perfectly contented to enjoy her company. It's great to just take her out for dinner once awhile and listen to her talk. I feel very blessed that she is back in my life.

Somehow, I believe the feeling is mutual.