24th June - Mike's birthday meal at Valentino's

I drove to Heaton Moor tonight for Mike's bithday meal. The restaurant was fairly easy to find. The only problem I found was that you can't turn right onto Heaton Moor Rd from the A6, but I managed to find an alternative route quite easily. We had a good turnout - 22 of us. That meant that we nearly had the whole restaurant to ourselves as it's not a very big place. The food was good - I had seafood pasta in a tomato and garlic sauce for a change. (Most other places I've been to serve seafood in a creamy sauce) Everyone seemed happy with their food - the portions were quite generous. We couldn't escape the World Cup tonight as they showed the match on a small T.V. in the restaurant.
I left early as this was the first evening event that I've driven to and I'm not keen on driving late at night. Kay was quite impressed that I drove and I was quite pleased with myself for having made the effort. It's nice to know that I don't have to depend on others all of the time.