Leisurely Lunch at Harbourside

Philippa and I kindly decided that we would take the men in our lives with us next time we lunched.
`And we'll take them to Harbourside,' I heard myself say, `For a treat - poor loves.'
So that was decided upon.
But first of all Philippa had to finish some work and so was pounding the typewriter (well, not actually but it has a more dramatic ring than `keyboard') until 2pm so we decided to meet at 3!    And Harbourside, believe it or not, serves lunch until 5 so it was indeed a most fortunate choice.
We sat outside on the first floor terrace which is now totally protected from the elements so that not even a stray gust from the water below penetrated, and were able to watch the ferries arrive and depart.    As our chaps are both deaf, we asked for the music to be turned down and it was done so immediately.   Pity we couldn't also turn down the raucus bursts of merriment from an adjacent table but even they calmed down once they got their oysters.
The fish was excellent and the lunch options very well priced which is more than I can truthfully say for the desserts which were overpriced considering their miniscule size;  nevertheless they were clever and not offensive, even tasty.    Our wait-person was a charming young German student who had been working there for merely a week and was struggling with the wine orders.   But she was very pleasant even if she did talk rather too much.    Unfortunately the coffee seemed to be served luke warm and mine was spilled into the saucer but they were good at reheating, etc. so one shouldn't complain too much.
Overall the afternoon was a great success and the men were able to converse, despite their deafness, particularly once the table of oyster eaters left.   We certainly enjoyed ourselves - we didn't leave until 5.45!
`If we get our skates on we'll be home just in time to watch News At Six,'  announced one of the chaps, hurrying in the direction of the bus stop.