It's a small world and it smells funny

[simont]

On Saturday I went to the Depot (formerly the Vaults), in a small group gathered by cartesiandaemon who had recently tipped me off that it had a gluten-free submenu. This was an excellent experience, not least because it was the first meal I've eaten in a restaurant since 20061; usually the sheer hassle of finding coeliac-friendly eateries puts me off. And the Depot is also an excellent place to have your first restaurant meal in two years, because its unusual menu structure (lots of starter-size dishes, you order a lot of them and have a bit of each) meant I didn't have to dither over which of the many appetising things on the menu to select. ‘I'll have nearly all of them, please!’

Anyway. It turned out that one of the group who I didn't already know is also coeliac, and not only that but is on the committee of the local branch of the Coeliac Society. Apparently this is entirely coincidental: her other half (also present) was at university in Jack's year. Small world.

During a discussion over what wine to order, I excused myself from making detailed wine-buying decisions on the grounds that my absent sense of smell rather rules out a career as a wine expert. The abovementioned other half promptly startled me further by asking

Tim	‘Did I just hear you say you've got no sense of smell?’
simont	‘Yes, that's right.’
Tim	‘Are you therefore Simon Tatham?’
simont	<blinks several times> ‘Yes!’

thus proving that the world is even smaller, or possibly merely that I am still the Internet's most famous anosmic. (He'd encountered my FAQ on Reddit.)

---

1. well, unless you count having lunch in Tatties once last year, on a technicality. I don't.

Comments

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

How do you have lunch on a technicality?

[simont]

Bah. Counting, on a technicality, the fact that I had lunch in Tatties once last year as a counterexample to my assertion that I hadn't eaten out since 2006. :-þ

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

Ah, that makes more sense. I read it that there was a technicality that made you have lunch at Tatties once last year, which seemed odd.

[pjc50.livejournal.com]

There's good eatin' on one of them technicalities..

[zotz]

Maybe he believes that anyone with no sense of smell is Simon Tatham. Have you ever noticed there being any more of you?

I noticed there being another of me a couple of years ago. It was a very disconcerting experience.

[teleute.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more along the lines that there is only one person with no sence of smell, and he is Simon. (It was the 'therefore' that got me thinking this way).

Disconcertingly, this means Simon and my dad are actually the same person (and I'm sure there are some logistical problems there!)

[gerald_duck]

Even if there are no logistical problems, you're definitely setting yourself up for some your-mom jokes.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Have you ever noticed there being any more of you?

Funnily enough, that came up too, but I can't quite remember how.

[simont]

I can. People were tasting each other's drinks, and somebody (I think doseybat) said "It's OK, I'm not infectious", leading to a discussion of what would happen if it were possible to catch general doseybat-ness or more generally for one person to catch another's essential nature as if it were a transmissible disease and (presumably) then turn into a copy of them.

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

Do you know scribb1e, pw201's wife? She is also coeliac. In fact I thought you might have meant her, until you mentioned that her partner was called Tim.

I think the Rainbow Cafe (vegetarian restaurant opposite King's) have a lot of gluten-free stuff, BICBW.

[simont]

I don't know her (or indeed pw201 in person).

Rainbow! Arrgh, I now remember that I also went there once last year, so even without counting technicalities Saturday's meal was not in fact my first meal out since 2006. D'oh.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Saturday's meal was not in fact my first meal out since 2006. D'oh.

But I know what you mean, and feel there must be a slightly different phrasing which was true. I find myself feeling out-of-proportion guilty when I get something wrong, I think because I mentally imagine everything should be exactly true.

[gerald_duck]

Hmm. Looking at the Local Secrets page, which seems to be the Depot's most authoritative web presence, I notice something very curious about their menus.

Yes, they have a coeliac menu, and a lactose-intolerance one, even a student menu. What they don't have is a menu that says which dishes are vegetarian!


You realise you're in danger of being more famous for being the Internet's most famous anosmic than for being anosmic?