#thebastard

J started working again today. She woke up early to join her first call. Thank god she left the room and went down to breakfast, which was pretty mediocre, but a nice, quiet place to take a call.

S had to deal with some tax stuff this afternoon… unpleasant. He was then left to his own devices for much of the day. We went back to the mediocre Mexican for lunch. It was better today. There was, however, a cheese incident. Yesterday, J did not get any cheese on her burrito bowl. Today she specifically mentioned the cheese and we both got a sparse sprinkle. J  called them out for not putting enough cheese. The lady at the till said she could put more cheese, but she would charge J for it. Undeterred, and bolstered by her renewed status as one of gainful employment, J called her bluff and got her credit card. The lady ended up giving J the extra cheese for no charge. The moral of the story is, don’t play chicken with J over cheese or you will be beaten like a chicken egg.

Because it was raining off and on, we took shelter at the hotel for a few minutes before S said we might as well head downtown for happy hour. We decided to go back to the Lebowski Bar because S really had to use the loo and the Bastard was just too far away. J had a table to work from and S could have a few beers. We then headed to our actual destination, the Bastard. Ironically, it turned out that it was right around the corner. We learned that today is Taco Tuesday and there is a special on margaritas. Once again, J ordered the pretzels and jalapeno cheese dip. However, this time the dish was completely different and tasted exactly like we remembered from 2019. The pretzels were incredibly soft and buttery. The cheese dip was smooth, tangy and spicy. When we mentioned the improvement in the dish to the server, she lit up and told us it was a different chef and he would be happy to hear our praise. We had held off on reviewing this place until this second visit because S had a feeling that there was something off with the food on the last visit. All in all, we had a great time at the Bastard.

As you would expect, we finished off at the hotel bar for our Executive Lounge drinks. Andre, the bartender, knows us pretty well by now and he’s always good for a laugh. He is our favourite Icelandic person we’ve met on this trip. We happened to be seated next to the first English person we’ve seen in Rainland. We thought he might be here for Green List purposes, but he is here on business for Icelandair. Today was his first day in Iceland, so we had to give him all our recommendations for bars and restaurants in Iceland. S is sceptical that he actually took anything in as he didn’t write down anything, but he was a really down-to-earth, nice chap and we liked him. We hope to run into James again.