Remember a while back I mentioned some of the couples on our street were doing a Come Dine With Thy Neighbour? Well this weekend saw round 2 at #5 for Rob's turn.

It was surprisingly good - better even than Pete's in round 1. The surprise being that Pete is Mr Competitive while Rob is Mr Laid-Back.

The menu (hand-delivered the night before on a ribbon-tied scroll) was very impressive -- calprese with oven-dried prosciutto on top for starters, pan-fried sea bass for main (complete with hand-made salsa verde)  and then chocolate torte to finish. The presentation was better than Pete's and almost of restaurant standard. In fact the food was as good, if not better, than some of the food I've had in the better of Nottingham's restaurants lately.

After dinner entertainment was a good old fashioned game of Charades. The names of films, songs etc to be guessed were provided by Rob's mother-in-law and the twist was that it was boys-v-girls. Somehow the girls won. Although we really should have had an extra point for managing to get Tiswas. First syllable ... sounds like ...

All in all it was a better night than Pete's and I'm going to give Rob an 8 - one more than Pete. Although the food was  Just because Charades was more fun (and more socially interactive) than 2 hours on Guitar Hero.

Needless to say I am now bricking it. Well, Karen is. She's worried we're going to be the laughing stock of the street and has even offered to make the lot and have me pretend I did. Not that I'd do that. Cheating just isn't in my nature. I'd rather serve slop than cheat.

We've devised a menu and plan for the night anyway. If it works out I think there's still a chance we might just win. More on that closer to the date, which is yet to be confirmed, but hopefully at least a month away.

If any of you like the sound of this then it's worth doing. Even if you don't know your neighbours, maybe it's a good chance to get to know them. Put invites through the doors and see if enough couples are up for it perhaps.

If I had the time I think it would be good to make a website to help organise dates, record menus and (anonymously) rate each night and rank the contestants. Maybe one day...