I'm not sure the title I've already typed will have an awful lot of bearing on what I am about to write - or should that be the other way round? Whichever, the only word in the title that really applies is probably "vino".
It's strange how a word can disappear from my life for months or even years and then suddenly become the focus of my attention. That has happened with "oenophile". I don't suppose I had seen or heard the word for ages - until this week. For some reason it just popped into my mind completely unbidden. I hadn't been thinking about wine, talking about wine or even drinking wine, but there it was, right out of the blue. Perhaps I wouldn't have noticed if it had not been such an unusual word. After all, it's not exactly a word that we habitually use in everyday conversation. Well, you might, but I don't. Then it cropped up again on a television programme, New Tricks, which is nothing to do with food or wine but is a drama about an eccentric group of ex-policemen, brought together to solve unsolved crimes. And now it's in Terry Wogan's column in this morning's paper!
I like wine, but don't get me wrong. I'm not an alcoholic - just one and a half glasses with my evening meal - and I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm oenophilic. I'm certainly not a connoisseur, but I know what I like and I like what I know.
Most of the wine I buy is French. Not because I consider French wine necessarily the best - in some cases I don't think it is - but because I buy my wine in French supermarkets while we are across the Channel staying at our house in the Loire valley. I certainly don't reckon to pay very much for my wine, most of it coming in at under 4 euros a bottle. But for ordinary, everyday drinking it really isn't necessary to pay a lot. I buy several different varieties of red wine: Cotes du Mont Ventoux, Fitou, Cahors, Corbieres, Cotes du Rhone Villages, Saumur Champigny being among them. When it comes to white wine, though, I tend to stick to just one - Muscadet Sevre et Maine sur lies. I don't think the French are as good as the New Zealand or Chilean wine makers when it comes to the sauvignon blanc grape and I occasionally lash out and buy a bottle - usually New Zealand - if I'm feeling flush or want one for a special occasion.
There was a time when I would try all sorts of ways to buy Cloudy Bay when it arrived. If you don't know it, that is one of the world's best sauvignon blanc wines and it acquired cult status some years ago. The price gradually went up until I decided it was too high for my pocket.
My younger son worked for several years in very posh restaurants, the sort of place that included in its wine list bottles priced at £1,000 or more. On one occasion, somebody ordered just such a bottle and actually left some wine in the bottom. YS tried it - and pronounced it horrible! I do have to wonder about the man who, this week, is supposed to have paid £75,000 for a bottle of Chateau d'Yquem. Granted, it's the 1811 vintage, but even so - that's over £12,000 a glass! And he's not even going to drink it! He says he will just admire it for the next six years and will open it in 2017. (I didn't see why.) He will probably find the cork disintegrates and the wine is undrinkable - and that's not just sour grapes!
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Today
The quote for today is, I think, worth preserving. It shows such positive thinking.
Thomas A. Edison
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
What a treat it was to open the curtains and see blue sky over the Downs. Mornings recently have been grey and overcast even if we have seen a few small patches of blue later in the day. May be we'll feature a picture on the Stanmer blog tomorrow.
Brighton & Hove Albion play their first match at the new American Express Community Stadium this afternoon - against Tottenham Hotspur. The stadium was shown on the local television news yesterday evening when it was announced that the building cost was £93 million. What a staggering sum! Apparently one man, the chairman of the club, has lent the club £80 million interest free but where the balance came from I don't know. Presumably Amex had something to do with it as their name is associated with the stadium.
In all the planning it seems there was one small matter overlooked. Bear in mind that the stadium is out of town but is served by (I think) two bus routes with a railway station being fairly close as well. But there is no parking. There is a "park and ride" scheme by which spectators have to park a couple of miles away. Now, when I say there is no parking, I mean there is no parking for spectators or staff - who number 200 on match days. But they have to be on site by 11.00am - and the park & ride doesn't start until noon. The regular bus services look like being swamped.
The opening of the new stadium also means that I might have to avoid certain of my regular walks on match days so as to avoid the crowds.
Thomas A. Edison
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
What a treat it was to open the curtains and see blue sky over the Downs. Mornings recently have been grey and overcast even if we have seen a few small patches of blue later in the day. May be we'll feature a picture on the Stanmer blog tomorrow.
Brighton & Hove Albion play their first match at the new American Express Community Stadium this afternoon - against Tottenham Hotspur. The stadium was shown on the local television news yesterday evening when it was announced that the building cost was £93 million. What a staggering sum! Apparently one man, the chairman of the club, has lent the club £80 million interest free but where the balance came from I don't know. Presumably Amex had something to do with it as their name is associated with the stadium.
In all the planning it seems there was one small matter overlooked. Bear in mind that the stadium is out of town but is served by (I think) two bus routes with a railway station being fairly close as well. But there is no parking. There is a "park and ride" scheme by which spectators have to park a couple of miles away. Now, when I say there is no parking, I mean there is no parking for spectators or staff - who number 200 on match days. But they have to be on site by 11.00am - and the park & ride doesn't start until noon. The regular bus services look like being swamped.
The opening of the new stadium also means that I might have to avoid certain of my regular walks on match days so as to avoid the crowds.
Friday, 29 July 2011
That's one job less
When I listed all those bright ideas yesterday I left the list incomplete. Or maybe I just added "etc"; I don't remember. Not that it matters in the least. One of the other things I had been wanting to accomplish involved the other blog, the daily photo of Stanmer and around. I have recently given that blog a makeover but there was still one thing outstanding. Photographs were being displayed in the format 400 pixels x 300 and I really wanted them to appear larger than that, preferably 600 x 480. I had tried amending the HTML to increase the size of the pictures, which worked well - except that the pictures now looked a trifle out of focus. They looked OK in the smaller size but what was actually happening was that Blogger uploaded them 400 x 300 and when I increased the display size, they started pixellating. I was puzzled because I had seen pictures in the larger size on other blogs (Jilly's Menton blog, for example). I was also rather taken with the format on HPY BIS which is 800 x about 280 and is, to my eye, very attractive with the right subject matter. I even tried opening a new blog with a different template, one of the old templates which are now a little difficult to find but which I did in the end manage to winkle out of hiding. I have tried all sorts of tricks - but to no avail. I think I have decided to settle for what Blogger gives me and cross this job off the list but maybe one day I'll go onto the Blogger site and see if anybody can give me the answer through the help forum. One day. Maybe.
Thursday, 28 July 2011
With age comes... ?
I'm old enough to know better. I really am, and yet I fall into the same trap time after time after time. I'm closer to 70 years of age than 60 and should by now have gained just a smidgen of wisdom if not a basinful of common sense. But it seems as though I am still in the early teenager stage. Every now and then I have (or suffer) a brainstorm. Well, that's OK, I don't mind the occasional idea even if it does entail me spending an inordinate amount of time producing something of very little benefit to me or anybody else. It keeps me amused and out of the clutches of the Household Manager.
As I say, the occasional idea is just fine by me - but why oh why do the ideas have to come one behind the other as if they were No 23 buses?
Come to think of it, I have never seen No 23 buses one behind the other. In fact, I've only recently realised that there is a service 23. Perhaps I should have compared the ideas to the No 5B bus which often comes in twos or even threes. But whether the bus is the 23 or the 5B, those ideas come along one behind the other. That in itself wouldn't be so bad, but my scattergun approach means that as soon as the second idea is anything more than a grain of dust in the air, I have to take it on board and start dealing with it. That is where the trouble comes in as I have never ever finished the first idea before I start work on the second, and then the third, and maybe even the fourth.
I discovered a little while back that Lions Clubs International now have a facility for Districts to host web sites with LCI similar to one that has existed for clubs for some time. As district webmaster I decided to register, only to find that one of our Vice District Governors already had. Anyway, he sent me the log in details last week so I decided to start experimenting. Then I had the idea that I really needed, as a matter of some urgency, to re-sort and re-title my digital photographs. I think there are about 9,000 of them but they don't all need attention. Then I decided to add a calendar to Brighton Lions web site, and the video on that site could o with updating, and then something else really couldn't wait...
As I said at the beginning, I really am old enough to know better. But what the heck, it's fun!
As I say, the occasional idea is just fine by me - but why oh why do the ideas have to come one behind the other as if they were No 23 buses?
Come to think of it, I have never seen No 23 buses one behind the other. In fact, I've only recently realised that there is a service 23. Perhaps I should have compared the ideas to the No 5B bus which often comes in twos or even threes. But whether the bus is the 23 or the 5B, those ideas come along one behind the other. That in itself wouldn't be so bad, but my scattergun approach means that as soon as the second idea is anything more than a grain of dust in the air, I have to take it on board and start dealing with it. That is where the trouble comes in as I have never ever finished the first idea before I start work on the second, and then the third, and maybe even the fourth.
I discovered a little while back that Lions Clubs International now have a facility for Districts to host web sites with LCI similar to one that has existed for clubs for some time. As district webmaster I decided to register, only to find that one of our Vice District Governors already had. Anyway, he sent me the log in details last week so I decided to start experimenting. Then I had the idea that I really needed, as a matter of some urgency, to re-sort and re-title my digital photographs. I think there are about 9,000 of them but they don't all need attention. Then I decided to add a calendar to Brighton Lions web site, and the video on that site could o with updating, and then something else really couldn't wait...
As I said at the beginning, I really am old enough to know better. But what the heck, it's fun!
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
An irritating man
In fact, he's more than irritating: he's infuriating! But we'll get onto that shortly. Meanwhile, let me ask you a question. Have you ever wondered about the origin and evolution of things; simple, everyday things? I'm not talking about the Big Bang Theory, the large hadron collider or Charles Darwin's On the Evolution of Species. I'm referring to matters far more mundane. Take bread, for example. I have often - OK, I have sometimes wondered what drove somebody to take the seeds of a certain wild grass, grind them to a powder, add water and bake to produce bread. Even in that over-simplified example there are no fewer than four discrete steps: selecting the grass, grinding the seeds, adding water and baking. That's without kneading, adding yeast etc etc. So why did anybody do it? And did whoever it was have any idea what the outcome might be or were they just, well, experimenting for the sake of experimenting? Then there are carrots. What impelled somebody to dig up the root of that plant and find it edible? How many other roots did they try before this one?
What never occurred to me was that I might be able to make money from random musings such as these. If I could expand upon them - and introduce a few other odd, unconnected thought jottings - I could produce a saleable book like one I read in France last week: Bill Bryson's At Home, the 500+ pages of which are described as 'a short history of private life'.
I implied earlier that I find Mr B an infuriating man. That, perhaps, is unfair of me. I have never had the pleasure (or otherwise) of making the acquaintance of the gentleman so I am judging him without hearing all the evidence in the case against him.
I first met Mr Bryson - or, rather, his work - a good many years ago when I was warned not to read Notes From a Small Island on the train to or from work. Other passengers would think me demented on account of my frequent giggles, I was advised. Since then, Mr B has made a career out of writing nothing much about quite a lot. Which is where the infuriation comes in. If he can do it, why can't I?
Mind you, he does seem to do a lot of research. His latest tome lists what is described as a "select" bibliography, presumably implying that the author has read all these titles and a few more besides. I don't know how many of the listed titles are lengthy books or how many are simply pamphlets, but there are nearly 500 titles listed in this select bibliography! (No, I didn't go to the trouble of counting them all. I simply counted one page and extrapolated from there.) I wouldn't want to force feed myself to that extent so maybe I will just content myself with a few unpaid ramblings like this one.
What never occurred to me was that I might be able to make money from random musings such as these. If I could expand upon them - and introduce a few other odd, unconnected thought jottings - I could produce a saleable book like one I read in France last week: Bill Bryson's At Home, the 500+ pages of which are described as 'a short history of private life'.
I implied earlier that I find Mr B an infuriating man. That, perhaps, is unfair of me. I have never had the pleasure (or otherwise) of making the acquaintance of the gentleman so I am judging him without hearing all the evidence in the case against him.
I first met Mr Bryson - or, rather, his work - a good many years ago when I was warned not to read Notes From a Small Island on the train to or from work. Other passengers would think me demented on account of my frequent giggles, I was advised. Since then, Mr B has made a career out of writing nothing much about quite a lot. Which is where the infuriation comes in. If he can do it, why can't I?
Mind you, he does seem to do a lot of research. His latest tome lists what is described as a "select" bibliography, presumably implying that the author has read all these titles and a few more besides. I don't know how many of the listed titles are lengthy books or how many are simply pamphlets, but there are nearly 500 titles listed in this select bibliography! (No, I didn't go to the trouble of counting them all. I simply counted one page and extrapolated from there.) I wouldn't want to force feed myself to that extent so maybe I will just content myself with a few unpaid ramblings like this one.
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Perchance to dream
I'm not a person to have difficulty in sleeping. That's not to say that I'm asleep as soon as my head touches the pillow, but insomnia is not a problem with which I am familiar. Despite this, there have been a few occasions recently when either it has taken my longer than usual to fall asleep or I have woken in the early hours and felt little need for further sleep for an hour or so. When this happen I try to lie still and avoid tossing around to that I don't wake You Know Who. Not that I'm likely to do so as she sleeps soundly. Very soundly. When this happens I might give in and rouse myself to sit and read for a while, but that means I disturb the dog. The night before last I lay in bed mentally writing this blog. I composed some wonderful sentences covering a wide range of subjects and knew full well that people reading this purple - well, purplish - prose would be full of admiration for the 21st century Charles Dickens. Even I, in my wildest flights of fancy, couldn't rank myself alongside the Bard himself, but Dickens, with his great descriptive passages, well, yes, perhaps I was equal to him. Of course, I fell asleep and promptly forgot everything. And I overslept as well.
Monday, 25 July 2011
Doors to manual
So while we were away last week the blog was set to auto with a bit scheduled for posting each day. Now we are back from gallivanting around the Loire valley the autopilot can be switched off.
I was both pleasantly surprised and mildly irritated when I first checked my email after returning. The pleasant surprise was that there were fewer spam emails than I had expected - only 1200+ in the spam folder and five that had escaped the net and got in amongst the "proper" emails. There were 122 in that folder, including the 5 spam but including also some 70+ returned or undeliverable emails. That was the irritating part - somebody had hijacked my email address to send out spam! Catching up with what all my favourite bloggers had been writing and admiring the pictures taken by the city bloggers passed quite a few happy minutes - but then it's back to the grind. Get the accounts brought up to date, reply to emails, letters and telephone messages, laundry, mow the grass, get cracking on the next issue of Jungle Jottings, update club and district web sites...
I'm not complaining, not really. I know I'm lucky enough to be able to take off for a week in the way we do every couple of months. We get to enjoy two completely different lifestyles and there have to be some small drawbacks.
Oh yes. I'll continue the story of how we bought our French house a bit later on. Maybe next time we are away.
I was both pleasantly surprised and mildly irritated when I first checked my email after returning. The pleasant surprise was that there were fewer spam emails than I had expected - only 1200+ in the spam folder and five that had escaped the net and got in amongst the "proper" emails. There were 122 in that folder, including the 5 spam but including also some 70+ returned or undeliverable emails. That was the irritating part - somebody had hijacked my email address to send out spam! Catching up with what all my favourite bloggers had been writing and admiring the pictures taken by the city bloggers passed quite a few happy minutes - but then it's back to the grind. Get the accounts brought up to date, reply to emails, letters and telephone messages, laundry, mow the grass, get cracking on the next issue of Jungle Jottings, update club and district web sites...
I'm not complaining, not really. I know I'm lucky enough to be able to take off for a week in the way we do every couple of months. We get to enjoy two completely different lifestyles and there have to be some small drawbacks.
Oh yes. I'll continue the story of how we bought our French house a bit later on. Maybe next time we are away.
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