Baklava

oh my goodness

why must i share?

General Pintoage...everyone's favourite dictator.

My blog has been visited by someone who really knows about wine and doesn't just pretend - like I do!

So PM, welcome :) How did you find me?

This is the Pinochet that beat me into servitude.

I know next to nothing about wine, truth be told but at the beginning of 2007 I decided to hone my wine skills beyond "Of course, I like it, it's red" so I started a wine journal, as modelled by the lovely Moleskine notebook here. I rate my drinking experience from Low 1 through to High 3. This Pinotage got a high 1 which is very good. Only my favourite Chianti regularly scores higher than that! (Tonight I'm drinking a low 3 and I don't know if I'll bother to finish the glass)

I write up a short review of the wine after drinking such as 'Actually perfect. Dark and meaty with hardly any bitterness...' and 'Really bad. Had one sip and had to throw the glass out.' Then being the geek that I am, I enter each wine at the back so I have a page for each rating and can see what types of wine keep coming up higher than the others. Oh, and I have a final page of countries where I tally off the bottles to make sure I'm drinking from all over the world and not just going back to favourite places all the time.

PM, please add whatever comments you like here - anything you can teach me about wine is great.

No-one needs to tell me what to do with this glass I'm on now though. It has a bouquet of urea.

Stuck in

The new job is bonkers busy. A couple of the girls had a leaving do this evening so I had 2.5 hours to kill between the end of work and the meal. So I stayed at work. Even working all that extra time I only got a fraction of the work done that needs doing. Even so, for some reason I am LOVING it. I have quite a few days off over Easter so hopefully I'll get some rest then before launching back in.

The rooster and penguin are pics I took a couple of years ago at the zoo but I still think are worth showing.
In other news; I am getting almost zero reading time and I'm still on Amaniti's 2nd novel, 'Steal you Away.' Seems ok but not as good as his first, 'I'm not Scared.'
I have decided that Pinotage is a good grape and that you can judge a wine by it's label!

hipporaphs & kangerillas!

'In with the lemurs' at Whipsnade Zoo wasn't exactly what we expected but this level of meditation can't be interupted with a cuddle!
However....end of the day and the zookeeper out of sight...!

Baby elephant - 10 weeks old!

See that pile of leaves? The one with the eyes...

brum

A very pleasant stay in Birmingham.

Particularly pleased with the four poster bed and three course meal.

Town Mouse in the Grotte de Glace.

The organ at Notre Dame des Neiges. A symbol that started an interesting discussion.

oh yeah, that.

Suppose I should blog about the new job...whilst interspersing my account with pictures of what is really on my mind.

(vin chaud)

So I'm now a manager and as such, probably a proper grown up but I'm still not convinced. I have my own branch which is tres cool and 3 days into the job I'm still enjoying it!

It's a cute little shop with about 2.3 members of staff there at any one time and occassionally less but it has a fun atmosphere and lots of things for me to get my teeth into.

First day at the new branch was stock take day. Deep joy!

The results came in today with a surprising **company sensitive information ** of stock and an encouraging **company sensitive information** in stock level. So I'm sure that puts you in the picture.

try not to hate me

but this holiday rocked out!

At the bottom of Chemin du patre.
La Sarenne.

At the bottom of Signal de l'Homme.

Another of my favourite snaps. Me having a quick rest on the Sarenne run - longest black in europe. Watch this space for more!

nous sommes de retour

One of the best for starters.

4 days...

...until this

" The domain covers an area of 10,000 hectares which includes 248 km of linked pistes extending over an altitude range of 2,230m. The top station, Pic Blanc ( 3330m ) offers breathtaking views of the Alps including Mont Blanc, Mont Cervin and the Meije and on a clear day a fifth of France can be seen from this point.
The Alpe d'Huez slogan is L'ile au Soleil or Island of the Sun and this reputation is well deserved with almost all slopes south facing. The national meteorological office further confirms this with average figures of 300 sunshine days a year consisting of up to 7 1/2 per day in December and 11 per day in April. "

My Hero

TONY HARRISON is going to be reading in Cambridge to coincide with a newly released collection of his poems. I am beside myself with excitement. AND what's more, a rep promised me a finished copy today. You can keep your celebs and sports stars, TH rocks my world.

ecriture

Today I bought some splendid 'Fold and Mail Stationery'.

I am already the proud owner of Emily Fold and Mail

Something I have only ever seen at 311.

Pick your design and I will write you a hippy trippy peaceful message or a downright grouchy letter with attitude.

Kasper

The Enigma of Kasper Hauser.

Werner Herzog.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,96504,00.html

A most extraordinary film I watched last night. Real brain food about socialisation and a host of moral questions.

3 cherries!

got it. 6 month secondment. pretty chuffed.

in other news i got to share the surprising delights of Isla Negra with the borrower and her computer generated boyfriend and Alimal this evening. Uncanny resemblance on the golf course.

to answer your "?", big dog, i'm liking ghostwritten. some parts are really gripping, others are very readable but not earth shattering. it will be interesting to see how the threads join up. i can see why you mixed it up with murakami. lots of similarities. well one or two maybe. if you need a prompt think of the cultural revolution, a ghost girl in a flat and a freaky terrorist religious group trying to purge the world!

who says?

Who said having teenagers was relentless hassle? I'm sat on my computer while mini-me is downstairs dipping peppered chicken breasts into beaten egg and coating with an interesting mix of crushed crackers and parmesan ready for dinner. Yeah, it's really tough being me this evening. Ahh, back to my reader.

freaky monday

What a weird day...had an interview this afternoon for a job I only applied for on Friday, after I had found out I had the interview. I was mediocre. No question. Official result Wednesday.

Actually spent this evening doing something I really wanted to do rather than prep for interview at short notice or speed read kids books for review. So I sat down with take out pizza, Chianti, my hound and 'Jimmy Corrigan. The world's smartest kid.' Finished 2/4 of them.

gourmet-a-go-go

...and last night he made Paprika Pork which I have to say was amazing. Really sizzling and yummy. He decided to sprinkle sage into the rice. Damnit if it wasn't delicious!

the uncommon cold

damned if i can't taste my red wine properly with this awful cold.

Got home tonight and mini-me was planning dinner. he made me bacon pasta with spinach and pine nuts. he seems to have this uncanny knack of throwing something else in that just works. it was meant to have lemon but we didn't have any so he chucked in a couple of cap fulls of red wine vinegar - it went great with the bacon and gave the dish a bit of extra kick that the lemon would have. hmm.....if the animation doesn't work out for him ...!

i provided pudding and the evening's entertainment. a small chocolate easter egg each and an hour in front of planet earth!

i've already bought ingredients for the dinner he's making tomorrow! he laid the table with wine for me tonight so i'm looking forward to getting back from my late shift already :)

snow patrol

MIDWINTER IN MIDSUMMER >

< NO BATHING

< STARLING

ICE CAP >