Early Risers.

[leopardml2341]

First workday of 2020 completed

 

Hoping all are well or at least improving.

 

Might be back later; if not, then tomorrow.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Been speaking to my niece this afternoon, my brother goes down for his op tomorrow morning. It looks as if he's going to remain in hospital for the next three months. 

[BoD]

12 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Been speaking to my niece this afternoon, my brother goes down for his op tomorrow morning. It looks as if he's going to remain in hospital for the next three months. 

How awful.  But if that’s the best place for him ..............

[roundhouse]

A great sign as we have been drinking under Newcastle Station. Love the way they stack the barrels in the street

 

A good day in Hexham and Wylam aswell.

Edited January 2, 2020 by roundhouse

[grandadbob]

Well I have to admit that the first meal from the new recipe book was very tasty and inexpensive to boot. Not so the bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape that I opened and had to pour down the sink. It was disgusting. Now on St. Emilion which is very palatable.

[leopardml2341]

I hope you had someone else 'man the corkscrew' - don't want any accidents now do we?

Edited January 2, 2020 by leopardml2341
To try to get the 'emoji' rather than text

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

Not so the bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape that I opened and had to pour down the sink. It was disgusting.

Corked? Corks are a lottery. While they do permit "aging" (and one would think A Chateauneuf du Pape might be suitable) for the most part wines are intended for more or less immediate consumption. In that regard screw tops are far more reliable - even if they do not have the drama of opening a corked bottle.

 

With new internal coatings, wines in aluminium cans continue to evolve. They have impressed me with their convenience. I can open a can and better manage portion control - not having to vacuum seal the unused contents of a half-full (half-empty) standard 750ml bottle for the next day.

[grandadbob]

I managed the corkscrew with no injuries Andy!

Although it seemed to smell OK (mind you my bunged up sinuses don't help) the taste was absolutely horrible. Strangely enough this is only the third time I can remember this happening and it's always been with Chateauneuf du Pape although with the previous ones you could smell it. I don't think I'll bother with it in future. Most of the wines I buy these days do have a screw top although there's still a couple in the "cellar" with corks.

[Debs.]

16 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

Well I have to admit that the first meal from the new recipe book was very tasty and inexpensive to boot. Not so the bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape that I opened and had to pour down the sink. It was disgusting. Now on St. Emilion which is very palatable.

Could such a wine be returned (obviously not if it had been received as a gift) as unfit, Bob.?.....I'm guessing that the C.N.d.P represented a not inconsiderable expense. 

 

I've only had to refuse a wine once, that was in a restaurant; which made it simpler, as the sommelier was on hand and he was more offended by the bottle than we were! 

[grandadbob]

That particular wine was a gift Debs but had been in the "cellar" for quite a while. I did actually return one bottle to Sainsburys a couple of years ago and got  my money back although the young lady didn't have a clue what corked meant but took my word for it. (It did help that I'm well known there as The Boss worked there for 38 years)

Edited January 2, 2020 by grandadbob

[brianusa]

Wine like any other commodity is meant to be drunk, whether it be from a bottle, can or box.  My criteria is whether it tastes good even if it only costs  $9.95 on sale and even then I am no judge of wine or what it should taste like.  I am no sniffer or sipper, I just have to like it, no matter the appellation or what side of the hill it came from.

       Brian.

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.

 

Happy Birthday, Mike!

 

That was a busy little day, just when I could have done with an easy one - a poor nights sleep has left me rather numb.  More so than usual anyway.

 

A dull day here turned into a wet one, and now a windy evening.  My friend is on the ferry this evening and he doesn't travel on ships very well.  I suspect it'll be quite bumpy, he can curse in many languages which won't help but will impress his fellow passengers.

 

I have never had much luck with French wines, including the aforementioned expensive  CNdP vinegar.  I stick with Aus and Kiwi now.

[grandadbob]

Most of the wines I like and buy are Aussie and normally never more than about £7/£8 bottle.

[polybear]

12 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Horrible news from Australia.  We didn't see any of the interior when we were there apart from north if Cairns and everything was cloudy when we were flying. However as has already been said I can't imagine the trauma of losing a house and all it's contents.  

 

Jamie

 

A friend of mine has just returned from a couple of months' work in Oz (Sydney).  Apparently the air quality is such that it's the equivalent of smoking 37 fags a day - Hospitals are decidedly busy, with those with Asthma etc. having real problems.

 

I have an external hard drive kept securely outside my house, just in case the worst did ever happen.  It contains photos, documentation etc. etc.  If you were to ask me right this minute who my house is insured with I couldn't tell you - so what if the house burned down?  At least I'd have access to the necessary now.  As for photos etc - at least the digital copies are safe, older ones would be lost (maybe I should keep the negatives elsewhere too).

Of course it pays to keep the hard drive regularly updated....

[Ozexpatriate]

I've had many bottles that have turned - mostly due to being kept too long in poor cellaring conditions. Generally they were kept on their sides and rotated but some were put aside for "a special occasion" and never opened until too late. I think the biggest problem was heat. They were kept in my un-air-conditioned apartment in which summer temperatures could exceed 33°C.  I remember seeing somewhere that wine storage should never approach 27°C.

 

A couple of them were "rescued" by turning them into sangria - with plenty of orange juice, ginger ale and lemonade/Sprite/7 Up soda along with orange slices. As al fresco refreshment on a summer deck, these worked really well and made me feel better than throwing them away.

[leopardml2341]

2 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

...... throwing them away.

That's tantamount to alcohol abuse

[Coombe Barton]

Trotting in the park.

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/01/02/sounds-of-the-season-33-back-to-work/

[leopardml2341]

2 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Trotting in the park.

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/01/02/sounds-of-the-season-33-back-to-work/

Just looked at your link, glad Doggo seems to be improving.

 

Re the tapwater, it may be the chlorination; try boiling some and letting it cool - she might take that too.

[AndyID]

40 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

Most of the wines I like and buy are Aussie and normally never more than about £7/£8 bottle.

 

 

Trader Joe's in the US used to sell Charles Shaw wines at $2 a bottle. It didn't take long for it to be known as "two buck Chuck".

 

(It wasn't too bad either.)

[81C]

Try a Britarse water filter system, Zeus prefers that or will only drink water fresh out of the tap once the chlorine has dissipated.

Tap water gives me a guts ache it's disgusting stuff a bit like Bob's C N d P, I give European wine's a wide berth drinking only stuff 

from English vineyards these days.

                                                                   Welland Trulipissed

[AndyID]

52 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

I have an external hard drive kept securely outside my house, just in case the worst did ever happen.  It contains photos, documentation etc. etc.  If you were to ask me right this minute who my house is insured with I couldn't tell you - so what if the house burned down?  At least I'd have access to the necessary now.  As for photos etc - at least the digital copies are safe, older ones would be lost (maybe I should keep the negatives elsewhere too).

Of course it pays to keep the hard drive regularly updated....

 

Come to think of it with the price of SD cards as low as they are I should probably put a snapshot of all the important stuff on an SD card every so often and put it in our box at the bank. 

[brianusa]

What if the bank catches fire?

       Brian.

[AndyB]

Many a New Year welcomed in, en famille, with a bottle of St. Emillion, oysters, foie gras....happy days. 

 

Equally a bottle or two of Zinfandel following a long flight from lhr to San Diego was most welcome. 

 

I guess it's not just terroir but circumstance which needs taking into account. 

 

Unaware that I'm in a dry January syndicate various relatives offered a variety of booze as presents. I think I'll kick February off with a drop or two of grappa - but possibly not as much as I did 26 years ago on sabbatical in Italy!

 

I started to read the Dr Who thread but gave up and had a cuppa in the mug given to cast and crew; a present from a dear relative whose been associated with the show for donkeys years.

 

Happy birthday Mike. 

[JohnDMJ]

Ho Hum!

 

Switzerland 'done' until next December!

 

Reasonable return journey despite RATP 'assistants' having to push people into the RER B train Japanese style!

 

Still, managed to get the Eurorats although I was still standing and setting up camp when it moved off; that's how tight the transfer was! A satisfactory salmon-based snack was offered and enjoyed along with wine and coffee.

 

Thameslink's great white worm from St Pancras to ECR was remarkably empty but the Southern 'service' onward to Southampton was not far short of standing room only!

 

Anyway, back home now with just the memories of the last 17 days; time to recover!!

[Gwiwer]

On 01/01/2020 at 15:10, polybear said:

 

I couldn't even begin to imagine what I'd do in such a situation.  Somewhat bemusing to note that the Wife and Kids came after the cars and boat, however.

But very Australian. 
 

Quite how you cope, at any age let alone in more advanced years, with watching your world and everyone dear to you almost instantly wiped out by wildfires I do not know. 
 

I asked for special counselling before going out to Marysville because this was a situation no-one had experience of. We didn’t know what we would see.  We were not allowed into the centre of what had been the town because not all persons had been accounted for and to avoid causing unnecessary stress or grief to the survivors.  We were stationed just outside at what had been the sports club. But which was now a burned out ruin with ash all around in what had been a forest. 
 

They only allowed a very few of those who volunteered to actually go. The ones they thought had the common sense, decency and empathy for an extremely challenging job. 
 

I won a medallion for service which I keep quietly in a drawer along with the memories and a handful of photos which I took purely for my records and never to be shown in public out of respect. 
 

In other news I have spent the year thus far lying flat on my back or being assisted, squealing in pain, to the bathroom. By tonight the pain threshold on the 1-10 scale had reduced from 30 to 20 but the swelling means I am several days away yet from wearing shoes and getting out. The House of Fun must manage without me for a time. And that’s before the bronchitis which continues to trouble the parts gout doesn’t.