This morning we load the kids in the car and drive up to see a new house in the Queen Elizabeth housing estate in north Guildford. No, it is not the most convenient area, but alas, I am not a RBS banker who has just pocketed a multi-zero bonus. I actually quite like the 3-bedroom [...]
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I take Lily/Hello Kitty to school, write in the morning and then head into London for a lunch/meeting for the forthcoming International Wine Challenge, where for the third year running I am acting as a Panel Chairman/dictator. The venue is “Providores”, Peter Gordon’s superb restaurant in Marylebone, his fusion cuisine as daring and sublime as [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: childbirth, international wine challenge, issa, jude, providores, quinta do crasto | 1 Comment »
I have a discrete word about register duty in the ear of Lily’s teacher, whilst my daughter unwraps herself from her Hello Kitty scarf, Hello Kitty bobble hat and Hello Kitty boots. I dread the day when she comes home with a Hello Kitty tattoo. I spend the entire day strapped to the Mac, writing [...]
Filed under: lily & daisy | Tagged: 1865 corton, class register, hello kitty | Leave a Comment »
Hoorah. Today is the annual S.I.T.T. tasting at Vinopolis, London’s most boring museum unless you happen to be one of the original shareholders, who must have made an absolute killing on its real estate value. It is a recent addition to the calendar, whereby a large number of independent merchants gather to show their wares, [...]
Filed under: london tastings | Tagged: breasts, lily, ryan opaz, school, SITT, vinopolis, wine tasting | 4 Comments »
I wake up early for today’s seminar for around 20-25 people who work for small Cru Bourgeois up to a couple of Grand Cru Classé. Cruelly, I spent yesterday inspecting their websites and it is pleasing to see that there has been a great deal of progress since the days when I started my own [...]
Filed under: bordeaux | Tagged: blogging, bordeaux | 1 Comment »
I write in the morning, a tidy little article on Willi Schaefer, then head through the torrential downpour and freezing temperatures to Guildford Station. I am off to Bordeaux just for a night to conduct a private seminar on wine criticism, wine writing and who would believe it, social media (pros and cons.) There is [...]
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I come downstairs to find Lily and Daisy watching a free DVD courtesy of the Daily Mirror. Snow White, albeit a rather macabre, dubbed, Eastern European version where the dwarves are named after days of the week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc instead of Sleepy, Angry, Dopey and so on. I can only assume this is [...]
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No hangover…bonus, although the free Baileys offered at the end of the meal repeated on me during the night. In the morning, Carolyn and Vik pop round for the great doughnuts in the world (Gilbert’s, London Road branch in case you were wondering) and then I make use of my day by going to the [...]
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I work through the morning and then drive Lily and Daisy home to Leigh-on-Sea to offer my wife some much needed R&R over the weekend. The back seat is loaded with provisions: comfort blankets, Wall-e DVD, tub of eczema cream, teddies and so forth. As usual, Lily complains about the music being too loud and [...]
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All day writing, writing and writing. I send off a couple of articles to HQ and then in the evening, back into London through the pouring rain again for a Chateau La Dauphine and Chateau Marquis de Terme tasting/dinner at Texture restaurant. All this rain…I feel like I am living in David Fincher’s “Se7en”, albeit [...]
Filed under: bordeaux, london tastings | Leave a Comment »
