Today, the Met Centre have predicted storm-like conditions for the entire day, so I plan nothing and end up at the Mac finishing off my Willi Schaefer article for eRP. Lo and behold, by mid-afternoon there is a glimmer of sunshine. No wonder the UK population has lost faith in our weathermen…bring back Michael Fish.
In between writing about the Mosel’s greatest exponent of Riesling, I cook a roast dinner, which is a perfect match for supposed rainy Sunday. My mum’s recipe for roast potatoes that attain optimal skin crispiness never fails and my dextrous touch stirring the gravy is a wonder to behold (it is all in the wrist.) Lily stubbornly refuses to eat her carrots and green beans and I threaten her with tails of stunted growth, blindness and a whole jeremiad of evils that afflict anti-veg children. Of course, I am a complete hypocrite since I abhor legumes, in particular my nemesis, the Brussell Sprout. It is still a miracle that I eat and dare I say, enjoy carrots, given that I never really ate them until my mid-30s.
After Lily’s vegetables have been scraped into the refuse bin, my daughters insist on dressing up as Snow White, replete with plastic tiaras. Daisy cajoles me into ballroom dancing and whilst I ought to be writing about Willi Schaefer’s vinification techniques, I end up waltzing around the dining room table to “Heligoland” by “Overseer” (a brilliant, subversive song that Spotify surreptitiously introduced whilst listening to Massive Attack’s album “Heligoland”, which proves to my chagrin, how on-line streaming opens up new music as randomly as any record shop, not that any exist nowadays.) I bath the kids as usual and whilst reading Lily her book, she begins to ask me about the concept of dying, whether we go to heaven and explaining in solemn terms, how Emma’s grandparents have recently taken a one-way ticket there. Whilst I think Lily is too young to face the idea of the Grim Reaper, I do have one eye on the Goldie the goldfish, aware that he has a 99% chance of going belly-up by Xmas.
I work through until 10pm and end up watching the gripping “Syriana” with George Clooney and Matt Damon. To be honest, it is difficult to keep up with what is going on in this complex conspiracy saga, partly because I am simultaneously typing Piedmont tasting notes and partly because Tomoko turned off the heating and I seem to be suffering the first stages of hypothermia.
Filed under: lily & daisy Tagged: | carrots, george clooney, goldie, heligoland, roast dinner, syriana, weather men
