Snow Like

Lot's of blossom around at the moment, taken last weekend, here's a particularly beautiful example next to our local church, almost snow like and a lovely blue sky to go with it! 

Up and Coming

We went to Windsor last weekend and had a mooch around the town, I dropped into the Two Flints taproom which is located under one of the railway arches in the town centre. While there I picked up a couple of cans, one of which is pictured above, it's a DIPA made with a ton of Nelson hops and delicious it was! White wine and citrus oozing out of every sip, I've had a few of this Brewery's brews over the last couple of years and they seem to be getting better and better, up and coming, you could say!

Benchmarks

So here's my Spring benchmark tree, picture taken on 10th April 2026, looks about the same as 8th April 2024 so hopefully Summer in on track to arrive, it would be nice to have a good one this year.

Champagne Socialism

You couldn't make this stuff up! Peter Mandelson, that Champagne Socialist Grifter supreme has been fined (or will be) for "urinating in the street", not any street mind you but one of the hallowed pavements of Notting Hill after a dinner at George Osborne's gaff, no doubt funded by the tax payer! 

It's rich isn't it, these parasites get to run around London living their best lives while most people in our country stress over how they're going to pay their next gas bill. Such is the nature of the left these days, it seems to corrupt its followers and promote a headspace devoid of any link to reality,! Mind you, the right aren't much better, what ever happened to a strong and rational centre in politics, I miss it dearly!

Friday Smirk

The boys talking to the barmaid about the biggest issue for our religious brothers and sisters, the problem of evil, first tackled before Christianity or Islam were even invented via the Euthyphro dilemma back in Plato's day. You could argue that God did create evil, and we call it religion, at least that would partially concur with the evidence of history.

Midweek Mirth

Just about every corporate sales and marketing meeting I've ever been to..

First of the Season

Had my first "Garden Beer" of the season on Monday, it was warm enough (only just!) here in the UK to sit in a sheltered part of my garden and ponder life while supping on a splendid West Coast IPA from Siren. This beer is an old friend, first tried in 2020, it has been re-brewed several times over the intervening years, it's always good and a perfect example of the style (which I like!) Resinous, grapefruit, bitter with a sweet finish, a delicious beer and a welcome constant for our (highly) variable climate!

Tapas Trials

It was my Daughter's birthday in March and we treated her and a mate to a meal at an up and coming restaurant in Shoreditch called Legato. It's a Spanish restaurant and has one of those menus that's focused on providing plates that the whole table share, I'm less keen on this format, for me whenever I visit these "modern" kinds of places I leave feeling like I've paid for a full plate of food but haven't eaten one! Anyway, the kids love it and I suppose it makes for a more social experience as everyone tries everything. There's also hardly ever any waste as there's always someone on the table that's wants to finish off the less popular dishes, so I guess it has that going for it!

On the wine front the list was dominated by Spanish wines, now, I'm no expert on the wines of Spain and so I retreated to one of the regions of that country that I do know reasonably well, the Ribera Del Duero. I was glad I did and, after generously allowing me to try a few wines, the sommelier pointed me in the direction of this little number (see picture above) It was classic Ribera, dark red fruits, nicely integrated oak and a decent finish, not a producer I was familiar with but a good choice to match with the meat heavy menu! A nice evening and good food, the restaurant has recently won a Michelin star and it's well deserved.

RA @ O2

When up in town the other weekend we went to the O2 to see Richard Ashcroft in concert (see picture above) it was a good gig, the man was on good form and belted out many of his greatest hits including Bitter Sweet Symphony (his last song) which was a bit of an anthem for us back in 1997!

Something struck me, how many people were wandering around the place getting drinks, it seemed to be a never ending stream of folks going back and forth to the bar and then the toilet, constant movement which was a bit of a distraction from the show! I've not noticed this phenomenon before, mostly when we go to concerts we find our seat and stay put until the end! I guess this is "commercialization" in action, everything is a food and drink consumer opportunity these days, including music venues it seems..

Lucky #13

My local craft brewer Siren had their thirteenth birthday last week, unfortunately I couldn't make it to the party at the brewery as we were in London but I did buy the birthday beers. The picture above shows one of the three brews, called "Lucky Numbers" it's a haze bomb made with Idaho 7 hops it's thick, dank and sticky, tasty but at 7% one can is plenty, no point pushing your luck.

Kingdom

Spotted in Windsor today, Banksy? (probably not) I approve of the sentiment though..

Friday Smirk

The lads proving the point that a lot of the details about many religions do sound stupid when you say them out loud, jus sayin..

Midweek Mirth

Best of luck to the Astronauts headed for the moon, we watched the launch last night and it was magnificent! It's just a shame the American spirit of creativity, innovation and discovery isn't pervasive in the leadership of that once great nation.

Life Savers

One of my favourite albums of all time, released on this day in 1978, 48 years ago (OMG!!) We listened to this endlessly when I was at boarding school, music was probably the only thing that enabled us to be individuals, a life saver.

Wine memories..

It was reasonably warm here in the South of the UK yesterday, it put me in mind of the two fantastic days  of wine tasting we recently spent in Franschhoek & Stellenbosch near Cape Town, South Africa. Such variety and quality on offer! I snapped the picture above at the Waterford Estate where we tried a range of wines all of which were great and a bottle of which I bought all the way home with me in my suitcase (their estate Cabernet) we drank it the other weekend with a nice meal it was lush and transported us both straight back to the sunshine and warmth, albeit temporarily!

Here be monsters...

This map was just released by the State Department of the USA, it's supposed to give travel advice to Americans wishing to visit foreign countries (all five of them). Everything in yellow is in the category labelled "Exercise increased caution", essentially most of Europe! Apparently (according to the septics in Washington) Vietnam is safer than Argentina which in turn is safer than Spain or England, that's news to some of us who own a passport (rather than a MAGA hat) and, unlike the vast majority of Americans, have visited all of these places.

Screaming for Summer

As previously mentioned we had dinner in Trinity, London last weekend and in addition to some scrummy grub we also had a bottle of wine from one of my favourite French producers, Verget. Now this wine was bottled especially for the restaurant (note the non-Verget label) and a small donation to charity is made for each bottle sold, the combination of Verget wine and virtue signaling about giving to charity was irresistible! The wine was a classic Verget Burgundy, fresh as a daisy with copious back-notes of green apples and vanilla and wonderfully balanced, a wine that screams Summer picnics, can't wait! 

London Stories

It was my daughter's birthday this week and so we treated her to a slap up meal in London. We went to Trinity in Clapham which has been nestled at the North East end of the common for at least 20 years and in that time has earned a Michelin star. We arrived during what seemed like a monsoon, it was lashing down, anyway all the pubs were full so we made a dash for the restaurant a whole hour early expecting to have to wait with a drink somewhere. It wasn't a problem and even though the place was full they accommodated us without the slightest fuss, which we all really appreciated. 

After a delicious welcoming glass of bubbles we cracked on into starters, one of the signature dishes here is the Salmon, confit in butter and then served with roe, a burre blanc and topped with pickled cucumber (see above) it was an absolute banger, so tasty, so well balanced as a dish, TBH I could have just had this all night! Anyway after a couple more dishes (all v. good) we bookended the evening with a delicious tart tartin and double cream, so good, a great evening at a top dining establishment!

Saturday Smile

Don't worry we'll get assisted dying through soon too..

Friday Smirk

The boys discussing the age old adage that "if the cap fits, wear it"...

Midweek Mirth

My, my our neighbourhood has gone to the dogs lately, I was out for my walk today and saw this hoe just leaning against the road sign, in broad daylight!

RSA - Part XII

 

You can't really miss our next stop, the name of it is even inscribed into the mountainside! Franschhoek, or translated from the Dutch, "French Corner" is a famous wine region tucked away in a valley north of Cape Town. In 1688 hundreds of French Protestants (who we being  persecuted in their homeland) fled to South Africa, collectively they were known as "Huguenots" a name that is thought to be derived from the political leader and Genevan burgomaster, Besançon Hugues. In 1685 King Louis XIV banned Protestantism in France and many were forced to flee, almost 300 arrived at the Cape by ship and were given the Franschhoek valley to settle, they bought with them their French culture including, critically, wine making!

We managed to find our hotel with ease and checked into our room, it wasn't late so we decided to go for a walk into town. The setting of the town is amazing, surrounded by mountains and littered with Dutch colonial buildings, their whitewashed facades gleaming in the brilliant sunshine. The valley is lined with vineyards and there are many restaurants, wine shops and tasting rooms up and down the main strip, the French influence is strong here, most of the menus feature the French "Classics" like snails and "cock au vin" etc. although I suspect that's more for the tourists than inherited from the original Huguenots (who would have been forcibly assimilated by first the Dutch and then the English)

Coincidentally while walking through the town we came across a couple who were on the same safari as us, we had a lovely lunch with them, lots of chatting while quaffing Chardonnay and soaking up the African sun! In the evening we made our way out to one of the three craft beer breweries in the area for some beer and some food, it was great and really good value, the beer was a little "conventional" but perfectly acceptable, I snapped the picture below of their "kit", it all looked pretty pristine and modern, business must be good!

The following day we awoke early and after a nice breakfast met up with our tour guide for the day. I'd booked a private wine tour with a driver (and wine enthusiast) and he was going to take us around his favourite wineries and cook us a BBQ lunch up in the hills! I was keen to get going and our first stop was a thirty minute drive over the mountains down into Stellenbosch and a top producer called Vergelegen!

When we arrived we couldn't believe it, such a beautiful place, big old Dutch colonial architecture buildings set in manicured gardens that looked straight out of the palace of Versailles! (see picture above, the tasting room is only left) We were invited into the tasting room and sat down at a table over looking the view (RHS) above, four wines were delivered to us and each one was described and introduced by our host and the tasting began!

First up (from left to right) we had the estate white (a classic Bordeaux blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc) then the estate red (classic Bordeaux blend of Cab. Sav., Merlot and Cab Franc) followed up by the big hitting reserve wine called "Vergelegen V" This one was also a classic Bordeaux blend but had seen more love and French Oak! All three wines were delicious, particularly the "V" which I'd had before back home, I remember seeing it on offer in Tesco many years ago for £20 a bottle, I snapped up their entire stock (I've never seen it there since!) Today you'd struggle to get a bottle of this for less than £100, triple that in a London restaurant! Lastly our host bought out a bottle of Chardonnay, it was banging! Perfect balance, good use of new Oak and great weight and finish, I must see if I can get a bottle or two of this in London somewhere!

After the tasting we had a wander around the grounds, amazing place, lot's of old buildings that used to house everything from the Governor of the Cape's snooker room through to his slaves quarters! The gardens were to die for, those original settlers must have thought they'd made a little slice of heaven for themselves (I was reminded that they had plenty of unpaid labour to help them!!)

We were off to an incredible start to our day, next stop was a place called "Waterford Estate", also in Stellenbosch but a completely different vibe!

As we drew up to the front door the place looked like it had been beamed up from Tuscany! A huge courtyard surrounded by terracotta tiled buildings with big old stone pillars, it was lovely, we took up our place at a table in the corner of the square and our host bought out the first of the wines to taste.

This time we had some Shiraz to try, this particular grape varietal tends to match well with chocolate and before we could say Syrah there were some little chocolate bars in front of us, the pairing was clearly a well  trodden path and predictably was delicious! Next up a couple of Cabernet based wines classic Bordeaux blends from two different vintages, both cracking but  the 2019 was special! (so much so I had to bring a bottle home with me)

Next up the top wine from this estate, another Cabernet based blend but, again, more French oak and more love in the selection and production, a wine called "The Gem" (below) both totally delicious and easily my favourite pick from this producer.

After the tasting we were getting peckish so we headed up to the national park above Stellenbosch and a little camp site where our host had previously set up a BBQ and a selection of Karoo lamb and salads to help absorb the plentiful wine samples from the morning. Of course we had to stop off at a little shop on the way to lunch, toilet break?, no, to buy a bottle of wine to have with lunch of course!

After lunch we headed out to our final stop for the day, a little producer called "Rainbows End" a rather unlikely name until you see where their taproom is situated (see above) I've been to many wine tastings over the years, all over the world, but this one has to have the best view so far! Incredible scenery and also one of the best Cabernet Franc wines I think I've ever tried (see below) a great wine and a great day out, can't wait to come back for more one day!

After a long day of supping we retired back to our hotel for some R&R and later headed out to town for some dinner with our Safari buddies, a top day. 

This wasn't my last wine tasting though, the next day I booked a tasting just up the road from our lodgings in Franschhoek, when in Rome etc., at a winery called Leeu Passant. Again such a beautiful setting, I settled into a rather plush tasting room with leather chairs and air-conditioning for a line up of four wines (see below)

From left to right we have, Chardonnay (lovely, very Burgundian), Cinsault (unusual blend, tasty), Cab. Sav. (Classic, v. good) and finally a sweet wine made from Chenin grapes, delicious. This was a super tasting, top quality stuff and a gorgeous setting (see below) This really is wine country!

The next day we headed back to Cape Town and our flight back to London in the evening. As I mentioned in an earlier post in this series we revisited our friends from Constantia and had a lovely lunch with them at the Steenberg winery, bellies full and feeling slightly sad (could have easily spent another month here!) to be leaving this stunning country, we headed to the airport where our flight was waiting, overnight to Heathrow and a rather chilly February morning!

We'll be back..

Viva El Vino

We had one of these at the weekend, one of my favourite Spanish producers from the Ribera and it's a league or two above your normal Spanish plonk from Rioja etc. Tempranillo grapes are kings here, blueberries and red fruits for days with nicely integrated oak, a properly serious red wine. I seem to remember this having a different label back in the day? The new one is good though, clean and simple, about thirty'ish quid in places like Majestic but you can find this wine in most places, I bet it will age well too, recommended!

RSA - Part XI

 

We eventually arrived at Matjiesfontein, lucky we didn't listen to our satnav as that was directing us in completely the wrong direction up some gravel track to oblivion! Did I mention that this place was in the middle of nowhere, it certainly is, even Google maps hasn't got a clue.

Anyway, upon arrival we decamped to our (rather old fashioned) room, in fact in the picture above our room was on the first floor just to the left of the entrance (with the ornate veranda) It was kinda like stepping back to the 1880s, a Victorian time capsule, a mad hotel built by some eccentric Colonel trying to make his mark on Empire! 

In reality the hotel (and surrounding compound) was built in 1889 by a Scottish railwayman, James Douglas Logan, it was the centerpiece of a Victoria health spa (there's a small river running through it) and bizarrely Logan was a Cricket fanatic and also built a full size pitch within the compound. It was named after the Governor of the Cape at the time (Lord Milner) and has played host to many famous characters of that era like Cecil Rhodes, Rudyard Kipling and Randolph Churchill. The Cape railway from Cape Town North to Johannesburg runs alongside the compound and apparently touring cricketers used to stop and get some practice in on their way up country! There is still a station here (see below) and the hotel is a popular stop for tourists travelling on the luxury "Blue Train" from the Cape to Pretoria.

During the second Boer war the compound and hotel served as British Army HQ and several of the buildings acted as a field hospital for soldiers, in fact if you walk out onto the Karoo and scuff around in the dusty soil you can still find old cans of Victorian bully beef, it's said that at one point there were 10,000 troops stationed here on their way to fight in the North.

Next to the hotel (in fact joined to the hotel) is a pub, called "The Lairds Arms" it's interior has hardly changed since the 1880s, old fashioned wooden paneling and a solid hardwood bar with the walls adorned with Queen Victoria's portrait, old photos of cricket teams and blokes with handlebar mustaches! (see below)

I snapped this picture of the bar inside the pub (see below), we parked ourselves here for a couple of hours after we arrived, it was a great place to sit and chat with fellow travelers, it felt like we were all Victorian explorers with tall tales of Africa to tell!

The other thing that this hotel is famous for is the shortest bus tour in the world, it's true, there's an old routemaster in the car park (see below) and at 5 'o' clock a trumpet sounds and everyone is summoned to the bus, we of course headed upstairs (for a better view), it pulls away and turns the corner by the hotel, the chap narrating the tour explains that the building next to the hotel served as courthouse, jail, post office and general store, we turn another corner, "here is museum building", another corner, and another and hey presto we're back where we started! Total time 5 minutes, it's a fabulous tour..

After our tour the trumpet sounded again, we were being called to dinner..

The dining room was something else (see below), another Victorian time capsule, everything was either wood (mahogany) or Iron and all the waiters wore suitable red waistcoats and white gloves. I snapped a picture of it (below) the menu was simple, only a couple of main dishes including the famous "Karoo Lamb" which we both had, it was delicious, not Haut Cuisine but a huge slab of perfectly cooked meat with vegetables on the side and a tasty jus. We retired to our rather spooky room with full bellies and happy hearts, this place certainly was a different experience!

Being miles from anywhere in the middle of the Klein Karoo you can image that the light pollution was practically zero, the sky there was amazing, you couldn't help but stare up in awe at the trillions of twinkling points of light, photographs don't really do it justice but I snapped one never the less (below) Not the most luxurious night of our trip but certainly a memorable one!

After a night under the stars we awoke fairly early and headed down for a hearty breakfast, after that we packed up and checked out, we were headed back toward the city and the penultimate stop of our trip and one that I was particularly looking forward to, we were headed to "wine country", read all about it in the next and final episode.

London Stories

 

We went up to London yesterday (Saturday) to see the Ramses II exhibition at Battersea Power Station, it was a glorious day albeit a little chilly at either end. I hadn't been to Battersea for years so it was good to see what they'd done to the old place, wow, what a stunning renovation! The power station has been converted into a up scale shopping mall and apartments, all very swish but retaining the original  industrial nature of the place.

The exhibition was pretty interesting, a collection of pieces relating to the Ramses II, the greatest pharaoh of them all (according to him) It was amazing to see his original coffin made of cedar wood (on the left of this collage) and jewelry belonging to his wife, how this stuff has lasted so long is incredible let alone the excellent state of preservation. 

RSA - Part X

 

The drive to Oudtshoorn was quite spectacular, from Plett we drove down the coast on the main N2 highway to a place called George and then headed inland on the R62 which is a winding road that rises and rises up (in altitude) to the "Klein Karoo" (little Karoo) which is a scenic, semi-arid valley in South Africa's Western Cape, bounded by the Swartberg and Langeberg mountains. Oudtshoorn is the largest town on the Klein Karoo and is famous for Ostrich farming. This took off in the mid 1800s when the demand for feathers (to go in Women's hats) was rampant, many fortunes were lost and made and what was in 1865 nothing more than a farm grew to a town of nearly 2000 people by 1875 this was known as "the first Ostrich boom" when the price of feathers (by weight) almost exceeded that of diamonds! Like all these things there was a massive slump in 1885 as supply exceeded demand, however, after the Anglo-Boer war in 1904 there was again a surge in demand and there followed a period known (unsurprisingly) as the second Ostrich boom! The population rose to 9000 but it wasn't to last, after the first world war demand again slumped. Today the population is over 60,000 but the economy is more diverse, wine, agriculture and mining are all things exploited there currently.

The area is still famous for Ostrich farms but these days the birds are reared for their skin, meat and other products, it's quite strange to be driving along and seeing a field full of these huge birds, and yes, they all move together just like in Jurassic Park!

Our accommodation for two nights was an old farm that had been converted into a B&B, it was a quaint place although in the middle of nowhere, we had a little "bungalow" all to ourselves (see above), it was nice, very quiet and relaxing.

The outside appearance was typically "Cape Dutch" in architectural style, more gables that you can shake a stick at and the surrounding hills reminding me of the film "Zulu", I could just hear Colour Sergeant Bourne saying to Michael Kane "The sentries report Zulus to the southwest, fousands ovvem" in that wonderful Cockney accent. Fortunately there were no Zulu's only rather nice "home cooked" dinners and a tasty little collection of great value Cape wines to sample!

The next day we decided to venture out and visit the Cango Caves, a local attraction and signposted from pretty much everywhere along the main road. The caves themselves are quite impressive, around 4km long (although only a quarter of this is open to the public), there are two tours you can do, easy and hard, the hard one involves scrambling through very tight openings. After our experiences at Robberg we decided to take the easy route, it was still pretty good though.

These caves certainly give Cheddar a run for their money! Some of the chambers are huge and very well illuminated offering dramatic vistas of stalactites and stalagmites (see above)  The tour lasts around 40 minutes and the chambers get smaller and smaller as you progress into the mountain, like most caves as you go further the air gets thinner and the temperature rises, I wouldn't fancy going much further than we did but apparently the youngsters on the "difficult tour" do just that!

The formation above reminded me of the sorting hat in Harry Potter, Slytherin it is then..

After visiting the caves we headed back to the hotel, as we approached the Satnav flashed up a location right next to it that had the words "craft beer" in the name, my excitement level jumped! I had researched this place but had no idea there was the possibility of any crafty beer nearby. Anyway we parked the car and wandered down the long gravel drive to the end where there was the Karusa Winery AND craft beer brewery, well what do you know, we eagerly entered the establishment and settled into two of their sampling offerings, one for wine and one for beer, we also ordered a pizza (which was the size of our two heads combined!) 

Such a great place, and the wine/beer was excellent, we felt as though we'd landed on our feet that lunchtime and after a pleasant hour or so we headed further up the dirt track to an establishment I'd noticed on the drive up, the Cango Ostrich Farm!

Ostriches are such weird things, part bird part dinosaur, the farm was quite interesting and runs tours throughout the day, you get to feed the birds, feel their leather and stand on their eggs which doesn't sound too kind but hey, the eggs can take roughly 150kg of weight before they break, although at the time the guide looked nervously around the group of visitors, some of the larger ladies might have issues, and you can't really ask can you..

After visiting the Ostrich farm we retired to our bungalow and later had our final dinner at our hotel, the next morning we checked out early and headed up into the mountains to a famous road called the Swartberg pass which takes you from Oudtshoorn across the range over to a place called "Prince Albert", a rather eccentric and somewhat deviant name for a town if ever there was one! 

I had researched the road and it looked fine on paper but as we ascended it went from tarmac to single track gravel with nothing between the car and the 1000m drop off , and it simply got steeper and steeper! The experience was a bit like those narrow country lanes in Devon and Cornwall, you dread someone coming the other way as that would necessitate someone reversing up or down the track, except it wasn't a little hedgerow that caused anxiety it was certain death if you cocked it up! I was genuinely worried at some points as my little Avis hire car was utterly gutless and really struggled with the altitude (1575m) and the dusty gravel gradients. Anyway, we eventually made it over and yes, the scenery was magnificent! As we descended into Prince Albert we looked for somewhere for a bite to eat and so that our pulses could fall below 200 and the Adrenalin surging through our bodies could get reabsorbed!

This little place took our fancy and we stopped for coffee and a toasted sandwich, the building was quite interesting, colonial style and inside it sold everything from cakes to wine to scouring pads, a real old school "general store"! We still had quite a drive ahead of us, around 4 hours across the featureless Karoo, our next destination was a rather unusual stop, an eccentric watering hole in the middle of nowhere you could say, a Victorian railway stop called "Matjiesfontein" to give it it's proper title, read all about it in the next series post.