London Stories

I was in London this weekend and finding myself at a loose end I went for a little walk around Southwark. I came across this wall mural in Coin Street, it's a nice image of Anthony Bourdain, food writer and broadcaster (now dead) an interesting tribute to the man, not sure why it's where it is though (clearly some Googling required!), not exactly a prominent street..

Weekend Wink

Nice one from Matt in the Telegraph

Dream dinner parties..

Who are your dream dinner party guests? It's a question often asked at, you guessed it, dinner parties! The choices aren't normally restricted so you can choose anyone alive or dead, it's a bit of a cliche but interesting (in good company), it tells you quite a lot about the person answering and what interests them. For example if the people chosen are all sports heros or perhaps if they are authority figures (like HRH) , famous authors or even famous scientists, some people go broad and some go niche, its something that's hard to predict, hence the amusement I suppose. 

Personally I wouldn't choose anyone in the picture above, for me it would be more about the quality of the conversation and/or debate (and a decent plonk of course!) Maybe people like Bertrand Russell and Christopher Hitchens on philosophy, Newton and Maxwell on science, and for historical colour, Marcus Aurelius and Alexander TG, but of course this list changes on a regular basis, usually every time the question is raised! 

One of the best (modern) jokes on this subject that I've seen recently is someone being asked this question in an interview, and his reply was a gem, he said, "Nigel Farage" followed by a pause and then the word "dead", a sign of the time perhaps.

Friday Smirk

The lad's discussing how religions (particularly Islam) are divisive, that they certainly are, they wouldn't have any power over people if they weren't.

Can't argue with new life

I had a nice surprise today, on my daily walk I noticed a couple of fluffy little additions to the life of the pond that I stroll by most days. Two young Moorhens were running around in the grass at the edge of the water being closely monitored by a parent! A sign of new life, hopefully these little critters will do well. I did think that "my pond" was looking rather poorly this year, overgrown and slightly stinky, but I guess I was wrong, at least the Moorhens think so and I can't argue with them!

Chilly welcome

While out walking today I saw my first Swift of the year. These little birds migrate all the way from down in Africa, covering some 6,000 miles each way, an amazing feat of navigation and endurance. I bet the little bird I saw today was wishing he'd stayed in Africa, it feels very chilly here in the UK at the moment as we're in a pocket of arctic air that's sweeping down from the frozen north with gusty winds, rain and thunder, hopefully it'll warm up a bit for the little fella soon!

Forbidden excitement

A box of wine (bottles!) arrived yesterday morning, it's a case of 12 bottles of white wine from France (via a London merchant) and one of my favourite producers in the Maconnais called "Verget". This particular wine, one of many different types and regions that Verget work in, is called "Saint Veran Lieu (Inter)dit", in French the word "Interdit" means forbidden and this wine has that label because it comes from a place (or "Lieu" in French) called Cote Rotie (or "Roasted Slope" in English) in Saint Veran. 

Now Cote Rotie is also the name of a very famous area in the Northern Rhone (not Burgundy) famous for making brooding reds from the Syrah grape rather than floral and mineral whites from Chardonnay, and the producers in Saint Veran aren't allowed to use that name in case there's a mix up between the two regions, hence "forbidden". Anyway, it's a nice little story and the wine is probably one of the best examples from this appellation, mid-priced (around £20 a bottle) but boy is it good, it also disappears from the merchants pretty quickly whenever a batch is released, can't wait to try it! (I will report back)