I'VE BEEN misinforming people but, then, what's new? VR and younger daughter, OS, will not take the TGV (train de grande vitesse) to visit Christmarket markets on the Continent tomorrow, they are going by car. Thus they will pack in two favourites: Lille and Aachen. Normally restricted to plane cabin luggage VR asks me what bulkier thing would I like as a prezzie. Not wine, of course, I can do better through The Wine Society, a marvellous British institution. A hundredweight of sausage, perhaps?
STILL ON BOOZE. Were I limitlessly wealthy I would breakfast on vintage champagne each morning. Alas... In my time I have tried and discarded the cheaper fizzy alternatives (prosecco, sekt (Uggh!), Freixenet, cava) but have recently found a genuine contender, France's Cremant de Jura, £7 from despisedly down-market Aldi. One disadvantage: the flask-shaped bottle is ridiculously wide and will not fit my wine racks. I can live with that.
TIME FOR a funny from Hymns Ancient and Modern:
How Judah's lion burst its chains.
And crushed the serpent's head,
And brought with him, from death's domains,
The long imprisoned dead.
Would someone better educated than me (ie, virtually everyone out there reading this), or more marinaded in CofE ethos, tell me what's going on here? On the other hand, perhaps not. Bound to be an anti-climax.
FOR CHRISTMAS I ordered D, granddaughter Bella's boyfriend, a witty, intellectually stimulating... Oh cripes. Can't tell you. Despite the huge generation gap, he still reads TD. Sent me a comment the day before yesterday. Post-Christmas then.
On trips to Switzerland we try to sneak over the border to snag some bottles of Cremant. Delicious!
ReplyDeleteThe hymn sounds very political. I wonder if the composer's patrons had a lion on their crest and were seeking revenge one Easter a few years back. Hmm...
How do you feel about the now numerous pinot noir labels from all over the world which seem much more consistent than Burgundy, the standard and price of which we spoke about the other day? Today I was tempted to "invest" in a Spätesburgunder from Baden about which I will tell you when I have tasted it.
ReplyDeleteUm, harrowing of hell, or it was written by a Rastafarian and is something to do with Haile Selassi?
ReplyDeleteThe Aldi Cremant looks like a good snag. Wish VR and OS a nice time form me. Is Lille interesting? It was one of my mother's middle names, she really was named after the city.
Julia: I stayed away from it for ages because I don't care for cream. A foolish semantic error. Political? You could be right, see Lucy, below.
ReplyDeleteJoe: Shared a bottle of South Effrican PN last night with VR. The variations are as wide as the world itself. This one was a 2010 yet seemed to have genuine maturity.
Lucy: Are you kidding? No, I don't want to know. Whatever, it's a fantastic bit of dredging. Named after Lille, eh? Surely there's a post in that. For me they toyed with Luddendenfoot but wiser heads prevailed.