Summer holiday blues............& reds

For over a week now, my wife and I have been counting the "sleeps"  until the kids go back to school.
They are driving us to distraction. Winding up each other, the Puppy, each other, us and each other.

They seem to trash the house on an hourly basis, feel the need to wear all their clothes and insist on drawing on the table with permanent marker.

My wife and I have taken to "passing the baton" of custody, so the other one can have some sane down time.

As to where is this leading?  Well, we try, as a rule, not to drink on a weekday. The kids however, have driven us to break our fast.

Wild Thyme

To celebrate my wife's birthday, we discussed going out for a meal as a family.
Fortunately,I managed to change this plan into a family BBQ at lunch, in our garden.
The kids helped me make the salads, plural, during the morning. The whole thing was made very palatable with a bottle of Tattinger.

My wife did have to take over the cooking of the burgers, as I had to go and help an old lady get her electricity back on. When I came back, she was wearing a stupid chef cap and enjoying the bubbly.

However we digress, the point is that I managed to book a babysitter at short notice and we found ourselves in town, with no kids and no reservation.

Vintage Stuff, Chateau Cos 1985



A decade ago, I was given a bottle of Chateau Cos d'Estournel 1985. It comes from the Saint Estephe appellation, which is on the left bank of the Gironde river, running into Bordeaux.

I knew 1985 to be a good vintage and it spurred me on to find out more. I had just subscribed to Robert Parker's website and was keen to use the knowledge of, what I thought at the time to be, the best wine palette in the world. Chateau Cos is a 2nd Cru Classe, a classification awarded in 1855,that it still deserves today.

My research at the time told me that it was expensive, Uvinum website has it now at £189.00 a bottle.

Supermarket Wine

While away,for a few days in Yorkshire, we decided to have a takeaway Chinese meal. The order was duly placed, so I dashed out to the local supermarket for some wine. The local shop turned out to be ASDA, which was the size of a Cathedral and packed with parishioners, paying homage at the tills.

Scottish Seafood at it's best.

Last week I was on holiday in Kintyre, famed in the Paul McCartney ballad. We stay just outside a little village, called Skipness. Skipness is on the coast and has beautiful views overlooking the Isle of Arran. It is on a single track road that stops abruptly just past Skipness castle.

If they could find the horse, it would be a one horse town. The post office shop is for "local people", but they are happy to sell you the most bizarre things.
I asked for an exercise book, for my children to use as a holiday diary. I was first given a tiny notebook with a glittering fairy on it, then I was given a lecture on how holiday meant holiday for all.
I am not painting a good picture, but its remoteness is it's charm.
The one glittering jewel of the village, is the only restaurant. It is situated in the shadows of the castle and has great views of the Loch and Arran beyond.

English Fizz

At the end of July, just as we were getting packed up to go on holiday to Scotland for a fortnight, I inappropriately threw a dinner party. I had already invited two couples, before I plucked up the courage to tell my wife. Heated words and a few cold shoulders later, we found ourselves hosting six friends, the majority of whom came from America.

One of the guests has been a friend of mine for the last eighteen years, it seems that neither one can shake the other. He has a penchant for Chicken dishes, which my wife indulges.