Five
silver baubles got left behind in the great re-packing of all the
Christmas decorations. Leave them out as a kind of vanitas
vanitatum
or dig out the bauble box all over again and re-pack as a penance?
A
bottle of Magdalenenkreuz
Riesling Kabinett which
a pal of mine brought over from Germany (along with a bottle of
Schnapps of deep and awful persistence) a while ago - now I've had
time to neck it, how do I feel? More positive than ambivalent, in a
spirit of Yule reconciliation, not a million miles from the way I
felt about that mead a month or so back. Floral, fragrant,
nicely-framed sweetnesses, apple sensations, leaves your teeth
feeling as if they've been coated in flock. Would I want to drink it
again? Maybe with duck?
Turkey
soup is more consoling than one might imagine. My Brother-in-Law
would claim that this is because, like chicken soup, it contains
phytonutrients and glucosamine, both helpful in the prevention of
colds and flu. He's the retired head of the international currencies
department of a big chemicals company. Everyone's an expert, these
days.
Only
ever
use Port in cooking.
Someone
kindly gave me a small case of even smaller bottles of Merlot and
Durif, assorted, enough in each bottle for one big glassful but no
more. Were they trying to tell me something? What
were they trying to tell me? Why would I even think they were trying?
Which
famous playwright was afraid of Christmas? Noël Coward.
I
got some socks. I actually wanted
socks.
Sprouts
and coriander are not a good mix. I only threw the coriander in
because it was about to go off. We experienced repercussions all the
way down the M4 on Boxing Day. Then again, I can't blame that wholly
on the coriander. The Services at Magor, Monmouthshire, seem to have
improved.
I
was also given a mixed case of Italian reds by my Pa-in-Law, who, on
his own account, drinks nothing but a furious kind of Primitivo,
weighing in at 14% if not more, stuff you can use as a general
anaesthetic if needs be and what with one thing and another it can be
hard to get anything in his part of South West Wales, so a bottle of
this and your appendix is as good as out. I mean, that's how he
rolls. Among the mixed reds I notice a couple of Lambruscos. Thirty
years ago they used to market this with a nylon Fun Bug attached to
the neck - Lambrusco, according to the rationale of the time, being
the sort of drink to appeal to young women out on a Hen Night and in
need of a Fun Bug or equivalent. Am I ready for Lambrusco now, in
2020, at my age? I want to pair it, conceptually, with the Riesling,
a sweetish drink I might have drunk back then but view with some
apprehension now. On the other hand, it has got a nice cork/safety
string arrangement at the top, plus
strong violets
according to the blurb on the back,
which
makes it a bit toney and therefore probably okay. And only 11%! I can
take down a microbottle of Durif as aperitif, work through a whole
Lambrusco while eating supper before, at last, winding down with a
Schnapps or two, only to be found later in a confused state wandering
the Hangar Lane gyratory system, claiming to be Oliver Reed.
Mince
Pies actually help you lose weight.
I
failed to get any dessert wine this year, a semi-intended omission on
my part. I mean, I like a Beaumes de Venise, but these days not
enough to want to drink it. Would the Lambrusco have done, if I'd
actually got it on Christmas Day, to go with the pudding?
I
found a very small, crap, artificial Christmas tree laced with
battery-powered multi-function twinkling lights, in a bin-liner at
the back of a cupboard. It became my
tree. I'd keep it out all year, if I thought I could get away with
it.
CJ
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