Goodbye 2019

Goodbye 2019

A wedding:
Toby and Emma in September

And two funerals:
John Jones - October
Brian May - December

Travel:
Criccieth -January
Cape Winelands – March
Viking, Budapest to Bucharest – June
Viking Ukraine, Odessa to Kiev – July
Criccieth - July
Verona Winelands -September
Naples & St Pete Beach - October
Las Vegas - November

Christmas Day

Christmas Day: Peter and Sue arrived 16:10 and dinner was on the table an hour later

Aperitif with nibbles
Champagne Lanson Black Label Brut NV (this was disgorged 6/16 and I’ve cellared it since I bought it in 2016)
Main Course - Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast parsnip and potatoes, brussels sprouts (which we all love), carrots, cauliflower
Jim Barry ‘McRae Wood’ Clare Valley Shiraz 2012
St Hallett ‘Old Block’ Barossa Shiraz 1993
Dessert - Individual Christmas Puddings or Apricot Tart with custard
Pillitteri Icewine Vidal 2016, VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake

afterwards Trivial Pursuit with James Bond 007 question pack 

Blandy's Madeira Malmsey 15 Years Old NV

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Probus Christmas Lunch

Probus's 35th annual Christmas lunch was held at Belvedere Restaurant.

Santa helped Chairman Steve Gildersleve draw the raffle prizes

and Ann Jones told him that she had been a good girl.

Sandie, Mike, Peter

Christmas Pudding

As  usual the food was good. White wine was Elodie Dupres Cuvee Prestige Mâcon-Villages 2018 and the red Errazuriz Estate Carménère 2017 from Chile's Valle de Aconcagua , and a great time was enjoyed by all.

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CWW Xmas Party

Circle of Wine Writers Christmas Party, hosted by New Zealand Wine Growers, was held in the 17th floor Penthouse at New Zealand House in Haymarket.

It is the 200th anniversary of the first vines being planted in New Zealand on 25 September 1819, by Reverend Samuel Marsden, Chaplain to New South Wales.

Welcome address by CWW President Rosemary George

There's a walkway all round outside the top floor of New Zealand House with great views of London.

London Eye

Haymarket

The Mall

Xmas Postboxes Yarnbombed

For the second year St Alban's postboxes have had a Christmassy lid knitted by the Yarnbombers. This year 54 postboxes have been decorated.

Sandridge Road

Beech Road

St Peter's Street

Sadly, the St Peter's Street top was stolen shortly after this picture was taken....

Last years box photo's here.

Story in Herts Advertiser here.

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U3A Wine Group Christmas Meet

Stewart's idea, and he hosted; each member to bring a favourite bottle and food to match it.

We had
2009Vintage Champagne, 
Premier Cru Chablis
Pecorino Abruzzo
Cote du Rhône white
Barbera d’Asti
Château Tayac Margaux 2012
Barolo 2015
Ch Myratt Sauternes
My wine was Henry of Pelham Family Estate 'Old Vines' Baco Noir 2017 Ontario VQA

An excellent evening

Toby, Emma and New Phone

First photo's taken with new phone, Huawei P31, bought to replace Sony Camera lost on was to Las Vegas. Toby and Emma came for dinner and Toby set up the phone, and the Amazon Dot they gave us as a Christmas present.

IWSC 50th Anniversary Awards Banquet

To London, day after we flew home from Las Vegas, for the annual IWSC Awards Banquet at The Guildhall.

The Pinotage Trophy was not awarded this year, but they created a 50th Anniversary Award - Outstanding Wine Producer - presented to Kanonkop Estate. 

Outstanding Wine Producer recognises a wine producer which has performed consistently well since the creation of the Winemaker of the Year award in 1984.

Kanonkop – recognised as one of South Africa’s greatest wines, especially for its renowned dry-farmed Pinotage – has won 15 different individual trophies at the IWSC and has won Winemaker of the Year four times.

L>R Sir George Fistonich, Abrie Beeslaar, Beyers Truter

The award was presented to Kanonkop winemaker Abrie Beeslaar by Beyers Truter in the presence of IWSC President Sir George Fistonich, of New Zealand's Villa Maria.

Beyers  won some of those IWSC Trophies when he was winemaker at Kanonkop before Abrie.

Abrie and Jeanne Beeslaar

Beyers Truter and Dr Winifred Bowman

Las Vegas

With Pete and Sue in Las Vegas for a week from 19-26 November, staying in The Cosmopolitan, room 3298 overlooking Bellagio fountains. Floor 32, but since the floor numbers jump from 4 to 15 actually the 22nd floor.Very cold, too cold to enjoy our balcony.

Bellagio from our room balcony

Paris casino from our balcony

Cosmopolitan's swimming pool was changed to an ice-rink

The Christmas Tree was lit the Saturday we were there

The object on top of this burger at the MGM Grand is a battered and deep fried gherkin. Ghastly!

On our last full day we took a tour with Pink Jeeps to Boulder Dam

White stone shows normal water level. Photo courtesy Sue Chasney.

 Water level in dam was very low as result of drought.

Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep grazing in park above lake

Two 25-foot tigers made from yellow lentils, red and black cargo rice and caraway seed

Bellagio Conservatory had this India themed display combining animatronic animals with many thousands of flowers.

Visited The Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas and had this picture taken by a selfie booth,

picture courtesy Sue Chasney

 and sat in the (decommissioned) electric chair, though throwing the switch seen to the right of the chair makes a frightening electrical noise.

Downtown almost unrecognisable. Fremont Street and side roads are pedestrianised, and Fremont is roofed with people zooming its length on zip wires, and earsplitting music from large stages

Wheel of Death from KA, photo courtesy Sue Chasney

We saw two Cirque du Soleil shows, The Beatles Love at The Mirage and KA at MGM Grand, and the free KA 360 'Theatre Experience' tour, which explained the amazing technology behind the touch sensitive revolving horizontal/vertical stage, that the artists perform two shows daily and that the music is played live at every performance. 

Behind the scenes tour allows photo's, and uses the main stage  vertically for a movie screen.

The flight home departed at 21:10 so we enjoyed an afternoon burger at Burger Brasserie in Paris Casino. We didn't have their signature 777 Burger (Kobe beef, pancetta, goat cheese, seared foie gras, arugula, Maine lobster, 100-year-aged balsamic paired with a blt salad and a bottle of Dom Pérignon rosé champagne) which cost $777 and holds 'world's most expensive burger' title.

They sell about one per month, the manager told me, and about 40 a month for $77 without the Champagne.

Refreshingly there was a choice of bread and no brioche bun! Good burger, good plentiful chips and the wine exceeded expectations, as the assistant manager came bearing Chateau Ste Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon, priced the same as plonk at other LV restaurants.

St Pete Beach

We had Sunday and Monday at Rumfish Resort on St Pete Beach following the AWS Conference and flew home from Tampa on Tuesday evening. 

We spent the time reading in the hotel gardens or by the pool and walking along the white sand beach, once all the way to Pass-a-Grille at the southern end of the island. 

The history museum was closed and we had lunch and a bottle of Clifford Bay Marlborough SB at on the first floor balcony over looking the ocean at The Brass Monkey. 

Pete at Pass-a-Grille at southern end of St Pete Beach Island

A short walk from Rumfish is this ice-cream shop.

The sunsets seen from St Pete Beach were gorgeous.

Joan ate at Rumfish Grill while I was at the Conference. The rear wall of the restuarant has a huge 33,500 gallon fish tank.

Building of the tank was the subject of US television show TANKED and Joan was keen that our last lunch before driving to the airport be in the Rumfish Grill. But that closed at 14:00 so we had to eat in the adjoining bar.

I thought I'd have one last burger and chose what I thought was a healthier option of sweet potato fries.

And they were sweet because they'd been liberally coated with sugar! Too sweet and too calorific for me to eat.

This misspelled sign was in reception. 

We got the car back to Hertz at the airport with the empty tank warning displayed.