Jude is getting ill which is a very bad thing but our holiday to Thailand is looming which is an incredibly good thing.

Jude and I go and get the christmas greenery in the very early morning and have a wonderful time.

Things don't get that much better but at least we have lovely wine to taste and some wonderfully inspiring customers.

Jude and I taste some lovely biodynamic wine but then spend a sleepless night as the situation in Lordship Lane worsens slightly. We also decide that from January 1st, we will ban plastic bags from our shop.

I don't say anything even slightly inflamatory about those who shall remain nameless, instead I tell you about the Green & Blue countdown to Christmas.

Giselle, one of our Lordship Lane ladies, tells her story of the Italy trip.

Another week in the hell that is business ownership. Things get worse with Woolworths and then slightly better with Dizzee Rascal.

Day one of our Italian adventure and we taste exceptionally wonderful Sangiovese, Ciliegiolo and Alicante both on the vine as well as in the bottle from Poggio Argentiera and Antonio Camillo. Then we eat our own body weight in seafood and I have a spot of bother with the car.

Green & Blue have their first summer party - a picnic followed by cartwheels in the streets at the Notting Hill Carnival.

Jude and I visit the Dalla Cia family in South Africa and try their wines and amazingly good Grappa (although obviously it is not really grappa as it does not come from Italy). Just as good as the real thing though - even better really than quite a few good Italian examples I have tasted.