Christmas countdown 3
Things don't get that much better but at least we have lovely wine to taste and some wonderfully inspiring customers.
Things don't get that much better but at least we have lovely wine to taste and some wonderfully inspiring customers. It is such a terrible cliché to talk about things being a ‘roller coaster’ ride, but truly this is just that. We have been on a rollercoaster since this business opened and after a particularly hair raising up and down start, we are now firmly on another long, furious, unstoppable plummet down. The reasons remain the situation with the drains and while I can’t detail those for legal reasons, what I will say is that every time we think that things cannot possibly get any worse than they already are, somehow they do just that.
For these reasons and for the incredible stress and exhaustion that this brings on, I have again lost any sense that Christmas is upon us. The bar has got quiet as more and more people profess unhappiness at the paper plate situation (many thanks to those who don’t seem even slightly phased by it) and the madness has not yet manifest itself in the shop. It is generally later this year – most we are speaking to in retail confirm that but with all the events of the latter part of the year – rising costs etc, this is not surprising.
So, the high points of the last few days have been some very good tastings with lovely customers. Tonight we did luxury wines for Christmas day, which went down a treat. Apparently, the wine most beloved of the group was the 1997 Grosset Gaia from Clare Valley in Australia which we only have 10 bottles left of. It is really very unusual to have Australian wine with 10 years bottle age and it was showing very well – some of the fruit was still sweet and vibrant although the edges had been considerably softened. My favourite was the Il Paradiso Brunello di Montalcino but then I am passionately devoted to this wine. We also tasted one of our Christmas cocktails – sparkling Vouvray and sloe gin. Wonderfully spicy and a very appropriate start to Christmas proceedings although we served it right at the end. This was a good bit of the evening though as everyone enjoyed it very much and were very enthusiastic about what it is we do, so that was a bit of a lift until I had to read emails from lawyers which dragged it all down again. Still, be thankful for the good bits I suppose and I genuinely am.
I need to be up very early tomorrow to go to New Covent Garden Market for greenery for the sites so I think I will go home now in my car which is not unlike a very effective deep freeze. Business ownership being what it is, funds for a newer vehicle with luxuries like any sort of heating are entirely lacking. Being a southern hemisphere person, I don’t deal with the cold well at any time and the last few days have been complete torture. I put on several hundred layers and sometimes take a hot water bottle as well but this does not seem to help. We actually got stopped by the police on the way home from East Dulwich on Monday night as they were convinced I was drunk. I had not actually swallowed a drop all day, but given the very late hour (about 2am) and the fact that the car was weaving slightly, they drew an inevitable conclusion. They did not really seem to buy the excuse that my hands were so frozen, I was finding it difficult to steer properly (this is completely true), so they made me stand outside in the cold while they questioned me a bit more closely. I offered to do a breath test and when they said that they did not have one, offered to balance on one leg but apparently they don’t do that any more. This was disappointing as I was entirely ready to do an incredibly complicated yoga position if it would have meant they let me go immediately, purely in the interests of getting home to something warm as soon as possible. By the end, my lips felt so frozen I could hardly talk properly but they seemed satisfied that I was not in fact intoxicated. Strange maybe, but not actually drunk.
For these reasons and for the incredible stress and exhaustion that this brings on, I have again lost any sense that Christmas is upon us. The bar has got quiet as more and more people profess unhappiness at the paper plate situation (many thanks to those who don’t seem even slightly phased by it) and the madness has not yet manifest itself in the shop. It is generally later this year – most we are speaking to in retail confirm that but with all the events of the latter part of the year – rising costs etc, this is not surprising.
So, the high points of the last few days have been some very good tastings with lovely customers. Tonight we did luxury wines for Christmas day, which went down a treat. Apparently, the wine most beloved of the group was the 1997 Grosset Gaia from Clare Valley in Australia which we only have 10 bottles left of. It is really very unusual to have Australian wine with 10 years bottle age and it was showing very well – some of the fruit was still sweet and vibrant although the edges had been considerably softened. My favourite was the Il Paradiso Brunello di Montalcino but then I am passionately devoted to this wine. We also tasted one of our Christmas cocktails – sparkling Vouvray and sloe gin. Wonderfully spicy and a very appropriate start to Christmas proceedings although we served it right at the end. This was a good bit of the evening though as everyone enjoyed it very much and were very enthusiastic about what it is we do, so that was a bit of a lift until I had to read emails from lawyers which dragged it all down again. Still, be thankful for the good bits I suppose and I genuinely am.
I need to be up very early tomorrow to go to New Covent Garden Market for greenery for the sites so I think I will go home now in my car which is not unlike a very effective deep freeze. Business ownership being what it is, funds for a newer vehicle with luxuries like any sort of heating are entirely lacking. Being a southern hemisphere person, I don’t deal with the cold well at any time and the last few days have been complete torture. I put on several hundred layers and sometimes take a hot water bottle as well but this does not seem to help. We actually got stopped by the police on the way home from East Dulwich on Monday night as they were convinced I was drunk. I had not actually swallowed a drop all day, but given the very late hour (about 2am) and the fact that the car was weaving slightly, they drew an inevitable conclusion. They did not really seem to buy the excuse that my hands were so frozen, I was finding it difficult to steer properly (this is completely true), so they made me stand outside in the cold while they questioned me a bit more closely. I offered to do a breath test and when they said that they did not have one, offered to balance on one leg but apparently they don’t do that any more. This was disappointing as I was entirely ready to do an incredibly complicated yoga position if it would have meant they let me go immediately, purely in the interests of getting home to something warm as soon as possible. By the end, my lips felt so frozen I could hardly talk properly but they seemed satisfied that I was not in fact intoxicated. Strange maybe, but not actually drunk.
