Category: Food & Drink

Cheap Lane

Some of the best things in life are free, others cost much less than the pleasure they provide. The reverse is also true. Does an expensive car, house or holiday really give value for money?

In Or Out?

“In or out, sir?” is what a barman says mixing a Pink Gin. It refers to the Angostura Bitters. But it already has a more important meaning in the UK as the promised In/Out referendum looms. What’s the best way for Conservative europhiles to scupper the Out campaign? You’re spot on; appoint an 83 year… Continue reading In Or Out?

Wine Not Whine

Yesterday I mentioned that drinks in the Czech Republic, specially out in the countryside, are not expensive if you live in London and have been in Norway. Where we are is the second least populated part of the country (thanks, Wiki) and beer is the drink of choice.

“Shall we go straight in?”

Kingsley Amis rated this the most depressing question. This is of course complete nonsense. “Shall I press the button now, Mr Putin?” depresses me a lot more. Even, “can you have a family of seven refugees to live with you?” is far from uplifting.

Russian For Beginners

First, and only, visit to the Proms this week; the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra playing under the baton of spritely, septuagenarian Yuri Temirkanov a programme of sophisticated Russian music. Or as I subsequently found, a programme described by the condescending BBC as “classical for starters”.

Plane Fare

When did you last take a proper picnic onto an aeroplane for a scheduled flight? Government and private jets don’t count, Oliver.

Mind The Doors

  It is less than four hours on the train from Geilo back to Oslo and an almost cloudless sunny day for it. But let’s tear ourselves away from vistas of forest and lake.

Drink Time!

“Drink Time! In the Company of Patrick Leigh Fermor” is a memoir by Dolores Payás describing her visits to his house in Greece near the village of Kardamili in Mani in the last two years of his life. It bursts with her affection and admiration for him and is an admirable coda to his life.… Continue reading Drink Time!