I really don’t recommend DitA, a cocktail invented by Hemingway. If you have a death wish here’s how to make it, in his own words:
“Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.”
I read Hemingway’s book as prep before going to a corrida in Madrid as a guest of a Spanish client (Cepsa) and very useful it was. Yesterday I was at Queen’s again and noticed one difference between Las Ventas and Queen’s. The similarities were obvious: great skill and stamina on display, cushions for hire, drinks on sale and a contest which ends without fail with only one winner. But at Las Ventas about half the seats are in the shade and at Queen’s only members sitting in the clubhouse get shade while the rest of us broil. Play was briefly suspended when one chap fainted.
The match started later than usual, at 2.30, to allow some spectators to watch football in Russia and Robert and I to have lunch at home.When Čilić and Djokovic came on court to polite applause there was one cry of “come on England”; it raised a laugh.
Well, actually, there is another difference. The bull does not graciously shake hands with the matador at the end but bullfights and tennis are both pure ballet.
In a previous post the author invited readers to make suggestions for future topics they would like to see featured. Such an invitation was, most likely, the author demonstrating his impeccable good manners, but I will take him at his word.
It seen aeons since the author last published something with the Irish connection. We were given a brief glimpse into the hall of Barmeath yesterday, perhaps next time we may be shown into the drawing room for a more extended visit. I always savour the authors reminiscences of the absurdities of life in an Irish country house; he is well equipped to simultaneously inform and amuse on this subject.
Regrettably the excellent series ‘Family History’ has been carelessly parked for some time in the early nineteenth century. Goodness knows what illustrious Bellew ancestors would make of such willful neglect. I fear the author has seriously blotted his copy book.