What’s in a name, asked William Shakespeare, as he reasoned that a rose called something different (a smurgunkle, for instance) would still essentially remain the same sweet-smelling flower. Clearly, Billy-boy was not in my home town last week to witness the drama, laughter, tears, celebration, memes and confusion that greeted the city’s name change from […]
Click here for a full portionThe Melusine
“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.” Celebrated science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin wrote this in 1969, but in the middle of this period of unprecedented world uncertainty I find myself turning the phrase over and over in my mind like a pebble in […]
Click here for a full portionPotted smoked salmon with quick pickle apple slaw
Can you remember what your view of the world was like; what your fears were; and what you looked forward to in the future when you were seven years old? Many of us might have recollections if something particularly traumatic or triumphant happened to us at that age, but for most of us it would […]
Click here for a full portionDiscovering the wines of Pays d’Oc
Many moons ago when I first arrived in the UK nearly 20 years ago, I remember being totally baffled by my first encounter with French wine labels. Coming from a country where (at the time) the vast majority of all wines were bottled as varietal wine, I would stare at a French wine label reading […]
Click here for a full portionCranberry pistachio Bircher muesli – a Pret-a-Manger fakeaway
“I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.” So wrote that master of the nicely encapsulated aphorism Winston Churchill – and how true it is, in light of the events of the past year. At some point in the future when the current global Covid-19 crisis has subsided to […]
Click here for a full portionRoasted Brussels sprouts with chorizo & hazelnuts
Well, there’s no denying that 2020 has been quite a year… It’s a year where we learnt the hard way that drunkenly repeating on new year’s eve how crap the last year was, and how glad we are to see the new one, can come back and bite us. A year where Covid-19 forced us […]
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