We arrived last night after an easy run from Wiltshire, mainly on the A and B roads.   The weather remained dry and clear and roads and scenery were wonderful.   This is why we do these events.. just getting here was special.

On checking the tyre pressures before leaving I noticed the front offside was a little low - confirming my suspicions that we had an issue with that tyre.  Outside Bala we spotted one of those local tyre shops, not one of the big chains, and decided to stop and see if they had any spares.   They did not, but did change the valve stem and clean the surface rust of the rim which was the cause of the abrasion and hence the leak.  Sorted.

The young man in the workshop had a very strange accent... his radio was tuned to an interesting and incomprehensible Welsh station and I asked if he spoke Welsh.   On reflection that was somewhat stupid, but his answer surprised me more.  Not only did he speak welsh, but he said he rarely spoke any english:  hence the accent.   Later in the day I learned that much of the local accent is derivative of  a Viking language, left here many centuries ago... and that indigineous DNA can be traced to certain fishing villages in Norway.

Seems there's more to Llandudno than I first thought.

Drivers and Navigators briefing in an hour, then a practice run, Scrutineering and registration.. should be a busy day.

The reason there have been no posts over the last few days is because I've been doing the final fettle on the BGT in preparation for the Three Castles Welsh Classic Trial.    Mechanic Andy has done lots.. I've done a bit and we're ready.

It's a first for Shivs and me and unlike the Rally of the Tests, which was very tough, this should be a lot easier.  

As I type this we should be on the road.   So we're off.

Wish us luck and follow the results on the website...  We are car no. 26 in Class C5 and if I have time I'll add a post during the week.. but don't hold your breath.

It is well known that retailers examine the habits of shoppers in great detail, turning what men regard as an onerous necessity, (cars, hi-fi and sports goods are exempt here) and women regard as therapy / leisure, into a science.

New research from the US has shed more light on the habits of men and women, which can be summarised in the diagram below;

Go on, tell me I'm wrong.

One of the reasons we keep chickens is because we like fresh eggs.   The other is because our helpers like fresh chicken.

Now, on the face of it, one of these practices has a future.   The other, does not.   So what to do?

Easy.   Go on holiday and let said chickens brood.   Hey presto 6 weeks later and you have chicks.   Up to now we have seven.   Two did not make it.   One fell through the floor of the coop which did not agree with it and the other seemed a bit doo lally from the start and couldn't really get the hang of eating.

So we have seven.   Three dark brown / black and four yellow-ish.  Not sure what sex they are yet, but the ones that don't lay eggs have a future that involves becoming the central ingredient of a recipe.   The others may live long and happy lives.   As long as they lay eggs.

 

No, not footie, not even politics.   But Eurovision!   Yes, that 'song' contest the Brits long ago consigned to little more than light entertainment / comedy / junk viewing.

I'm not sure what was funnier.   Was it that while the representatives from 30+ countries spoke in english, the French demurred and stuck to French?   The Spanish, demonstrating solidarity rather than just demonstrating for once, also gave their marks in the Gallic tongue.

Or could it have been the Dutch chap who had clearly been in one of those 'coffee bars' prior to the broadcast, as he gave all most of the world his mobile phone number and seemed enamoured of one of the hosts in the studio...?

Or possibly the Israelis who aren't part of Europe if I recall, but I suspect  are invited as they probably wouldn't do terribly well in 'MiddleEastOvision'?

No, it wasn't the national voting bloc mentalilty that saw the Balkans all sticking together and voting for each other either, with the Russians doing pretty much the same.   Shame they didn't get on so well when they were all part of the same country...

What was funny was the winning song.   Finnish death metal band Lordi, complete with costume, wigs and make up were priceless.   I nearly fell of my chair when I saw the lead singers batwings unfolding mid song.   And as for the platform shoes... wow.

Lordi's motto, 'Europe Get Ready to Get Scared', is gloriously redolent of '70's glam rock, with the only really scary bit wondering if the props will last to the end of the song.   And think, from the country that gave us Nokia and Mika Hakkinen.

Oh, Lordi.

OK, so its the en vogue bandwagon.   Stories in every paper, magazine, website and likely the subject of a few sermons this weekend too.   The Da Vinci Code movie has finally opened.   To less than rave reviews, but with enormous public hoo haa.

But controversy, coupled with the popularity of Dan Brown's book, is guaranteed to ensure commerical success.

 (shamelessly right clicked from the Torygraph)

It's the double standards that have tickled me from the start.   The Church, who have roundly condemned the book, are now cashing in as their gift shops are packed with Da Vinci related tat.   Some are offerering tours, others talks, some even adding cheese and wine.   For a fee of course.

If you haven't read the book you really should.   It's a great read, an involving story and impossible to tell the truth from the fiction.   No wonder it has raised so many questions.

If you can't be bothered to read the book, check out the entry in Wikipedia...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Da_Vinci_Code

If you can't be bothered to do that, go and see the movie.   And make your own mind up.

Truth is, I buy most of my wine from my friendly (and soon to be neighbourhood) wine merchant, and have done for some years.   Most of it is cellared, until ready for drinking, when it is delivered to my door for safe keeping in my own cellar until the time comes...

No long lectures about wine here - most of my friends have been bored into comas on more than one occasion - but I did think it worth publishing the list of Supermarket gold medals from the latest International Wine Challenge, which announced its results yesterday.

The four independant judges have swilled, sniffed and slurped their way through 9,111 bottles of wine, all tasted blind, to award gold, silver and bronze medals.

These awards give customers a great insight into what wines are simply good - regardless of price - as this is not known to the judges.    I expect they are all good versions of whatever grape variety they represent and most are very affordable.  

So, my advice is to tuck into a few.  

Sainsbury's (5 Golds)

"Taste the difference" Douro 2004 (£7)

Leasingham Magnus Riesling 2004 (£7.50)

"Taste the difference" Pouilly Fumé 2005 (£9)

La Gitana manzanilla sherry (£5.50)

Taylor's Vintage Port 1985 (£60)

M&S (4 Golds)

Meursault 2004 (£20)

Quinta de Fafide port 2004 (£9)

Chateauneuf du Pape (white) 2004 (£13)

Manzanilla sherry (£6)

Tesco (2 Golds)

Nuits St Georges, Domaine Des Perdrix 2002 (£22)

Pazo de Serantellos, Albarino 2005 (£6.99)

Waitrose (1 Gold)

Villa Maria Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc 2005 (£7.99)

Majestic (1 Gold)

Margarethenhof Ayler Kupp Riesling Kabinett 2005 (£6)

Enjoy.

Good weekends are made all the more enjoyable when the doom and gloom of the weather forecast turns out to be erroneous.

After a glorious week in Bournemouth (no bucket and spade:  blackberry and pc instead) I was fired up for a relaxing, if busy time.

Saturday morning was spent down at the Shoot putting in some rabbit proof fencing.  The bunnies are getting fat on Farmer Andrew's wheat and we don't want them tucking into our maize cover next month.   The fence should help keep them off, or at least easier to shoot when the try and get round it.

The afternoon was dedicated to gardening.  And what better than to be riding around on the mower in the sunshine?   Satisfying indeed.

The Fisherman and his wife with new tadpole were over for dinner, so several bottles of decent wine were polished off, before we turned in and, after all that fresh air and excercise, slept the sleep of the righteous.

Still only half time and Sunday was also busy.   Mr FM brought his nippers over so they while they set about trashing the garden and seeing how high they could go on the trampoline, we had a little automotive therapy.   Well, truth is I polished two of the fleet while the good Mr FM sat with a cup of coffee and a Marlborough light.   To his credit he refrained from offering any advice.

Imagine my surprise though, when he hinted that Disco Dave (his, not mine) needed a bit of a hose down.  We set to with the pressure washer, detergent and some serious ally wheel cleaner.   Never realised it was such a nice colour.

One roast beef BBQ and a bottle of Rioja later and it was almost time for Top Gear.    Which I forgot to watch..... before heading back to the smoke.

For a rest.

In an interesting story yesteday, Ruth Kelly has been exposed as a champion Nimby herself, despite her political stance of vowing to legislate them out of existence...

   (shamelessly right clicked from the Torygraph)

Nimby objections to plans to build thousands of low-cost homes are preventing the government meeting it's target of providing more affordable housing, because people are too "protective of their own space".   And Ruth Kelly doesn't like it and plans to introduce legislation to stop it.

Kelly's comments have not gone down well in her constituency of Bolton West as since her election in 1997, Miss Kelly has opposed numerous developments in her own backyard:

• In March 2005 she supported residents who opposed plans to build a new Islamic College - along with accommodation for 200 boarding students - on a greenfield site in Westhoughton.

• In 2004 she supported residents in a successful campaign to stop 30 one- and two-bedroom flats in the Heaton area of Bolton.

• The year before, she played a leading role in blocking proposals for a five-storey apartment block in the same area.

• In 2002 she fought against plans to build new homes on the site of the Bellhouse Hartwell aerospace plant in Westhoughton.

• Two years earlier she celebrated with residents in the same area after they derailed plans to build 600 new homes.

• In 1999 she played a pivotal role in blocking proposals to build 1,100 new homes in Westhoughton.

One of Bolton's planning committee said he found her comments 'breathtaking'.   Others said her views were 'insulting'

Shadow local government secretary, Caroline Spelman, said: "This is breathtaking hypocrisy from a minister who has repeatedly opposed development in her own constituency yet is happy to steamroller people's objections elsewhere."

However, a spokesman for Miss Kelly dismissed the criticism, arguing that it was perfectly reasonable for the minister to criticise Nimbies while objecting to developments in her own constituency.

Errrrrmm.   No, I don't think so.   That's just the unhappy collision of arrogance and hipocrisy resulting in the sort of double standards and immortal self belief to which a number of her colleagues have recently fallen victim.

Right.   Who's next?

In an excellent article from todays Telegraph, Boris Johnson rails against the madness of the entitlement to a paddock subsidy, all part of the reforms to the Common Agricultural policy and one of the reasons thousands of farmers have yet to receive their single farm payments from DEFRA.   If it were not true it would be funny.

Read and weep...

Acres and acres of madness - and they call this reform...........By Boris Johnson

At the bottom of the garden we have a paddock, and on evenings like this I can think of no lovelier place on earth.

The buds have budded. The trees are in leaf. The lambs are making a racket. The rabbits show a boldness that verges on insolence.

Everywhere I look I see nature transpiring at every pore with the green joy of photosynthesis. I see the hawthorn blossom, rolling for miles in great gunsmoke clouds.

I see the shade starting to lengthen from the old oak, and the lovely rickety fence, on which I sometimes balance champagne bottles and shoot them off with an airgun, and I lie down on the springy grass and look up at the pale moon in the blue sky and ...   more »

Interesting debate in the Torygraph today concerning parliamentary succession.   One reader, Happy Jack says:

Remember, only one person EVER went into Parliament with honest intentions. His name? Guy Fawkes.

Harsh.   But probably fair.

Ever stared at a wine list - not a clue what to choose?   No me neither.

But, apparently, millions have.   And as of today help is at hand.   No need to squirm under the critical eye of a patronising sommelier.   No panic that you will choose a super sweet late picked gewurtztraminer to go with steak tartare... help is but a text away.   But is it any good?

From today's Torygraph.....

A wine company yesterday launched an instant mobile phone texting service that suggests suitable wines for thousands of different dishes.   The service is the brainchild of the Australian wine company Hardys. As well as guiding diners through a restaurant wine list, it can also help shoppers stuck in the drinks aisles of supermarkets.

"We know that eight out of ten people in Britain drink wine, but that only one in 10 is confident about matching food and wine," said a spokesman for Hardys.

"On the Continent, people grow up with food and wine and it comes naturally to them. But in Britain, people are far less confident."

Hardys has created a database of thousands of meals, linking each one to a suitable wine with advice from the wine expert Olly Smith.

Anyone texting the name of a meal, or type of food - along with the year of their birth - to 64007, gets the name of a suitable grape varietal from the database.

The service is available from 8am to 2am each day, including Christmas Day and bank holidays. However, consumers are limited to 10 texts per day and the service is intended for people aged 18 or over.

The texts cost between 10p and 20p. The answers usually come back within seconds and, the creators claim, a suitable reply will never take longer than two minutes.

Mr Smith, who helped to create the food and wine text matching service, said: "It's fantastic that people will now be able to receive a food and wine recommendation and avoid choosing a wine whose flavour will overpower the delicate sauce that accompanies a fish dish for example.

Because the service is run by an Australian firm, the suggested wines have a distinct New World bias.

Jonathan Ray, The Daily Telegraph's wine writer, admitted that he was sceptical about the service, but was pleasantly surprised at the wines suggested.

"I'd give them pretty high marks," he said. "However, my view is that there is rarely a right or wrong answer when it comes to matching food with wine.

"Obviously some things will never go together - for instance chocolate and claret will always taste awful - but part of the fun is experimenting.

"If you go to a restaurant, you should throw yourself on the mercy of the sommelier. If you are in a supermarket, read all the tags on the shelves.

"One of the great fun things about wine is the trial and error. It's a matter of personal choice and, with a few exceptions, there is no wrong answer."

All true... but I did see a couple of hitches, so decided to try out the service for myself.    I sent a query - Steak Tartare - to 64007 and had a reply in less that half a minute.   Not bad.   The suggestion?  I quote:

Try a Merlot.   e.g. Hardy's VR Merlot.   For Terms and conditions visit www.hardys.com.au    Please drink responsibly.  

Ah.   So, the suggestion of a new world leaning is true.... and more specifically it focuses you on Hardy's wines.   Not unreasonable as it is their service.   But,  when they send you the grape variety, e.g. Merlot, how will those not in the know, know what to choose from an Old World wine list?

Most Claret from Pomerol / St. Emillion does have a higher percentage of Merlot than of Cabernet - but would our new texters be aware of this?    Would they know if the recommendation is for a Shiraz that they could go for a Cotes du Rhone?    Or if Pinot, for a Burgundy?

I think not.   And here's the rub.   Jonathan Ray is right.   Rely on the sommelier, read the wine list, the labels and try and learn a little.   In the meantime, have fun experimenting.

 

As of today.   It's all over.    The fab four tried to suppress Apple Computers' use of this logo:

Apple Corps, the record company owned by Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the families of George Harrison and John Lennon, wanted damages from Apple Computer over the use of the apple logo in connection with its revolutionary online iTunes Music Store.

But Mr Justice Mann ruled that Apple Computer had not breached a trademark agreement with Apple Corps by using the logo and name to sell music.   It was the latest round of a battle over logos between the two companies dating back to the early 1980s.

The 1991 trade mark agreement gave Apple Corps exclusive rights to use "apple" marks for the record business.

All had worked well and there had been peace between the two companies until the advent of the iPod, and the revolution of downloading and saving thousands of pre-recorded tracks via the internet.

Geoffrey Vos QC, representing Apple Corps, said Apple Computer had given the public access to 3.7 million tracks available worldwide and there had been one billion downloads through the Music Store website.

Apple Corps had wanted court orders to stop Apple Computer using the "apple" marks in connection with the iTunes Music Store and damages after an investigation into Apple Computer's profits.

Instead they were left with a multimillion-pound legal bill.

Lord Grabiner QC, representing the US company, asked Mr Justice Mann for £1.5m interim payment for his side's costs, which could top more than another million.

Moral:  only the lawyers ever really win.

From special correspondent Magic Gareth in Hong Kong comes this little snippet:

Where ever you are today, at some time it will be 3 seconds after two mintues past one.... i.e.    01:02:03:04:05:06

Gosh.

The celebration of Landmark birthdays reached a peak last Saturday in the Savoy Hotel in London.   Smudger was turning 40 and invited 28 friends from around the world to join him and wife Scary for dinner.    While the guests came from Hong Kong, Singapore, USA and the UK the wine was mainly from France.   Which is certainly better than having French guests and English wine.

As Smudger is a wino connosieur we knew we were in for a treat and it was telling that on opening the menu, I did not look at the right hand side with the food, but the left, with the wine.   Here's what we enjoyed:

Verve Cliquot La Grande Dame 1990

Domaine Ramonet - Batard Montrachet Grand Cru 1988

Chateau Guiraud 1 Cru Sauternes

Chateau Palmer 1983, 1975, 1966

Taylors Port 1966

Massandra Tokay 1948

All splendid - especially the Palmer '66 and the Tokay '48.   The latter still full of life and concentrated sweetness.    I still marvel that we could enjoy a drink made nearly 60 years ago, well before most of the guests were born.

Many thanks Smudger.   Here's to your 50th!

Driving along The Embankment into London for a party (more later) last Saturday I spotted two cars - or more significantly their number plates - in Chelsea.

Clearly a well heeled sort of owner, with immensely good taste and a great sense of humour.

The cars?   A shiny new Bentley and an Aston Martin DB9.   Registrations?

2 BE   and   NOT 2 B

Marvellous.