pumpkinstrokemarrow

By way of apéritif, I took some 'Taste the Difference' IPA from Sainsbury's. Brewed and bottled by Marston's it tasted fine, though perhaps not quite as fine as the offering from Greene King. Probably rather cheaper, but I had forgotten to note the price before screwing up the receipt. With the meat we had a 2009 Crozes-Hermitage from the same place. No idea where in France it came from; presumably one of the many recently invented appelation contrôlées. Far too many of them for someone who is really a beer drinker to attempt to keep track of. But I think we have had the stuff before without complaint and this one was fine. Bottle slipped down without any problem at all.

By way of digestif, I took some 10 year old Talisker at a princely 45.8% by volume. I understand that, as Scotch goes, this one is at the peaty end of the spectrum. The taste, this time around, rather reminded me of Tequila because of the after taste. An after taste which I associate for some reason with petrol; no idea why as I have never either sniffed or tasted the stuff.

The following day we had another more substantial go at it (the Talisker that is) while watching the last episode of Middlemarch (see May 12th). After taste gone, generally much more satisfactory. Perhaps the after taste was a product of what we had been eating and drinking beforehand the day before; in the way that oranges taste pretty grim just after brushing one's teeth with Colgate. Net result was that we were both rather maudlin by the time we got to the emotional closing scenes with voice over by one of the national treasures (Dame Judi).

It may also be the explanation of this morning's failed tweet. A dark brown bird in the back garden, rather like a female blackbird, but with a clearly yellow bill, like that of a male blackbird. Off to the RSPB tweeters' site to be told that the thing was a female blackbird, despite their illustration of same not being yellow billed. Perhaps a juvenile male? Do I need a personal trainer to get me up to speed?