Wine, darling!
When I was in Melbourne the Other Dr.K and I did a wine tasting course together and it was *so* much fun. So before I left home, I considered myself to be a little bit of a budding expert on wine. I then moved to the other side of the world. Big mistake.
It turns out that when you grow up in Australia, you drink a lot Australian wine. And I guess it hadn't occurred to me otherwise, I thought that if you grow up in France, you drink French wine, Italy, Italian wine and so on and so forth. But no! It's a global industry! Huh? I am a complete antipodean ignoramous when it comes to wine. Who'd of thunk they made wine in Chile and Argentina.. not me! How did I not know this? I mean I was aware that, yes, california and south africa also plant a few grapes here and there, but Hungary? No one told me. I guess in Australia, we have such diversity of climate and soil that we get a huge variety of wine styles without the need for import. And when you think of the costs, dollar for dollar, anything from far far away just doesn't perform in the same price range. So aside from a few lovely bottles of NZ wine and the odd confession that yes I had drunk Italian wine (Lambrussco anyone?) I was an Australian drinking Australian wine in Australia for most of my drinking years.
Here in the UK, I know nothing. I walk into a wine store and am completely bamboozled by the shiny array of products. I don't know my burgundies from my Beaujolais, let alone how to spell them (thanks google!). Luckily I can talk the talk "I like crisp aromatic whites" and "I'm not so fond of tannins or too much oak", but it has been a little bit of a slap in the face for the wanna-be wine snob in me.
However, I am not to be deterred. This weekend CazAndy (my newly minted bonafide York friends) suggested a group outing to the "
Wacky Wine Warehouse" in York, which sells discount wine from all over the world with a minimum 12 bottle (mixed dozen) purchase. I was like a kid in a candy shop, and was soon eyeing off all the lovely familiar labels in the Australia section. However my fellow wine-o-holics set me a challenge, I was to purchase naught from the shores of my birth. I accepted this quest, as part of my effort to assimilate, and now have a wine rack displaying the finest Old and New world bottles that my budget allowed. If it cost six quid, it can't that bad... or so the theory goes. Shamed by my lack of knowledge, I went out and bought a "Wine encyclopedia of the world" and
Oz Clarke's 2006 guide to buying wine. I'm now reading up on my
Malbecs and
Medocs, and have decided to write a
wine blog to keep track of all these complex creatures. I don't expect anyone except me to read it, and I'm not an amazing wine critic, so I don't expect anyone to pay attention to a single word I write. It's all bollocks really :)
Generally, I think I do have more of a European wine palate. I am quite un-Australian in terms of my wine taste-buds. I don't like my wine to jump out of the glass and punch me in the face with it's full on flavour. In terms of red, I love soft aromatics with velvety smooth round fruits and hints of spice and for white I favour crisp clean lines, with citrus sparkle and honey.
A far cry from the "plonk" we drank at Balgownie Manor during my university days *giggle*
A few fragmented facts
Ok, ok, so it has been a while since I was in the blog kind of mood. And the problem is that the more time that passes without writing, the more things I have to say and so the more effort it feels like having to catch up with everything.
So I won't offer any excuses. I'll just try and write a little more often now.
Here are a few facts to fill in the gaps:
I moved house. The sad news is that I no longer live inside the city walls, so I could be savaged by invading barbarians at any time. I've made scones in case they arrive in time for tea. The happy news is that its a really nice apartment, closer to uni, still walking distance to town and I've recently hand-picked a nice housemate too. The place is fully furnished, but I did go out and buy some new house things and felt very grown up buying my own set of shiny sharp knives and shiny bright saucepans. Proper nice grown-up ones that all match :)
I went to Thailand. The sad news was that I was only there for a week. The happy news was that I got to see maia. I had a wonderful time, did a lot of relaxing on the beach which I desperately needed, and didn't get too sunburnt. I bought more house things at the markets, I now own a lovely turquoise silk bedspread, some shiny fushia pink cushion covers and a lovely wooden fruit bowl. I am *such* a boring grown up. Some people go to Thailand to party. I bought homewares.
I won an
award. The sad news is that it didn't come with any money or prizes. The happy news is that it's nice to be recognised. Even though it makes me feel a little self-conscious and undeserving, I am the Malaria Foundation International Graduate Student of the Year, 2006.
I will be played by mariah carey in an
uncoming film. The sad news is that they've had to do some alterations to the script. Instead of being an award winning scientist in York doing her best to free the world of disease, I'm now a waitress in Texas who dreams of being a country music star. The happy news is that no one will watch it, so it doesn't really matter that they got the details slightly incorrect. In fact, if my sister hadn't kindly pointed it out to me, I probably wouldn't have ever known.
I'm settling into York. The sad news is that it's still not melbourne and I haven't been able to find a decent take-away latte. The good news is that I have made some really great friends, both in and out of the lab, and am starting to fill up my social calendar. If anyone hears that I was seen in onstage at a working men's club singing back up vocals to meatloaf's "took the words right out of my mouth" or that I vaulted over a stairwell into the display window of a pub to check if the pirate's chest had any real treasure inside, then I am sure that you'll assure the spreader of such slander that I'm not that kind of girl. Thanks.
I'm getting lots of visitors. There's no sad news, just lots of happy news for this entry. Dr.Liss, who now resides in Birmingham, is coming up to the university on Monday/Tuesday for work related purposes. She and I survived our PhDs together and held many counselling sessions over hot chocolates in front of the fire at Vagabonds cafe in Melbourne. She would have visited York earlier had her husband not jumped over the fence to rescue a soccer ball and broken his leg in two places. He's doing better now. And if that's not exciting enough.. My Bestest Kate is coming to visit on Thursday! She's about to embark on her dream Euro-tour, which includes amazing things like cooking school in Tuscany, and I am lucky enough to be in the right part of the world to be a part of it. She's coming to York for the weekend, then we're going to ITALY the following weekend. I can;t believe I am able to do things like fly to Pisa for the weekend. It's so cool :)
Thank you for your attention. You can now return to your regular web-browsing
