Tasting in Oxford, and an epic journey
Did a tasting yesterday evening in Oxford, for the Oxford University Wine Society. It went well, but my plans for getting home were thrown into disarray when the train to Reading was late, and I missed my connection to Feltham. This meant that my next best option was to head into Paddington, but by the time I got there the tubes had finished and the last Heathrow Express (another option) had left ages ago. So I headed off and got the first bus I could find that was going west, ending up at Hammersmith bust station. From there I got the N9 to Heathrow, and at Heathrow I picked up the 285 bus, which finally got me home just before 3 am.Oxford is a beautiful city, especially in the evening sunlight. It must be a very cool place to be a student. Not since Beijing, though, have I seen as many bicycles. There are millions of them. Pictured is Broad Street, looking towards the Sheldonian theatre.
Earlier in the day I'd been to the Sainsbury press tasting; today is the Waitrose press tasting. Tomorrow I feel like taking a day off.
Footnote: as of today, Fiona and I have been married for 15 years. Can you believe it?
Labels: ramblings
posted by Jamie @ 7:52 AM
11 comments
links to this post
11 Comments:
We could have met for a beer!
I was in Oxford with time to kill, and could have helped with trains...oh hum.
Many congratulations on the anniversary. If I'd known it was you doing the Dourthe tasting I would've went!
"would've went"??? Is that how all Oxford University students massacre the English language these days?
slight oversight, but i can't be bothered to engage in any sort of conversation with a pedant.
Ah - the city of the dreaming students...
I did a tasting for OU Wine Society; really nice bunch, very organised (unlike some other university socs). They took me to Brown's afterwards where we asked whether we could pay corkage on a wine we had brought with us (we were prepared to pay more corkage than we were going to spend on any the dismal wines that they had on their list). The manager came over and said he had never heard of the practice of corkage before and he didn't think it was allowed and that he certainly couldn't make that decision.
So much for free thinking. And this on the same street that Bishops Ridley and Latymer were burnt at the stake for their beliefs.
Have you ever considered going home by taxi Jamie? Not too expensive you know,especially in such an emergency.
Doug, if they were that bloody organised they would have rung in advance ot confirm that corkage was OK!
Taxi from Oxford to London would be about £90 Keith. But next time consider using the Oxford-London coach service at £12 one way - it runs day and night, and there's a bus every half hour up to midnight, and then through the night but less often.
Oh, by the way - congratulations on the big 15. I understand that Cristal is the thing to buy. Special congratulations due to Fiona for letting you visit bust stations in the middle of the night ;-)
I attended the Dourthe tasting while visiting a friend in Oxford. I found it the most informative tasting I went to in the 4 weeks I was there. While the romance behind the wines is interesting I much prefer the science, which was provided to us.
I attended the Dourthe tasting while visiting a friend in Oxford. I found it the most informative tasting I went to in the 4 weeks I was there. While the romance behind the wines is interesting I much prefer the science, which was provided to us.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home