Kylie and Jon, Manchester and the wanker stand legend.

Thought I would start off this page by saying that the north of England is in drought.  This happens it seems when the north of England has more than ten  days in a row when it doesn't rain.  The weather has been glorious with days between 20 and 30 degrees, positive, and as you can see from the photo the river Wharfe's level is comparatively low.  If you look to the right, in Archives, December 09, there are pictures showing these two fish with their tails splashing in the waters of the Wharfe river during the annual wet season.  That makes the flood waters about 13 feet up from this shot.   I had thought the wet season ran from 1st July to June 30th but this year there has been a nice summer, sorry , a worrying drought.

But before we set off for Germany, July provided us with some rather good times. 

As well as various drives around nearby cities looking at properties we had a moment watching the start of the annual Wetherby Pram Race. 

It takes a route past our house , over the river, through town and across the Ings to the sports club.  There is a parade for the themed groups who join the serious sprinting and competitive groups at the start line.  All good fun and this year we caught the start parade on the high street.  We also spent some quality time over in Manchester. 

Our first Manchester experience was on Thursday  to attend a long-planed evening wine tasting with Jon and Kylie. 

The venue was their local tennis club (photo left) and we had planned a prior dinner at Alberts, a posh local Didsbury restaurant.  http://www.albertsdidsbury.com/ .  The food and service was fantastic I had a wonderful duck confit in a rich reduction,  and we promised to return for dessert after our wine tasting.   I did wonder if that news went down as well as it could have.... none of the four of us are what you would call quiet diners. But the waitress was professional and charming so we did return, but more on that later.

The wine tasting was extreme. 17 tasting tables each with seven to ten different wines.  There was no way we were going to do that level of wine tasting any justice so we set about forming a methodology.....   There were also champagnes and stickys to consider so serious note taking and tasting effort was required.  The wines offered were all of high quality and of the ones we sampled probably four or five really stood out.

 It was a global selection and was the only time I have been anywhere in the UK and found a Hunter Valley red... It turned out it was a blend of some hunter valley and a lot of riverina so a little disappointing but there were great NZ, Chilean, S Africans, Argentinian, French and Italian selections.  I would like to report to you that we took great care to record and discuss the various samples on the printed forms provided and that as the night wore on we became very astute and precise in our reviews and comparisons.  I would like to report that, but I really can't say that at all.

Much cheered by our collective brilliance and keen tasting observations, at the end of the three hour event we thanked our hosts and, as we had threatened earlier, returned to the Alberts restaurant .
Gail ordered an Eaton Mess, Kylie a Chocolate Volcano and I was served the best Panacotta Gail or I have ever eaten, while Jon was granted possession of the world's largest single serve cheese platter with so much cheese he ran out of crackers. 

During our wait for our desserts, I saw a nearby table was delivered their order.  It included a wrapped bottle of wine which was revealed, opened and decanted into a crystal decanter with great ceremony by the waitress.  These people must know what they like we thought.  But the bloke who ordered it immediately told the waitress to pour the wine from the decanter, took a gulp and gave her the thumbs up signal to pour the remainder to the other glasses.  Now I'm not much of a wine snob, no really, but I know the whole point of decanting is to allow the wine time to rest and release the volatile gasses captured over the years of bottle fermenting.  Okay, a bit of a snob.  However, I began to think this guy was a prat.  The very next instant the food for their table was delivered and placed on wire stands elevating it all above the table in a rather pretentious manner.  Fish and chips it looked like.  Definitely wankers.

By this time the girls and I had finished our respective desserts but Jon was still mowing through his cheese and had run out of crackers.  We asked the waitress if she could bring us some more crackers to share, but so we fitted in, could she bring them on a wanker stand like the table nearby.   Thought that was a good little joke with the waitress until the crackers appeared as requested and with due flourish to our table.  Yeah, okay, you had to be there, we did enjoy the moment though.  some of us more than others, but I did notice the cracker-envy look from the nearby table.  The night continued back at J&Ks place with a calming wine or two, a chat and a good sleep.

It seems impossible, but Gail had not had enough enjoyment and returned to J&Ks on Saturday night because there was a farewell party for Richard and Maxine, mutual colleagues moving to France. The venue was a very noisy restaurant which encouraged an early departure and a return for some attendees to J&K's for nightcap.  I did not attend this 'work only' bash but I am advised it was a great night. 

Jon promised not to mix any of his deadly cocktails and Kylie almost succeeded in keeping the party quiet enough so as not to have them evicted from their apartment. 

The photos show the guilty assembled and Gail trying to stop Jon serving cocktails, unsuccessfully it seems. 

Richard, Maxine, Jon, Gail,Amy,Annabelle,Claire,Karen,Kylie,Cora,Trish.

And that was the start of July, aussie Mark Webber won the UK Silverstone F1 GranPrix on the Sunday and we headed off to Germany on the Monday.  More on that next post.