Road rage

[ladyofastolat]

What is it with today? Why does every living thing on this island feel the need to blunder in front of my car? Has my car been hit with an invisibility ray? Has some joker pinned a notice to my car reading, "Free cakes!" or "Bet you can't tag ME!" I was only driving to a small school about ten minutes into the country, and then back through town. As my route took me past a supermarket, I made a very quick trip into it to buy weekend cider. (See Appendix A for cider-related rant.) In that time, the following things blundered in front of me:
- Four bunnies
- Three old ladies meandering with shopping trolleys
- Two pheasants
- One red squirrel
- One baby in a buggy, pushed out by unheeding mother
- One taxi that decided to change lane on a roundabout into the exact place where I was, but he indicated after he'd forced me to do an emergency stop, so that's okay, then.

Luckily, I missed all of them, but the repeated emergency stops now mean that all the Morris sticks and storytelling books in the car are now gathered, snowdrift-like, at the front of the car, and I'm very glad the cider isn't due to be opened until tomorrow, or we'd be looking at a redecorated kitchen. The red squirrel was particularly alarming, since anyone who squashes a red squirrel has to report it to the authorities, and risk being vilified, and hounded off the island.

Appendix A: Said supermarket trip being necessary because our home-made wine has run out, and the local shops don't do any decent cider. I think CAMRA needs to adopt cider, too. Most small shops seem to have a selection of real ales, but their cider is dire.

Comments

Re: Cider

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Hello! *Friends back*

What sort of drink do MPs drink, I wonder... Probably expensive and fashionable types of wine, and port, whisky and brandy. Though I can imagine Tony Blair and his cronies making a point of being photographer drinking beer and being "just like normal people."

Re: Cider

[chainmailmaiden]

I suspect you are right about the expensive and fashionable tastes. I do know that John Major counts himself as part of the ABC club, which is 'anything but chardonnay'. It is as fashionable now to think chardonnay is ubiquitous and overexposed, as it was to be seen drinking it a few years ago. I too count myself as an ABC, but I have the excuse I've never liked it except, as very expensive chablis or when blended in Champagne.

Chardonnay

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

I find it unpleasantly oleaginous, and much prefer a glass of Chateau Salle d'Utilitie.

Re: Chardonnay

[chainmailmaiden]

I know what you mean, though it is mainly the fact that many cheep chardonnays are over-oaked giving them a very harsh flavour.

Will there be any Chateau Salle d'Utilitie available at Easter? If so can I inquire as to whether it will be of the Péche or Mirabelle variety?

Re: Chardonnay

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

A batch of the Peche was started last weekend, so drinking of it is liable to start any day now.

Re: Chardonnay

[chainmailmaiden]

Doesn't that mean there won't be any left by Easter then... ;-)

Re: Chardonnay

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

Should be OK, we tend to drink it slower if it's still fermenting :-D

Re: Chardonnay

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, I haven't even finished topping it up to 6 gallons yet...

Re: Chardonnay

[chainmailmaiden]

6 gallons sounds about right for a weekends drinking :-)

Re: Chardonnay

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Oh, gosh, you don't want to drink Chateau Salle d'Utilie. I wouldn't dare feed it to Bacchus. Every innocent who's drunk it so far has been very thoroughly ill - probably because it tastes like fruit juice, so they drink it in fruit juice quantities, before suddenly realising that fruit juice it aint.

Re: Chardonnay

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

That *exactly* describes my experience at a certain Celtic Festival, though I believe the culprit in that instance was the vin de peche of one J.O. I would say that the whole experience was a memorable one, except for the fact that large chunks of it were precisely non-memorable. The getting helplessly locked in a triangular toilet while nauseous and dizzy, though, remains etched in my mind in a nightmarish way. As, less nightmarishly, does emerging from Pellinor's kindly offered bed at dawn to find him and you and Skordh and Bunn and a few others still up and singing ;-) Ah, we were younger and more resilient then (and in my case less allergic to alcohol, though now I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't a connection...)

Re: Chardonnay

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

"...cheep chardonnays..."

This'll be Canary wine, presumably?

Re: Cider

[themis1.livejournal.com]

Tony Blair ... normal ... same sentence ... can't cope ...

Re: Cider

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

My problem with Tony Blair is that I've watched the Dead Ringers version of him too much. I just burst out laughing now as soon as he opens his mouth.

Re: Cider

[themis1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do that - then I remember he's running the country, which sobers me up some. I was raised a socialist by an actively socialist father - who most definitely would not in a million years vote for Blair (or Brown!!).