I was going to review this place next year when I could have titled the post, 4030 2010. But on the 40th floor bar of 30 St Mary’s Axe the view could not wait and, verily, it must be one of the most stunning in the whole of London.
When I bought a cheeky mystery case of red Burgundy “to drink now” from the Wine Society they probably didn’t realise how literally I would take the title of the case.
In barely the time it takes a Tory MP to repay his moat cleaning expenses, I am already deep into my third bottle.
Just one day after the final match of the season, the 2008/9 FA Premiership is already a distant memory. We now enter the silly summer season where silly sums will be spent on sop soccer stars with scant regard for common sense or the common fan.
If there is one maxim in life that everyone understands it is that money does not guarantee success. I mean, look at Mark Hughes’ under-achievers. Being a long suffering Man City fan, it is no surprise to me that we scraped in mid table a whopping 5 points clear of footballing paupers, Stoke City, even though one of our players cost more than Stoke’s entire squad.
I have to congratulate Stoke on an over-achieving season. Based on the resources available to them and being newly promoted to the division, they were odds on to get relegated. But Tony Pulis had a well thought out strategy and it worked.
Strange game football eh? But the same can apply to wine. This bottle came from a Wine Society Mystery Burgundy Case (average implied bottle price £20 but actually was on sale for £56.75 on the WS website). Ouch! It better be good!
And so Eurovision has come and gone and, for once, the UK didn’t come last. In fact we made a creditable 5th place, although we had to recruit the noble Lord Webber of Musicals to write us a tune and, predictably, the singer had to come from a reality TV show.
Some have criticised Eurovision in recent years alleging tactical voting as being the cause of the UK’s fall from grace. I say our entries were just pap and wouldn’t have troubled the scorer in a hitting a barn door with a banjo competition.
Highly variable results is something you get used to when you drink Burgundy. Was Jean Grivot Nuits-St-Georges Les Lavières 2004 a “Waterloo” or did it score null points?
Gordon Brown’s nanny state has reached a new high in the form of film censorship and advice. I was watching an advert on TV for a kids film and the smallprint warning said “contains mild threat and comic fight scenes”. What is the point of such a warning? It is inconsistent with other media and not very helpful in any case.
Take an average episode of Dr Who that is aired by the BBC at peak family viewing time on a Saturday tea time. I used to watch regularly in the 1970’s – Jon Pertwee was my Doctor. There is more to frighten children than any amount of comic fighting. By the time I watched The Omen, I was fully prepared. It could have been labelled “may contain mild Satanic undertones”. But Damien was simply nowhere near as scary as a Dalek.
If West Yorskhire is within striking distance and you think you might enjoy looking out over the River Aire at a regatta of swans following a canal barge of revelling diners (I waved to them – birds and blokes alike) then Brasserie 44 is a place you might want to try.
Brasserie 44 shares a converted Victorian grain store with infamous hotel, 42, The Calls, one of the early entrants on this refurbished homage to modern city living. The Calls has turned the industrial past into the post-modern future – lofty living, dining and drinking quarter of Leeds city centre.
I’m not having much luck with my latest Burgundies from the Wine Society. This one would have cost £24.25 if it had not been included in a cheapo Burgundy bin end case. The 2004 is available at £28.50 - maybe that is a better bet now?
The 2001 I opened the other evening was slightly oxidised but there was clear evidence of a super wine under the dull acidity.
Apple and blackberry, raspberry and ginger. It tipped a good nod to Pinot Noir with the smell you get when you chuck damp leaves on a fire. It wasn’t so badly oxidised as to make it undrinkable but a £25 Nuit St-Georges like this should have had me in ecstasy rather than objectivity. Shame.
It seems that people haven’t stopped spending after all. January 2009 retail sales in the UK were actually 0.7% higher than last month and a whopping 3.6% higher than Jan 08. Analysts (who are these anonymous experts? It’s like reading about comments from “community leaders” after a local riot) suggest that deep discounting in the January sales was the cause. Whatever. It shows that if you can get your value proposition right, people will still buy.
I’ve had a couple of marketing lessons recently.
The first was pulling into a service station with my iPhone flashing a “10% power” warning. A FoneBitz franchise saw me coming (and presumably had the pictures). It was more than irony that they stiffed me for £24.95 for an in-car charger. When the assistant saw me laugh out loud (LOL), she didn’t. The iPhone cost less than that, I giggled. “Do you want the item, sir?” said the straight-faced lady. I had 20 phone calls to make and 200 miles to drive, so I handed over the dirty ransom.
Is the Sony brand dead?
I used to be a Sony snob – hifi, TVs, Playstations, Walkmans. OK I admit I never had a Betamax, but I know early adopter friends who did. In the 1970s our household was the first in the street with a colour TV. In the 1980s we were last to invest in VHS technology, albeit by virtue of Radio Rentals and with a third of my first adult weekly paycheque as a deposit.
I am currently watching a Sony TV from the 1990s which is fab. I also own a Sony TV from 2007 that is total tosh – picture quality, software, remote control - all about as user-friendly as a Doberman shaped perambulator.
Stumble It!