Summer Of Jay Updates

Sip & Twit DC

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:17:44 -0500

On Wednesday evening, I was given the opportunity to attend an interesting event. The collision of a traditional wine tasting with social media fans resulted in Sip & Twit DC, hosted by WineTwits at the Whittemore House at Dupont Circle.

Keswick Vineyards posted a contest on Twitter for a free entry to the event and I managed to get the Golden Ticket. Thankfully, I was going into DC while most commuters were trying to squeeze out so my drive in was mostly uneventful and traffic-free except for the last few blocks before arriving at the venue. Still, I managed to walk in just a few minutes after the doors had opened.

I immediately found Kat and Kris Schornberg to thank them for my entry and decided that the Keswick table would be a great place to start my tour of the room. I began by sampling white wines and then came back to each table to taste the red wines. A few exhibitors had brought only red so it didn’t take me very long to complete the first lap around the room.

Though I prefer red wine, I can appreciate a well-crafted white and will rarely pass the opportunity for a sample. Unfortunately, most of the whites were uninspiring save for the Keswick and Horton Viogners, the Rio Seco Torrontes, and the Teliani Tsolikouri. That last one is from the Republic of Georgia and had an interesting flavor profile, light and slightly mineral finish that really appealed to me.

Sip & Twit DC Label Gallery

After a very brief stop at the buffet, I got a fresh glass and started my second trip around the room. Unlike with the white wines, most of the reds were to my liking but there were a few that really stood out and that I will likely seek to purchase. I’ll focus on those for the remainder of this post.

Much like Viogner, Cabernet Franc is a grape that does very well in Virginia and many vineyards in the state consistently produce good examples. Keswick’s 2007 Cabernet Franc Reserve edition made its debut at this event and I’m glad I was able to sample it. Peppery but smooth and not overbearing.

Next I found Mil Amores, a blend of Portuguese grapes that is absolutely delicious! The primary varietal is Touriga Nacional but the blending gives it a complex flavor that bursts onto the palette in a very pleasing way, I overheard several tasters raving about this one and it was probably the crowd-favorite. Definitely in my top three for the evening.

For the past few years, I have been enjoying the upswell of Malbecs coming from Argentina and there were two shining example at the event. First is La Flor, plenty of jammy flavor but soft and well rounded. Despite its youth, it tastes as it if it has been aged for several years. The other spectacular specimen is Humberto Barberis. Just as with the La Flor, this Malbec fills your mouth with flavor but at the same time it is soft on the palette and feels as if it has been in the cellar for some time.

Finally XOCO, a red desert wine from Horton, was just right to finish the party off. Starting with a Merlot base and adding chocolate essence, Horton creates a delicious “Chocolate Wine” that is not too sweet and can be sipped alone or paired with a chocolate dessert.

Sip & Twit DC Label Gallery

As the representatives began to pack up, I made my way down the street to Cafe Dupont for a quick bite to eat before making the trek south. I have a hard time passing up any dish containing duck so I ordered the Scallops and Duck Confit over Tagliatelle. The flavors were wonderful and the portion size just right. The only downside was I found myself wishing for one of the luscious wines I had just tasted rather than the mediocre glass that I had in front of me. All in all though, it was a great evening and I would love to do it again - who’s providing the free pass next?

Walking, Waiting, and Racing

Sat, 16 May 2009 11:00:39 -0400

Note: I started working on this update but failed to finish and post it in a timely manner so this will be the first of two or three updates that I will work on while waiting to board my flight home.

Half of the way through my tour-of-duty here and I continue to add to my folio of experiences.

Mid-week I watched the first legs of the UEFA Football (soccer) matches involving three of England’s top clubs. Tuesday, I went to the pub next to my apartment to watch Chelsea secure a scoreless tie at Barcelona. The match was well played and Chelsea survived a couple of scares and missed a scoring opportunity of their own but came away satisfied that they would head into the second match even with Barcelona. Then on Wednesday night I wandered across town a ways to the Nags Head pub to see the Manchester United v. Arsenal match. Again, a well played match but Man U came out on top and put the pressure on Arsenal to answer in the second game. Nags Head has a rotating selection of local cask ales and I sampled three of them. Sinner-Man was my favorite and as its name suggests, there is a hint of cinnamon in this nicely balanced dark ale. I think I’ll be heading back to Nags Head for the second leg matches this week and more of the cask ales.

As the week ended, I began preparing for another trip into London. Thursday evening, I bought a TIme Out London and went to a local cafe that reserves that night for an Ethiopian buffet. While noshing on my Injera, Doro Wat, and Alecha, I scanned TIme Out for anything particularly interesting. Several things caught my eye but when I saw that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan were starring in “Waiting for Godot”, I knew that would be my goal. As is usually the case when I have Ethiopian fare, I wasn’t able to control my portions and staggered home feeling sated but overstuffed.

Saturday morning came and I took my time getting up and about. The weather was nice so I had a leisurely walk to the train station. One of the nice things about my being in Reading is the half hour ‘express’ train into Paddington station with several departures during the day so you don’t have to worry much about the schedule.

About a year ago, Kat turned me on to the UK artist Duffy (Specifically her song “Mercy”) and I liked her stuff so much that I bought the album pre-release on iTunes - something that I rarely do. Anyway, one of the songs on the album is titled “Warwick Avenue” and on a whim, I looked to see if it is a real location in London with an entrance to the Tube as mentioned in the song. Sure enough it exists and, as luck would have it, it was only a short walk from Paddington. So I made the short trek north and took a couple of pictures of the Underground sign.

As I walked back toward the hotel I had booked, I came upon the Canal Boat Cavalcade. At least 100 long, narrow boats were moored in Paddington Basin and plenty of vendors and activities were stationed along the walkways, plenty of items on which to train the camera lens. I quickly found the bar then and ordered a Hobgoblin Ale that was nicely dark and had a pleasant, mildly sweet undertone. I sipped the strong ale as I wandered around before deciding to restart my journey to the hotel.

Once checked in, I ditched my bag and headed off to to Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. The weather was near perfect and I decided that I would just take in the scenery, enjoy the remaining daylight, and fire the camera whenever the mood struck. Princess Di’s memorial fountain, Royal Albert Hall, and Kensington Palace were among my targets.

At the end of the day, I met up with several Americans (and a couple of Brits) at Harlem - a restaurant that claims to serve “US Soul Food”. Perhaps the better description would be “Southern American inspired” cooking as the dishes all had familiar names but were barely representative of the region. My Jambalaya was more like a fluffy rice pilaf with Cajun spices, it had a nice flavor but it definitely didn’t measure up to anything you’d find within 100 miles of N’awlins. Thankfully, the bartender knew how to mix a proper Sazerac and that nearly made up for the disappointing food. After dinner, the group went downstairs to the lounge area and we danced and talked until closing time. I hope to meet up with the group again on my next trip into the UK.

Prior to going in to London, I had tried to secure a last minute ticket to “Waiting for Godot” but was I was not surprised to find that they were sold out since the show had only been open for a couple of weeks. As a last ditch option, I went to the box office early Sunday morning in an attempt to get a “day of” ticket that afforded only limited views. When I got in line, I feared that I had got there a bit too late as there were at least a dozen people ahead of me. My suspicions were confirmed when the box office manager finally opened the doors and told us that there only a few of those tickets available. “However” he said, “ I do have a few returned tickets if anyone interested”. My position in line gave me the opportunity to get a 5th row center seat, MUCH better than the “day of” seats and at face value, I didn’t have to pay a scalper’s premium.

Happy with my good fortune, I walked down the block to the National Gallery and gazed upon hundreds of paintings dating as far back as the turn of the first millennium. All of the artists that you learned about in high school were well represented. While my personal taste runs more to modern and contemporary art of the most recent two centuries, it was fantastic to be surrounded by the works of European masters and their colleagues.

Inspired but a bit weary from all my standing, I decided I needed to sit down for a bit. Another item only “to-do” list while in the UK was to play Poker in a London casino. the Haymarket Theater was only a couple of block from the Empire Casino in Leicester Square so i thought I’d kill two birds with one stone and get off my feet while getting some chips into the pot. the quick and dirty summary is that I played well and pulled in enough chips to more than cover the ticket to the show - well done!

The play was fantastic. Well directed and expertly acted. I was close enough that I felt I could reach out and touch any of the players. At well over three hours, Godot is a long and contemplative play but it never dragged and I would have been content to watch Stewart and McKellan the rest of the evening. They seemed very comfortable in their roles and worked so well with each other that it felt like they’d been performing for months rather than just a couple of weeks.

As we turned out of the playhouse, I was encouraged by the early evening sun to walk back to the train station even though it was a bit of a hike. Passing Piccadilly Circus and the retail Mecca of Regent Street along the way, I stopped in for dinner at a Yemeni/Iranian restaurant, replete with hookah smokers out in front. The food was delicious and the portions huge so half of it was boxed for take out to be enjoyed again later. Shortly thereafter, I boarded my train and returned to Reading.

Monday was a Bank Holiday, as May Day is observed on the first Monday of May rather than May 1st like most or Europe. The Reading Road Runners held the Shinfield 10K race that morning just outside of town so I made the short drive down paid my entry fee and ran with about 600 others through the English countryside and and few small townships. The weather was near perfect for running and even though the course was about 100 meters short of a 10K according to my GPS watch, I managed to set a personal record for the distance with a 7:57/mile pace.

Well, that was a long post! Guess I really packed a lot into my long weekend. Of you made it this far, thanks for hanging in there. My remaining posts for the trip probably won’t be quite as lengthy.

Cheers!

First week down, three to go

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:14:44 -0400

I’d intended to post before now but even with four hours in O’Hare, I couldn’t find a free WiFi spot.

My transatlantic flight was off to a good start before I even boarded the flight. I noticed that my original seat assignment was in the middle section of the jet and I suspected it would be a full flight so when I got to the international terminal, I asked a British Airways rep if anything better was available - specifically a window seat. He found one and in the process upgraded me to “nicer economy” in the forward cabin but basically amounted to a little more seat space and legroom.

Upon arriving at Heathrow and collecting my luggage, my first big test was to get into a right-hand drive car and drive on the left-hand side of the road to leave the airport and find my apartment. After sitting behind the steering wheel for a couple of minutes, I eased my way out of the Hertz parking lot and into traffic. Not much longer and I was zipping down the M4 on my way towards Reading. Shifting with my left hand wasn’t as troublesome as I thought it might be and over the first few days there was only thing of which I had to be constantly aware. I noticed that when I got into “auto-pilot” mode, I had the tendency to drift to the left and I realized that my brain was trying to position my body on the left-hand side of the lane, which meant I was straddling the line or potentially off the road.

Commuting to the office has been fun as it’s a bit rural and the country lanes here are just barely wider than the car so that means there isn’t much room for error. My Philip Morris connection is the Director of IT and he was in the UK this week for strategy and board meetings. The meant going into London on with co-workers two of the nights that he was here. One of those nights was a nice steak dinner in Leicester Square. The weather was great as was the people watching. Little did we know but Russell Crowe was next door at the premiere of “State of Play”. When the movie let out a huge crowd gathered and cameras were flashing but we never saw him. The next night we went out we had dinner at the top of Oxo Tower overlooking the Thames, the wine and food were well paired and it was a delicious and entertaining. Afterwards we went out on the town to a few clubs but by then I couldn’t tell where we were. I didn’t get home until the sun was coming up but still made it into the office on time!

After my first trip in March, I discovered that Stonehenge was not too far from where I’m staying so I decided that I had to go see it. This weekend was not going to be good for going into town as the London Marathon was to be run on Sunday and I figured the extra crush of tourists plus race preparations would just make for frustration. Plus I was eager to get out and drive a bit more in the countryside.

Other than the admission hut and gift shop, the site was not cluttered with tourist trappings. When I arrived, there were already several tour busses worth of people there but they must have been on a schedule as I notice a little later that there seemed to be fewer people and I saw a stream of coaches leaving the parking area. Stonehenge is impressive. I’ve seen several documentaries about it but it is amazing to see in person and contemplate how it was built and what it meant to that ancient society.

On the way back from Stonehenge, I made two great discoveries. Since arriving, I had seen several fields covered in a brilliant yellow bloom. It seemed to be a crop of some sort but I didn’t know what it was. So after fueling up the car, I noticed that a large crop of the stuff was not too far away and I decided to investigate. The aroma was a musky, a bit medicinal, and slightly familiar. When I got back to my computer later in the day, I determined that I was in a mustard field! Quite beautiful both from a distance and up close.

The next discovery was the Hawk Conservancy just outside Andover. It houses birds from the UK and around the world, many of them with injuries that prevent them from surviving in the wild. The highlight of this portion of the day was the “Birds of Prey” flight demonstration. Vultures swooped just inches over our heads, a Falcon screamed out of the sky to chase a lure controlled by the trainer, Hawks and Kites performed aerobatics while catching food that was launched into the air, and the grand finale was a Bald Eagle soaring in from a distance. That’s right, the Brits needed an American to provide the spectacular finish!

Not much to report for today (Sunday) as I was generally lazy while trying to rest and recover from the activities of the previous days.

First round of photos

More to come!

Upcoming Month Long UK Trip

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:20:42 -0400

At the end of the first trip to the UK, we determined that the next time over would likely be for around a month but we didn’t discuss the timing of the trip. Well, it came a bit sooner than I expected and I will be heading over again this coming Saturday and will return in the middle of May.

The accommodations will be a bit better this time as they will have arranged for a corporate apartment rather than an hotel room. The apartment is in Reading and will be about a 20 minute drive to the office. They are providing me with a car and I’ll be driving myself to work and anywhere else I need to go.

I should have some more interesting updates this time around since I will be housed in a better location and have some more freedom to drive virtually wherever I want in the rental car.

My flight leaves Richmond Saturday afternoon but I then have a looong layover in Chicago before the overseas flight so I will probably post again from somewhere in the terminal, probably a cocktail bar.

Jacksonville FL & Monument Ave

Wed, 1 Apr 2009 00:57:50 -0400

Early last week, I was on a conference call with my “boss” and a US colleague who is working on a project similar to what we are embarking on in Europe. In the course of discussion, we found out that the US folks had a two day work session planned to hammer out requirements for a system upgrade and it was determined that it would be good for me to sit in on the meetings.

So on Wednesday, with barely two days notice, I was off to Jacksonville to meet US IT, Marketing, and Agency people. The meeting was great, I learned a lot and got to schmooze with the US crew over delicious seafood at Mitchell’s on Thursday night.

I left the meeting a bit early on Friday to fly back to RIC and went to bed early so I’d be ready for the Monument Ave 10K the next day. Saturday morning, I ran the race and set my personal best for that distance! I went home, showered up and drove to rural south Virginia to play in the WTP Regional Championship poker tournament. At 7:30 that evening, I was knocked out in 13th place but that was good enough to qualify for the National Championship in Atlantic City.

It was a busy but successful few days and a lot of fun!