It's 4.06 am on Monday morning and I can't sleep. I'm nowhere near a computer and so I'm handwriting this. On top of that, I have a huge thirst and have resorted to drinking chlorinated tap water. I once read that London tap water has previously been through several people, so the drinks only partially quenched my thirst and the thought made me feel sick.
Anyway, yesterday's journey went well. That is until Vincent realised that that the cost of the return rail journey from Luton to London was costing more than the journey from Nimes to Luton, and for the rest of the stay he was noticing the cost of different airport/London transfers. We finished the day with a very nice meal at PJ's, 52 Fulham Road, 020 7581 0025. I had a delicious rib eye steak and we shared a bottle of Argentinian Malbec. Good gear, and as long as you have deepish pockets, recommended.
We chatted long and hard on the flight and over dinner, as I tried to cram a tiny fraction of his 20+ years of wine knowledge into an even tinier brain. Bear in mind that he is speaking French and the strain of keeping up makes it very tiring. In order to get a better handle on how I could be of practical assistance, I asked him what would make him happy as a result of this little trip. He told me how many bottles he would like to sell, so now he's talking my language and gives me a clear objective.
I've no idea how we got onto the subject, but at one point over dinner I mentioned old farmhouses and windows and that older properties could be quite dark and gloomy inside. He said that in ancient France there used to be a window tax so if you had 10 windows you paid ten times the tax. In one fell swoop we covered building construction, its place in the economy and tax matters. It was no wonder I had a headache when I got to bed and why I'm pissed off sitting here wide awake.
Anyway, yesterday's journey went well. That is until Vincent realised that that the cost of the return rail journey from Luton to London was costing more than the journey from Nimes to Luton, and for the rest of the stay he was noticing the cost of different airport/London transfers. We finished the day with a very nice meal at PJ's, 52 Fulham Road, 020 7581 0025. I had a delicious rib eye steak and we shared a bottle of Argentinian Malbec. Good gear, and as long as you have deepish pockets, recommended.
We chatted long and hard on the flight and over dinner, as I tried to cram a tiny fraction of his 20+ years of wine knowledge into an even tinier brain. Bear in mind that he is speaking French and the strain of keeping up makes it very tiring. In order to get a better handle on how I could be of practical assistance, I asked him what would make him happy as a result of this little trip. He told me how many bottles he would like to sell, so now he's talking my language and gives me a clear objective.
I've no idea how we got onto the subject, but at one point over dinner I mentioned old farmhouses and windows and that older properties could be quite dark and gloomy inside. He said that in ancient France there used to be a window tax so if you had 10 windows you paid ten times the tax. In one fell swoop we covered building construction, its place in the economy and tax matters. It was no wonder I had a headache when I got to bed and why I'm pissed off sitting here wide awake.
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