Sunday
Dec192004
Wine Wasps and Escalado
Sunday, December 19, 2004 at 10:23PM
Number one daughter informed us that they were having a wine sale at one of the local shops. In a spirit of enquiry we went down there to investigate. We took the car, in case we needed something to carry our purchases back with us. As you do.
It took us a while to find the sale. In the end we just followed the sound of clinking bottles and shuffling. And got to a rack where a bunch of people were hovering, rather like wasps, around shelves covered with bottles of wine. At generous, nay ludicrous, discounts. People were taking their baskets back and fetching trolleys, whilst talking at the time on their mobile phones to their friends and urging them to come down and see for themselves.
Now I'm not much of a wine connoisseur. My habit of reading the percentage proof before any descriptions like "a light, fruity wine with a smooth finish" (whatever that means) ranks me as a bit of an amateur in this area. Cries of "Wahay, 13 percent!" do tend to reduce your credibility in this respect. But I do know what I like. And we managed to get 9 bottles and two boxes of it for around 30 quid. Which can't be bad. We don't usually drink a lot of wine. But, until now, we've never had a lot of wine to drink.......
In the afternoon we played Escalado. This is an ancient horse racing game which uses a vibrating strip of cloth to move models of horses from one end to another. Doesn't sound much like fun when put like that. But in real life it is a hoot. You see, you own one of the horses and you can bet on them. My animal, a fine black stallion with a handsome blue jockey on it was comprehensively thrashed in just about every race. Usually by the grey donkey owned by number one wife. At the end of the six races she had accumulated over 800 pounds worth of winnings. I had converted an initial purse of 200 pounds into 10. But it was fun.
It took us a while to find the sale. In the end we just followed the sound of clinking bottles and shuffling. And got to a rack where a bunch of people were hovering, rather like wasps, around shelves covered with bottles of wine. At generous, nay ludicrous, discounts. People were taking their baskets back and fetching trolleys, whilst talking at the time on their mobile phones to their friends and urging them to come down and see for themselves.
Now I'm not much of a wine connoisseur. My habit of reading the percentage proof before any descriptions like "a light, fruity wine with a smooth finish" (whatever that means) ranks me as a bit of an amateur in this area. Cries of "Wahay, 13 percent!" do tend to reduce your credibility in this respect. But I do know what I like. And we managed to get 9 bottles and two boxes of it for around 30 quid. Which can't be bad. We don't usually drink a lot of wine. But, until now, we've never had a lot of wine to drink.......
In the afternoon we played Escalado. This is an ancient horse racing game which uses a vibrating strip of cloth to move models of horses from one end to another. Doesn't sound much like fun when put like that. But in real life it is a hoot. You see, you own one of the horses and you can bet on them. My animal, a fine black stallion with a handsome blue jockey on it was comprehensively thrashed in just about every race. Usually by the grey donkey owned by number one wife. At the end of the six races she had accumulated over 800 pounds worth of winnings. I had converted an initial purse of 200 pounds into 10. But it was fun.
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