Sun in Zürich

We have fantastic weather for the season here in Zürich and today I took a stroll up the mountain.

Was sitting on a bench enjoying the sun and the view, sipping on a glass of wine. An approx. 3-year-old came up to me demanding to know what was in my glass, and I responded ice tea. Ha, he said, “that is wine, yikes”. I so wonder how he would know!

Banana flies live forever?

I keep my kitchen clean at all times, but nevertheless, it's always one of two banana flies, these little irritating insects, that keep on surviving. The other day one landed in my wine glass, and even though it would be extra protein for me, I decided to fish it out of the glass and put it on a napkin.

A nice death I thought, but to my surprise some fifteen minutes later it was flying away. Wobbly, mind you, but still. Maybe they are like cockroaches, cannot be killed?

Sweet wine

Last week Denner again had a sale on my house wine, so I placed an order. And as usual the delivery was quick and efficient. However, when I opened the first bottle, I felt something was wrong. It was sweet. Not dry as it usually is. But I persevered. To be honest I wasn't sure whether it was a bottle from the new delivery, or something I had from before.

Anyway, after checking it out, I realized it was true. It was sweet, and sugar collected in the bottom of the glass.

So I wrote an email to Denner, and it only took them a couple of days to investigate. The answer: "Sie haben recht, der Monte Castello Pinot Grigio hat beim 2014er Jahrgang neben den typischen Pinot Grigio Aromen auch etwas Muskat. Das ist scheinbar wetterbedingt im 2014er weit verbreitet und macht sich bei längerer Lagerung bemerkbar. Wenn Ihnen der Pinot Grigio 2014 nicht schmeckt, können Sie Ihn in jeder Filiale zurückbringen."

Meaning I was right, having to do with the weather in 2014 (previous bottles from 2013) and that it now contains also 'Muscat' grapes. And that I can bring all the bottles back to my nearest Denner.

Haha, they will be surprised if I do, considering the quantity. So now I wrote back asking if I can change the 2014 bottles to 2013, awaiting an answer.

10 wine bottles lost :)

When walking today to see my friend I was bringing two bottles in a rucksack. One bottle with lemon water and one bottle of wine. And I was thinking it was a bit heavy, but looking at it from the bright side, I was thinking it was good sportingwise.

Seeing all these episodes of Biggest loser, you know the one where they get to take all the weights on again that they lost, all sighing and saying "I cannot believe I had this on my body before", then having to a a walk or a run and take the weights off along the way. I was thinking the same today, when carrying only two bottles with me.

Since I started to live more healthy I have actually lost approx 10 wine bottles! Imagine that!

Another useless gadget

I was cleaning one of my kitchen drawers today, the one that gets used the most and may I add, when guests cook here, always open and don't close when they fry, so all the fat and grease gets into there. Anyway, now it's clean and I found a gadget that I didn't know I had. A wine thermometer.

One would think that it was something I could use a lot, but since I am a person with common sense I can feel and smell when a wine is cold and not. I have no idea how I got this, I think it may be decades ago somebody gave it to me, and I can assure you, it's never been used.

Perhaps I can sell it as an antique?

Picture memory

Some weeks ago I placed an order for wine to be delivered. I do that a couple of times a year, and then I'm stocked up and have enough both for my own consumption and for friends. Easy and convenient.

Today I got a letter from the supplier, giving me a voucher for 15 francs. Great I thought, and put it in the pile for future use.

But something stuck in my mind, when I see something in writing it tends to stay with me. And a few hours later I realized what it was. There was an end date to the voucher. Picked up the letter again and got it confirmed. Only valid for two weeks.

So now I placed an order again, no way I was gonna let 15 francs pass me by, good thing I cleaned out my basement so there is space enough!

Mystery III

So finally the mystery is solved. Turned out to be somebody who lives at the same street, but had placed the order under the wrong street number.

The supplier called me, they had located the guy who happened to be on holiday, so said they would pick up the boxes on Friday. Fine with me.

But today they called again, this time on my landline and it took me a while to understand how they got my home number, until, me being a bit of an idiot early in the morning, I realized that I'm in the phone book on my address (slapping myself once again!). Anyway, this time they once again excused themselves, and told me that they didn't have any delivery to Zürich on Friday, so would it be ok to come on Wednesday in a week?

Compliant as I am (!) I agreed, and when she told me there should be a bottle of wine for me as a thank you, I gracefully accepted.

Who said that age doesn't make you a better person?

Mystery II

So the mystery with the boxes delivered to our house is not yet solved. I sent an email to the website I found with the names, and got an answer back saying they had no outstanding deliveries, signed by a person with another name. When I answered stating the names, asking if I had the right email address, I got a really rude reply, so gave up trying that road.

Today I emailed the supplier, who answered that they were very grateful (finally a nice person!) and would come back to me when they had located the person who placed the order.

Mind you, I could've just kept the 48 kg (!) delivery for myself, but I'm just not that kind of person.

Mystery I

A few days ago there was a delivery to our house. I saw the boxes at the entrance coming back home, and didn't think twice about it. All of us order stuff from the internet now and then.

But when it was there a day later I looked at the labels, and didn't recognize the names. But just at the same time we had new tenants moving in, and even though their first names didn't match, I thought maybe it belonged to them anyway. And when asking the owner of the flat, he thought so too.

Now the boxes have been there for like three days, and so I googled and found a couple with those names, living in Zürich but in a completely other area.

Discussed it with my neighbour today, and we are lost. We cannot understand why somebody would place an order to our address.

Anyway, I first rang the possible owners of the boxes and didn't get an answer. Now an email is out there, but I didn't reveal what the contents were, I want them to identify it first, before giving it to them.

But how weird is that? I mean, it's a computerized name tag, the supplier name is on the boxes, why order it to an address where you don't live?

I can reveal as much, that if we don't find the owners of these boxes, there shall be a party in this house :).

Drunken friends

Last week I realized I was almost running out of my house wine, so to my delight I saw that there was "Aktion" on Pinot Gri this week. Placed an order yesterday, and this morning got delivery. Excellent service.

While the delivery guy and I stacked the wine boxes in my new cleaned quarter of the basement, he asked me if I intended to re-sell it. Haha. I'm probably a bit unique in ordering so many boxes of the same wine as a private person.

So I did what every sane person would do. I blamed my friends. "Oh no, I have a lot of dinners for friends and they all drink like fishes".

I drink too little wine

Some years ago I hooked up with a wine deliverer, which was great. The sales guy used to stop by my place on Friday evenings after a weeks work, bringing all the leftovers to whatever party I had that day. And he used to stay and join the crowd.

Over the years I on and off bought some wine from them, but then I realized that I rather stick to white wine (which is much, much, MUCH cheaper in Denner) and that I have enough red wine to last me the next few years.

Since these first few years they have changed sales people many times, and every time they call me I have said no, thinking they would give up. They haven't. Until today. One guy called asking if I wanted to stay a customer or if I wanted to be removed from their list. Excellent!

We had a little chat, and he wanted to know if I had a bad experience from their company, but I kept a calm face and told him "sorry, I don't drink too much wine and still have some left".

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

PS. Actually have some of their red wine bottles still in the basement!

Absolut delicious

Last week it was time for the mixer to get to work again. Spring time. Strawberries. Drinks! Just fresh strawberries, crushed ice and Absolut vodka.

The barbar

I was reading something on the net referring to Santa Barbar. Obviously a typo but it made me remember when I was working in Holland, and there was a bar in office building, open Thursdays and Fridays afternoon (what a great idea!). It was referred to as the barbar, like in barbarian.

I believe it came from the telephone system, where your first and last name were programmed into, so that you always could see who called you, and that the person who programmed the number for the bar, chose to call it "bar bar".

It didn't happen very often that I was called from the "bar bar" since I was usually there when it opened, but once in a while, if an evil boss made me work late on something, without a doubt, they called me. "Where are you?, the barbar is open!".

Oh the memories.

Fast delivery

When I'm running out of my house wine I keep an eye on the Denner website, and as luck would have it, this week there was a sale on my wine. So placed an order.

It is very convenient. Normally I place the order, and a couple of days later I get a phone call telling me about the delivery time. Yes I agree, "between 8-12" or "between 12-17" is not satisfactory, but at least I'd know.

So yesterday morning (ok morning or noon-ish) I placed an order, and early today I got rudely awakened by the door bell. Wine delivery.

A grumpy guy coming to deliver, and me equally grumpy since he woke me up. No phone call to warn me, and the "2-3 days delivery time" announced on the website has obviously changed.

But ok, I shouldn't complain. Now my basement is full of nectar :).

Food and wine

It's amazing, am watching this American show, featuring junior masterchefs, all being between 8 and 13 years old, and I tell you honestly, if I could cook as good as they, I'd be lucky. Wow!

And very funny when a 9-year-old is saying "not a problem, I may be only 9, but I have cooked for 6 years". A 9-year-old? What is the world coming to when children have to grow up so quickly?

Anyway, was invited to go on the wine boats today at lunchtime, the ones that are parked in the middle of Zürich, and offering wine-tasting for a couple of weeks. And guess what? I said no.

Partly because I have a cold, but mostly because I don't enjoy wine so early in the day. Strange, ain't it?

Opening times

While walking to the park today I also discovered a bar not too far from my place, open from 6am to 4.30am every day, except for Fridays and Saturdays, when it's open from 6am to 5am. This is indeed useful information.

Spring feelings

Spring is in the air!

Expovina.ch

Except for it being extremely crowded in 7-8 ships at every wine counter, it was a nice evening. First grounding with some raclette (I only had one portion, some other had two!), and then onto the wine tasting.

The German saying "Gratis ist gut" applies here. It's just too bad they serve just a few drops in each glass, so you really have to work on it. Nevertheless, we managed to get a few drops.

And the trick is, if you have several tastings at the same counter, to play interested and ask for the wine list. That way you don't have to feel bad for drinking their wine for free without ordering boxes of it.

Pinot Grigio 3.90

My house wine cost 4.25 full price, but clever as I am, I usually buy when it's on sale for 3.25. Now the other day I found a Pinot Grigio in tetrapack for 3.90. And I think it's worth testing. Guineapigs, anyone?

New drink

Sometimes I stray from the Pinot Grigio-path, and try something new. Today it was special price on lime, so tonights drink is Bacardi razz, crushed ice and squeezed lime. Yum! And please note the matching straw.