Afternoon all from a cold and dank Bandit Country - horrible day. Seems that this site continues to have technical issues, it's been up and down like a brides nightie all day!
Three men arrived this morning to fit new gutters round the house. Result = at lunchtime it started pouring down again.
I wonder if this site has been finally fixed. Every time I tried to view it it was down. Glorious sunny afternoon here, if rather cold. Managed to get at some of the brambles and fallen branches at the far end of the estate before I was asked to come home and help my next door neighbour. He needed to move some furniture upstairs, but it was too large to get up there. As it was flat pack originally it was possible to take it apart, then put it back together when moved. Good job I have a toolbox that is frequently used. He has just come back from his second home in Florida, yet wished he hadn't bothered going in November. Constant rain and 10°C below normal made it a waste of time and money, not helped by the e-mails he received from here telling him how good the weather had been. Snow forecast for here tomorrow morning.
Be honest Cologne, is this where you do most of your food shopping? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35531937
We had an English shop in town, but it closed through lack of business and high property taxes. There was also a market trader selling English cheeses. He has gone now. When will someone here try to sell English wine I wonder?
Selling cheese to the French? - it could only end in failure. I love sampling the cheese counter in a French market or supermarket, I'm like a kid in a sweetshop! But on the wine front, I saw a couple of months ago that one of the big Champagne houses (Tattinger I think) was setting up an operation in Kent to produce English "Champagne".
Yes it is them w_y and the new wine will be named Domaine Évremond, after Charles de Saint-Évremond, who is credited with helping introduce 17th-century London to the habit of quaffing champagne. It is good that there will be another £4M investment in the country, but will they bring their own work force with them?
Skilled artisans OFH. More than welcome and can share the knowledge to the less savvy locals - I would think that since most in Kent are blessed with 6 digits on each hand, they would be a dab hand on the vines!
There are many magnificent English cheeses - I hope that your erstwhile cheesemonger tried to sell these. However I'm not surprised that the French turned their noses up at them - French Supermarkets are great provided that you want to buy French food - anything slightly different and you're sunk. I tried to buy arborio rice a couple of years back and failed dismally - nobody in LeClerc's, Intermarche, Geant etc. etc. had even heard of it. The only country even more insular when it comes to food is Italy......
Agree there are some excellent English cheeses and you can buy some very good strong Cheddar in LeClerc's. Most of the trade that the market cheese seller did was with the Dutch who like harder cheese. There is a very good chain of shops now called Grand Frais who sell things from all around the world. They are a bit more expensive than some, but are building a very strong customer base.
