My friend had invited me to guest author a post on her travel blog, about why I travel and my favorite places. After a few days of consideration I decided on a few pretty places in Ireland, and realized that my visit there was almost exactly a decade ago.
Perhaps it was the ambiance of St Patrick's Day here in Vancouver. Although a watered-down imitation of the traditional honest craic in the small-town pubs that speaks of toil and tears and hope, it was still nice to hear the familiar tunes on exotic instruments - the Uillean pipes. Most of the repertoire performed by several bands that weekend I've had on CDs at home for a decade, so my mind knows the melody as deeply ingrained as if I could pipe it myself.
Perhaps it was my imminent birthday at the end of the month, reminding me that another year has passed, and I should take stock of what I have done and what is still left to do, both as milestone accomplishments and whimsical wishes. Not that I have aging anxiety or envy of my peers, but I feel recognition and annual reassessment is important. You reap what you sow.
Perhaps it's something in the stars, that the sun enters my zodiac sign Aries. A tarot reading suggests that change is lurking in the periphery, and that _thinking_ about it will only get me so far, change will manifest only with my actions. A few other cards highlighted inspiration, creativity and light renewing amidst darkness and dormancy.
So in the past week I've tried to touch base with as many of my seldom-visited friends as I can, I've started reading a new book and enjoying it so far, I've helped friends with their garden and preparing for work to do in the strata-bound property I live. Small actions - or are they simply distracting activities?
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Monday, March 3, 2014
Vancouver International Wine Festival 2014
An event I look forward to every year, for more details check out the post last year at this time.
This year was a little more tricky than previous years, as our organizer/sommelier eagerly pushes the envelope for us to be a 'world-class wine event'; the focus was France, and some of the winemakers were especially particular about the presentation of their wines in lectures, and often disagreeing with the sommeliers who we take our orders from. When they say pour, we pour. One princess even made an offhand remark over the mic to a full audience that the wine should have been served cooler if we were more organized... I missed this as I was focused on the task at hand, but it bothered my superiors and that bothers me, since they take especially good care of us without fail. I'll withhold naming and shaming here as he doesn't deserve promotion on my blog, and if he wasn't such a famous and sought-after winemaker I'd say just not to invite him back! No one needs a prima donna to rock the boat.
On one event we had all hands on deck for pouring 12 sparkling wines while the audience was seated - not only can we not call to our teammates while the speaker was speaking, but we were stepping in narrow aisles around people and coats and bags and everyone would notice if we spilled! Of course that sets a precedent that we can pour wines well-chilled, and we did that for at least one on every event I poured. Our team is awesome and rose to the challenge shining. Hopefully next year's host country can be a little more gracious of the little people that go into executing a festival.
My personal focus this year in the tasting room was on the Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume from the Loire valley, some exploration of Alsace, and some west coast American wines from Oregon and Washington state, which for me are as a far-off country as any other.
This year was a little more tricky than previous years, as our organizer/sommelier eagerly pushes the envelope for us to be a 'world-class wine event'; the focus was France, and some of the winemakers were especially particular about the presentation of their wines in lectures, and often disagreeing with the sommeliers who we take our orders from. When they say pour, we pour. One princess even made an offhand remark over the mic to a full audience that the wine should have been served cooler if we were more organized... I missed this as I was focused on the task at hand, but it bothered my superiors and that bothers me, since they take especially good care of us without fail. I'll withhold naming and shaming here as he doesn't deserve promotion on my blog, and if he wasn't such a famous and sought-after winemaker I'd say just not to invite him back! No one needs a prima donna to rock the boat.
On one event we had all hands on deck for pouring 12 sparkling wines while the audience was seated - not only can we not call to our teammates while the speaker was speaking, but we were stepping in narrow aisles around people and coats and bags and everyone would notice if we spilled! Of course that sets a precedent that we can pour wines well-chilled, and we did that for at least one on every event I poured. Our team is awesome and rose to the challenge shining. Hopefully next year's host country can be a little more gracious of the little people that go into executing a festival.
My personal focus this year in the tasting room was on the Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume from the Loire valley, some exploration of Alsace, and some west coast American wines from Oregon and Washington state, which for me are as a far-off country as any other.
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