The grit in my oyster
Jun. 21st, 2025 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustA couple of small irritations, which need to be written about, apparently, just to get them out of my system:
Leaving Berwick on Thursday, wanting to buy bread and wine, our initial plan had been to buy both of these things at Morrison's. But on the way there we passed a Majestic, so we bought our wine there instead. This should have been a bonus pleasure, since I used to enjoy buying wine from Majestic's Durham branch, before it closed down. It was disappointing, because althogh the staff greeted us as we came in, they were too busy to follow through: we steered our trolley between the unloading-in-process obstacles, and we drained the last of the tepid rosé at the tasting counter, but no-one offered further tastings (there was a red that looked interesting, but I wasn't buying at that price without tasting it first). We found price labels but no sign of the bottles they referred to, and bottles with no price information. Eventually we collared an assistant and complained of this, and he asked for an example, so I handed him the rosé I actually had in my hand. "Oh, that'll be £7 or £8," he said confidently, vanishing behind the till to check. (Really? I didn't think so.) It was £11 and I bought it anyway, but we selected the rest of our half-dozen without his help. Fortunately they included a reisling we had previously purchased from Germany's oldest winecellar (allegedly), and which I was very happy to see again. I was disappointed not to find my favourite Majestic wine, the Portuguese red with the wading bird on the label; I wasn't entirely surprised that it no longer existed in that form, but would have liked to ask whether any of their current Portuguese reds are similar...
Oh, well, as I said, disappointing but not disastrous...
Yesterdaydurham_rambler and I did not leave the island, but went our separate ways, wandering about each at our preferred speed and distance. I went down to St Cuthbert's island:
and spent a peaceful while sitting on a bench listening to the seals mooing to each other on the far shore - and trying and failing to spot the oystercatcher(s) I could also hear.
The Crown & Anchor has become the best-regarded pub on the island, as far as food is concerned, and we were a party of eight, so we had not been at all confident of getting a booking for Friday night, and were philosophical that it was for 5.30, and that we would have to vacate the table at 7.00 for another sitting. So I should have been pleased to be greeted with "Actually, we don't have a seven o'clock booking, so you won't have to rush..." And I was pleased, but also felt that I had been judged less worthy of the later slot than some (as it turned out) non-existent other party... A certain disgruntlement was also the fault of my own bad menu choices. Memo to self: when you find yourself thinking that the starters look like the most interesting part of the memo, go for it. Certainly I enjoyed my asparagus starter more than the smoked fish main course. Most of all, though, I enjoyed conversing with people we have now known for a surprisingly long time...
I did not get up at 4.00 am to watch the sun rising: but D. assures me that it did so, before the mist closed in. Another solstice past, and the nights begin to grow longer.
Leaving Berwick on Thursday, wanting to buy bread and wine, our initial plan had been to buy both of these things at Morrison's. But on the way there we passed a Majestic, so we bought our wine there instead. This should have been a bonus pleasure, since I used to enjoy buying wine from Majestic's Durham branch, before it closed down. It was disappointing, because althogh the staff greeted us as we came in, they were too busy to follow through: we steered our trolley between the unloading-in-process obstacles, and we drained the last of the tepid rosé at the tasting counter, but no-one offered further tastings (there was a red that looked interesting, but I wasn't buying at that price without tasting it first). We found price labels but no sign of the bottles they referred to, and bottles with no price information. Eventually we collared an assistant and complained of this, and he asked for an example, so I handed him the rosé I actually had in my hand. "Oh, that'll be £7 or £8," he said confidently, vanishing behind the till to check. (Really? I didn't think so.) It was £11 and I bought it anyway, but we selected the rest of our half-dozen without his help. Fortunately they included a reisling we had previously purchased from Germany's oldest winecellar (allegedly), and which I was very happy to see again. I was disappointed not to find my favourite Majestic wine, the Portuguese red with the wading bird on the label; I wasn't entirely surprised that it no longer existed in that form, but would have liked to ask whether any of their current Portuguese reds are similar...
Oh, well, as I said, disappointing but not disastrous...
Yesterday
durham_rambler and I did not leave the island, but went our separate ways, wandering about each at our preferred speed and distance. I went down to St Cuthbert's island:and spent a peaceful while sitting on a bench listening to the seals mooing to each other on the far shore - and trying and failing to spot the oystercatcher(s) I could also hear.
The Crown & Anchor has become the best-regarded pub on the island, as far as food is concerned, and we were a party of eight, so we had not been at all confident of getting a booking for Friday night, and were philosophical that it was for 5.30, and that we would have to vacate the table at 7.00 for another sitting. So I should have been pleased to be greeted with "Actually, we don't have a seven o'clock booking, so you won't have to rush..." And I was pleased, but also felt that I had been judged less worthy of the later slot than some (as it turned out) non-existent other party... A certain disgruntlement was also the fault of my own bad menu choices. Memo to self: when you find yourself thinking that the starters look like the most interesting part of the memo, go for it. Certainly I enjoyed my asparagus starter more than the smoked fish main course. Most of all, though, I enjoyed conversing with people we have now known for a surprisingly long time...
I did not get up at 4.00 am to watch the sun rising: but D. assures me that it did so, before the mist closed in. Another solstice past, and the nights begin to grow longer.
