Yay, James cooks an amazing cassoulet for Christmas dinner. It contains, pigs feet, a whole duck, chorizo, belly pork and the usual beans and stuff. It is a cold, brisk San Francisco night but we are snug in the Fell St house.
Very Cosy
Not for the fainthearted
We eat ferociously
L’entree
Ben buys 4 bottles of red at prices ranging from $2.99 to $34.99. He covers the bottles and we have to er guess which is the most to the least expensive. We all get it totally wrong . It is humiliating and revealing. I said that the $2.99 bottle was the second best.
Wine is a mocker
Lo, he abhors not the virgin’s womb
The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond 
After a few weeks of carefree reading of your Quiet Ripple missives my iMac (though not my ipad) is again protesting by going completely bonkers when I try to read your news. Maybe it was indigestion at the sight of the cassoulet. Qui sait ?
Mike
Sent from my iPad
Hi Mike, Happy New Year.
I am very sick so it is certainly a virus.
Happy New Year from Essex. Was my 43rd wedding anniversary yesterday. Ain’t we getting old. Best wishes, David.
43 years! I can’t remember you being married at Pocklington. Anyway sincere congratulations to you and especially to you wife. Currently in San Francisco where two sons live. There is another one in Geneva.
Wonderful 2017 to you and yours Mike
Good on James for his cooking skills and to Ben for his wine-tasting game! That’s always a good one for showing up the poseurs. My friend Richard did something similar with ‘Can you tell the difference between brandy and whisky when blindfolded?’ a few years ago – turns out that most people can’t. Ditto with being able to tell the provenance of wine when the labels are hidden.
Looks like you all had a good time with that life-shortening meal but who needs all that life anyway? We did our bit here in Stony Stratford with turkey, pheasants, venison and the like as one does in Blighty and about 25 bottles of various intoxicants.
Happy New Year Alan!
Did you get a box of Japanese stuff?
I have been very sick and have not had a drink since Xmas day!
Sounds a miserable start for 2017 and no truck frolics.
Keep warm and the odd hot toddy must help a bit, no? Your reference in a later post to visiting the loo often does make me consider good old norovirus but that’s probably just my miserable soul. Kathleen and Eliane are also suffering from heavy colds and soreish throats here whilst Kathleen and I also have muscular pains in the back – stramge symptoms.
Yes, the Japanese postal system worked and the box was shared out to much hilarity at our Christmas dinner – the Goliath beetle thing was great fun up and down the table. Many thanks from all.
Get better.