>What part of NO don’t you understand?

>

Seth Godin would have a field day with this.

Thomas Heinicke probably less so.

Thomas runs the ever excellent Schloss Sörgenloch – a restaurant and hotel in what used to be the manor house in a village fairly close to here – together with his partner Nicole.

Nicest people, excellent cuisine, stylish (but familiar) service, great wines from our young friend Jürgen Hofmann, views to kill for.

Saw an advert for an open weekend at local winery that didn’t ring a bell, but figured that if Thomas is doing the catering, it must be pretty good.

Obviously didn’t read the ad properly, otherwise we wouldn’t have fronted up at 5pm on the dot, just wanting a glass of wine and a snack.

Got the glass of wine, asked the front of house at the catering bit (Thomas and Nicole obviously weren’t there) if they had any food ready.

“No”

That was it.

Not “What would you like?” or “We’ll be ready to serve in 10 minutes”.

Just “No”

It’s just too silly to get mad about (and I was too gob-smacked to ask “When?” ), so we finished our glasses of wine and when we left – half an hour later – there was still no indication of food being served.

It’s not as if we were starving.

It’s not as if we had no options – dinner was always going to be a broad bean, new potato, leek and pancetta frittata with a salad bouquet from the garden – but this was just so silly.

If we didn’t know (and like ) Thomas and Nicole, we’d perhaps have associated Schloss Sörgenloch with sloppy service and an absolute lack of customer orientation, never gone there and told our friends about the experience.

As it is, they only lost out on maybe €10.

But I did learn a lesson.

Don’t ask a question that can answered with “No”….

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>Piracy is alive and well…

>

.. on dry land.

My Mate Houghton appears set on weighing his delightful boat Raindance down with so much useless crap essential nautical tackle that I’m sure it’ll founder and sink if he does much more.

He’s asked me to arrange to buy some essential high tech stuff from an outfit in Hamburg (now, if THAT’S not authenticity for you…), and – given that neither he nor they speak a shared language and I do – I’ve been talking to Toplicht, a ships’ chandler for wooden boats.

Being a bit of a dope, I neglected to inform them that we only wanted one piece of essential high tech stuff, so they wrote back, quoting €65 for 1.5kg for 3.

Now, DHL charges under €15 for that weight, so I called them up, apologised for my error and asked what the shipping charge would be for a single item.

€65.

I ventured politely (honest..) that I couldn’t quite understand that and it’d actually be cheaper for them to send in to me (€6) and for me to forward it.

“Well, why don’t you just DO that” says this snotty Hanseatic person.

Which is what I did.

Talking about winning hearts and minds…..

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>Truth in advertising

>

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>Don’t ask me about…..

>

 
Been there – done that
(As in – what’s good for the gosling is good for the gander old fart)
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>Rick Danko and Levon Helm reloaded

>
Google Analytics tells me that this post from way back in 2007 is consistently my most-viewed.

Also tops a Google search for Levon Helm and Rick Danko.

Which might explain that….

Here’s the music again, then

Java Blues

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>Why I left the Dark Side

>

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

>I bought a fire basket

>

I do like a fire.

I’m not as bad as My Mate Houghton, though.
He’ll start scavenging for firewood in mid-summer the minute he arrives at any place with a fireplace.
It wouldn’t even surprise me if his will specifies a Viking Funeral. Shame about Raindance, but there you just do go…

I’ll give him this, though: he’s by far the most proficient chef de barbecue I’ve encountered.

So – not having a fireplace – I bought a firebasket.

I’m convinced that it wasn’t MY idea. I STILL think that Ms jb reckoned that it would be a Good Idea and when I hear stuff like “Good Idea”, I get my skates on and carry out instructions.

Not sooner said than done.

Tried it out the other night with a fair degree of success.
Tell you what, though – it certainly rips through the firewood and I worked out that the local DIY superstore charges the equivalent of around €2,000,000 per pine tree if you buy your firewood in bags that you can carry.

Only minor singeing damage to the lawn, despite the terracotta tiles that were supposed to protect everything, so it was decided that Something Professional should be bought.

Said. Done.

Whacking great metal disc on legs on which one perches the basket.

Still rips through the firewood at a fearsome rate, but I slung on some bangkirai offcuts from the new deck to keep the costs down.

Things I have learnt:

  • Bangkirai appears to have similar thermal properties to enriched uranium.
  • Sitting within 5 metres of a bangkirai-powered fire basket will result in 3rd degree burns
  • A bangkirai-powered fire threatens to melt steel
  • A bangkirai-powered fire makes your lawn look as if a flying saucer made a recent landing.
  • It will sterilise your lawn to a depth of 10cm.

Even through a a whacking great metal disc on legs.
Back to the drawing board……
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>Watch this space….

>

So what it’s to be in the future?

Playing pocket planets…?

For a mere $450

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>The Trace of Time clock

>

Engadget has a shout-out about the ideal clock (wipes itself clean…YES!!) to get rid of those bloody “To Do” lists that spouses so enjoy.

“Haven’t you cleaned out the roof guttering yet? It’s on your To-Do list you know”

Now all you have to do is to get her to write in on the clock and say “Well, I CERTAINLY can’t see on the list, so I’ve either done it or you didn’t tell me about it in the first place”

Unless she uses an indelible marker, of course.

Didn’t think about that….

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>I am fuel. You are friends.

>

“I’ve just walked in from stretching out on the lawn alongside my house, where I finished rapidly devouring of all 400 pages of Nick Hornby’s massively enjoyable new book Juliet, Naked. My skin is warm from the beginnings of a sunburn, and my insides are glowing from the focused joy I understood in these pages.”
Not my words..
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