It had been a tough start to the week in the vineyard of truth. I was having technology problems, clients were being demanding and well, it was Tuesday. And it was March. When I heard about the new Grapes and Cheese night at Gordon Ramsay’s Opal at St Regis Doha, I am not one to pass up the opportunity to sample up to different types of wine and matching cheeses. After all, it was Tuesday. And it was March. The wines took center stage with a selection prepared by Sommelier Ashwin Tillousing who took us through wines from France, South Africa, Spain, Chile and New Zealand. Bearing in mind it…
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Comte As You Are
As I type this, I am watching a “One Night Only” Duran Duran special on TV. Amazingly, they have aged quite well, Simon, admittedly wearing a rather flattering leather jacket, seems to move as well as he did in the 1980s and is still endearingly out of tune. The other members still look a bit of all right too, I’m unsure of how much of their performance and current looks are wind assisted, but this didn’t affect my nostalgic moment. I knew all the words to the songs, except that weird later period around A View to a Kill, when they got all artsy and their all did “side projects”…
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If You Leave Brie, Can I Come Too?
I’m an expat and have been for some time now. It doesn’t define me as such, but it’s an important part of my life and will be for a long time. There are some great things about being an expat – no tax, travel, decent wages. But the downsides are homesickness, frustration with bureaucracy….and seeing important people in your life leave. It happens, in expat land, nothing is forever. We are all guests in our country and as always, there will be another opportunity in another country. The thing about expat friendships and relationships is that they develop fast and strong, kind of like the uncertainty of our lives fuels…
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Who moved my cheese?
My grand plan to launch the blog with the much discussed truffle brie melted faster than a Kraft Single on white bread under the griller. I forked out close to $15 for a hunk of the prized cheese but somehow managed to lose it between the store and my house – it’s somewhere in Doha, stinking up a storm. I would like to hope it went to a good home. Sadly I think it was just thrown away. I had intended to share the brie with a French friend, a triumphant start to the blog. But instead had to confess my crime. And to a French person, losing any brie,…