Growing up, I have always been a geek. I was even the teacher’s pet.
If you’re one of my friends, or have met me previously and know how I roll, then that’s not too difficult a concept to imagine or believe.
I am a proud geek though, Buddy Holly glasses and all.
The ever-so-cool Buddy Holly
Two Ladies of Wine...kinda like Two Fat Ladies??
My oh my there is another La Donna del Vino on the other side of the hemisphere! Check out this gorgeous Italian sommelier talking about Garganega (the white grape used to make Soave in the Veneto region).
Should I mention that it’s all in Italian??
It doesn’t matter. She sounds gorgeous, and oh happy days if you can understand her.
Not sure about the 1980’s music in the background though…
Warner Brothers Pepé le Pew aka Little Beau Pepé
IN ITALIAN with French accent! Un po’ strano (a little strange)!
Once upon a time, in a land far far away, a shiny accordion of colossal proportions lay in its heavy leather case in the living room of a grand house. The accordion was often loved and cared for by its original owner, Mr Giovanni Menegazzo (known amongst friends as Jack), who would pick up his accordion with pride and play entertaining melodies on its keys and buttons.
This was Nonno Jack. A handsome man indeed.
Nonno Jack playing an accordion
Finishing Things
I am passing this on to you because it definitely worked for me today, and we all could probably use more calm in our lives.
Some doctor on TV this morning said the way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started.
So…
Snapshot from My Fair Lady
Mostly people will complain or berate someone for enunciating a word incorrectly. Hell, I’m guilty! My mother struggles with many a word, but I suppose her most famous is referring to the Japanese number game Sudoku (pronounced like SUE-DOOR-KU) as Sodooko (yeah…SUE-DOO-KOE). Wrong. So obviously wrong.
Yet what about the others who tease someone for pronouncing things CORrectly!?! This is something that happens to me all the bloody time. Bloody bloody bloody. Watch your mouth, young lady…Ahhh shaddup you face! (see end of post)
Click through for printed version
Whoever thought u could not write ‘nipple’ in a wine review & ever be published was poorly mistaken…
P .S. Nipple refers to the review on Giaconda’s Aeolia Roussanne
“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy” – Anna Frank (1929-1945)
Photograph by Recovering Lazyholic - Erin Hanson (click photo for link)
Too feverishly gorgeous not to post.
Drink a delicious bottle of wine and have a dandy weekend!
Yep…I bet that Hamlet did ponder this question too.
Before you go getting yourself confused, here is a super-brief explanation of what ‘planking’ is.
Actually, first off, this is what it is NOT like.
Lesson A) It is NOT like doing the ol’ “Light as a feather, stiff as a board’ concept seen in witchcraft movies like The Craft:
Lesson B) It is also NOT like my family cat, Pedro, who got it wrong straight away by being on his backside. Good try Pedro.
The cat Pedro trying to plank...unsuccessfully
Created by La Donna del Vino
OK yes, I am lame. As always. I had made this a number of months ago and each time I look at it I giggle. Yep. Giggle like a four-year old. I laugh at my own jokes only because nobody else will.
So the classic film ‘The Sound of Music’ was set in Austria. Therefore it is only appropriate that I adorn the lovely non-Austrian actress Julie Andrews with wines produced from the white grape variety grown predominantly in Austria: Gruner Veltliner.
Would be a pretty tacky marketing promotion, wouldn’t it?
Yet if it induces a giggle, then my work is done.
Two months ago I made the grand voyage….y’know, moving from your parents house into the city. Mind you, I used to live only twenty-five minutes outside of the city. But trust me….it has made a big difference! The thing is, I think my upbringing has had a significant effect on how I set up my place, which I have realised does not correlate to the way the majority of city-dwellers reside! Hence, I have quietly entitled myself, ‘The Barefoot Bogan’, which is how I imagine my fellow apartment neighbours would refer to me!
The Barefoot Bogan
I grew up with my parents on a farm in the market-garden region of Werribee South.
I was surrounded by broccoli, iceberg lettuce and cauliflower.
‘Walking the dog’ meant trudging in gumboots through the sludgy red earth on the farm.
We didn’t have pools, we turned on the sprinkler.
Farm-cycles meant chicken manure smells normal to me.
I killed time sitting under the apple tree and watching clouds.
I don’t think that I am one of those people…by that I refer to those who believe in the power of the stars and planets in how they affect their everyday circumstances whilst generalising the virtues and shortcomings of a person’s character based on their date of birth. Horoscopes have depicted me to be some darn Ram-like lookin’ creature, supposedly suggesting I’m headstrong and horny (as in having horns, der). Had I been one of those people then yeah…I might have attributed the past week’s events to the stars. Alas, I do not.
The past week has been quite fortuitous and overall very positive. All this goodness (of which I will eventually reveal with time) has come down to hard work, persistence and I suppose a sprinkling of gut-feeling. The good-vibe feeling has led me to post my favourite short film; a collaborative work between Walt Disney and the enigmatic Salvador Dalí. I came across this film when his work was showcased as part of the Salvador Dalí exhibition at the National Gallery Victoria a couple of years ago. It goes for a mere six minutes. For me it was the combination of the beautiful voice and words to the song ‘Destino’ written by Mexican songwriter Armando Dominguez and performed by Dora Luz along with the fascinating artistry of Mr Dalí and the overall typically Disney thread of the film that had me enamoured.
Put simply, it makes me smile.
It is called Destino.
Please enjoy.
Sharing is caring, correct? Well how much do I care to be showing and sharing with you this delightful recipe from my Casa Moro cookbook!
It is called Besugo al Horno aka Baked Bream with Potatoes & Tomatoes
Newsflash: This recipe is SPANISH! Spreading the wings a little this week.
Apples and Wine
Photograph courtesy of Sex In The Ville
Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don’t want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they somtimes take the apples from the ground that aren’t as good, but easy. The apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they’re amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who is brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.
Now men…
I got the brilliant idea the other day to get my pack of Napoletane Italian playing cards by Modiano and explain how to play using the instruction card they give you within the pack.
I later realised the instructions are written in Italian. Yayyyyy.
Allora, I will write both the English and Italian versions down then. I doubt the Italian will be of use to anybody because I doubt you would find an Ital who doesn’t know how to play the game!
As seen in the Soup Nazi episode - courtesy of kellimarshall.net
Did you get the Seinfeld Soup Nazi reference? I hate to explain my jokes…but with me being so lame, perhaps it’s necessary :-S
So I was a wee bit disappointed after this weekend when I discovered that the chance of our inaugural Tomato Sugo*-making Wog Day would be slim. Slim as Minnie Driver, slim as Fat Boy Slim, slim as Slim Shady…bahhh…basically unfairly slim 😦
The reason for this being so is due to the excess amount of rain our fair land has seen thus far, meaning that our usual Tomato Supplier (and no, I will NOT hand out his details!) lost about two-thirds of his crop, with the rest contracted to Heinz. Damn the corporates! What about the families who get together to make’a the sauce?! You would leave them without the freshest of sugo base for a whole year?!?!
The Ladies in Sugo Factory mode
There are times in my life…or perhaps…the majority of times in my life (this is something my family could attest to)…when I think that I am hilarious in my thinking…and nobody else does. The ‘Others’, shall I call them, would rather call me daft. Well, this is another one of those moments when something interesting sprang into my mind, posing questions, inspiring the inventor within me, but who knows what anybody else will make of this. They’ll probably just think that I’m weird. So here goes, humour me.
A sports athlete or player of some sort will often treat themselves to something special after a long hard slog on the track, or in the pool, or on the court. When I say ‘treat’ themselves, I actually mean ‘pampering’ themselves in the area they’ve exerted the most effort. So a runner might go get a foot massage or body massage to loosen the muscles and ease the tension. A tennis player might do the same but go to a sauna to relax. After a day of defining their buns of steel, the AFL team might next go to the beach to take it easy. A classical pianist player would prefer to play something lighthearted as a treat to their fingers for the discipline involved in a complicated piece.
Where am I headed? I’m not a sports athlete…and I write about vino…Confused?
Oh dear, I was glancing through photos and realised I hadn’t even written up the trip to see Luke Lambert and his wines in the Yarra Valley back on November the 1st.
Oops.
My cousin Amanda is a massive cheese geek and overall foodie. We complement one another perfectly because I’m the massive wine nerd who also loves to eat food. Do you see how we mesh so well now?
After little debate, I convinced Amanda to take the day off work for health reasons and to accompany me on a visit to the Yarra Valley. First stop? Madden’s Rise Winery off the Maroondah Highway and also Luke Lambert‘s hideaway where he weaves his own magic.
After a home-brewed coffee in the lab, a tour through the vineyards to see his nebb (nebbiolo vines) and a sip through and comparison of the Heathcote and Yarra Valley Nebbiolo in barrel, we were met with this:
Forget the old, unoriginal press shots of a featured winemaker holding his glass to his own schnoz ala:
Semprevino winemaker Russel Schroder, McLaren Vale
Pfft! Yawn.
Nowadays you must compete in a much more interesting manner.
Who says it’s too early to drink wine before 9am?
Clearly if you want to be involved in this Galli Scholarship you better get your act together!
"'Just living is not enough,' said the butterfly. 'One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.'" - Hans Christian Andersen
La Donna del Vino 