Whining about wine!

So I've lived here in the US for about 8 years now. I just visited our local Food Lion. They have a wide selection of wines, but here comes my rant. Why do we need 400 different Chardonnays? Ok I'm cool with a few from each state, some French, Australian etc. In contrast I found about 5 Chiantis and only a couple of other Italian wines, even fewer German ones.

Being from Britain I was bewildered by the choice at US supermarkets when I moved here. Millions of choices of milk and orange juice. Just seems wierd that there would be so many Chardonnays. Maybe it's a subtle way of putting France out of business? Who can tell.

I guess if I want a good selection of wine I need a wine retailer rather than a supermarket. And don't get me started on not being able to buy Chimay in North Carolina :-)

Rant ends.......

Great pubs/bars of the US

Seal Beach CA

I lived in Seal Beach for about four years and had a great time out there. I loved the "old" Henneseys (they served Boddingtons - was I in heaven?) and also enjoyed the Abbey (the year Mark McGuire did his home run thing - the place was crazy every night). Then things began to change (as they always do). Henneseys closed (what a wild night that was) and re-opened as O'Malleys - different atmosphere, but still pretty good. A new Henneseys opened across - but it wasn't the same. And finally I moved to Charlotte...

Charlotte NC

Didn't find many places in Charlotte to hang out on account of the fact that you really have to drive EVERYWHERE, one exception was Hops! Great beer brewed on site!

Carmel Valley/Del Mar CA

The great thig of round here was without a doubt Oggis (pronounced OhGeez)! Shame when they stopped brewing on the premises, but oh those cheesesticks were to die for :-)

Cary NC

So we come to Cary, not really been too many places but have found a great place. The Hibernian is awesome - Boddies on draught and also the best (mild) curries I've tasted in the US. God bless ya.

If ya need addresses just email me :-)

Agonising over 40?

So I'm trying to figure out what I'd like to do for my big 4 oh. We were thinking of going back to the "old country" but some things are happening to friends and they would not be around. Would have been good to see Woolmer Green, but it'll have to wait.

Next thought was let's do something cool like a cruise. We went on one last year and it was awesome, free food and got to see lots of Mexico. Thing is that my birthday (and Dana's too) are in mid Sept and the most promising place to Cruise from where we now live is the Carribean. Not a good idea in Sept - see hurricanes :-)

Then I looked at Expedia.com and found tons of cool package deals, some of which made me think of going to Britain AGAIN. Funny thing was that the most expensive hotel/flight combination was to my home town in the North West, which amused me since Oldham is not exactly Florence or teh South of France.

Finally we've settled on Myrtle Beach South Carolina. Not exactly exciting; unlike my 30th birthday when I cycled round Tuscany in Italy. Myrtle Beach will be relaxing and I think that with my hectic travelling that would be a great way to spend a week, also how better to spend it that with your wifey...

With all the pain of thinking about holidays maybe I should start planning for my 50th now :-) ARGGGGGGGGGHHHHH

A bit of a Bush rant

So coming up to the election I suppose I should get this stuff off my chest.

WHY IS BUSH EVEN IN WITH A CHANCE OF WINNING?

Seems like everyone has missed the lessons on resposibility who serve in the administration. I know it's difficult to admit mistakes but when you are responsible for something and there is a problem YOU should admit it's your problem.

Example 1 - Who was in charge of the security for the US on Sept 11th? Hmm let me see? Seems like it was that other guy's fault. No one in the administration wants to admit it was their fault. Rice is in charge of security? Wasn't it her fault? Isn't Bush the commander-in-chief? Doesn't the buck stop with him? He was very happy to land in a big bravado in San Diego when "mission accomplished" in Iraq. So why not admit that he was sorry about the Sept 11th attacks. I'm not asking for him to resign; just admit he was in charge on that day (?????) and that since he's in charge it's basically up to him....

Example 2 - So if the US is at war with terrorists (which I think is a HUGE smoke screen), why are we giving tax cuts and spending huge amounts of money on defence?The debt is ballooning out of control and yet we are still being offered more tax cuts. Shouldn't Bush be more fiscally responsible. In World War 2 people tightened thier belts during the war - not get needless tax cuts!

Example 3 - Who was in charge when the US declared war on Iraq? OK so I'm not on Saddam Hussain's Christmas Card list, but you can't go round making mistakes like "There is an imminent danger from weapons of mass destruction - Oh sorry there don't seem to be any".

I was drawn back to some comments Clinton made a while back on 60 Minutes over here in the US. He said he wanted to take out Ossam Bin Laden, but the intelligence was not certain. Seems to me like Clinton used his head a little, rather than Bush and his determination to bolster his position in the US and created a fake war.

OK Political rant over....

Thanks for your time :-)

GPS

Just got a PDA (a Dell one) and a Pharos GPS. It's great! I travel a lot and it helps me find places lots and lots. Also when you get lost - it re-calculates the route for you - KEWL

What is the deal with the Kerry/Edwards Train Missing a stop?

So why are people making a bid deal out of this. Seems like a simple apology would have sufficed rather than 5 mins on all news stations and John Edwards having to go back there. He wasn't driving the train!

Looking on the bright side... I didn't get bitten by any of my little friends in the South today. This will be an ongoing theme since the little buggers seem to like eating foreign food (i.e. British).