OMG!! It’s been a big month! Three big things to tell you about and they’re not all about wine (it’ll be a one off I promise)

The first must be obvious as you’ve made it here, welcome to my new website!!

The second is that I have just had my first wine column published, I’m now available in print and online which is très exciting, non! Pick up a copy of The Notebook in Kensington & Chelsea (London), it’s the December issue which came out just this week and I’ll be uploading it to my site soon. ………

We’re still a couple of weeks away from Halloween but as I’ll be at a wedding (surprise surprise) on the ghostly night of the 31st Clarky kindly extended her invite to The London Dungeon’s Scare Witch Trials last night to me and Mrs H so I didn’t miss out. The promise of wine and canapes had me intrigued from the start; what spooky wine would the organisers choose to serve to their guests?

I dutifully arrived on time with my thirst at the ready and we were bustled into the ‘Horrifying Halloween Forest’ and subsequently the pitch black – I hadn’t prepared myself for a blind tasting! ………

I’m on my way to the penultimate wedding of 2009. It’s been a mammoth year for weddings, so much so that Clarky asked me the other day if I had become a professional wedding guest! If only! Imagine that, you get to do all the fun stuff without being involved in the intricacies of the organisation and planning. And you’d be paid to go instead of having to take out a loan to travel the country, buy new outfits, stay in hotels and buy gifts you never get to see. And don’t get me started on the bar tab at the reception, whatever happened to the concept of a free bar?! It seems it’s a perk reserved for the rich and famous. Which is ironic really. ………

Sawadee kaa from tropical Thailand!

It’s been nearly eight years since I was last here and I’m delighted to see that few things have changed, it’s just as beautiful as I remember. The food, the weather, the spas… yep I’ve been able to completely relax, even the excessive sweating that comes with the heat has replaced the need for regular exercise!

Unfortunately there isn’t much to report on the quality of Thai wine, it hasn’t really improved since 2002 and I imagine the wide availability of dubiously expensive plonk from four of the big guys (Oz, South Africa, Chile & California) leaves little incentive for Thai wineries to bother trying. As you can imagine though it’s been tough not to give in to my natural born thirst, luckily however Thailand offers enough wonderful distractions to starve off even them most desperate cravings… So, may I introduce you to the Caipirinha:

* take a glass of ice
* a healthy glug of dark rum
* freshly squeezed chunks of lime (minimum one whole lime)
* and a shake or two of brown sugar

Caipirinha + sunset in Ko Lanta = holiday heaven ………

This may seem a little random but Mondays chez Miss Bouquet have long been ‘salad night’, an evening of light food and light relief after the excesses of the weekend (bare with me…) So on Monday when I caught up with Little Jo I cooked her my favourite light but hot summer dish – smoked salmon tagliatelle. Yum. ………

If you’re following me on twitter (http://twitter.com/MissBouquet) you’ll already know that I’ve finished writing up my July wine journal. I must admit it’s quite a relief, it’s been a challenge to make note of every wine I’ve consumed in the last month and looking at the total I think that could be something to do with the number of wines I’ve had!

In retrospect I’m not sure how many I thought I’d got through before I tallied it up. Let me have a think… if I’d tried one wine everyday of the month that would have been 31 and as it turns out I had 8 wine-free days, so at a guess maybe 23 wines? Non, miles out. A grand total of 44 wines…. Eeek, it’s no wonder my waist band’s been expanding! What I find surprising is that I’ve tried this many wines during a month that I would have said was relatively quiet! ………