The Return of Sauvignon Gris.

What the hell is Sauvignon Gris I here you ask, it is a grape variety from the dim and distant past of the wine world that until recently was mainly used for blending, as a lesser grape you would not normally find it mentioned on the label. It fell out of fashion because it would not (Yield) produce as many grapes per vine as it's close relation Sauvignon blanc and so was not as profitable to grow. With the world now flooded with wine so to speak and production out stripping demand, wine producers are always looking for an edge, something different to put on the label.

Enter Sauvignon Gris, I have seen France & Chile start to promote this wine recently and be shown as a variety in it's own right. It is a white wine (although the grapes appear pink) for all you sauvignon blanc fans out there, it does not have the green grass fresh and gooseberries aroma of sauvignon blanc and is less sharp on the palate but is fuller bodied with a hint of lime. Expect to pay £5.00 to £9.00 for a bottle depending on the winery involved. So if you are fed up with the usual and are looking for somthing a little different give one a try. I have not found it here in Sunny Gozo, but I know in the UK it can be found in Marks & Spencer and Waitrose.


"Stay healthy, never eat more than you can lift". Steve Holmes.

Valletta Park & Ride.

I had to drive to Valletta for a business meeting this week, wrench myself away from the sunny lazy shores of Gozo, I was looking forward to the trip I have after all been coming to Gozo for many years and have never got round to visiting the capital of Malta. Plenty of local advise was forthcoming from locals, don't drive into Valletta itself, park in one of the park and ride car parks on the outskirts of the city and catch the bus into the centre. I am used to schemes such as park & ride many larger towns and city's across the UK have them, and I think they are a good idea.

The car parks seemed to be well signposted, we duly found our car park it was fairly full but spaces were available. I parked the car, locked it......... now ...........I looked around for information, is the car park free? I could not find any signs to tell me I had to pay, then the paranoia sets in there are no signs to tell me it's free either, I know, I will ask someone...... not a single person in sight, I guess it must be free to park, now where do I go for the bus? it is a big car park there must be a sign here somewhere with information to tell me where to go, a further 5 minutes past whilst I wandered aimlessly around looking for either a sign or someone to ask. Then I found a tunnel, above the tunnel the sign said use staircase through the tunnel, I thought well my surname is Holmes I had better live up to the name and took this as a clue, climbed the staircase and found the bus terminal, Uncle Sherlock would have been proud. I found my way into the centre of Valletta had a good look around and it is great place to visit, I also had a successful business meeting, So other than the car park experience a good day was had.

In future I will know what to do when using the park & ride, but a few small simple signs with the relevant information on them within the car park area would be very useful for first time visitors like me and other first time tourists.

I almost forgot to mention, the car parking is free in the park & ride car parks, the buses into Valletta are also free from the park & ride car parks.

'Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense'. Gertrude Stein.

Rich Impressions of Gozo & Comino.

I first started blogging back in 2006, one of the first pieces I wrote for my blog was the one below. I have decided to regurgitate it here, because I am often asked how I found Gozo in the first place.

I always like to read written articles about the Maltese Islands, fond of the place as I am.I first came across Gozo in 1986, after reading an advert in a diving magazine, Gill and I decided it would be a great place for a quiet get away from it all kind of break. In 1987 we visited for the first time staying in the Cornucopia Hotel, (a lot smaller then than it is now) well I have to say that we really enjoyed it and have been returning on a regular basis since then, over the years I think we have stayed at most of the hotels on the island and lately in a variety of farmhouses. Last year we made no less than 4 trips to the islands. Now I do not want to paint Gozo as some kind of utopia it does have many short-comings, its just that it is such a contrast to the UK and I suppose that you always seek what you have not got in life. I have discovered that generally people that have been brought up in quiet country side type surroundings tend to seek out the hustle bustle and bright lights of the city, those that reside or work in the city look for the opposite. So what do I like about the place?...... well living and working in and around London as I do I suppose that the above applies, then there are the usual cliches, the climate, the people, low crime, neighbours that will actually acknowledge that you even exist, the way of life, the laid back don't give a Sh*t attitude, it is all some how........ refreshing. Anyway back to the main point, this particular piece by Daniel Scott of The Guardian newspaper I found was very well written and well focused, with a few warts thrown in for good measure. I do like a balanced view.

Two paragraphs below, for the full article click on the link............"After an active week exploring Gozo and Comino, I am left with a host of rich impressions. I can picture two small but stocky sun-blushed Maltese islands with sheer cream cliffs and intricately sculpted shores. I remember Gozo's ubiquitous big-domed churches - 50 among a population of just under 30,000 - and my first sight of the world's oldest surviving man-made structure - the Ggantija temples, dating to 3,600BC - standing on a high ridge on the island. I also recall cycling along hillsides full of olive groves, citrus trees and caper bushes on Gozo and bursts of fragrant wild thyme as we hike among Comino's stony slopes, on a cloudless day. Finally, I remember being mesmerised by the rhythmic pouring of oil onto my forehead during an Ayurvedic massage treatment at the Hotel Kempinski on Gozo".

travel.guardian.co.uk

"Paradise is exactly like where you are right now... only much, much better". Laurie Anderson

Paint it White.

When did we decide that having all the roofs in the world black was a good idea? I know, tar is black, and that's what many flat roofs are sealed with, but I really can't imagine a more stupid decision (is that good english)?
It's fine in the winter, when the roof becomes a giant solar heat collector. But there's no way to turn that giant solar heat collector off when the hot weather comes around.

Here in Gozo in our farmhouse we are lucky enough to have air conditioning in the master bedroom, and at the height of summer this does get used regularly, not good for global warming and certainly not good for the wallet with the cost of electricity at the moment.

Now here is the interesting part, simply painting your roof white in a hot climate could decrease air conditioning bills for those buildings by 20%. That's why California has required all new buildings to have white roofs for the past few years.
A study has shown that if the 100 biggest cities painted all their roofs white, and switched their road materials to lighter colours (ie concrete instead of asphalt) it would reflect enough light and heat back into space to entirely offset the global warming of the last few decades.
It's not a proper fix for the problem, obviously, for that, we need clean, sustainable energy. But it could buy us enough time to make the changes we really need. I feel myself going all green all of a sudden.

"He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder". M.C. Escher.

More Web Browsers than you can Shake a Stick at. 

We have Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3, and now Google's first browser, (still in Beta) is called 'Chrome' and of course, I had to take a look. So after a quick download and a quick install, I started to browse the web just to see how it feels. At the moment having played for a couple of hours it doesn't feel very different from Firefox 3. Rumour has it that Chrome might be a little faster, but it's hard to tell on a fast computer. Also, my Google Chrome does not have any plug-ins installed at the moment. Overall, the first impression is good. Chrome is something that I will continue to play with, although I suspect that I will keep my Firefox 3 around until Chrome has some equivalent plug-ins, which is where the real value of Firefox lies.

Chrome seems to  consume considerably less memory than Firefox 3 & IE7,  this would offer an advantage on computers that are older or smaller laptops with less memory. I think that I will need to play with this one a bit more, at this early stage I am not 100% convinced that Chrome will do any more than the other players in the market do already. Download the Beta here and try it yourself. 

"The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office". Robert Frost.