Beer – Beauperi Investments

Posted on October 26, 2018October 26, 2018 by beauperi

Over to England

Monday, 22 October, 2018 – Drizzling, who cares, we are leaving

Loyal followers of this Blog. If you find yourself in a situation where you cannot see the photos and / or the captions or alignments are messed up, please go to http://www.beauperi.com directly and all those problems should go away.

Yes, it is time to leave our paradise here in Versailles. It has been great.

20181022_075646 — Last look at the wonderful breakfast spread

At breakfast this morning a Dutch couple have stayed overnight and join us at the table. After some discussion it turns out that the guy works in Rotterdam and with some of the people that Julie met with while she was there. Interesting coincidence. They exchanged business cards.

Emma has booked Patrick’s large van again. However, it was not that van that showed up but a smaller taxi. Ryan is able to cram the 4 large suitcases in the back but he has to ride to Gare du Nord with the fifth suitcase on his lap and Tanika another heavy bag on her lap too. Emma tells me that she has permanently fired Patrick.

The driver is an absolute champion at darting in and out of traffic and crossing lanes. Once again there is construction going on everywhere, including along the Champs de Elysee which makes things even more difficult. But we get there in good time.

Then there is the shemozzle of the immigration exit from France. The queues are not as long as the ones at Versailles Palace but they are pretty horrendous. Eventually after some mishaps by me we get through France only to now have to deal with entering Britain and then security. These aren’t too bad and we end up standing in a queue waiting to board. Finally, we are on our way into the Eurostar. They allow Ryan to enter with the bags from the car in front so we are quite close to them as we sit in the front of the carriage. The assigned seating is strange but we work out an exchange with a French girl and so we are all sitting together.

Ryan and Tanika are hungry, not having done breakfast, and go down to the catering car and come back with food, wine for me and beer for Ryan. Nice.

We are in “middle class” on the Eurostar and eventually they bring us a meal and some more wine. Also nice.

As we arrive in London we get off at Kings Cross / St Pancras. We go over to the Piccadilly line to go to our apartment. Ryan has worked out that by going a few extra train stops we will have the shortest walk to the apartment, pushing all the bags. We get off at Earl’s Court where Julie and I have stayed a few times in the past and see a lot of familiar sites.

Our Airbnb apartment in Chelsea

When we arrive at the apartment we are let in and greeted by Jenna, deputising for the owner. Jenna shows us around and then departs.

20181022_162804 — Large bedroom in the apartment

20181022_162826 — The Bathtub and Sinks set-up in our bedroom

20181022_162920 — Part of the kitchen area and lounge room. I am already set up at the end of the dining table

20181022_162930 — More of the lounge room

Naturally, Julie goes out prancing to get supplies while the kids go their way to shops etc in London. I read the instructions and recommendations from the owner. He has suggested a few places including two just down the road a block or so – Italian and French. After a glass of wine or so, we go down to check them out. The Italian is just a pizza place but the French looks quite good. We go in, first guests in the restaurant tonight, and the staff are quite nice to us. The menu looks good so we agree to stay.

We order some wine and then food starts coming.

20181022_183233 — Amuse bouche of olive and caramelised onions

20181022_184042 — Julie’s starter of Smoked salmon and vegies with a nice touch of Horseradish

20181022_190039 — Pouring Stock into Julie’s bouillabaisse

I had a large confit duck leg with grilled figs and mash potato. For some reason the photos won’t load. Julie scored the figs, one of her favourites.

I found it ironic that we did not go to a Bouchon while in France but did on our first day in London. I suggested to Julie and Irish coffee but she has bought some Jameson Irish Whiskey today. Thus we go back to the apartment for said Irish Coffee and some more wine.

Another days of ups and downs but the ups prevailed eventually.

Posted on October 19, 2018 by beauperi

Slim Dusty, Part 2

But there’s nothing so lonesome, so morbid or drear
Than to stand in a bar, of a pub with no beer.

Friday, 12 October, 2018 – Very good, low 20s

I spent much of the day inside trying to work out a restaurant that we could go to tonight. Our hosts had given a list of recommendations. I went through these carefully trying to translate German menus to see if the particular place would work for us. Each of them had their own unique problems such as only open for lunch, no meat dishes, too far away, etc. There was a Schwabian restaurant on the list but it really had nothing suitable, no seafood, no chicken, for the girls. I also considered some local restaurants that were not on the recommended list including Little Marlene which was named after the famous German actress Marlene Dietrich who grew up around here. But, I rejected that idea too.

Any way, Julie who is now an expert with the bus system, heads out to places unknown:

20181012_154345 — Who is that little green guy?

20181012_163022 — Julie bought me a Ham Hock

Back at the apartment the kids show up early as we now have a dinner booking.

20181012_163134 — Ryan and I have another beer tasting

20181012_181252 — Our Restaurant the Ryan had booked

20181012_181242 — The Guys picked a table outside, only problem is there were lots of smokers

So, what has this to do with Slim Dusty? The place was run by Muslims and hence there was no alcohol available at all.

20181012_183900 — Chicken salad for Julie, the chicken was overcooked

20181012_183907 — Chicken Burger and Chips for Tanika

20181012_183913 — Chicken Gorgonzola Meal for Ryan

20181012_183920 — Chicken Jalapeno meal for me – note the little chunks of jalapeno in the cream sauce

After that less than stunning meal, it was back to the apartment for some real drinks.

Posted on October 16, 2018October 16, 2018 by beauperi

First we’ll take Manhattan

and then we’ll take Berlin. Leonard Cohen, RIP

The other choice for the title was “Why I hate Flying”

Tuesday, 9 October, 2018 – Weather – grey, who cares we are leaving town

I start the day with the leftover green curry. We have booked a taxi to pick us up early and he shows up on time and we are ready to go. We get to the airport early and have to wait to drop off our baggage.

20181009_084250 — Waiting and waiting for baggage drop off

After they finally accept our bags we are warned that it will be a dog fight to get on the plane. We go upstairs to the boarding gate and wait and wait and wait. The same staff show up at the boarding gate but show no signs of opening the gate. Finally, we realise that our plane has just landed. After it is unloaded, there is another long wait before we are invited to board. Ryan has listened to my advice about overhead locker space and pushes us and our remaining bags to the front of the queue.

We were told that we had to board at the rear which mean down portable stairs, in the rain, and then up another set of stairs that are quite slippery. We get to our seats and are able to grab overhead space.

We had paid for extra room in the exit row. Yes, there is extra room but gee it is narrow and not a lot of advantage. In fact, my knees were sore for a few days afterwards because of the cramped “extra space”.

I am against the window and it is not possible to get out for a toilet break. The flight is for 2 1/2 hours and seems to take forever. We are travelling West and South into another time zone. When we get off the plane we have to walk on the tarmac to buses. Trouble is that there are only two buses and there are enough people for three. It turns out we only go a few meters on the bus – it would have been much easier just to walk there.

There is another long, long wait. I go off to the toilets because of no toilet break on the plane. Of course, the toilet was closed for cleaning. There was a disabled toilet, of course it was permanently locked. The cleaner moved very, very slowly while the two Ladies toilets moved like clockwork. Finally, the cleaner opens the door and I get some relief.

Even after that long wait, our bags are just coming off the carousel when I return. When we take Ryan’s bag off, we notice that one of the wheels has been broken. We go to the Easyjet claim centre and there is no one in there or else they refuse to come to the window.

We go outside to get a taxi as it will take a bus and two trains to get near our place. There had been a long queue but it had mostly dissipated. However, we needed a large van with all of our luggage and people. So they push us to one side and get on the phone to call in big vans. After a lengthy wait, one finally shows up, but there is another big group in front of us. Another van shows up after us but the guy is in a very angry mood, I guess he thought
he was picking some body else and argued with the traffic controller for ages. Finally, he agreed to take us and turned into a nice guy. Julie rode with him in the front seat and they had a nice chat because he lived in the area to where we were going and gave her some advice.

The exit out of the airport was another major issue as there were enough cars for 8 lanes and at times we had only one, it probably took another 25 minutes to go 1/2 KM. Once we escape the shackles, it is a smooth ride until we are back on city streets in which case the traffic was really bad and slow with lots of lane changes to get through. Finally we arrive at our destination which was a driveway in front of a driveway to a youth hostel.

So all in all it took around 9 hours door to door with a variety of hassles, delays, mishaps, pain, stupidity along the way. That is typical of why I hate flying even though I put up with it for years for work.

Things look ordinary as there we were in a narrow driveway leading into a couple of courtyards into a backpackers den. Plus I had not read the instructions well enough. Then our bad day turned into solid gold. We were informed by the landlords that there had been serious damage in the powder room by the previous guest and we would not be able to check-in until 4:00 PM. We accepted that. I was supposed to find the caretaker for the back packer home but did not follow the instructions, but fortunately he found us. There had been some advance concern about storing our bags, but this guy was great. He grabbed them all and put them in a very secure room for which he had the only key. We then went out looking for food while we waited for 4:00.

There were tons of restaurants around us with a primary theme being Turkish. We did not have a good experience because the menus on display were all in German, which I mostly could not translate, and they would not talk with Julie because she was English. Finally, I find a Kebab shop run by a Father and his 3 Sons. They were happy to talk with me in English and generally were very nice to me which was a welcome change. I thought Julie was going to a Salmon place but she showed up here and also was treated really nicely, Julie was impressed.

20181009_135635 — Doner chicken souva with lots of vegies, a dainty feast

20181009_135642 — The Shop, a steady flow of customers day and night

20181009_140226 — Julie’s Souva with extra salad

We get back to the backpackers place around 3:30 and there are more pleasant surprises. The workers were unable to fix the vanity sink, but there were two such sinks so we survived nicely. We were escorted up to the room by the Managers Wife at 3:30, and the rest of the family brought up all of our luggage and chattels we had left in the storage. This was all a big wow, especially with what we were expecting.

For details of the layout of this apartment refer to this Airbnb link

The only disappointment, which I possibly should have known already, was that there was no dishwasher.

Ryan was sent up and knocked on the door at 4:00 and we let them in and everything was good. Each bedroom had a couple of small balconies.

20181009_160633 — Ryan and I have another beer tasting on the balcony

Incidentally, the kids found that the people were quite unfriendly to them too, they did not really like Berlin. The weather however was quite good.

Earlier we had bought some local wine – it was rat piss. Julie goes out to scout and gets food for tonight.

20181009_203815 — Smoked salmon and apple for a change

20181009_203823 — I wanted bratwurst got curry wurst instead, no good

I never did get my Bratwurst, apparently Berlin does not do them and circumstance worked against me in the rest of Germany.

What with the lousy wine and awful snag, I end up with bad reflux in the night. The anti-reflux relief Julie had bought for me earlier came in little tubes and kind of did the job.

So it was definitely a day of multiple ups and downs.

Posted on October 15, 2018 by beauperi

Cold, Wet and Miserable

Monday, 8 October, 2018 – Weather – see headline
Loyal followers of this Blog. If you find yourself in a situation where you cannot see the photos and / or the captions or alignments are messed up, please go to http://www.beauperi.com directly and all those problems should go away.

Guys, the headline says it all. As a result, this is going to be an abbreviated Post as I did not venture outside at all.

20181008_095434 — Left over Chook, Rice and Beans for breakfast

20181008_101111 — Julie went prancing in the rain -hence Cats

20181008_154858 — I can hardly wait – NOT!

Tanika had sent me some photos of a pizza visit that they liked, so here are some photos.

Pizza2 — The Pizza, they really liked it

The rain continued all day and I did not budge from the spot. I looked out at the dog track and noticed that there were still owners and dogs using it without much water protection. Apparently the people and the animals just ignore the rain over here.

20181008_141840 — Late in the afternoon Ryan and I had a beer tasting – American IPA

Julie made a Thai green curry for dinner with cut up chicken and a relatively small bottle of green curry sauce. It turned out to be too hot for the three of them who did not finish their meals, it was about right for me.

As advertised, a very quiet day.

Posted on October 13, 2018 by beauperi · 3 Comments

Markets in Helsinki

Saturday, 6 October, 2018 – Weather – not too bad
Loyal followers of this Blog. If you find yourself in a situation where you cannot see the photos and / or the captions or alignments are messed up, please go to http://www.beauperi.com directly and all those problems should go away.

After a poor night’s sleep on the retro bed, I am moving a bit slowly this morning. Eventually, we get moving. We are going to markets down by the harbour. We board a tram and discover that (1) it is going the wrong way and (2) you can no longer buy tram tickets on a tram. So we walk back a ways and find a place where we can buy tickets. It is an automated machine with instructions all in Finnish but eventually we work it out.

20181006_105140 — We walk by this museum with the giant “protector”

20181006_111403 — Our Tram, note that there are doors only on one side

20181006_111416 — Boarding the Tram behind an old lady

We arrive at the shore and get off one stop earlier than Julie had planned. There is an outdoor market.

20181006_112623 — A lady selling fish, mostly salmon, from her boat

20181006_112648 — Other market goodies – note the succotash on the right

20181006_113222 — Lots of variety of game

20181006_113603 — We went across the way to an old church which is now an indoor food hall

20181006_113646 — Julie perusing the food stalls

20181006_114106 — A variety of food stuffs

20181006_114256 — A variety of (expensive) Reindeer products

20181006_114634 — I wonder what a Reindeer Moose pie would have been like?

20181006_115618 — I got s reindeer sausage with salad, very gamey, very nice

20181006_115156 — Julie’s Salmon Soup, not nice “I should have bought the more expensive one”

20181006_121126 — Reindeer Chips at 9 euro very expensive

We jump on the tram to return toward the apartment. There is a Michelin rated Asian restaurant very close to the house. Julie tries to get a booking but it is Saturday night and booked out plus they are closed Sunday and Monday and we leave on Tuesday so we miss out.

Shortly after we arrive in the apartment Julie goes out again to do more exploring.

20181006_170709 — Ryan and I have another beer tasting

A message from Julie arrives “We have a booking at Ravintola Lasipalatsi for 6.15pm”

It is one tram stop away and it was next to the one with the long queues this morning. Address is: Mannerheimintie 22-24, 00100 Helsinki, Finland

20181006_181029 — Julie outside the restaurant which turned out to be a bit upmarket

20181006_181227 — Waiting for a table, service was quite slow throughout the night

20181006_181625 — It is a long restaurant and eventually fills up

20181006_182508 — Drinks, Tanika has a special Gin and Tonic

20181006_184719 — Lightly salted salmon with creamed chanterelles and dill potatoes for Julie

20181006_184723 — Cream of crayfish with crayfish and fennel salsa for me

20181006_184732 — Ryan’s Choice Beef tartare with anchovy mayonnaise and parmesan

20181006_184742 — Marinated feta cheese with tapenade and sourdough bread croutons for Tanika

20181006_191950 — Fillet of reindeer served with cherry and cepp bake and dark onion broth for my main course

20181006_191954 — The Girls and Ryan had fillet of pike perch with creamed button mushrooms and butter braised horseradish and thought it was great

As I mentioned at the start, it was quite a posh place which meant probably the most expensive meal of the trip so far. However, I think it was worth it given the exotic foods that we had. After that, we returned home and crashed.

Beauperi Investments – Wine Consulting

Tag: Beer

Over to England

Slim Dusty, Part 2

First we’ll take Manhattan

Cold, Wet and Miserable

Markets in Helsinki