A morning sorting out the week’s booty. A successful and enjoyable trip. Reclamation of VAT on the border went well - I wandered into the customs office and gave the douanier my forms. ‘Please bring the goods in, I need to see them’ he said. ‘But last time the douanier came out to my car’ I pleaded, and followed it up with my best ‘surely you can see I’m a decrepit old man who can barely put one foot in front of the other, let alone carry fifteen bottles of wine a hundred metres’ expression. He got every nuance (learning to express yourself from behind a mask by just raising and lowering your eyebrows correctly is very worthwhile), sighed, stamped my forms, handed them back and dismissed me. Border control customs were absent yet again, so I still don’t know if the absolute limit is 24 or 36 bottles of wine. I know it isn’t 41 though, which is the number I had on board.
Then a slow meander back via a sort of relay of pfm members. First a cup of tea with
@foxwelljsly, then a collection of a eBay-purchased hifi rack in Tunbridge Wells, on to pick up some speakers from
@Whaleblue in a Majestic car park (naturally), then to a PCR test appointment at Heathrow, a small detour for an imprecation near Hatfield (my Great Aunt Hilda taught me some of the black arts many years ago. I’m a bit rusty but still quite effective) before collapsing chez
@BTC3 and being revived with fine food and drink (see above.) Many thanks to all of the above.
The VAT rebates came through today - the Penfolds Bin 389 finally cost me £29.90/bottle, various Jacky Blot Montlouis £15-£16 and JPB’s Morgon Cote de Py just over £12. Not bad, not bad at all.
Last night I discovered I still had a dozen bottles of Guigal CdR 2015. I remember opening the bottle around 8.30pm and enjoying the first sip. The next thing I knew it was bedtime and nearly three-quarters of the bottle had gone. I guess this means my thoughts on the stuff are more in line with those of
@wacko rather than the Italian CT reviewer I quoted above.