It's been a while - the story of my eventful September so far (including a new addition to the family)

Right, I'm back! Actually, I haven't been away, I've just been so busy/preoccupied with myriad other things over the last couple of weeks that something(s) had to give - and in this case it was the "non-essential" things like blogging. Then again, I often feel as though I am letting myself (and who knows, perhaps others) down by not posting regular entries. Heaven forfend, I certainly don't want to lose the relatively small but very loyal following I have built up!

So, what have I been up to that has taken up so much of my time? Well, for starters, I had a rather brief but relatively successful promotion on some of my wines at the beginning of the month (if you aren't an existing customer, then you wouldn't have known about it) which had me burning a lot of midnight oil for a good few days. One should never underestimate the time and effort it takes to process and package orders for several hundred bottles of wine in such a short space of time - especially as I'm not just the brains of the operation, but also chief administrator, picker, packer and despatcher. I always think very carefully before deciding to offer (what really are genuine) discounts on my wines, because if one does it too often, there is a chance that customers will simply wait until the next offer before buying - and that is a dangerous road to go down. Frankly, I'd rather leave the deep (and totally disingenuous) discounting down to the supermarkets and remaining high street wine retailers. But in this instance, it was designed to make some quick sales, with a view to banking some money in order to finance some upcoming imports from growers in Roussillon and South-West France (of which more shortly).

And it had the desired effect of boosting the Company coffers......... until I got the email from one of those growers, reminding me that we had still to pay for last year's wines(!) My heart sank. We always, always pay our growers within the allotted time - but somehow, this one had slipped through the net. It's a long story and I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say that I felt compelled to get on the blower to my foreign currency provider and ask them to make an immediate transfer of almost 2,500 Euros to pay the invoice. It was a real setback, I can tell you, but at least we managed to save face with a grower that I consider to be one of (if not the) most important in our portfolio. Thankfully, September is shaping-up to be a really good (without being great) month, so despite this setback, the coffers are looking relatively healthy again - at least for the time being.

During this rather trying time, I was also in the process of organising a couple of pallets of wines from Domaine Treloar in Roussillon and a "groupage" pallet from South-West France, namely Domaine de Montesquiou in Jurancon, Chateau Peyros in Madiran, and a brand new grower in Cahors called Domaine du Garinet (whose wines I am very excited about adding to our list). One only needs to look at the map to see how scattered and geographically distant from each other these 3 growers are - which makes grouping the wines together onto a single pallet a very difficult job. The phrase "herding cats" springs to mind. nevertheless, it all went relatively smoothly, and I actually found out today that all of the above wines were delivered to my bonded warehouse today, so I can get my grubby hands on them tomorrow. Yippee - yet more work to fill my time over the next few days!

But although September has already proven to be a rather stressful month, work-wise, I've still managed to find time for a little play. And one of the highlights was a rather memorable gig at a small venue in Nottingham called The Rescue Rooms, courtesy of the brilliant Ron Sexsmith. Why this man is not a world-wide megastar is beyond me, although I have to admit that - having released around 10 albums - his music appeared on my radar only relatively recently. It was a brilliant set (and an initially reticent TLD enjoyed it as much as I did) and one that I will remember for a long time to come. Who knows, perhaps Mr Sexsmith will eventually get the recognition he deserves, but I'm not holding my breath. Meanwhile, here's a video of one of the songs from his latest album......

Finally, some of you may know that, after 33 years working for the Land Registry, I will be leaving at the end of October. The decision has been made so much easier by the fact that I am going on a "voluntary exit" scheme - in other words, my employer will be giving me a lump sum (and - because I am now 50 - a modest pension) to not work for them any more! Because the wine business does not yet provide me with a decent living salary, there's no way that I would have been able to leave of my own accord. And having watched some of the higher grades in the organisation (and a lot of the lower grades too) taking pay-offs over the last couple of years, I had assumed that there would be little left in the pot to get rid of middle-ranking people like me. So it came as a very pleasant surprise when the offer was made and - after a quick discussion with TLD - I grasped the opportunity with both hands. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a huge amount of money, but it will enable us to pay-off our (rather modest) mortgage, and the resulting reduction in our fixed monthly outgoings, combined with a modest pension income, will mean that we won't be much worse off than before. All of which will, of course, enable me to devote much more time to building the wine business - frankly, it's a win-win situation.

On 3 July 1978, I arrived at my first (and ultimately one and only) day job on my beautiful new Yamaha RD250 motorcycle. A couple of years later, it was written-off when some numpty cut through a line of stationary traffic and I went straight into the side of his car. Instead of buying a new bike with the insurance money, I blew most of it on on a 5-day trip to watch Nottingham Forest in the 1980 European Champions Cup Final in Madrid. It was a wonderful experience and provided me with many treasured memories - but it meant the end of my motorcycling days. Until now, that is, because part of my lump sum has been earmarked to buy me another bike. Well actually, thanks to Mr Mastercard, I've already gone out and bought it! So I'd like to introduce you to my 2005 Honda CBR600RR.......................

She (who is yet to be named) has a modest 15,000 miles on the clock and is to all intents and purposes in mint condition. She has a 599cc liquid cooled inline 4 cylinder 4-stroke engine, with a close ratio 6-speed gearbox and produces 105 bhp at 13,500 rpm. She is capable of 0-60 mph in 3 seconds and 0-100 in less than 7, with a top speed of just short of 170 mph. Which is of course all purely academic, because I'm far too old to be a boy racer and I doubt I'll ever use much more than half of that. But it's nice to know I have it in reserve, if necessary!

She looks great from all angles - especially her backside!

I think I'm in love!

I must admit that it was a bit of a nerve-racking experience riding the bike home from Derby on Saturday afternoon, given the slightly damp roads and the fact that I had hardly ridden a motorcycle in 31 years, but she handles beautifully and feels rock-solid. Nevertheless, this is a machine that demands respect, and I intend to go very carefully until I feel really comfortable. But I'm going to enjoy the ride........

Tomorrow, I will be mainly talking about wine. ;-)