I have woken up optimistic about my weight.
This might be hard to believe, but eating enough food for one person is indicative of a healthy weight.
The usual Thursday night routine is Arabic at our local for dinner. A mixed grill for two, just for me.
Last night, as usual, slow cooked buffalo and pasta. I make no claims that my serving was small, but for the first time in recent memory, I didn’t go back for thirds.
Amazingly, I feel spritely this morning.
“I’ve decided the act that cannot wait / is the important will to create / But, ah, if my belly is ignored / the pantry door I shall implore / But I’ve been known to reach the bed / ideas still famished in my head.”
Roman Payne
Today we are on the hunt for a kandora. It is the UAE national day next week and there is an expectation of traditional dress. Yesterday Shell had no problem finding a wardrobe full of abayas, but the kandora was more difficult to find.
House of Wisdom for a coffee before heading out. Animal Farm, by Eileen O’Shaughnessy is as good as I remember it.
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
George Orwell
I find my kandora and we head home. I felt awkward in the shop, like an imposter. Is this racial appropriation? The opposite as I left. The men in the store seemed very happy a foreigner was going to be wearing their local dress.
I spend the afternoon reading Animal Farm and Shell has a nap.
I feel like some cheese before dinner but the effort of getting to the Cheese Room seems too much effort. It is rare that my laziness trumps my hunger. Organising delivery is beyond me.
“Mostly, I could tell, I made him feel uncomfortable. He didn’t understand me, and he was sort of holding it against me. I felt the urge to reassure him that I was like everybody else, just like everybody else. But really there wasn’t much point, and I gave up the idea out of laziness.”
Albert Camus
The best accompaniment for tonights wine will be more wine.
Dinner is left over buffalo ragù.
Tonights wine, a trip to Spain.
2021 Bodegas Emilio Moro Finca Resolsa (Ribera Del Duero, Spain)
Tempranillo through and through. The oak seems obvious after weeks of Chianti, but it is not a bad wine. From the youngest vines on the Emilio Moro estates, this is great value and goos fun to drink on a lazy Saturday afternoon.
2020 Bodegas Cvne Rioja Crianza (Rioja, Spain)
Red fruits and licorice. Plenty of American oak but the fruit carries it. This is a good Crianza and packed more punch than the Ribera Del Duero. Del Duero’s are in fashion these days, but Rioja is hard to beat.
“[I]t is the wine that leads me on,
Homer
the wild wine
that sets the wisest man to sing
at the top of his lungs,
laugh like a fool – it drives the
man to dancing… it even
tempts him to blurt out stories
better never told.”