Champagne is one of life’s elegant extras. Sadly, not an original thought. Charles Dickens said it first. But I could not agree more. Champagne is a cure for sadness and an amplifier of happiness. And of course, opening a bottle…
Read More ‘come quickly, i am drinking the stars’ – dom perignon
The question is: when you find the perfect place, do you share that info?Well, I have found the ideal spot. And, after much deliberation, have decided to reveal this paradise. It is a little island called NoaNoa. And I…
“Chinese wine tastes like dead mouse” Peter Farrow, narrator Bonfire of the Vanities, by Thomas Wolfe It has been said that brevity is the soul of wit, so whoever observed that “a hang-over is the wrath of grapes” was very…
Genghis Khan holds an impressively enduring place in modern Chinese life. He is remembered as a feared and ruthless conqueror who slaughtered anyone who stood in his way. He was particularly eager to kill the aristocrats and ruling classes whom…
John is pretty convinced that if there is a difficult way to do something I will find it. Alas, I am beginning to think he is right. Most people return home from China with some beautiful porcelain teacups or a…
I have discovered what Buddhists have apparently known for centuries… size does matter. On a freezing morning in my first February, with guidebook in hand, I visited the Lama Temple. I hoped to find respite from the biting Beijing winter…
