John - Archived Entries for 2020 / 11

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Dr John Hawkins

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Recent Entries:: Wine on the Heath with Christian
Trouble with Dreams 2015
Goodbye Vera
Pink Sky at Night
ESW Tasting with Ben
Drinks on the Beach
Saturday
Outside
Thursday
Davenport Diamond Fields 2019
Tuesday
Monday
GevCham Rainbow
Grey, Albourne, Papier Mache Cat
Sunrise, Chips, Exercise, ESW
Thursday
Wednesday
Dehumidifer and Sunset on the Heath
Pizza
Cleaning
Shopping and Hampstead Heath with Erika
Takeaway Drinks
Vera
Wine on the Heath with Christian and Cardo
Breaky Bottom Delivery
The Heath Again
Pumpkin Soup and Wine on the Heath
Halloween
Another Haircut Accident and White Truffles
Hampstead Heath Yet Again
Ashling Park Rose
Lunch in a Shed
Sunset on the Heath
Canterbury
Sunrise on Hampstead Heath
Smokeless Coal Round Two
Smokeless Coal
Wednesday
Tuesday
Cross Country Run and Cardo's Birthday

Wine on the Heath with Christian: [Friday 27th November 2020]
Took another afternoon off walk to meet Christian on the heath for a glass of wine and a chat.
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Trouble with Dreams 2015: [Thursday 26th November 2020]
Was struggling to get any work done today, so decided to call it a half day, and headed off to the heath a little after 3pm to try the newly released Trouble with Dreams 2015 vintage from Dermot Sugrue.
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Goodbye Vera: [Wednesday 25th November 2020]
A sad day today - we drove to South Wales to pay our final respects to Vera, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 101.
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Pink Sky at Night: [Tuesday 24th November 2020]
Just a few pictures from the back garden of what I thought was a nice early evening sky.
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ESW Tasting with Ben: [Monday 23rd November 2020]
Took the afternoon off work an did an English sparkling wine tasting on Hampstead Heath with Ben, a former colleague.
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Drinks on the Beach: [Sunday 22nd November 2020]
Went to the "beach" (i.e. the Thames foreshore) to have a drink with Andrew this afternoon.
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Saturday: [Saturday 21st November 2020]
Took Erika out for a walk to one of the local parks in the afternoon in the hope of spontaneously bumping into one of her friends, now that she's allowed to leave home again.
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Outside: [Friday 20th November 2020]
Today marked the last day of Erika having to isolate (she was officially allowed to leave home as of 3:30pm) although she wasn't actually desperate to go outside - we just managed to coax her out to get an ice cream. I do worry amongst the many negative impacts of the crazy regulations this year if it's creating a generation of agoraphobics. Anyway, I seem to be developing the opposite issue and at the end of the working day today went for a short stroll to Hampstead Heath, and sat in the rain for a bit.
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Thursday: [Thursday 19th November]
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Davenport Diamond Fields 2019: [Wednesday 18th November 2020]
Took delivery of a case of the newly released vintage of Davenport's Diamond Fields Pinot Noir.
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Tuesday: [Tuesday 17th November]
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Monday: [Monday 16th November]
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GevCham Rainbow: [Sunday 15th November 2020]
Took a bottle of Gevrey Chambertin to the heath and was treated to a rainbow while I was there.
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Grey, Albourne, Papier Mache Cat: [Saturday 14th November 2020]
Rather a grey walk to Hampstead Heath in the afternoon. Later on tried Albourne Estate's Pinot Noir, and did a bit more work on the papier mache cat.
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Sunrise, Chips, Exercise, ESW: [Friday 13th November 2020]
I got up early to try and catch a bit of the sunrise on the heath, but was probably a bit too late as always. As was homeschooling the three of us had fish and chips (or halloumi and chips in my case) for lunch. In the afternoon I did some "PE" with Erika in the garden, then later on I tried a new ESW - Henners Native Grace.
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Thursday: [Thursday 12th November]
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Wednesday: [Wednesday 11th November 2020]
Erika's class was sent home from school today because one of her classmates has a positive PCR test, so she'd now have to stay at home until next Friday. I apparently had a glass of wine in the garden in the evening. Can't remember now what it was.
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Dehumidifer and Sunset on the Heath: [Tuesday 10th November 2020]
A dehumidifer arrived today for the back bedroom, to try and get on top of the mould problem. Towards the end of the working day I attempted to get out to catch the sunset on the heath, but was a bit too late as always, and probably the best of it was on the way there.
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Pizza: [Monday 9th November 2020]
Bought some pizza bases and Erika helped with the toppings this evening.
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Cleaning: [Sunday 8th November 2020]
Took our bedroom apart today, having noticed mould behind one of the cupboards, and spent the morning scrubbing it off the walls and re-arranging all the furniture. Later on some Breaky Bottom in the garden in the early evening, along with some butterscotch popcorn.
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Shopping and Hampstead Heath with Erika: [Saturday 7th November 2020]
Went shopping in the morning and then in the afternoon after much effort to drag her out of the house we finally persauded Erika to go for a walk on Hampstead Heath.
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Takeaway Drinks: [Friday 6th November 2020]
Woke up this morning to a very pretty pattern of clouds in the sky. Went out for takeaway coffee as a small act of defiance to the current stupid lockdown. In the late afternoon / early evening went and picked up "preordered" cider from the Southampton Arms as a further small act of rebellion, and sat on the heath with it for a bit.
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Vera: [Thursday 5th November 2020]
Sad news today, Vera passed away, at the great age of 101. I went for a short walk in the mist in the morning, then in the evening Erika and I sat out in the garden looking at the stars and watching what we could see of the fireworks.
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Wine on the Heath with Christian and Cardo: [Wednesday 4th November 2020]
Met up with Christian - who had just moved back to London - and Cardo, for some wine on the heath, for a change at the northern end of the heath, near Kenwood House.
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Breaky Bottom Delivery: [Tuesday 3rd November 2020]
Received a wine delivery from Breaky Bottom today. Nice handwritten note from Peter.
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The Heath Again: [Monday 2nd November 2020]
Went for a late afternoon / early evening stroll to the heath roughly around sunset.
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Pumpkin Soup and Wine on the Heath: [Sunday 1st November 2020]
Made pumpkin soup for lunch, then later in the afternoon I went and sat on Hampstead Heath with some wine for a bit.
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Halloween: [Saturday 31st October 2020]
We manage to carve out some sort of Halloween related frivolity for Erika's sake despite the current restrictions.
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Another Haircut Accident and White Truffles: [Friday 30th October 2020]
Took another day off work to do something fun with Erika while she was still on half term, but once again struggled to find much in the way of available activities, so we just headed down to Belgravia for lunch at Oliveto - I was very keen to have their excellent tagliolini with white truffles now the season was upon us. Before we headed off I got the girls to have a go at cutting my hair, and it went a bit awry again.
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Hampstead Heath Yet Again: [Thursday 29th October 2020]
Yet another stroll to the heath, again a bit bleak looking.
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Ashling Park Rose: [Wednesday 28th October 2020]
Tried the rose from Ashling Park this evening.
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Lunch in a Shed: [Tuesday 27th October 2020]
Erika was on her half term holiday this week, and today I took the day off work so that we could do something together. Unfortunately the weather was a bit grim, and many of the usual options for entertainment weren't available given the current restrictions so we ended up just having a pub lunch in one of the sheds recently constructed in the beer garden of one of our local pubs. Then we did a bit of papier mache in the afternoon.
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Sunset on the Heath: [Monday 26th October 2020]
Finished work a bit early to do some exercise, and strolled to the heath to try and catch a bit of the sunset. Again a few minutes too late really, but got some nice shots of pink evening sky anyway.
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Canterbury: [Sunday 25th October 2020]
Went down to Canterbury for the day, and sat under a tarp in Leon's back garden while he made pizza and we drank Spritzes.
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Sunrise on Hampstead Heath: [Saturday 24th October 2020]
I woke early and decided it would be good to try and watch the sunrise (or at least the tail end of it) on Hampstead Heath. Later in the day some GevCham out in the garden, and played with Cozmo with Erika.
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Smokeless Coal Round Two: [Friday 23rd October 2020]
Another attempt to make a fire in the back garden with the smokeless coals this evening and more successful second time round! Used a lot more kindling and a lot more coals and eventually got a decent burn out of it. Did some fantastic baked potatoes!
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Smokeless Coal: [Thursday 22nd October 2020]
Took delivery of some "smokeless" coal today, with the view to possibly buying a fire pit / chiminea to allow us to spend more time outdoors in the coming months. Tried it out with the barbecue this evening, but it turned out to be seemingly impossible to ignite, which rather suggested the basis on which it could legitimately claim to be smokeless.
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Wednesday: [Wednesday 21st October]
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Tuesday: [Tuesday 20th October]
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Cross Country Run and Cardo's Birthday: [Monday 19th October 2020]
Erika's class had a cross country run on Hampstead Heath this afternoon, and I went along to help marshal. Later on met up with Cardo on Primrose Hill for a couple of glasses of wine to celebrate his birthday.
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