Friday 29th May Maggie and Richard arrive at Earls Court today, fresh off the Piccadilly Line from Kings Cross. They’re acting cool but I can tell – they’re trying to hide their bursting excitement about our pending Greek Island Adventure on Naxos, starting tomorrow! It’s a lovely sunny day and we spend the afternoon in…

“Why are you going to Ghent?” we are regularly questioned. Actually we are not quite sure. But we are sure that we are ready for a break from the flooded pastures of West Sussex, and we have a vision of Ghent as a nice place to visit.  The only downside is that it’s almost still…

China. I’ve waited a long time to come here. All those years captivated with the magical images conjured up by wonderful stories of this mysterious land. Confucius; The Silk Road; Chairman Mao; Opium Wars; Forbidden Cities; Ming Dynasties; Kublai Khan; Crouching Tigers and Hidden Dragons. And now at last it’s all here, waiting to fill…

“Cabbages and Condoms” is an unlikely name for a restaurant anywhere, that is, except Bangkok. Here it seems to be accepted like “Chez Gérard”, “Olympia kebab house” or “Pizza Express” would be elsewhere in the world.  I had been told to come here, first by Jean, one of our customers, then by my “Rough Guide…

The lucky ones on the left side of the plane get the picture-perfect view of Mount Fuji as we make our silent way across the skies to Narita airport. I am on the right hand side of the aircraft, awakening lazily to the blue sky merging easily with the deeper blue of the Pacific Ocean.…

People are giving me very strange looks when I tell them I am going to Israel. As if to say ‘you can’t mean the Israel in the Middle East, just down the road from Iraq….?’. The foreign office website says don’t go there under any circumstances, the Euro 2004 qualifier between Israel and France has…

Things are not going to plan this winter. In January I was suffering arctic temperatures in New York, and now I am heading for Toronto in February. This is not what is supposed to happen. February should be meetings with food companies in the southern hemisphere sun – Cape Town, Sydney, or Rio. But no,…

It’s Wednesday, 2nd January, early morning, and the outside temperature gauge registers -5°C as we arrive at Luton airport. This is the start of a week when I am going to forget all about Food Production, and concentrate on Wine Production, and of course it’s consumption. We are leaving for the Valais region of Switzerland,…