...and another good day...

Only three appointments today, but interesting, varied, and all bought, and more than expected.
94 year old Mrs F, down a track in the middle of nowhere yet only 2 miles from our hotel, pink-painted house with lovely garden looking up to Snaefell. Spent 40 years in Malaysia running rubber "empire" with her husband, brought Wani her 'manservant' back with her... I felt like I was in some colonial throwback... Mrs F refused to try any of the new wines, even though I assured her they were probably her taste - but she said she just wanted 18 bottles of our Rioja - she's tried many wines over the years, both Pieroth and others, and that Rioja is the one she likes. Who am I to argue?! Her son is company secretary for Berry Bros & Rudd, the famous wine merchants based in St James, London... but she's not tried any from him that matches ours (:
Then Lyn and Sid, said definitely not buying this time as moving house before Christmas - Sid answered the door in his Villa shirt, turns out he grew up in Erdington, and his PE teacher then Headteacher was Dad of a friend of mine. Well, they had to order then, didn't they?!
Then the absolutely fascinating and quite mad Joe: what a life, such rich stories of Bootle (where I lived for a while), French vineyards, whisky smuggling and croft restoration in Kintyre, his theory of life on Mars preceding life on Earth (also discussed Life on Mars TV series and The Martian movie)... and a million other things... He is into his third year since establishing a vineyard in his garden - he is a 'plantsman' by trade - and swears we will share a bottle of Chateau Joe within a couple of years... Blip is his pet cockerel sitting on his kitchen windowsill...