Let’s face it, although there are plenty of perks with being the leader of a nation state, it’s been a rather hellish year for the prime ministers, presidents and dictators of the world.  You might be a world leader who’s dealing with a major natural disaster affecting your country like in Brazil or New Zealand.  Have some sympathy for the ...

DISTILLERY Blair Athol TYPE Single Malt ALCOHOL 43% REGION Highland COLOR Dark amber. Can barely see through the other side of the glass. NOSE Aroma makes me think of aniseed and sultanas.  It’s quite sharp. PALATE Initially the sensation is that of sour fruit, like grapefruit.  There’s notes of dark chocolate and sherry also. FINISH This is one whisky that ...

  New Zealand 41 Tonga 10 The All Blacks have a weird quality about them that my in-law Matt once observed.  Second tier teams such as Samoa, Tonga, Scotland, Ireland and Wales can all have competitive games against one another and against top tier sides such as England, Australia and South Africa but for some reason whenever they are pitted ...

After the relative disappointment that was The Euro, it was a pleasure to bounce back and experience a top notch restaurant like Alchemy so soon afterwards.  Jen and I had long made plans to visit this eatery on a couple of occasions before but for one reason or another, they always fell through.  Celebrating Jen’s birthday in early September provided ...

THE COMPETITION The Rugby World Cup is the official IRB competition that crowns the best rugby nation in the world.  Hosted every four years, it is the biggest sporting event to be held in 2011 and is kind of a big deal.  This year’s competition will be hosted by New Zealand.  This will be the sixth iteration of the tournament ...

DISTILLERY Macallan TYPE Single Malt ALCOHOL 40% REGION Highland COLOR Glorious amber NOSE Strong scent of butterscotch. PALATE A pleasingly warm, full bodied flavour evoking toffee, vanilla treacle and spongecake.  Takes you away to a happy place filled with memories of summer holidays…basking in the warmth of the sun.  It took a second glass to reach that conclusion however. FINISH ...

Best Augmentation

Star Wars makes its long anticipated release on Blu Ray this week.  And has now become the tradition with the launch of Star Wars on a new format, George Lucas has tinkered with the film by adding a slew of new visual and audio effects to the original trilogy.  And once again, they are almost all universally terrible causing fans ...

Earlier this week, Jen and I went to try out The Euro, a popular new brasserie that opened about eighteen months ago as an expansion to Urbane Restaurant.  We were there for a five course Plantaganet dinner where each course was being complimented with a Plantagenet wine.  We had pretty high expectations.  The restaurant rates very highly in the Brisbane ...

DISTILLERY Glen Moray TYPE Single Malt ALCOHOL 40% REGION Speyside COLOR Pale gold NOSE Faint, but sweet aroma of vanilla and butter PALATE Very crisp and sweet. FINISH Not particularly lasting, a lingering note of peat and thats about it SCORE 70 out of 100 NOTES This was the whisky that my work colleagues got me for my birthday this ...