f4f3 | There and back again (Reply)

Back home again, sixty hours and 400 or so miles since leaving for work on Friday morning. Unfortunately all the distilleries in Speyside were closed on Saturday, but I managed to pick up two nice bottles from the fairly awesome Dufftown Whisky Shop - an independent bottle of Talisker, which was wonderful, and a bottle of X4, Bruichladdich's "Islay Spirit". This is basically new make - distilled spirit which hasn't been aged in barrels, so it can't be called whisky. It's also completely clear. I bought it out of curiosity, since in my head most of the character of whisky comes from the barrel and the aging process within it. I was pretty surprised - although the taste was a little sharp, a little simple, it was definitely Bruichladdich. A very, very strange bottle.

On the way back unblinkered and I stopped in Footdee (pronounced Fitty) a charming little fishermen's colony at the mouth of the Dee river (the Foot of the Dee) where two of her friends have taken up residence. I got to meet their new baby, Thomas, who was charming, and confined the projectile vomiting to his father. The drive down took a shade under two and a half hours, a suspiciously good time when I wasn't really pushing hard. unblinkered caught up on some sleep after Dundee, and I used Radio 4 to keep me company - Poetry Please, File on Four, and a profile of M.I.A., the Tamil singer who is up for an Oscar for her song on "Slumdog Millionaire".

I'm now starting to fade, but we should probably get to a supermarket before I flop...