Auden!

The Grauniad selection of Auden, with a foreword by Rowan Williams and some cuttings from the archive. A mix of some familar and some quite obscure stuff (well, to me, anyway). Though I wish the Guardian website didn't stick adverts half way through the poems....

In other exciting Anglican bishop related news (don't fall asleep!), here's a disturbing yet funny .... er, thing (audio warning!) that the Bishop of Buckingham found on the internet. Good for your mental health, allegedly.

I'm reassured that, faced with a promise like 'ten inches of pure pleasure' the good bishop's mind went down exactly the same dirty alley as mine did; come to think of it, I find this a good deal more therapeutic than the creepy, creepy, 'Therapy Buddy'.

(no subject)

Yesterday - celebrating getting the paper down to time - I went out with a friend to drink whisky, from the excellent selection in Schlappen, Freiburg.

I started off with the Mannochmore South African sherry finish, which wasn't bad - a bit thinner than I was really in the mood for, but nice notes of vanilla and a bit of fruit (pear, probably). Would make a good aperitif. L, who has only just started drinking whisky, was very enthusiastic about the 10 y.o. Balvennie, which is a nice drink, with an awful lot of honey and flowers on the nose, and a bit of body towards the finish. We then moved away from the highlands - I had Jura, which I haven't had for ages, and surprised me by the burnt toast in the finish - and persuaded L to try Highland Park (oddly enough, it seemed to be my description of the scene in Dalziel and Pascoe where poor Novello is persuaded to substitute Glennfiddich for Highland Park that did it. That got an absolutely priceless reaction - very dubious face when she sniffed it, and a slightly bemused/ repelled reaction to the peat in the first mouthful. Followed by sudden enthusiasm at the second. "It just gets better and better the more you drink it!" Followed by the judgement that the Balvennie smelled more interesting, but the Highland Park was more interesting to drink.

I had considered trying the Loch Dhu black whisky, but after reading the review I'm rather glad I didn't - though a certain amount of (morbid) curiosity remains...