I don’t know why it took me so long to “discover” the portrait effect on my smartphone camera, but it did. Andy is, of course, a natural for portraits.
=(^+^)=
Two days ago, the UPS delivery guy brought a surprise package to my door. I opened the package and found a very special single malt Scotch whiskey. The full bottle! There was an invoice that verified it was friend Chris who’d ordered and had it sent to me.
“Surely this is a mistake,” I thought since this wasn’t some generic Scotch, but a very rare and special one. I sent Chris an e-mail about the Scotch and noted I’d re-send it to him as soon as he told me his address, which had been on my old laptop, lost, then, when the laptop got wiped out in a ceiling flood at the repair shop.
Chris called me the next day to reassure was no mistake and that he intended the Scotch to be a gift to me. We’ve reviewed single malt Scotches in past, me using small samples Chris sent. This new one is part of a series from this distiller, one we anticipate will be a treat since we both enjoy the works of Islay distillers best.
“This bottle will last you for years,” Chris noted, as it will since I don’t drink alcoholic drinks, especially strong ones, when I am alone with my cat. LOL! I do have one friend who enjoys a great Scotch, though, and I’ll have to share some with him one of these days.
I used to get together with Casey when our mutual friend Ralph returned from Paris for his summer visit with his parents. Sadly, Ralph and his parents all are dead, so no more summer visits! Or get togethers with Casey since we both get into our routines, rarely have paths cross these days. The Scotch may be the catalyst for a get together!
Sad, isn’t it, that in a town the size of Alliance – just short of 9000 people – two friends can go over a year, maybe two, between get togethers! A simple phone call to his office and we could have lunch together at a restaurant across the street from his office.
Mr Andy looks terrific, with his “horns” up. Enjoy your degustation!
He’s so cute then, and it adds a little “truth” to his nature as revealed by photography.
He is so marvelously photogenic.
It amazes me how much so!
😻
Good friends are like good spirits. They age well, and are well remembered.
I agree, Lavinia~!
Andy looks good. That was a nice gift. I don’t know anyone who would send me whiskey.
I fully expected a one-shot sample because an earlier exploration of exceptional one malt Scotches was just that. We had a fun time trying the various Scotches and giving each other our impressions.
SPECIAL DELIVERY!!! THAT PERSON IS A KEEPER, SIT BACK AND SIP & CHERISH THE FRIEND! SEND ME A VIRTUAL SIP…O HOW AM I KIDDING…SEND ME A GULP!
9O WHOM
Chris and his wife are exceptionally generous with their friendship. When I was hospitalized once without outside telephone numbers to contact family and friends who didn’t know i was i hospital. With my permission, of course, he accessed my blog and further notified interested folks what happened to me.
While I was taken by surprise by this incredible gift, I occurred to me I, while working, had a friend, a retired nurse and fellow birder, whose musical interests were late Romantic and early modern, where mine were Early through Early Romantic, with Baroque, with opera a sub-interest that covered both our interests.
I was buying from companies that gave me special offers often enough that I supplied her with several hundred CDs of music in my zone of interest that I had copies of for myself and found of special quality.
Between us, we expanded each other’s knowledge of music, but there was another aspect of our friendship: love of books! We shared titles and actual books that we each found of interest and had a very rich correspondence on birds, music and literature!
I note (no pun intended) that she resisted at first when she thought I was spending too much on her that I told her I got them pretty much at no cost but postage, that I got pleasure sharing things I enjoyed so much with someone who could share her thoughts back with me – she was very articulate and savvy about so many things. Well, Chri is like me then, it just came to me, that I need to appreciate that he wouldn’t do this if I didn’t let him have the good feeling that comes with sharing something he likes a lot with me, with no more thanks then to share that pleasure with him!
Whew! It isn’t easy being human some days!
Another great portrait of Andy! I don’t care for liquor either, Doug, it’s way too strong for me. 9000 people, that’s a very small town but it’s probably a very nice town too because of it’s size. My Michigan home town used to have 90K people in the entire county!
Between my town and a village of about 8000+ people, and a scattering of ranch and farm families, the entire county here are 10,600+ people in 1,078 square miles of land and water.
I do like occasional alcohol stronger than beer, but I just don’t usually have it in home. I usually save it till I am having a restaurant meal.
Wow, that’s sparse!
One county over is more sparsely populated and meet the old standard of fewer than one person per square mile to be categorized as frontier.
I see, that’s very sparse population! My home county in Michigan used to have just 90K people in it. Not the case now with urban sprawl. Bye bye to those beautiful corn fields and soy bean fields. 🫣😡😭
Yes, it is much to my liking, too!
I do miss the woods but like the climate much more here. You may not like living in Vegas.
I wouldn’t be able to tolerate the heat.
110 can be tough on the human body! Thank God for AC!! 🔥
I need it here for milder weather than that.
Lovely portrait of Andy! And what a nice gift from your friend!
Thanks! I was a total surprise!
Ooh, what a good friend to send you such a good single malt! It is a shame that friends don’t see each other more often, in small towns and big ones, but time has a terrible habit of getting away from us. It’s already June now, and all those plans I had for the spring? Pffff, gone.
So true! As foe the Scotch, what can I say other than it was a big surprise when it arrived and I opened the package to find a full bottle, then a second surprise when Chris told me it was intentional that he sent the bottle!
A marvellous gift. Have you tried Talisker? – my favourite
No, that’s one I haven’t had. I think Chris and I are settled on Islay-sourced single malt Scotches, though I have had some from Isle of Skye, just not Talisker.
I’ve looked that distiller up and there are quite a variety of their product available, including some astronomically interestingly expensive ones like Talisker Real Old Highland Malt Scotch, offered here for only $9,999.99 in that curious American retailer practice of not rounding to the next full price, which here would make it a $10,000 bottle! If one could afford that, the penny probably isn’t an issue, eh!?
Which Talisker do you drink? I am open to trying it if it is in my price range. The most I’ve ever paid for a single malt Scotch is $149.99. LOL! That was with a 7% sales tax because America hides the tax from you before you try to pay $149.99. That amounts to $10.49. The tax man just rounds that to $10.50 since you can’t pay the fraction above the $.49….
So, correction, the highest I’ve ever paid is $160.50, and it was very good single malt Scotch, the name of which I, unfortunately forget as it was an unpronounceable Gaelic name. I shared it with my friends, many of whom showed up after I intended to share it with just two others, saving the lion’s share for me for many moons to come….
After pouring out shares to the many people who showed up at the critical moment, I barely had a taste of that very pricey bottle left for myself, nothing of which remained but sad fumes to remind me sharing isn’t always a joyous thing!
I still have some Aged 10 years, which would have cost about £40. It will probably see me out because I can’t really take it any more.
That’s the fate of strong spirits here. I prefer a glass of Riesling or Gewürztraminer, or a good Czech pilsner over even Scotch. I like Bitburger pils of the German pilsners and Pilsner Urquell of the Czech.
Rick loves Talisker. 🙂
Good man, Lavinia. Thank you very much 🙂
There is a Talisker 10-year-old single malt in my price comfort range that I think will become part of my experience as soon as I am comfortable other expenses are covered…
I asked my friend Chris about this and he was familiar with it. He hadn’t had it recently enough to have much to give it a review.
I once picked it out of a tasting of 9 – and I’m not that much of a connoisseur
That says a lot about it! I like a heavy “peatiness” and it is said to be that kind of Scotch.
Yes