Grape Expectations......

Doris sent me a text as I was locking up the shop at 6 o'clock. 'Come to Monty's for a drink' it read, 'I've got a table!'

Monty's is our local wine bar. It's rather expensive....the kind of place one normally only patronises on pay day, or when somebody else is footing the bill.

Getting a table there on a Friday night is quite an achievement. It's the sort of thing people brag about for weeks afterwards. "I got a table at Monty's," they're heard to say, "on a Friday night! ", and their friends gasp in admiration, wondering what their secret is....

So when Doris announced he'd got a table, I had to go. I pictured myself elegantly sipping a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, being watched enviously by those whose place in Edinburgh society was not as advantageous as my own.....

Had Doris thought to inform me that the table was outside on the pavement, to the left of a wheelie bin, to the right of a family of chain smokers, directly in the path of a force ten gale, and that he'd bought me a half cider and a packet of cheese& onion, I might not have been quite so keen.....

Have a good weekend all.