@kdfrawg He's done an awful lot in not too many years.

Lunch with height8. Decent wine, good food.

Indian. Best friend's sister.

Another 2-hour session. This time the formal wedding ceremony…rice, rose petals, more prayers…and no one cares except for those affected.

We're all sitting in the back giggling at anything else.

It's like being in school assembly, but no one to tell us off.

Boneless dark isn't hard to get either, even for me, so I don't believe a massive hotel chain like the Hilton would have any problems there. But anyway.

@kdfrawg Indeed. I'm (perhaps foolishly) hoping that tonight's dinner will be better as it's the real wedding tonight — yesterday was prayers and party, so the dance floor took priority.

@kdfrawg I always did wonder to what extent smoking influenced taste, but never quite enough to take it up as a habit myself.

@kdfrawg It's a difficult path (not that I'm complaining). I suppose it's not "all I want", but it is important for me.

On the subject of food, last night's sangeet/dinner was horrible. All of 7 spirits at the bar and no liqueurs, so even a negroni was out of the question.

And I'd have hoped the Hilton could figure out how to make chicken stew not taste like a mouthful of powder. My worst experiments at home haven't resulted in such dry white meat (and why weren't they using dark?…)

@kdfrawg Macallan is strangely expensive.

I say common but I mean only in one aspect: the effects of barrel age. It's very specific as a complaint but actually comes up in discussions of Calvados too. Not something most would think about ?