Ganging aft agley is a good thing

Wow! Discoveries galore last night and all surprising. I guess that's what 'discoveries' always are or else they'd simply be 'finds' wouldn't they?

Angie (definitely not blonde!) wanted to go into town for 'simple fare, wine by the glass and desserts' but, again, Rabbie Burns was way ahead of the game and 'gang aft agley' was in order but in a good way.

I grabbed a taxi and picked her up at work - first time I'd seen Warren Golf and Country Club and very impressive it was. Then we drove down to Dempsey Hill for the simple fare etc. Upon arival a tour of the area was in order and that's where the agley started. First distraction was the Red Sea Art Gallery which had a lot of sculptures of very fat, contorted ladies, some metal sculptures of dogs sniffing each other's bottoms and a few very impressive, very shiny acryllic on canvas paintings. There were some neat cartoon-ish paintings which reminded me of the paintings my Dad did on my bedroom walls when I was tiny and a couple of Jackson Pollock take-offs which were very spectacular. As devoted readers of this blog know I like Pollock-ese splashes so I was enthused enough to suggest we source huge canvasses and start splashing around again.

Next distraction was jones the grocer which is Australian owned, Singapore situated but the nearest thing you'll find to an Italian deli this side of Tuscany. We wandered around ooo-ing and ah-ing at the laden shelves then arived at the fromagerie which is one of the most amazing smell places I've ever been; I could have lived in there. Angie hates smelly cheese and was mortified when I was eating Blue Stilton a few days ago. The jones the grocer fromagerie was Blue Stilton to the extreme. Ting, the fromagier, was encouraging me to taste things so I tried all sorts of sweaty sock taste-a-likes and ended up buying Provolone and Tarago Blue Orchid. They had something which was in a box and covered with furry, festering, fungusy mould but I couldn't bring myself to even try, let alone buy it. They had some wonderful looking truffle oil but it was S$50 for a very small bottle so I passed on that.

While the cheeses were transported to the check-out by the extremely helpful Ting we continued our exploration of the shop; wines of course. Alcohol in Singapore is mega-expensive with most wines at least double what I would expect to pay in New Zealand - a 375ml bottle of Pegasus Bay 'sticky' was S$80 and I'd normally look at NZ$25-30 for that. At this point Ting reappeared with some Brie Truffle Brillat Savarin which she had just liberated from its box and that was heavenly so a good-sized glob of that joined my other smelly parcels at check-out. Then another discovery; Riedel & Bollinger Champagne Glass Boxed Gift Sets on special! Two engraved Reidel champagne glasses for S$25! That's insane, totally insane, so I bought two sets. That was enough shopping as I couldn't find any Barolo so we checked out. Interestingly an item identifying itself as Abbondio Rossa 250ml appeared on my bill but I had nothing to do with it!

That should have been enough but lo and behold just across the street was another deli - Culina. This was nearly as good but not quite as comprehensive and no fromagerie. However, big however, big, huge; Michel Couvreur whisky! Remember him? He's the French guy who ships distilled single malt Scotch to France then matures it in French caves. He lives in Old Meldrum where my great grandfather used to be the Cooper at the Glen Garioch distillery. I have NEVER seen this whisky in a shop before. So that was a no-brainer; one bottle please and thank you very much. Then the Barolo appeared but it was simply too expensive. The Brunello di Montalcino on the other hand was incredibly reasonable given we were in Singapore so, Hey, why not? a bottle of that too my good man!

OK, definitely enough, what about eating? Off to Dome Express and two of the most comfortable wing-back, leather arm chairs I've ever experienced as dining chairs. I had the 'simple fare' pepperoni pizza but tiny, petite, size 2 Angie ordered the Mixed Sausage Combo which included grilled pork bockwurst, cheese cracker and marquez spicy lamb sausages accompanied by mashed potatoe, sour kraut and drizzled with black pepper sauce; very yummy indeed, in fact the lamb sausage was nothing short of historic. 'Wine by the glass' went out of the window as well as the one I wanted was only available by the bottle. So a bottle it was. Desserts bit the dust as well which is a good thing because I want to continue losing weight.

That was it; pay the bill, refuse to contemplate the total spent during the evening, flag down a taxi, drop Angie off and return to Sports School to find a place of honour for the Riedel glasses and the whisky. Undoubtedly the best night out since I arrived in Singapore. Rabbie Burns eat your heart out.