Birthday treats are great, the wife sprang a little surprise. Indy kids farmed out to our good friends Neil & Lisa while we eloped to Edinburgh and The Roxburghe Hotel situated on south Charlotte Square at the end of George Street. it doesn't get any more central than this if your desire is to explore the delights of the capital city. Spent a couple of hours doing the compulsory shopping before homing in on the La Tasca spanish tapas restaurant for some exquisite chorizo frito al vino, patatas bravas con ensalada de la casa on the side, awesome scoff washed down with a fine bottle of Faustino V Rioja Reserva 2005, Silky smooth Rioja with crushed red fruits elegantly mingling with vanilla and creamy spice, that's what is says on the bottle anyway but my warped pallet failed to pick up the vanilla. The good lady declined the "Postre" but having a sweet tooth myself, the Tarta de Naranja y Nuez hit the right note. Fine cuisine indeed, with some reminiscing about our times in Mexico City & Acapulco, those cliff divers have balls of stone believe me, the only option left was the compulsory Siesta.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Birthday Treats
Birthday treats are great, the wife sprang a little surprise. Indy kids farmed out to our good friends Neil & Lisa while we eloped to Edinburgh and The Roxburghe Hotel situated on south Charlotte Square at the end of George Street. it doesn't get any more central than this if your desire is to explore the delights of the capital city. Spent a couple of hours doing the compulsory shopping before homing in on the La Tasca spanish tapas restaurant for some exquisite chorizo frito al vino, patatas bravas con ensalada de la casa on the side, awesome scoff washed down with a fine bottle of Faustino V Rioja Reserva 2005, Silky smooth Rioja with crushed red fruits elegantly mingling with vanilla and creamy spice, that's what is says on the bottle anyway but my warped pallet failed to pick up the vanilla. The good lady declined the "Postre" but having a sweet tooth myself, the Tarta de Naranja y Nuez hit the right note. Fine cuisine indeed, with some reminiscing about our times in Mexico City & Acapulco, those cliff divers have balls of stone believe me, the only option left was the compulsory Siesta.
Friday, February 6, 2009
The Temple of Jupitor Panellenius
The Temple of Jupiter Panellenius Restored is only one of three oil landscapes made by Joseph Mallord William Turner depicting ancient Greece.It was picked up by an anonymous bidder during a sale at Sotheby's in New York. The price paid includes auction house commission.
The Turner piece was sold as part of Sotheby's Old Master sales, which are projected to tally more than more than £56 million.
Art dealer Richard Feigen, who sold the piece, said: "It's a dumb thing to sell a great painting. I didn't want to sell it."
He added: "Normally I wouldn't sell any of my paintings. I finally succumbed."
First exhibited in 1816, Mr Feigen has had the painting in his private collection for the past 25 years.
He said that Sotheby's offered him a guarantee, a secret minimum price the seller is paid regardless of the outcome. He turned it down, unwilling to share the upside of proceeds.
Last year, the painting was featured in a Turner retrospective exhibition, which displayed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In a separate sale at Christie's in New York, a quartet of Turner paintings sold for close to £1.3 million ($1.8 million).
The record for a Turner was achieved by Christie's in New York in April 2006. A Venetian landscape by the artist sold for £25 million ($35.9 million).
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Edwin van der Sar
Edwin van der Sar's hopes of breaking the British record for minutes without conceding a goal at West Ham on Sunday have been plunged into doubt with the record-holder, Chris Woods, disputing the Manchester United goalkeeper's claim to the milestone. Having eclipsed Steve Death's 31-year-old English league record by extending his Premier League shut-out run to 1,122 minutes during United's 1-0 victory against Everton at Old Trafford last Saturday, Van der Sar apparently edged to within 75 minutes of breaking the British record set by former England goalkeeper Woods with Rangers in the 1986-87 season.
Woods, now working as goalkeeping coach at Everton, had his 1,196 minute clean-sheet run ended by policeman Adrian Sprott in a 1-0 Scottish Cup humbling against Hamilton in January 1987. But the 49-year-old insisted that his British record will remain intact for at least another four games after citing Hideo Hashimoto's injury-time goal, which was conceded by Van der Sar during United's 5-3 victory against Gamba Osaka in the Fifa Club World Cup semi-final in Japan on Dec 18, as the key factor. Woods said: "Edwin's achievement in breaking the Football League record last week was an unbelievable feat but, as far as I'm concerned, he is still quite a way from beating my British record. "Nobody seems to be counting the goal he conceded in Japan, but if you take that into consideration, then his run in all competitions stands at nine games or 810 minutes. "It was obviously a Fifa-recognised fixture, so I would have thought that any goals conceded in that game would count towards a British record. We are not just talking about league fixtures because my record covered both league and cup games." Domestically, Van der Sar's unbeaten run stretches back to Samir Nasri's strike in the 2-1 defeat at Arsenal on Nov 8 and bookmakers have been offering odds since early last week on the Dutchman breaking not only Death's English record, but the British mark held by Woods and Abel Resino's world record figure of 1,275 minutes.
But with Woods's record relating to aggregate minutes without a goal in all competitions, he is confident that he will continue to hold a place in the history books. He said: "I should have had a bet on Edwin not breaking my record when the odds came out because he is still more than four games away from my total if you take into account the game in Japan.
"He might actually go on and beat it and, if he does, then I will be the first to congratulate him, but he is still some distance away from achieving it."
Woods, now working as goalkeeping coach at Everton, had his 1,196 minute clean-sheet run ended by policeman Adrian Sprott in a 1-0 Scottish Cup humbling against Hamilton in January 1987. But the 49-year-old insisted that his British record will remain intact for at least another four games after citing Hideo Hashimoto's injury-time goal, which was conceded by Van der Sar during United's 5-3 victory against Gamba Osaka in the Fifa Club World Cup semi-final in Japan on Dec 18, as the key factor. Woods said: "Edwin's achievement in breaking the Football League record last week was an unbelievable feat but, as far as I'm concerned, he is still quite a way from beating my British record. "Nobody seems to be counting the goal he conceded in Japan, but if you take that into consideration, then his run in all competitions stands at nine games or 810 minutes. "It was obviously a Fifa-recognised fixture, so I would have thought that any goals conceded in that game would count towards a British record. We are not just talking about league fixtures because my record covered both league and cup games." Domestically, Van der Sar's unbeaten run stretches back to Samir Nasri's strike in the 2-1 defeat at Arsenal on Nov 8 and bookmakers have been offering odds since early last week on the Dutchman breaking not only Death's English record, but the British mark held by Woods and Abel Resino's world record figure of 1,275 minutes.
But with Woods's record relating to aggregate minutes without a goal in all competitions, he is confident that he will continue to hold a place in the history books. He said: "I should have had a bet on Edwin not breaking my record when the odds came out because he is still more than four games away from my total if you take into account the game in Japan.
"He might actually go on and beat it and, if he does, then I will be the first to congratulate him, but he is still some distance away from achieving it."
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