California, Land of replica Italian Medieval Castles

[WB 23.0.11] Not much to report this week, I feel like myself and Joe are becoming Americanized. All we do is sit on the couch watching TV eating fast food. Dougal's leg is playing up again so he cant go for walkies and consequently neither do we. In fact we're walking less and less and piling on the pounds. However even I baulked when Lily asked for a lift to guitar practice at the local gym the other day. By local i mean the gym across the street and by across the street i mean it would be quicker to walk there than drive- I'm not even joking!!!

On Thursday we drove out to a little town called St Helena in the Napa Valley which is packed full of wineries and one in particular is shaped like an Italian Castle! Its actually a bit more than that; the patron/narcissist who commissioned it imported over one million bricks from Italy because of his 'deep love of Medieval Architecture (sic)...and his Italian Heritage' His name is Daryl, recently changed to Dario because of his deep love of Italian names... Experts call it a masterpiece apparently- experts in what? replica medieval castles? Anyways it was impressive nonetheless.

Upon entry there was a pay desk with two women standing behind it. one of them was attending a couple whilst the other was busying herself with some files. We stood at the desk for a couple of minutes roughly in front of her after which without looking at us she walked to the other end of the desk and said "I can take the next customer over here, thank you" so myself and Joe walked to the other end other desk and declared our intentions to customersize the winery. I don't know why but that really pissed me off; is that unreasonable?

After walking around for a bit looking at the faux banquet hall and fake turrets etc. we got round to the tasting. Joe being a minor was given a plastic cup of grape juice and told to stand 3 feet away from the bar whilst i was tasting the hard stuff- truly bizarre! The Sommeleir tending us was actually a top bloke, his name was Tim. The price of the ticket included a taste of 5 wines but thanks to Tim I was tipsy by the time we left.

Yet More Basketball to report on, this time it really was a grudge match! Windsor High Vs Neighbouring Healdsburg High. It was a scintilating game and the baying crowd threatened to erupt in to violence a number of times. I dont know what they feed these kids here what with 10 of them 6'5" plus on the court and the rest threatening to shoot each other in the stands. Windsor won!

San Francisco to follow...