William Hardy Chardonnay 2013 Wine Review

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Frostie

Five generations of Hardys have made wine their business, making them one of Australia’s iconic winemaking families. Impressive indeed.

Their William Hardy Chardonnay 2013 is an understated medium dry chardonnay. It is a pale straw colour and is restrained. Crisp and refreshing with notes of lemon zest and pear. It is flowery with overtones of vanilla. This Chardonnay is made from Padthaway and Riverland region grapes and is ripe and zesty, with peach and lemon flavours. There is a touch of oak but it is delicate. A very good chardonnay. Recommended.

Pair it with fish pie or chicken dishes.

This wine can be drunk now but will further improve if carefully stored for up to 1 year

Available from tesco.com

Milo’s Planes Aural Palate Cleaning Exercises | Music News

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Frostie

Release date: 23 March 2015
Lead Tracks:
Lost Talent
Only Listen
Two Feet in a Crowd

Formed in Bristol in 2013, melodic hardcore/punk band Milo’s Planes began as a duo of Joe Sherrin (guitar, vocals and bass) and Harry Sherrin (drums and backing vocals). After recording their first album they were joined by Charlie Horne (bass and backing vocals) who was a natural fit, sharing a love of Wire, Fugazi, Leatherface, Lync, Rites of Spring, early Modest Mouse and Pavement.

Priding themselves on their DIY approach to their music, the trio record and produce all their tracks themselves on a sixteen track in Harry’s bedroom.
Joe’s guitar playing is influenced heavily by the nineties emo/post hardcore band Lync; he uses a off-beat tunings as a means to create interesting chords.

The band have earned support slots for Eagulls, Skaters, Traams, Electric Eel Shock and their hero Mike Watt, who made a cameo appearance in their music video for ‘Two Feet In a Crowd’.

‘Aural Palate Cleaning Exercises’ has been a labour of love with Joe spending months re-ordering track listings, carefully editing exact track lengths, dropping songs and adding piano interludes/snippets of radio samples to make it flow as one complete piece.

Of the subject matter, Joe says largely focuses on his experiences within soul destroying, bureaucratic admin jobs and the seemingly endless supply of bizarrely ordinary characters that can only be found within these roles. He explains “A large part of the fun I have writing lyrics is studying the mundane to the point where tiny details can be unearthed, exposed as real concerns and then exaggerated upon maniacally as a way for me to express the true feelings of frantic despair I feel sitting at a desk for 8 hours of my day. Being pretentious I would say a running theme of the album is using language as a means to disguise tiny, nit-picky & personal matters as universally angry subjects worth shouting about.”

In between ‘A Letter In Confidence’ and ‘Interlude 2’ is a hidden track; a shortened acoustic version of an earlier track – this was a concious effort to end the album in what Joe describes as a “dissonance of feedback which quickly resolves into something pretty & melancholy, with the album’s final words (“I have good intentions, but I never know why”) a statement intended to summarize the whole album.”

Playing it Cool Trailer Starring Chris Evans, Michelle Monaghan & Aubrey Plaza

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Frostie

We are huge fans of Chris Evans, Michelle Monaghan & Aubrey Plaza at Frost, so you can imagine our excitement for new offbeat romantic comedy Playing it Cool.

Playing it Cool is this generation’s ‘Swingers’ meets ‘500 Days of Summer’, a fresh and quirky story of a slight pretentious man, our ‘narrator’ (Evans), who falls for an unlikely girl, ‘her’ (Monaghan), and will stop at nothing to get her even after realizing she is already in a relationship. Like a young ‘Walter Mitty’, it tells the story of a quarter-life crisis amidst figuring out who you are and what your destiny holds.

In Playing it Cool unrequited love motivates a guy to write about his experiences…

Directed by Justin Reardon, Playing it Cool is from a screenplay by Chris Shafer and Paul Vicknair, from Wonderland Sound & Vision and Voltage Films.

Playing it Cool will be available on VOD from March 2nd 2015.

Fashematics: Oscars Fashion Infographic

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Frostie

With the Oscars fast approaching we are getting excited about…the clothes. Okay, it is about the films but the red carpet is a place for the actors and fashion designers to shine. We love this impressive infographic from Lyst. Over half the team at Lyst are data scientists, crunching over 100,000 data changes every hour from 9,000 fashion partners.

This week we tasked them with looking at the outfits worn by the Best Actress winners at the Oscars over the last 80 years.

They came up with a mathematically true formula that calculates the probability that a look will be Oscar winning, and also the luckiest combination.

The attached infographic sums up their findings, plus some extra data around the awards.

J is the luckiest letter for a Best Actresses’ first name to start with (good news for Julianne Moore this year)

Made by www.lyst.com

Granny Goes Skiing By Jan Speedie

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Frostie

What makes a 70 year old granny get up at 03.15 on a frosty Sunday morning, drive to Gatwick airport, park the car, be checked for everything possible and eventually sit with a well earned mug of tea and bacon butty? Simple, its January, the festivities are over and it’s SKI time.

We fly to Chambery, a small airport situated in the French Alps, collect our luggage and boot bags and leave the chaos of a small airport behind to travel to our warm chalet in Courchevel 1650. Though the snow level is disappointing, Josh, our host, has laid on tea and homemade cake and promises us another ‘dump’ over the next few days.

Spirits revived, we rush to the ski hire shop so we can have our first run down the easy slopes before the lifts close. I struggle into those boots, fix on the skies and I am ready, steady go.

Courchevel 1650 is situated at the eastern end of the Three Valleys and offers skiing for everyone on 650km of pistes and over 170 lifts. It’s a small village with friendly bars and lots of ski shops offering the latest ‘must have’ outfits. Sadly our funds won’t run to these show pieces and our faithful warm sensible kit comes out from one year to the next.

The next morning, we are up and at ‘em again, but mustn’t overdo it as we have a lesson with our lovely ski instructor later. Nervously we wait for Jason to appear and put us through our paces. Because of the poor snow conditions in 1650 we take the shuttle bus to the higher resort of Courchevel 1850 and here conditions are much better, but will my skiing pass his beady eye?

We ride up in the bubble lift and catch up on a year’s news, look out of the lift window and think those slopes are looking awfully steep. For the next 2.5 hours we faithfully follow our instructor and slowly the legs respond, our weight is on the correct ski, we complete neat turns and zoom down the piste. Our first day has been completed successfully and we feel pleased and satisfied with our efforts. But will the legs move tomorrow?

Relaxing in the evening and enjoying more great food and wine my friends discover an APP for their smart phones which tells you how far and fast you have travelled when skiing. Next morning the APP is turned on and we happily ski all day and ride down on the bus to our chalet. The results are amazing until Jason explains that our bus ride is included in those results: our bubble bursts. So, not ready for team GB yet.

Our week continues with more fun on the slopes. Waist lines expand from the food, and après ski sessions in a cosy little bar. On Friday it starts to snow seriously and continues for the next 24 hours and all around is white and fluffy. Our week is over, we are all in one piece and we feel exhilarated and energised by our efforts to perfect our skiing – can’t wait for 2016 when we will do it all again.

A 70’s Valentine By Wendy Breckon

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Frostie

Wendy Breckon is a writer and occasional story teller, who scribbles near the sea, in the middle of a wood or wherever the fancy takes her. She loves life and the people walking past the window, especially if they wave! One day, she hopes to flog that ‘sitcom’ sitting in the drawer. In the meantime, her love for coffee, almond croissants, comedy, and a good film, keep those words flowing …

A 70’s VALENTINE
RED is the rose you left upon the chair
RED is the hair slide you placed back in my hair
RED the stain of Mateus Rose on the collar of my dress
RED is the colour of flushed cheek bones the evening I said yes
RED is the sunset above a leather seat
RED is for the old Austin and our engineering feat
RED is for nostalgia and the sweet smell of YOUTH DEW
RED is for the moment I said I love you too
X

Where to go for Pancake Day

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Frostie

We love pancake day at Frost. If you are unsure of where to get your fix this Shrove Tuesday then here are some suggestions.

Savoury:

Pizza East Portobello – the renowned Italian-inspired pizzeria will offer delicious savoury crespelle (the Italian equivalent of crepes). Rolled and served warm, fillings include radicchio and gorgonzola or prosciutto and fontina.

www.pizzaeast.com/portobello

Rivea – the glamorous restaurant takes it’s inspiration from Italy with this year’s Lenten offering. Savoury ‘socca’ pancakes- made with chickpea flour – make a delicious light snack, or can be filled to create a ‘socca salad’ for a more substantial, but relatively guilt-free, treat.

www.rivealondon.com

Sweet:

aqua shard – head sky-high and indulge with a view. aqua shard will be offering a special pancake pudding at lunch and dinner throughout the week, with £1 from each purchase going to charity.

aqua shard pancake flambéed with cassis, served with maple syrup ice-cream, caramelised pecan nuts, blue berry jam – £7.50, of which £1 goes to London Bubble Youth charity, which supports young people in drama.

www.aquashard.co.uk

Cafe Boheme – nestled in the heart of Soho, this quintessential French cafe will offer traditional crepes served with lemon and sugar, or blueberry and Nutella.

www.cafeboheme.co.uk

High Road Brasserie – this French-style brasserie will cater for all tastes this Lent with ‘mix and match’ pancakes served with any of their breakfast sides. Choose from eggs any way, a range of fresh fruit, or perhaps take inspiration from the States and order yours doused in maple syrup and bacon…

www.highroadbrasserie.co.uk

Shopping in Italy by Amanda Brake, our Italian correspondent living in Le Marche

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Frostie

When I’m asked what it’s like shopping in Italy I realized that it’s quite a tricky question to answer because shopping in Italy isn’t always an easy task. But before you yawn, there is information about this fantastic area that I have to share with you.

Once a month we drive 20 minutes to our nearest Eurospin Supermarket where one can stock up on the basics: beans, sauces and pastes etc. , for 30c to 40c a packet.

However, we still love to visit our local markets and shops to buy fresh produce. It’s not just the food, but the experience. For example our village Force ( for-chay) has local milk from an organic free range farm and also great cheese.

Our house is surrounded by sheep who are farmed for their meat, milk and a great variety of cheeses. Many of these are sold locally at the supermarkets or the local village and town markets. Apart from Mondays you can find a local market in any one of the many villages or towns.

Our village butcher is situated on the farm itself, down a small lane. We don’t eat a great deal of meat in our family but when we do we make sure it’s good quality and here we know for sure it is. We also know that the animals have not travelled in distress.

Best of I have to explain to you the lovely free local seasonal produce we get from our neighbouring friends, anything from fresh plump cherries to carrots, peaches to lettuce, plus zucchini’s and many tomatoes, all of course naturally grown.

So you have to be a little organized but the benefits of this quality of food is worth it. What I look forward to most are the spring vegetable plant markets, so I can get on with planting my own food too. Life here is simple, but good.

Frost Magazine

Books and Lifestyle

Author Archives: Frostie