Lancaster Grammar School Girls Get Sloshed.....?

What did you do at school today, darling? I asked Lola as she bound through the door and sprawled herself on the sofa.

"Wine tasting!" she said, grinning. "It was great!"

"Sorry? You did what?" I asked. "Are you.....drunk?"

She explained that as this week was International Week at school, they were 'off-timetable' a lot and doing all sorts of linguistic and cultural sessions. And the flamboyant drama teacher had decided to introduce them to Italian wine-tasting techniques.

"You pour the wine at a tilt," explained Lola, high as a kite. "Then you swirl it round to release the flavour and take deep sniffs to get the aroma. If you can see little legs down the side of the glass, that means the wine is mature and syrupy and good to drink. But that's for red wine.....it's different for white wines and champagne.....shall I explain what you do with those?"

"But...hang on, hang on," I interrupted. "Were you actually drinking wine? In lesson?"

"Of course not. You're meant to spit it out into a goblet and then cleanse your palate with cheese and crackers before you try the next one. Don't you know anything about wine-tasting, mummy?"

Not as much as you daughter, clearly. Seems I've accidentally sent her to some kind of Swiss Finishing School.

"But tell me, was it actual wine you were tasting?" I asked.

"Oh no," she said. "The red wine was Ribena, the white wine was elderflower cordial and the champagne was apple juice with fizzy water. But I really like all of those."

*Coming soon* 
In the 'other' new office today, but it would be super-weird to start snapping photos on my first try-out, don't you think? Next week I will!