Tigh One On

Please pardon my absence from Blogland but I was taken captive by my sister and forced to attend a wine and gourmet food tasting event at the Tigh-Na-Mara Resort in Parksville on Vancouver Island.

We were celebrating my birthday of a few weeks ago at an event called Swirl,

as in swirling wine in a glass,

or swirling about the room sampling the wares

from 50 BC wineries 

while at the same time nibbling on delectables, savory and sweet, prepared by numerous local chefs. 

It was serious business, demanding a great deal of concentration and dedication to the task at hand.

There was as much variety in people's attire as there was in food and wine.

Some went all out in their get-ups, possibly even delving into their closets for their old prom dresses.

and definitely garnering some attention.

Warm embraces and bootilicious hugs were observed here...

as well as there.

For three full hours the food and wine kept on being served.  I stuck with the red wines while my sister sampled the whites but we both dipped our sticky fingers into all of the pots of food, except for the oysters as she had once had an unfortunate experience with them and I just find them repulsive.

There was a  rather good jazz trio providing an excellent ambiance and good old standards.

At least, I think there were three of them.

As the evening wore on and the wine continued to go down, things got a little hazy,

if not downright out of focus.

Fortunately all we had to do was stagger swagger through the brisk night air back to our cozy rustic suite where we slept soundly, soothed by the sound of the roaring surf (unless that was my sister that I heard snoring from her bedroom as I lay in my Murphy bed?) and visions of sugar plums Asian spice ganache balls swirling in our heads.