Simon Bolivar's Catch Up Thread.

[Greg]

Congratulations Simon, beautiful smoke for sure.. Cheers!!!!

[Simon Bolivar]

22.04.16 Up at silly o'clock & caught the ferry to Dover to go down to Bournemouth & visit our daughter, stopped for lunch just off the M3 in my old home town of Fleet, Hants. Afterwards wife did the charity shops for a couple of hours & I started with a R&J TPC ' 98, it was OK to start with but became very bitter & I ditched it at the final third. Then smoked this '12 RG Panatela from Matt Grody, a fine BOTL from the US of A, who smokes vintage from morn 'til bedtime! I hadn't had this vitola before so it was nice to compare with the Pan Extra & the PC. It's certainly a nice change & had perfect draw & construction. The PX at this time were a lot cheaper (short filler & hand finished) but they were & remain a decent fishing smoke. This one was slightly more refined & the smaller vitola & smoke time is useful & would easily stand up to the Perla today in quality & price.
23.04.16 After breakfast the ladies wanted to go into town & hit the shops, i managed to drop out at the first coffee shop & had an emergency ERDM DT 2001 break! A fine way to set yourself up for the day
Later after lunch, I disappeared for longer & had a ERDM CS 1996 from Troy Staton. This had a dark wrapper & an oily finish. I don't often smoke two cigars from the same brand in a day but this worked well as the CS went well with a the steak I had just had. ERDM isn't something I would think of after a decent lunch but this worked well enough. The flav was stronger & longer lasting than my 2006 cab's & I was able to take my time in the shelter of the Moon on the Square's smoking shack to enjoy it to the end.

[Johnny Thunder]

Looking extremely sharp, as always Simon. Great smokes too.
When is the piking adventure?

[Simon Bolivar]

Cheers Johnny; I'll be leaving from the rig to travel to Bute on the 30th, then have 7 days to break records & smoke Havanas.

[Simon Bolivar]

27.04.16 Nipped down town to Mike's Havana's to pick up 3 boxes of fine Havana's for Spartan. While I was there sparked up a Trini LE 2010 Short Robusto T & what a mighty fine smoke they still are, wish I had invested in a box. Met an international photographer, a fellow exiled Brit & Mike Choi & the London Bulgari http://www.bulgarihotels.com/en-us/l...ant/cigar-shop & The Rake. Mike had just popped over on the Eurostar for the day to catch up with the owner Reza, after meeting him in Cuba in Feb. We had a nice chat & he kindly gave me a H.Upmann's Especials '98, a vitola I had never heard of & had to look up in MRN. See photo alongside the shops last two RA LE 2011 which I picked up to delay cracking open the box sleeping deep inside the Boli Cave. The shop then checked Mike's travel arrangements & one of the ladies gave him a lift to the station, now that's the sort of customer service you don't hear about any more! Another very civilised afternoon.

[smokey joe]

It certainly is a rare treat to smoke indoors in England whilst out & about. Always nice to meet & chat with fellow aficionados too! Tell me though who is Spartan and what are you getting them 3 boxes of?

[handlebarpipe]

It certainly is a rare treat to smoke indoors in England whilst out & about. Always nice to meet & chat with fellow aficionados too.

Very true.
Marc

[Simon Bolivar]

Here's Spartan18's intro - turns out to be almost 5yrs ago now. You'll see I posted on it, inviting to meet him in Aberdeen. We did indeed meet up several times that year but he travels even more than I do 7 for two yrs he was moved to Utrecht by his company. He's been back since the New Year & we managed to catch up again last month after he finally opened a FB account & FB sent me him as a suggested friend. How they managed that I'll never know but we had lost contact as we had both lost phones last year with our numbers on it!
For the second part of your question, I pick up H.Upmann Royal Robustos x2 & RA LE Club Allones 2015 x1 for him & I took the last two RA LE 2011 singles they had. Unfortunately, even after compressing I can't post the pic of the boxes but here's a pic from the archives of us sharing a pair of his H.Upmann 50's in Aberdeen, shortly after we met for the first time.

[Simon Bolivar]

29/04/2016: Met up with young Zowie for a wee herf down the local cafe. I was there early so started with a wee 1960's Sumavana whiff with a coffee. When Zowie arrived we smokes a pair of his Trini Reyes, the weather being mild enough to remain outside for their duration but afterwards we moved inside for the main smoke of the evening a pair of Cuaba Piramides. These are aging well & that's nice to have that re-affirmed as I have a full box stashed away. I had brought an old board game with me & we had some fun trying to recall how to play this '80's fav. After Zowie had to leave to go out & hit the town I rounded the evening off with a Boli Regentes from 2001, the best smoke of the evening & a great way to finish off.

[Simon Bolivar]

06.05.2016 Last entry this trip. 26yrs since I arrived in Antwerp so a R&J Tubos No3 from 1990 to celebrate. A wonderfully aged smoke, incredible to think this would have sold for ?2-3 & I'd be happy to pay ?20 for one now, that's inflation for you! Secondly, moved to the square to enjoy this Boli Corona 2003 in the sunshine.

[RDBM]

An excellent pictorial diary Simon. Thanks for sharing

[handlebarpipe]

A lovely relaxing way to spend the day.
Marc

[Simon Bolivar]

Cheers RDBM & Marc, we don't get many perfect weather days in May, in Antwerp so good to make the most of them & getting lucky picking the perfect cigar to enjoy it with was a nice bonus.

[SHAMZ84]

I do love reading your updates...always looking Sharpe and have a great smokes

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Johnny Thunder]

Excellent updates once again Simon. Still looking very dapper too.