Back in black

Stunning picture from NASA taken by the recently launched Orion vehicle as it looped around the Moon in the latest test flight as part of the project to return people to the Moon. Clearly the moon is much closer to the camera position than the Earth but the perspective is as thought provoking as that first Earth-rise picture taken on Christmas eve, 1968 while in Lunar orbit by astronaut William Anders. That photo has been said to be the most impactful environmental photograph ever taken, the reason I always felt that was said is not the obvious beauty of the azure jewel that is the Earth, but the terrifying opacity of the blackness surrounding us in seemingly infinite dimension.

 

Rare talent

I just learned that Christine McVie has died aged 79, another one of my music hero's has departed the stage for the last time. I loved Fleetwood Mac from the first moment I listened to Rumours back in 1977, it felt like an LP of it's time and seemed to capture the zeitgeist of the moment as all classic compositions do. It's an interesting fact that McVie wrote many of the songs, she was a song writing powerhouse at a time when Women's positions in business and entertainment was only just getting going, you could say ahead of her time, I'd prefer to simply say a rare talent.

 

World Cup woes

I do find it incredible sometimes how easily distracted we Human Beings often are, suffering, corruption, discrimination, hold on a minute, someone over there is kicking a ball around! I haven't seen any of this tournament so far, and TBH from what I can tell I haven't really missed anything that I can't see any weekend of any week, although, it's interesting that the zeitgeist seems to has moved from  moral panic, i.e. "OMG there's no beer" to moral high-ground, i.e. "actually it's quite nice being in a crowd that isn't completely shit-faced", progress of sorts I suppose.

 

Modern Life

 

Got a meeting tomorrow to discuss how my company might mitigate rolling power cuts over the Winter, deep joy, you can bet it involves wasting a load of time and cash as well as adding to the overall greenhouse gas burden..

More grey

 

A view from my walk today, could that sky be any more grey?

Food in the 70's

1.  Pasta was not eaten
2.   Curry was a surname
3.   Takeaway was something to do with arithmetic
4.    Pizza was where the leaning tower was
5.    Crisps were plain, the only choice was to add salt or not
6.    Rice was only eaten in milk pudding
7.    A Big Mac was worn when it rained really hard
8.    Brown Bread was something only poor people ate
9.    Oil was for lubricating engines, fat was for cooking
10. Tea was made in a teapot, and never green
11. Sugar was good, cubed sugar was posh
12.  Fish didn’t have fingers
13.  Eating raw fish was called desperation, not sushi
14.  No one had ever heard of yoghurt
15.  People that didn’t peal potatoes were just lazy
16.  Indian restaurants were mostly in India
17.  Seaweed wasn’t a member of any food group
18.  Prunes were strictly medicinal
19.  Muesli was called cattle-feed
20.  Water came out of the tap, or the well/river, never a bottle

Statistically none

Interesting result from the last ONS (Office for National Statistics) survey of religious beliefs in the UK, for the first time it showed that fewer than half the people in England and Wales describe themselves as Christian. The numbers of those people identifying with our state religion was down from 60% in the 2011 census to 46% in 2021 and the number of people who said they had no religion increased to over a third, at around 37%. This data is used for planning purposes and raises some important questions about the role of religion in the affairs of state and in public education, hopefully the politicians will take notice and realise that the "none's" now represent a significant voting block.

 

Monday mirth

Good point Gustav..

 

Sunday smile

Saw this on the interwebs, thought it was amusing... think Neil Diamond vibes

 

It's pronounced..

Tried a new Verdant beer last night, called "It's Pronounced Verdant, (/ˈvɜː.dənt/)" I guess it aims to settle a common debate over the pronunciation of the name of this Cornish brewer, i.e. is their name pronounced "Verd-ant", "Ver-dunt" or "Ver-dent", turns out it's the last one, who knew! Anyway, the beer is lush, one of my favourite hops (Mosaic) and more of it than you could wave a stick at, big fat, creamy, stinky Mosaic on a pale malt base with the classic Verdant mouthfeel and smoothness, hiding it's 6.5% ABV to the point where, blindfold, you could easily be convinced this was peach juice, an absolute belter.

 

Friday Smirk

J&M on the thorny topic of the World Cup and if we should support it or not, although if England make the final then some of us may find ourselves re-evaluating our moral positions..

 

Never a truer word..

Classic Dilbert cartoon (above), he really does seem to capture the essence of working in tech companies, particularly the unspoken stupidities that abound (not just in tech BTW) when Human Beings try to organise themselves around achieving complex goals that not all of them actually understand, and where emotions largely rule over rationality (and where not everyone agrees which is which). It's amazing we achieve anything really.

 

Equal in death

As mentioned in a previous post we spent Saturday last week walking around Windsor castle with some friends who were visiting from elsewhere in the country. We obviously went to look at where Queen Elizabeth is buried but since we were being escorted round by a Windsor castle "insider" we got to have a look at the outside of the structure as well as the more well trodden inside view. From the outside you can see how much of a modern "add-on" this is, not quite matching the ancient architecture of the original chapel and nowhere near as ornate. It struck me how futile, in the fullness of time, these kinds of monuments are. In death we're all pretty much equal, just atoms being re-absorbed into the fabric of the universe, one way or another.

The chapel at Windsor is full of marble slabs (and tombs) like the one belonging to Elizabeth II, more Georges, Edwards and Williams than you can shake a stick at, and most of whom are utterly lost to the mists of time, i.e. the vast majority of people walking past their slab or box have no clue who these people were or what they did, thought or believed. I suppose that's true in the end for everyone, although I guess normal people don't get their life highlights studied and memorized in order to answer pub-quiz questions..

 

Rain, rain .. go away!

Very soggy feet and jeans from my lunchtime walk yesterday, it's raining again today so will probably suffer the same fate. It gets very tedious at this time of year in the UK, you begin to feel like it'll never stop raining! But, it eventually does towards the end of December and starts to get properly cold for January and February, although then I expect I'll have to have a moan about that too. 

Perhaps I should move to the Southern Hemisphere in the winter, or maybe get some proper waterproof walking boots and trousers!

 

Midweek Mirth

Most gammons ATM be like...

 

World Cup (avoidance)

Not being much of a football fan I don't need much of an excuse not to watch it, when you add the dimensions of FIFA fraud, theocracy, virtue signalling millionaire footballers and Winter drizzle, I am, as they say on Dragon's Den, "out". Much like the Bristol pub sign pictured above, I think I'll be working more from home over the next few weeks, not to secretly watch the matches, but so I can completely avoid them and also avoid everyone else talking about them!

Windsor Walk

Spent a lovely afternoon in Windsor yesterday taking some visiting friends to the castle, the weather was kind (see photo) and luckily we know someone who does volunteering work there and were treated to a "VIP" tour, visiting parts of the castle and chapel that normal visitors aren't allowed to see, really interesting stuff, I hadn't realised just how many ex-monarchs were buried there!

 

Friday Smirk

Of course you are Mo, that's just what a narcissist would say..

 

Cancer free Thursday

 

Because we have a history of Bowel cancer in my family (my old man died from it) and now that I've reached a certain age I need to get checked out every couple of years. It involves (mainly) having a colonoscopy which is essentially someone sticking a video camera up your bum and looking for anything suspicious in your lower intestines (or colon). My first one was today and I'm not afraid to admit, I was a little apprehensive!

The preparation is hideous in that you have to not eat fibre for the preceding week, then nothing at all for 24 hours before, in addition to drinking seemingly litres, of some industrial strength laxative (which tastes foul!) to clear out anything that might obscure the view, and boy does that stuff work well, you can't be more than 10 yards from the bog for ages! 

Anyway, once the procedure was over, I was relieved on two fronts. Firstly (and most importantly) I was clear, nothing nasty lurking in there at the moment! Secondly, I opted not to have any drugs to sedate me during the procedure. You can have Pethidine and/or Entonox, which relaxes you to the point of not really being aware of what's going on but that's something I've had before for a particularly messy molar tooth extraction and it wiped me out for the following day (think the worst hangover ever!). 

I was lucky, my bowels must be fairly straight or something but I felt perfectly fine throughout the whole thing and had a great science oriented conversation with the doctor, in fact, I was glued to the monitor just above my head, watching every twist and turn and asking loads of questions. It was fascinating, and I must say that my bowels looked in really good nick (confirmed by the doc)! Nice and pink and not a hint of all the Bordeaux wine that's passed through them over the last 40 years! (I was a little worried about that) Anyway, all good for another couple of years and no drug hangover to contend with, a good day!

Budget Day

So, here's the buzz-word bingo chart that we'll be using for today's budget statement, good luck everyone..

 

Liquid Lighthouse

I tried one of these on Saturday, it's a local Kentish (Margate) ale from Northdown Brewery called "Thompson's Lighthouse Ale" (history described on the chalk-board behind) It was a classic English pale ale made with English hops which had that earthy/floral vibe so characteristic of hops like Goldings or Bramling Cross which are all grown locally to the town. A very subtle beer, light and totally refreshing with a decent hit of bitterness on the finish which keeps you coming back for another sip, very good.

In the evening

In through the out door by Led Zeppelin, released in 1979 and played endlessly by our little gang of spotty teenagers in our sixth form common room at every break and lunch hour, we loved it! Still do! The opening track (in the evening) transports me right back to that year, as music often does, fabulous to listen to now and to recall those heady days.

Margate murk

While in Margate last weekend we popped into micro-brewery Xylo (situated conveniently right on the sea front) and had a couple of their excellent beers, the one pictured above was called "Eazy Emcee" and was a tasty combo of Citra and Mosaic hops (a classic mix) also made with pilsner malt (hence the light hue) plus some wheat and oats to give body to this 3.6% session pale. It was delicious, a real spiky, murky treat on a beautiful November afternoon (just look at that sky!).

Breakthroughs

An amazing Human achievement, now 45 years old, the 8086 microprocessor architecture with some 30,000 transistors (a fraction of today's processor densities) Still going strong in many quarters in numerous descendent devices, and a breakthrough in mass produced computer infrastructure for it's time. It changed all our lives and for better or worse, I suspect will continue to do so for many years to come.

 

The gift that keeps giving..

I see that London has lost it's position as the #1 stock market (by value) in Europe, recent analysis has Paris overtaking it for the first time since records began. To cap this the UK is also expected to fall into recession this year as inflation rises and our currency weakens against other major currencies like the Dollar and the Euro. Last year we also saw London losing it's position as the top spot for trading to Amsterdam as the volume of shares traded daily in London dipped below that of our European neighbour and there has also been a migration of jobs from the City too, up to 7,000 jobs have been lost to rival centres, like Frankfurt, in recent years.

Of course there are many factors that affect the performance of this sector of our economy (about 7% of the total) but by far the biggest in recent times is unquestionably Brexit, that malodourous pile of excrement introduced to us by our Conservative overlords and, as predicted by many, a gift that simply won't stop giving.

Weekend in Kent

Spent the weekend in Deal, Kent visiting some friends who live down there. It was splendid, couldn't have hoped for better weather it was positively balmy! I'd never been to that part of the country before (except to catch a ferry to France) but I thought it was cool, lot's of nice pubs and restaurants, plenty of local beers to try and some interesting spots to visit. While we were there we took a day trip to Margate and although the town itself is somewhat run-down it was a delight to eat fish and chips in the sunshine overlooking the sandy beach. 

 

Friday Smirk

I think we've all used that one at least once or twice in the past..

 

Oktober

I've never been to the famous Oktoberfest in Germany and I'd never tried any of the festival beers (until now) I've always been slightly skeptical that they'd just be like every other over-hyped mass-produced lager out there, i.e. lacking in flavour and body, essentially just fizzy, cold meh! 

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I noticed a stash of cans in the bottom of the fridge at my local bottle-shop from Paulaner (one of the official Oktoberfest breweries) an it was their 2022 festival beer in can, so I thought I'd give one a try. I'm not usually a big lager drinker, preferring ales when I have a choice, but I must say this one was very good indeed! Cream cracker flavours, bready, floral and crisp but with a luxurious mouthfeel, obviously (for festival) everything is amped up from their usual session lager and at 6.5% ABV you'd expect something with a little more oomph, this certainly had it in spades. A super tasty beer, I'll definitely look out for these in future, maybe even take an Autumn trip over to Munich one of these fine years!

 

Inflation

Here's an interesting spreadsheet, it's the energy bill for one of the buildings that my local brewery Siren owns, note the increase from roughly £1200 per month in the first half of the year to £6000 per month in the second half. I'm not sure that many low margin businesses could absorb or even cope with this kind of increase, it's going to be a difficult Winter for everyone involved in running a company, and, it's worth remembering that when crazy rises in costs happen like this there's typically only one ultimate place that the bill gets settled, and that's from the pockets of you and I.

 

Midweek Mirth

"English Tapas", the diet of kings..

 

What could go wrong?

While hanging out in the new Brewdog under Waterloo station in London last week with my Daughter we noticed the obligatory hipster office slide in one of the corners of the establishment, just in case there wasn't enough danger in your life after a couple of pints of their very strong IPA's, what could possibly go wrong? (and no I didn't try it, what with my rickety spine!)

 

Twits

Looking at the amount of childish name calling going on over at Twitter these days it's hard not to think about the above meme. I can't help thinking that Mr Musk (bless his polyester socks) has made a huge error of judgement in paying so much money for a simple messaging platform, albeit a popular one! If there's one thing that's reliable about Human beings is that they get bored of things pretty quickly when those things become predictable, I can't readily see how that software is going to evolve into something that hold as much interest as it has in the past, it seems to be simply morphing into a long-form blogging platform and we already have plenty of those?

 

European Cities

So true!

 

Brown Friday

I had some meetings in London yesterday (Friday) and after work I popped over to see my Daughter in Fitzrovia, she was on good form and hadn't eaten yet so we jumped on the tube down to the new Brewdog underneath Waterloo station and had a couple of drinks and some (vegan) food. Even for a Friday the place was packed, almost standing room only and it's a massive place, good news for some sectors of the hospitality industry at least! I had a pint of brown ale (picture above) This style is quite unusual to see these days and this one was from talented Bermondsey brewers "The Kernel", it was delicious! Malt forward, slightly sweet with a classic bitter finish and just a hint of American "C-hops" (Centennial or Cascade perhaps) on the finish which is a modern twist on the style but worked perfectly.

Functional fear

Yep, functional programming, run a mile...

 

Philosophy Corner

 

"Not how the world is, but that it is, is the mystery"

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Friday Smirk

I don't get why we have to mess around with our clocks in this modern age, these days we're all pretty much in the dark most of the time anyway!

 

Fuel for comedians..

Most popular watched categories on Porn hub by UK region (yes they can see where you live!) A rich vein for comedians but seriously Northern Ireland, "smoking", what?

 

Vaccines

I walked into town and got my flu vaccine yesterday afternoon, it was quick and easy, zero queue and I was walking out five minutes before my appointment was due! I do think that since the Covid pandemic carers have generally become a lot better at giving vaccinations and/or needles are better (smaller?) these days? I remember, even a few years ago, that on the whole the process of sticking a needle into your arm seemed to take at least 15 seconds and was often quite painful, also, the reactions (I had) to them were much more noticeable. The flu jab I had this year was really quick (3 seconds max), painless and prompted nothing but a mild sensation in my upper arm around the injection site for at most a couple of hours. 

Now I just need to hope that the selection of flu variants was on target this year, we shall see!

 

Midweek Mirth

J&M pointing out the obvious (again), differing beliefs and friendship aren't mutually exclusive but beliefs (particularly the proselytising/imperial ones) make friendship much more difficult and division much simpler for us evolved apes.

 

Vegan Deliveries

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm often in London, wandering around from meeting to meeting, for work purposes and that provides me with a perfect opportunity to drop things off to my Daughter who is living and studying up there. One particular thing she often craves is my Chilli! Being a Vegan she avoids meat so I make a normal Chilli with all the prerequisite spices and beans etc. but substitute the meat for lentils, TBH I could easily eat this with some corn chips without even noticing! This batch is being containerized, frozen and hand delivered after a team meeting in London this week, I hope she likes it!

 

Historical home..

Now that my Daughter lives in the heart of London (Fitzrovia) I get the opportunity to wander the streets around there while dropping things off and picking things up and synchronising this with work activity (I have an office in town). 

I noticed this little blue plaque the other day, the building in the picture was the home of one of my favourite Philosophers, Bertrand Russell, an eminently rational chap and way ahead of his time on many subjects. It's difficult to walk anywhere around there without coming across a little bit of history, such an interesting place, she's very lucky to call it "home" (at least for a year or two!)