Train confusion

True this week for (wannabe) train users in this country.

Double Barrelled Weekend

 

My local bottle shop had a special offer on local brewery Double Barrelled beers this weekend and so while in there on Saturday afternoon I selected three IPA/Pale Ales in 440ml cans, that I'd never tried before. Named "Scenic Route", "State of Mind" and "Cascading Falls" the three beers were all similar in style but featuring differing hops. 

The first one was a nice spiky IPA showing off a mix of Australian and American hops, lot's of oranges and lemons with a decent dank element from the Mosaic used. Next up was "State of Mind" that has Idaho 7, Mosaic and Sabro giving it a more soft flavour, less citrus, more tropical. Lastly "Cascading Falls" delivered Riwaka and Bru-1, giving it a passionfruit and citrus vibe however I did note that this was canned back in October 2023 and it showed, the flavours were a little "dull" in comparison to the other two but pleasant enough. 

In summary, a trio of excellent IPA's. I really must get out to this brewery sometime, they have an award winning taproom over in West Reading/Tilehurst, just need to work up the courage to catch the bus from the station down the Oxford road!

London Stories

The Robin Hood, a grand old boozer located along Longbridge Rd, near Barking in East London. When I was a student in London I used to live near here and this was one of our gang's regular haunts. I recall that it had a few video games that captured our attention at the time, particularly one called "Asteroids" and another table-top game that I can't remember the name of (Scramble?) but where you had to navigate a spaceship through a maze while being attacked, many lectures avoided and many (fun) hours of my life wasted in that place! 

I think the pub got demolished around 2005 and there's a Lidl supermarket in it's place now! However, to honour the old place the council had a tile mosaic embedded into the pavement at an appropriate spot just outside the original location, you can still see it today, see picture below..

A nice touch I thought, and brings back happy memories for me.

Give me a signal

Chaos ensuing just outside my little town's railway station from this morning, apparently we're getting "new signalling" and it's going to shut all the road crossings along the line near by and for the stops between Bracknell and Reading trains to and from London are to be replaced by a bus, for a whole month. I'm sure it'll be worth it, I bet the Waterloo trains will run much smoother and quicker after we get new signals, they might even become faster than they were in the 1800's (they won't)..

Hat Down

You see a lot of these at this time of year..

London Stories

Tried this place last weekend, it's an old pub (The Grey Horse) that's been converted into a community restaurant in Kensal Green, London. It's located on Regent Street (not the famous one!) and is called "Parlour". They do a lunchtime meal deal and since we were in the area visiting Daughter #1 we decided to give it a whirl. It was Friday when we visited and so predictably the meal deal was fish and chips for £10, which I thought excellent value for a proper sit-down London restaurant, and the food was really good too, crispy batter, mushy peas and stringy chips, all washed down with a lovely pint of West Coast IPA from local brewers "Portobello" who have their brewery just across the railway line! Total bill for both of us with drinks came to only £34, not many places in town these days where you'd get the same for less than £50. Apparently these guys do a fabulous Sunday lunch and it looks like they have a splendid outdoor area (see picture snapped through the back window below) so maybe when the weather warms up a bit we'll be back to try it out!

Monday Mirth

Nicola Sturgeon has really gone up in my estimation! 

As a result of the ongoing COVID enquiry she was urged to apologise after leaked WhatsApp messages describing Matt Hancock as “Weaker than a nuns piss”, Liz Truss as “About as much use as a marzipan dildo”, and referring to Suella Braverman as “Shitler” came to light.

Personally I think these descriptors are both hilarious and spot on!

Sex toy?

Came across this weird looking thing on my walk today, couldn't figure out if it was a modern version of a kid's space hopper or some bizarre scatological sex toy. It seems to be a pink turd with a pair of white dogs bollocks sticking out the side of it, it's a funny old world!

London Stories

Is this the narrowest alley in London? Probably. Brydges Place off St. Martins Lane near Covent Garden. The doorway on the left is the rear exit of a rather excellent pub called The Harp, the shelves on the wall are for smokers to rest their pints on. The Harp serves a great little selection of crafty beers, we were up in town yesterday (first visit of 2024) and I had a pint from The Kernel brewery, their Citra and Amarillo pale ale, delicious! Can't have too many though, you'd never squeeze out of the alley (only 15 inches at the narrowest point!)

Friday Smirk

J&M pointing out the obvious (as usual). All those other religions they're all fake and a bit silly if you ask me, but mine is true, no seriously, my religion is the only sensible one.

Cold reminders

I see that the doomsday clock remains at 90 seconds to midnight this year, for me it's just a reminder how optimistic we were in the 1990's and perhaps how we failed to capitalise on the revolutions that happened in that decade (i.e. the end of the cold war)

Summer blues

Had one of these while making dinner last Saturday evening. I don't normally go for Lager at this time of year, there's something about drinking ice cold beer when it's freezing outside that doesn't quite compute for me, anyway I shouldn't worry so much about convention as this one was delicious. Made by my local craft brewer, Siren, it's a typical Helles style lager but dry hopped with American hops (normally German lager styles aren't dry hopped) and so has a nice citrus vibe to it (think lager and lime) Also, served in my current favourite pint glass from London firm Anspach and Hobday, a gift from the last time my Son and I visited their taproom in Bermondsey back at the end of the Summer, let's hope we get one this year!

Fence panel chaos

Seems like the whole country is caught in a vortex of wind and rain at the moment, if it's not swollen  rivers invading people's houses, it's fence panel chaos (see above on my walk today)

Useful Information

Most useful information board in London (at North Greenwich tube station)!

Listening

When talking to people in a business setting, buying or selling, it's always worth trying not to say too much, it's often more useful to let the other side talk. Sometimes people fill awkward silences with things that they shouldn't probably say suggesting their real position, sometimes you can learn most by simply listening.

London Stories

If you visit the Dolphin Tavern in Red Lion St., London you'll see two clocks on the wall, one works and the other is frozen at a moment in time. On the 8th September 1915 a German airship (L13) dropped high explosive bombs along a string of locations (which can still be followed today) one of them hit the pub. It was razed to the ground. When it was rebuilt they found the pub clock in the rubble and it was frozen at the time of the attack, that's the clock on the right, 10:40 was the time.

Chat and Chaat

Went out with a couple of mates for some beers and a curry on Friday night, tried this trio of beauties from DEYA (Cheltenham) They feature the exact same recipe (malt, water profile and yeast etc.) but with different hops, the green one featured NZ hops, the blue one in the background US hops and the red Australian hops. All three were delicious and very different, my personal preference was for the NZ version but interestingly opinions differed around the table, a nice evening of chat and chaat!

Say what you see..

First off I saw a rock floating in space, maybe a rock falling from a great height but it's neither of those things, a nice optical illusion.

Putty 2024 time

We took the train into Reading yesterday in order to attend the release event for Verdant Putty at the legendary Fox and Hounds in Caversham (great boozer). I've blogged about Putty several times now, it's a special beer that's released in January every year by Cornish brewers Verdant (my favourite UK brewery) Incredibly this beer sells out almost immediately, it was released in cans on Wednesday at 10:30am on their WEB site and had completely sold out (over 1,500 cases) by 10:45am and I missed it! Luckily the UK release in pubs was yesterday, around 100 pubs up and down the country received a keg of Putty this week and in splendid synchronised fashion they were all tapped in the afternoon. 

Pictured above is 2/3 of a pint of Putty 2024 (£7.50), it's a DIPA (i.e. double IPA) and 8% ABV made with Azacca, Mosaic and Galaxy hops it's a classic Verdant haze bomb. Very "green" this year, but familiar flavours and mouthfeel, like meeting an old mate at the bar, a real treat!

Northern delights.

Obviously heavily filtered in this photo, but the Northern Lights are truly beautiful. I've seen them many times from the window of a 747 crossing the Northern Atlantic on the way to San Francisco and back, but never in the flesh. Definitely one for the bucket list!

Ice, ice baby

 

It's been cold enough around these parts recently for my favourite little pond to freeze over (see above). Still, not quite as bad as my poor Son who returned to Scotland last weekend, apparently it was -10 centigrade last night in St. Andrews, being a Student I hope he made it home from the pub OK.

Friday Smirk

The usual quality from J and M - tragic indeed!

London Stories

There's an interesting WWII relic at Putney Bridge station, an old pillbox (called that because of it's hexagonal form, after medical pill boxes at the time that were the same shape) Built in 1940 it was constructed as a final line of defence should the Germans had invaded Britain. Today it's just a rather strange box like structure sitting at one end of the bridge, luckily never tested!

Local films

There's a film being launched this week called "Boys in the Boat" It was directed by George Clooney who lives in Sonning on the river Thames. The film was directed in Winnersh Studios, which is a stone's throw from my office and which (when I'm there) I often walk past on my daily constitutional, I've blogged about it before here. It looks like a decent film, a sporty tale about an underprivileged American rowing team competing in the Berlin Olympics, must make a note to go see it when it hits our local cinema, maybe there'll be some scenes along the river that we recognise. 

Moments in time

Came across this the other day on the interwebs, it's an assembly of data made in 1918 by various recordings on  the Western Front by the British Army (they listened to and recorded German guns in an attempt to locate their exact positions) So, although not "real" as such, it's accurate and can be seen (and felt) at the Imperial War Museum, a poignant record of a pivotal moment in time.

Dark and low

On the continuing theme of low/no alcohol beers I had this one on Saturday evening, called "Call of the Void" it's part of a series of beers made for January by Siren and Mash Gang. This one is an amazing drink for the ABV (0.5%), apparently Siren threw everything at this brew, Tonka bean, liquorice root, cacao nibs, coffee, vanilla (you get the idea) The result is a pleasing flavoursome, layered dark beer that has classic milk/coffee stout flavours with a decent creamy mouthfeel due to being dosed with Nitrogen rather than CO2. 

I hadn't tried alcohol free beer for a long, long time, it always used to be awful, I would now contend that things have changed for the better, it's great to have choice and variety in this segment.

Hidden in plain sight

This is the cover of a Rush album called "Clockwork Angels", it was released in 2012 and, being a long standing fan of this group (since the 70s!), I snapped it up and enjoyed it very much. I just realised that the clock on the cover design is set to 12 minutes past nine which sounds pretty random until you convert it to the 24 hour system and it is of course 21 12. Those fellow Rush fans will know that their best selling album of all time was called "2112", funny how these little things can be hidden in plain sight!

How low can you go?

Tried one of these at the weekend, it's a low alcohol pilsner made in the style of a West Coast pale ale with the associated hop profile (i.e. bitter and dank) I wasn't expecting much as the beer only had 0.5% alcohol but I was pleasantly surprised. The ample hop dosage gave the beer a really good flavour and I'm guessing that the malt bill featured something that delivered a reasonable body too. I'd be happy to drink these if I were designated driver or to help with doing dry-January etc. Called "Out of Nowhere", the beer is a collaboration between my local craft brewers Siren and Mash Gang (London), Mash Gang are building quite a tidy reputation for low/no alcohol beers and it shows in this one.

London Stories

Amazing photo of Canon St. looking towards St. Pauls in London just after WWII, how TF didn't it get hit by a German bomb, such is the nature of blind chance.

Artefact ahoy

The Topsail of HMS Victory from the battle of Trafalgar, amazing such a thing survived the battle never mind that it was discovered in 1960 under some gym mats in a sports hall in Portsmouth dockyard and renovated. The big rip in the middle is where another mast fell onto it and the smaller holes are cannon and musket damage! These days you can occasionally see it in the Navy museum down there along with many other artefacts from the numerous skirmishes at sea that this country is renowned for, well worth a visit if you're interested in history.

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo pointing out the origins of most religious narratives.

Thursday tickle..

Love this, so realistic..

Physics

Is this correct?

(Hint, Newton's law of Inertia)

Where the bodies are buried

It's somewhat baffling that Paula Vennells, a CofE priest with apparently no experience of running a parish and not even on the payroll was nominated by the Crown Nominations Commission for the third most senior (church) position in the entire country, this was in addition to a CBE! Clearly the leaders of the Church were dazzled by her CV, they obviously fancied someone who had (apparently) turned around a failing organization by covering up the truth, lying to gullible people and abusing their position of power, duh, how dumb of me, makes total sense for a religion. Joking aside, that Woman must know where a shit load of bodies are buried!

Don't judge by the cover

 

We had one of these at the weekend, you'd struggle to find a more ridiculous name and label design, but I suppose it is from California. However, the wine is superb, a delicious oaky/buttery chardonnay that's slightly sweet on the finish but not overly so, just enough to distinguish this from the more dry French/Burgundian styles. From Santa Barbara County the wine is made by "Au Bon Climat" a well known producer from the West Coast, a 40 year old company founded by Jim Clendenen, who, when you see a photo of him (see below) you understand the label! Not cheap at £25 from the BBR warehouse shop in Basingstoke, but it went down a treat with the left overs from our Christmas cheese stash. 

Post Office

I saw an interesting story about the Post Office IT system scandal that's doing the rounds at the moment, it claims that a chap called Jason Coyne (an IT expert) knew about the bugs in the Post Office computer system back in 2003 and was actually commissioned by that organisation to produce a report on them, which he duly did. Unfortunately (or perhaps predictably) the management ignored his report, sacked him and then tried to discredit his firm.

It seems that there really are no redeeming features of this archaic organisation! I think that however the stories of the victims of these crimes pan out there should be (as a minimum) several actions taken,

• Prosecute the PO managers who either mislead or lied to the various enquiries/claimants
• Claw back performance bonuses
• Cancel any Government/Fujitsu contracts
• Sue Fujitsu for losses and damages
• Ban Fujitsu from all future Government contracts
• Give Alan Bates an OBE, and compensate him for the years he's spent working on this case

I seriously doubt many or even any of these things will happen, but with a fair wind and public opinion behind the various campaigns, I can only hope that some of them will.

Magic snow

Went for my usual walk today and it snowed for most of it. The snow wasn't settling much but it was doing that magic trick that snow in this country does, i.e. whatever direction you're walking in, North, South, East or West it's driving directly into your face..

Aqua-bus

Don't fancy the chances of any OAP's who need to catch the bus into town..

Pineapple Friday

Tried on Friday evening, an interesting new beer from Elusive, a "Pineapple, daiquiri sour"! Having never even tried a real pineapple daiquiri I was somewhat apprehensive about this one but it was actually quite good. Sour beers are a bit like marmite, either loved or hated, when I first tried one I though it was awful but with a bit of practice and some degree of acclimatisation I now think they're broadly ok. This one was very flavoursome, tart and fruity (although not pineapple particularly) clean with a cream soda vibe, not bad at all and at only 4% ABV quite light and approachable.

Opening doors to the past

This formidable looking door is supposedly the 2nd oldest in the UK it dates back to 1080 and resides in Rochester Cathedral, if only doors could talk!

Soul(less)

RIP David Soul, loved Starsky and Hutch but (as a 16 year old) he'll be remembered most of all for scaring the crap out of me in "Salem's Lot" (1979) that series gave me the creeps, good job! 

London Stories

This is Abbey St. Railway Bridge, it carries the train lines out of London Bridge station and was built in 1836, the street is named after Bermondsey Abbey which used to border the Neckinger stream (the monk's toilet) no longer exists. You can see the bridge as you traverse the famous Bermondsey Beer Mile, there are several bridges like it (i.e. with fluted Iron pillars) along this section of the viaduct. The bridge was designed by Col. George Thomas Landmann of the Royal Engineers (1780-1854) and originally carried the London and Greenwich Railway, London's very first railway line, you can see it on this original 1840 map (below). The plan was to extend the line all the way to Dover but it never made it, other lines picking up the slack and eventually superseding the Greenwich line over the last century and a half.

Friday Smirk

J and M pointing out the obvious (as usual) - Blasphemy, a truly victimless crime..

Here for the Duration

Had this little beauty over the Christmas break. It's a hazy IPA from Norfolk brewers Duration and is called "Tree". It's made using some gorgeous NZ hops called Motueka and Rakau, also with a touch of US hops Citra and Simcoe (both bankers) The Motueka delivers a zesty lime/citrus aroma and the Rakau lays down a dank umami and stone fruit foundation, the US hops do their usual tropical fruit vibe. A great start to the year and I suspect this one might end up on my 2024 list, we shall see. Duration seem to be knocking it out of the park at the moment, well worth snapping up if you see it (which isn't very often TBH!)

These boots were (not) made for walking..

So, this is what a (cheapish) pair of trainers looks like after 1750 miles of walking. I think it's about time I invested in some proper walking shoes, or at least something a bit more durable. Although, I must say these cheap Reeboks have been very comfortable. I wonder if I should cast them adrift on a burning long boat, there certainly needs to be some kind of wake, ah well, there goes dry January :)

Windy Walks

Popped out for a quick 5 km walk at 3 pm today, windy miller! 50-60 mph gusts I reckon, quite hard making headway at some points. Around half way round I came across this disaster area, not quite Tokyo airport but plastic barriers blown all over the road, let's hope things calm down a bit when it gets dark!

New Years Resolutions

We had a plan to walk into town and go to our favourite bar last night, they had a band on and everything, however, best laid plans and all that! The weather was truly abysmal, positively hostile so we decided to stay in and watch telly instead (just livin the dream!) I cracked open this novelty beer from Elusive, an 8% barley wine flavoured with Christmas spices, I wasn't expecting much (I'm usually not a big fan of novelty beers like this) but it was actually pretty good, balanced and flavoursome. Then, as midnight approached we tucked into some delicious cheese that I bought a week or so ago from Neal's Yard in Borough Market and watched the fireworks over a slice or two of Stichelton and Monty's Cheddar, not exactly "rock and roll", we really must try harder next year (maybe that should be our NY resolution!)