Friday Smirk

J&M on the money as usual, the circular reasoning is strong with these two...

Memory Lane

Siren seem to be taking a trip down memory lane at the moment and re-brewing several of their old favourites. Here's another one, "Origin Story" an inky black Imperial Stout made with a crazy number of different malts and as smooth as a proverbial baby's bottom! Fortunately doesn't taste or smell like one though, expect roasted malts, coffee, chocolate, brown sugar and a silky smooth mouthfeel. First tried back in 2022 in mid-Summer, delicious stuff!

Rivington

I had one of these the other weekend, it's a collaboration between local brewery Siran and Rivington who are based up in Lancashire. It's a hazy IPA/DIPA brewed with American & NZ hops, its lush, approaching Verdant levels of murk, a distinct taste profile from the Nelson, fruit forward and very easy to drink. I must seek out some more Rivington beers, if this one is representative then they're most definitely worth a look.

Ooo-er Missus

In the roof gutter of one of the old buildings in my town I noticed a rather unusual object, perhaps a plumber left his pink plunger up there, who knows, I was going to point this out to the people in the building but didn't want to be a dick about it..

Shiver me timbers

Some very clear nights and freezing cold mornings this week, I snapped the picture above on an earlier walk, you see a lot of this kind of thing at this time of year..

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo, the religious pot calling the woke kettle black..

 

EMM revisited

Had one of these at the weekend, it's an old favourite from around 5 years ago which has been re-brewed and was released last week. It's a West Coast IPA made as a collaboration between my local craft brewers Siren and Green Cheek a California based firm. It's delicious, made with Mosaic, Citra and Simcore (the holy trinity of US hops) it's crisp, fruity and dank with a morish bitterness, very nice indeed!

Midweek Mirth

 I do worry sometimes that "mental health" issues are becoming like modern day "fashion statements"..

SRM

I was in the Nags Head a couple of weekends ago and had a pint of DEYA "Steady Rolling Man" on cask (see above) It was glorious! Usually this beer is served from a Keg, i.e. artificially carbonated and under pressure but having it from cask where it's naturally carbonated and pumped manually opens up a whole new world of flavour. Don't get me wrong, the keg version is pretty damn fine but this one is like a different beer altogether, the flavours seem deeper, the beer is much smoother and I would argue much easier to drink (which is probably a dangerous thing as it's around 5% ABV) It's good to see some of the leading craft ales available on cask, a welcome change for us (usual) keg-heads.

Henley Sunday

Lovely Sunday afternoon for a walk in the Spring sunshine yesterday. We ended up taking a stroll around Henley On-Thames, the river was running high and fast but the blue skys and sun were very welcome after a prolonged period of rain and drab greyness here in the UK. I think everyone had the same idea as us as the town was really busy, still, nice to see people out and about for a change.

New York Stories

A colourised picture from the 1950's showing how important passenger liners were back in the day for long haul travel, before the days of airlines the only way to get across the pond was on one of these beauties, an amazing snapshot in time.

State of the nation..

Anyone who watched the shit show of a press conference in the Whitehouse this evening between Trump, Vance and Zelensky simply has to agree that the US leadership is a fecking disgrace. Did I need to say that out loud or is everyone else in the world (appart from Russian crime gang members, lead by the butcher Putin) thinking the same thing?

I wonder what Putin has on Trump? Is it a video with hookers, is it money laundering, drug money, Epstein or some other criminal activity? It would appear that the ally many of us thought we had is looking more and more like an enemy and friend of the Russian crime syndicate. On a side note, if our current King hosts another state visit with that twat, then he can sod right off too.

At this point I think the only winner is China, they should step in at this point and do a mineral deal with Ukraine in exchange for military guarentees, that would put the cat among the pigeons..

It'll be interesting to see what the markets do on Monday, I wouldn't want to be holding Tesla stock right now.

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo pointing out the best way to make Atheists, just get people to (properly and critically) read their holy books!

Wykehamists

 

We visited Winchester last weekend  to meet up with some friends and a have a good old chinwag (and a nice lunch!) but before we settled into our chosen restaurant we thought it was a good idea to have a brisk walk around the town. While on said walk I came across this building in one of the side streets, I wondered what a "Wykehamist" was, none of my fellow perambulaters knew either so I had to "Google it". Apparently a Wykehamist is a past or present member of Winchester College (which was just up the road) this makes complete sense when you know that the college was founded in 1382 by "William of Wykeham" as a feeder school for New College, Oxford! I guess a couple of the old boys who liked "home-ed" decided to branch out, good luck to them!

Box-set Wine

 

Had one of these last weekend, picked up as a "bin-end" from BBR before Christmas it's one of the best SA Cabernet blends (for sensible money!) around IMO. Rich and fruity with a decent finish but quite sweet, I get the impression that the grapes used here had quite a lot of residual sugar left in them, anyway, a lovely drink to consume with the "mrs" on a Saturday evening while evaluating a new box-set series on the TV!

Midweek Mirth

Seen on a bus stop in the UK, hillarious but won't be understood in the USA (they know sweet FA about history!)

Signs of Spring?

 

These early blooms have been here for a couple of weeks now, they're usually the first ones I notice on my daily walk, a sign of Spring? (let's hope so, I've had enough of "grey" now..)

Dog do's, and don'ts

 

I'm sure we've all seen scenes like this, the gag-worthy sight of a waste bin overflowing with little plastic bags full of dog shit, this particular one was situated at the edge of a children's playground, nice work dog owners! I'm not sure what kind of people think this kind of littering is OK but if I ever caught one in the act, I'd be sorely tempted to follow them home with their little plastic bag and "return to sender" (via their letterbox!)

DIPA

Had one of these at the weekend, a new DIPA from Siren, tropical fruits and dankness for miles, it was nice but not quite up to the DIPA standard set by breweries like Verdant. In case you're wondering "DIPA" stands for "Double India Pale Ale" meaning that it's got a high ABV (8%) but also higher doses of hops, more flavour and a denser mouth feel than usual IPA's (which are usually around 5-6%) There are also things called TIPA's or Triple IPA's as well which usually check in at around 10% ABV, sometimes challenging and very rarely amazing in my view..

London Stories

Causes of death in London in 1632, I'm particularly drawn to "Worms" and "Rising of the Lights", the mind boggles! Amazing that 470 people died from their "teeth", next time some old mutton faced Brexiteer tells you things were much better in the "old days" remind them of this fact..

Tragically ugly

I notice that there are whispers in the ether at the moment about sales of Tesla cars, particularly in Europe. Some sources claim that they are down or at least have hit a wall, with reported volumes in Spain and France down by around 70%. I wonder if this is true? I do hope so. I despise what Musk has turned into, a lickspittle sidekick of one of the most corrupt politicians in history, someone who has (cynically or otherwise) acquired a firehose of shit that he sprays out over the world in an attempt to skew the views of the feable minded, proping up a sesspit of self interest with "on-narrative" garbage.

I try not to listen to Trump, I remember when he was president before I congratulated myself on having never heard an entire mangled sentence, managing to reach the remote control fast enough to switch channels for a period of four long, tedious years. Unfortunately the shear quantity of crap coming out of the usual channels at the moment means that it's almost impossible to avoid, particularly on social media which I suppose is all part of their strategy! 

It feels like we're all in a lift descending into a dark pit with an unknown depth, and no matter how much we mash on the "up-button" to return to the light, nothing happens. Listening to some of the utter shit that is currently being spewed from the mouths of bloated, entitled Americans these days it's ever more difficult to remain calm and balanced. Still, I suppose there is always one lever that we can pull on (for now at least) and that is we can boycott their products, dent the thing that means the most to them, their wallets. I recently purchased an electric car, I chose a solidly European model! I must admit, this was no great sacrifice of conscience as I think Tesla's look like "Lego cars", tragically ugly and deserving of 100% import tariffs just because of that, still, it's always nice to do one's bit..

I'm put in mind of a joke I heard recently, it goes something like this, "People say that Musk is a Nazi, this is clearly false hysteria and should not be taken seriously, everyone knows that the Nazi's made pretty decent cars"..

Friday Smirk

J&M proving that the cartoon strip is obviously satire, religious prophets never have a sense of humour..

London Stories

 

One of my all time favourite paintings of London, the scene is looking down on Ludgate Circus up to St. Pauls, the railway bridge isn't there any more although there is an underground railway along the same route. It looks fabulously smoky, busy, noisy and totally chaotic, as any great city should! 

(by William Logsdail, oil on canvas  c. 1887)

Hello London!

Getting excited about this, previously the only guarenteed way of trying Verdant beers on tap was to drive 6 hours down the A30 to Falmouth, Cornwall (bit far to go just for a pint!) Later this month that travel time will be cut to an hour on the train, yipee!

Walking crash scenes..

 

While out on my consitutional stroll this lunchtime I happened across this sorry looking vehicle. Clearly someone has given it a huge clout in the back wheel arch, looks like a very expensive misjudgement!

Coconuts

Tried one of these last weekend, a delicious stout in the latest variation, it tasted of roasted malts and dark chocolate with added coconut (flavour) a classic combination and all done in a tidy 400ml package from Elusive, well played sir!

Bordeaux Horizontal

 

I took delivery of some 2009 wines the other day (see picture above) I bought cases of these wines "en-primeur" back in 2010 which means before they were put into bottles (it's often cheaper that way but the risk is that they turn out to be naff!) anyway, they've been resting in storage ever since and are ready to drink now. 

I'm very much looking forward to trying them all, might even get a couple of wine buddies over to do a "horizontal tasting" (i.e. different producers, same vintage) which will make it even more fascinating, 2009 was a cracking vintage for Bordeaux (where these are all from)..

Livin the dream

A "premium" Spanish lager, brewed in Spain and exclusively sold by a German supermarket in the UK as a proxy for a fake Spanish lager, brewed in the UK by an American corporation, what a time to be alive! They both taste like sh1t BTW, but I'm not judging, the folk that like this kind of stuff don't seem to focus much on how it tastes from what I can tell, different strokes etc.

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo pointing out the rather obvious contradiction, i.e. that an organisation that proports to hold moral authority over society should itself have morals (same for the Catholics BTW) It's almost like all of these organisations were simply invented by evolved apes desparately clawing their way to the top of their respective regional heaps. For "morality and ethics" substitute, "worldly power and influence" and you've more or less exposed the true purpose of religion.

Foodie Breakfasts

We had the good fortune to spend an hour or so in Mayfair on Saturday morning and managed to snag a table at the wonderful "Fallow" in nearby St James's (Haymarket). The place is well known for it's "nose to tail" cooking and we both had the "steak and eggs" for breakfast (pictured above), a real treat, fairly plain but perfect with a couple of swanky hash browns and "brown sauce", not quite a "full English", more an American staple but delicious and a great antidote to our slightly fuzzy heads from the night before out with the youngsters!

London Stories

Having posted a photo of the modern day view of the gatehouse to St Bartholomew's church in Smithfield the other day I came across a photograph of how it looked pre-ww1 before the Zeppelin bomb exposed what lay beneath the 19th century shop facade (see above) It's interesting that the buildings to either side of the gatehouse appear very little changed!

Best Pub?

 Quite possibly the best pub in the home counties, well, Berkshire at the very least..

Regional Tastes

 Best selling artists by English counties, interesting..

Breaking fasts

The interior (upstairs) of The Woolpack in Bermondsey, a glorious London pub that serves DEYA beers (awsome!) and the perfect place to break the fast of "dry January", a pint of the wonderful "Steady Rolling Man" slipped down a treat while we waited for our kids to meet us for dinner, which was also pretty good, at Murano Cafe down the end of Bermondsey Street.

London Stories

Just around the corner from the Bunhill Fields burial ground, where both John Bunyan and William Blake (not to mention Thomas Bayes) are buried is the street in the photo above. It's an ordinary East London view but is also one of the few remaining London streets where you can still see wooden cobble stones, the street is called "Chequer St". 

They used to make these cobbles from wood rather than stone as the noise from horses and carriages was much less that way, even in the 19th century people used to complain about noise pollution!

Superheros

There's a new superhero in town folks, don't push him or he may "go off", I wonder what his special powers are?

London Stories

While in London the other day we walked past this memorial to that legendary revolutionary Scottish hero William Wallace. It marks the spot (or close to it) at Smithfield where, in 1305, he was hung, drawn and quartered for treason and "war crimes". It's fair to say that, unlike his character as portrayed by Mel Gibson in the film Brave Heart, he committed a number of atrocities against civilians during his military career, in particular his plundering of Northern England in the 1290s where he "fired" 700 English villages in Northumberland. I guess, sometimes, our hero's aren't always everything we'd want them to be..

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo delivering up another truism about religion. The instinct and desire for conformity among our religious brothers and sisters is very strong, I guess it makes many of them feel more validated and more secure, I couldn't possibly comment..

King of Hearts

One of the many benefits of wearing a smart-watch all the time (as I do) is that it can measure things over long periods of time and tell you about trends (good or bad!), something that the occassional spot measurement can't easily do. 

I was pottering around the other day when my watch decided to alert me to the fact that my average resting heart rate had dropped from 59 (beats per minute) as measured over the last 21 weeks, to 52 as measured in the last 5 weeks. This was really interesting (for me at least) as over the last 5 weeks my Wife and I have been doing "dry January", i.e. not imbibing any alcohol at all and also we upped our exercise in order to shed a few pounds after Christmas. The overall effect of these changes is probably correlated to this measurement. I decided to take a look at what resting heart rate I "should" have at my age (62) and found the table (above) it suggests that on average I should have a RHR of 72-75 BPM, my actual RHR is 52 (according to my watch) and so that puts me into the "Athlete" category, I was pleased to read that, even with a decent error margin that's still pretty good I reckon. Anyway, I'll definitely keep up the exercise this year but I must admit I'm looking forward to my first pint for 5 weeks on Friday, none of us are perfect!

The future, yesterday..

Love this old home video of Concord taking off from Heathrow. It used to go over our house as well, although a lot higher than this, it was still a magnificent sight though. I love the fact that the afterburners are still lit and the shockwaves set off a car alarm, classic, and it looks so much more futuristic than anything today, and to think 3 hours later it was touching down at JFK in New York..

Meanwhile...

Meanwhile, in America...

London Stories

While in town last Friday we walked past one of the oldest Tudor buildings in London (1500's), a survivor of the 1666 fire (one of only 18 pre-fire buildings still standing) it's the rather substantial gatehouse to St Bartholomew's church in Smithfield. The huge stone walls of the nearby priory protected this building (and some others opposite, see 41 Cloth Fair) from the flames of the fire and it survived until the Georgian era when a facade was built obscuring its true nature for the next two centuries. In 1917 a bomb from a German Zeppelin exploded nearby and exposed parts of the original frontage and it was fully restored in 1932, and we ask what the Germans ever did for us?

For completeness, here's a list of all the pre-1666 buildings that I know of,

The Olde Wine Shades (now a wine bar)

The Seven Stars

St Bartholomew's Gatehouse

41 Cloth Fair

The Staple Inn

The Guildhall

St Andrew Undershaft

St Giles-without-Cripplegate

St Helen's Bishopsgate

St Katherine Cree

Tower of London

74-75 Long Lane

The Hoop and Grapes

St Ethelredas Church

The Old Curiosity Shop

Prince Henry's Room

All Hallows-by-the-Tower

229 Strand

St Olave Hart Street

Runaway Runway

The Chancellor, Rachael Reeves was on the telly alot this week talking about the proposed third runway at Heathrow airport, it's something that's been banged on about by politicians of every stripe for decades and so far nothing has happened. I'm in favour of a new runway, my view is that international trade and travel is the lifeblood of this country and over the last couple of decades our lack of fast efficient transport systems has contributed to our worrying decline into obscurity, many European cities and transport hubs have picked up revenue from global travellers and business folk at our expense. 

We are, of course, in a difficult position. Heathrow airport is perched on the Western edge of a densely populated city, there's no room for meaningful expansion and in order to expand at all we will have to destroy existing dwellings and infrastructure, so not ideal. There are a couple of schools of thought on this, there are those who don't want any expansion (often for reasons to do with climate-change), people that want expansion of varying degrees and people that would rather see expansion taking place somewhere else (i.e. not in their backyard) My view is that simply adding a runway to Heathrow, one that won't come into service until at least 2040 is just a drop in the ocean without similar investments in other modes of transport, i.e. rail and urban light-rail to move people to and from these hubs. In that respect I must conclude that the announcements and apparent vigour of Rachel Reeves seems mostly "political" in nature, we shall see what else (if anything) emerges.

I don't see how we can avoid expanding Heathrow and probably other London airports as well, at least if we want the city to thrive and grow for another 100 years. However, I am also sypathetic to the idea that we should consider beefing up other regional airports at the same time, the argument for that is clear, most people want and/or need to travel and most people in the UK don't live in London! I'm convinced that cities like Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Edinburgh etc. are also worthy of the trade that good transport links provide and could also contribute positively to the wealth of the nation if opened up more.

Friday Smirk

Another classic cartoon from the boys. I often think this about all religions when believers make ridiculous claims of veracity and miracles, I think "pull the other one, it's got bells on it!"

London Stories

No, not an old petrol pump but a Police telephone! Installed in the 20s all the way through to the 60s these devices were connected directly to local stations and were used by bobbies to call in crimes, ask for assistance and generally keep in touch with their base. How telephony has changed in the last 60 years!

48 years of Animals

Released on 21st January 1977 (48 years ago!!!) this was one of my favourite albums of all time, I remember listening to it with my late Father, we sat there in silence and played it all the way through (both sides) before declaring it a classic. Favourite track? Well, has to be "Dogs" I reckon, the way the voice merges into a synth sound was ground breaking at the time and still sounds great to this day!

Value not found?

We've been riding the wave of a US stock market boom in recent years, particularly tech-stocks, and the likes of Amazon, Google, Apple, Tesla, Facebook, Nvidia and Microsoft (the "Magnificent Seven") are all at all time highs currently. Of course, whenever things go to their "all time high" we can expect a "correction" of some kind at some point, and there's no doubt that we are in a classic hype-cycle when it comes to AI and the valuation frenzy around companies that are involved in it.

I've been through several of these hype cycles now, they all look pretty similar, innovation occurs, inflated expectations are generated, the innovation flattens and we decend into a "trough of disillusionment" as it's known. I believe current AI tools will turn out just like this, sure, it's clever and useful but converting that innovation into hard revenue will, I think, prove a little harder than people think and will take time.

In recent weeks a new entrant to the generative AI scene has emerged, DeepSeek (which has an open source LLM), a Chinese firm has launched a chat platform that seems (superficially) to be as good as ChatGPT, but, the founders claim that it has been done at far less cost and with far fewer resources than it's US competitors (interesting only if true). News of this has sent the stock markets around these tech firms into freefall, Nvidia (which makes the chips used to build AI centric data-centres) lost 17% in one day and considering the market-cap ($3+ trillion) of that company, a record fall on the NASDAQ exchange.

So, will we see a "correction" now, will the magnificent seven turn into the sweaty six or even the flacid five? I somehow think that the bull market around tech is coming to an end, or at least flattening out for a while and the current volatility may provide some opportunistic upside for those with cash to spend. For those of us in pension land I suspect the prudent thing to do will be to switch sectors or to buy bonds for a while until things settle down a bit, then again, for those clever enough to spot the "bottom" a killing may well be made as these big tech firms aren't going anywhere anytime soon so a rebound (albeit perhaps over a couple of years) is pretty likely.

(PS. the stock photo above shows a trader with the number "404" which is ironic as that's the HTML error code for "Page not found", a case of "value not found" today perhaps?

London Stories

 Often forgotten in the mayhem of WW2 but another London first, perhaps one that we'd rather forget...

Picasso of Pettiness

 

When asked the question "why do the British hate Trump so much", a British author and commentator replied with the following reasoned response, I like it, it's what I would have said if only I were more articulate!

"A few things spring to mind.

Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.

For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.

So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman

But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.

Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.

Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.

 

There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that: 

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss.

He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum."

Storm Eowyn

 

Been walking around my local area today on my daily consitutional and could only spot one fallen tree (which looked pretty decrepit TBH) as a result of storm Eowyn, I guess we've been lucky down here in the South East, I see on the news pages that it's a totally different story up North!

Friday Smirk

J&M pointing out the obvious as usual, i.e. that the most famous religious texts are, on the whole, 99.9% "qur'ap", with the odd few words of wisdom (often plagerised from earlier stories) This is just about what you'd expect from chance or in other words a man-made (random) assembly of the cultural observations, dreams, delusions and misguided edicts of desert goat herders and shamen from a period spanning a few thousand years. All put together in the 4th century by a bunch of people wishing to have some kind of (confected) artefact that they could use to exert power and control over the masses.

London Stories

The "Cornhill Pump" established in 1799 just outside the shoping arcade that once was the Royal Exchange, financed by no less than the East India Company and the Bank of England, recently renovated it's worth a look as you make your way down to Bank station or up to Aldgate (where there's another famous water pump!).