Blast from the past

A blast from the past, a collaboration beer by Verdant and Garage made for their Little Summer Beer Bash 2025 which my Son and I attended in Falmouth, Cornwall. We spent a glorious weekend down there just chilling out, eating great seafood, attending the festival and playing snooker it was lush! This beer, nearly a year on, tastes exactly the same, dank, citrus and so easy to drink a real Summer pleaser. It's a shame there's no festival in Cornwall this year, the organisers have decided to locate it in Bristol instead, ah well, we're quite partial to a bit of Briz too!

Monday Mirth

I always like a pub that's got a decent food menu..

Rock Gods?

 

The recent Artemis 2 rocket that passed around the dark side of the Moon took 42 minutes and 50 seconds to transition, during this time communication with Earth was cut (i.e. the Moon was in the way!) This fact is scary enough but not as spooky as the fact that the running time of the Pink Floyd album "Dark Side of the Moon" is exactly 42 minutes and 50 seconds. Gilmour = God? you heard it here first!

Leanings?

You pays your money and takes your choice, I know which side I lean towards..

Friday Smirk

I guess that's a fail then...

 

Lafite of the Languedoc

We had a bottle of this the other weekend, it's a wine from the South of France (Languedoc) called "Mas de Daumas Gassac" It's made from Cabernet Sauvignon (80% - a grape not usually used much in the far South) along with a mix of more indigenous varietals such as Grenache and Cinsault. I've been a big fan of this wine for many years, the concentration and depth of flavour is invariably superb and the tasting cues just a little left of centre giving it lasting appeal. It's often referred to as "the Lafite of the Languedoc" a nickname thoroughly well deserved IMO, good value for money, especially when compared to the real Lafite from Bordeaux!

Midweek Mirth

Whatever happened to the "Metaverse"? When are these "Tech-bros" going to realise that real reality is much more interesting than a crappy virtual reality created by people who exhibit minimal social skills..

Snow Like

Lot's of blossom around at the moment, taken last weekend, here's a particularly beautiful example next to our local church, almost snow like and a lovely blue sky to go with it! 

Up and Coming

We went to Windsor last weekend and had a mooch around the town, I dropped into the Two Flints taproom which is located under one of the railway arches in the town centre. While there I picked up a couple of cans, one of which is pictured above, it's a DIPA made with a ton of Nelson hops and delicious it was! White wine and citrus oozing out of every sip, I've had a few of this Brewery's brews over the last couple of years and they seem to be getting better and better, up and coming, you could say!

Benchmarks

So here's my Spring benchmark tree, picture taken on 10th April 2026, looks about the same as 8th April 2024 so hopefully Summer in on track to arrive, it would be nice to have a good one this year.

Champagne Socialism

You couldn't make this stuff up! Peter Mandelson, that Champagne Socialist Grifter supreme has been fined (or will be) for "urinating in the street", not any street mind you but one of the hallowed pavements of Notting Hill after a dinner at George Osborne's gaff, no doubt funded by the tax payer! 

It's rich isn't it, these parasites get to run around London living their best lives while most people in our country stress over how they're going to pay their next gas bill. Such is the nature of the left these days, it seems to corrupt its followers and promote a headspace devoid of any link to reality,! Mind you, the right aren't much better, what ever happened to a strong and rational centre in politics, I miss it dearly!

Friday Smirk

The boys talking to the barmaid about the biggest issue for our religious brothers and sisters, the problem of evil, first tackled before Christianity or Islam were even invented via the Euthyphro dilemma back in Plato's day. You could argue that God did create evil, and we call it religion, at least that would partially concur with the evidence of history.

Midweek Mirth

Just about every corporate sales and marketing meeting I've ever been to..

First of the Season

Had my first "Garden Beer" of the season on Monday, it was warm enough (only just!) here in the UK to sit in a sheltered part of my garden and ponder life while supping on a splendid West Coast IPA from Siren. This beer is an old friend, first tried in 2020, it has been re-brewed several times over the intervening years, it's always good and a perfect example of the style (which I like!) Resinous, grapefruit, bitter with a sweet finish, a delicious beer and a welcome constant for our (highly) variable climate!

Tapas Trials

It was my Daughter's birthday in March and we treated her and a mate to a meal at an up and coming restaurant in Shoreditch called Legato. It's a Spanish restaurant and has one of those menus that's focused on providing plates that the whole table share, I'm less keen on this format, for me whenever I visit these "modern" kinds of places I leave feeling like I've paid for a full plate of food but haven't eaten one! Anyway, the kids love it and I suppose it makes for a more social experience as everyone tries everything. There's also hardly ever any waste as there's always someone on the table that's wants to finish off the less popular dishes, so I guess it has that going for it!

On the wine front the list was dominated by Spanish wines, now, I'm no expert on the wines of Spain and so I retreated to one of the regions of that country that I do know reasonably well, the Ribera Del Duero. I was glad I did and, after generously allowing me to try a few wines, the sommelier pointed me in the direction of this little number (see picture above) It was classic Ribera, dark red fruits, nicely integrated oak and a decent finish, not a producer I was familiar with but a good choice to match with the meat heavy menu! A nice evening and good food, the restaurant has recently won a Michelin star and it's well deserved.

RA @ O2

When up in town the other weekend we went to the O2 to see Richard Ashcroft in concert (see picture above) it was a good gig, the man was on good form and belted out many of his greatest hits including Bitter Sweet Symphony (his last song) which was a bit of an anthem for us back in 1997!

Something struck me, how many people were wandering around the place getting drinks, it seemed to be a never ending stream of folks going back and forth to the bar and then the toilet, constant movement which was a bit of a distraction from the show! I've not noticed this phenomenon before, mostly when we go to concerts we find our seat and stay put until the end! I guess this is "commercialization" in action, everything is a food and drink consumer opportunity these days, including music venues it seems..

Lucky #13

My local craft brewer Siren had their thirteenth birthday last week, unfortunately I couldn't make it to the party at the brewery as we were in London but I did buy the birthday beers. The picture above shows one of the three brews, called "Lucky Numbers" it's a haze bomb made with Idaho 7 hops it's thick, dank and sticky, tasty but at 7% one can is plenty, no point pushing your luck.

Kingdom

Spotted in Windsor today, Banksy? (probably not) I approve of the sentiment though..

Friday Smirk

The lads proving the point that a lot of the details about many religions do sound stupid when you say them out loud, jus sayin..

Midweek Mirth

Best of luck to the Astronauts headed for the moon, we watched the launch last night and it was magnificent! It's just a shame the American spirit of creativity, innovation and discovery isn't pervasive in the leadership of that once great nation.

Life Savers

One of my favourite albums of all time, released on this day in 1978, 48 years ago (OMG!!) We listened to this endlessly when I was at boarding school, music was probably the only thing that enabled us to be individuals, a life saver.

Wine memories..

It was reasonably warm here in the South of the UK yesterday, it put me in mind of the two fantastic days  of wine tasting we recently spent in Franschhoek & Stellenbosch near Cape Town, South Africa. Such variety and quality on offer! I snapped the picture above at the Waterford Estate where we tried a range of wines all of which were great and a bottle of which I bought all the way home with me in my suitcase (their estate Cabernet) we drank it the other weekend with a nice meal it was lush and transported us both straight back to the sunshine and warmth, albeit temporarily!