Local Stories

An old photograph (50s?) taken in my home town showing the Tudor house at the end of Broad Street (the old market street), a really interesting building complete with wooden beams, warped floorboards and ceilings that struggle to reach 5ft tall! Amazingly in recent years this was the town's doctors surgery, there were at least a dozen GP's in there practicing medicine from tiny little dark paneled rooms. The upper floor window on the left was one of the waiting rooms, my infant son projectile vomited in there on one visit and I had to scoop it all up with paper towels from the toilet, ah the joys of parenting! These days the old place has been converted into apartments (like a lot of places in town) although we all remember the days when it had the faint whiff of disinfectant and the sounds of red-faced people sitting around in 16th century rooms, sniffing and sneezing..

Monday Walk

We're lucky to live in a town with decent shops, pubs and restaurants and also great rail connections into London and beyond but also we're not too far away from open countryside. We walked a 10k loop today that took us out into woods and fields (see above) where the scene was completely rural, quiet (apart from birdsong) cows in the fields and daisies everywhere, it was lush!

Low ABV crown

Had one of these over the weekend, it's a low alcohol table beer from Beak (Lewes, Sussex) called "Fjords". Now, I haven't had a Beak beer for a couple of years now, it's quite hard to get hold of and you don't see it much in beer fridges around the place. I managed to snag this one from the Elusive taproom in Finchampstead, they had a couple of Beak beers in their beer fridge this weekend, also known as, the "fridge of wonders"! The ale itself was good, smooth, creamy and full of hop flavour, in this case a mix of Citra, Mosaic and Galaxy a classic combo which puts this beer in direct competition with "People Money Space Time" from Verdant. It's a close run thing but for a low ABV table beer I think Verdant still takes the crown, keep trying though Beak!

Runny Hooters

Out on my daily walk yesterday and noticed these Horse Chestnut blossoms, such pretty things, never really noticed them before, apart from their pollen making my hooter run at this time of year!

Friday Smirk

The boys discussing the rather ludicrous rituals that pervade their respective religions, as we atheists often remark to our religious brothers and sisters. All those thousands of other religions are a bit daft, obviously fake and stupid, but yours, yours is the right one, no question.

Ted's dead baby..

Much sadness in our household as the news that Ted, the Patterdale Terrier on the program "Gone Fishing" has died was released today. Not often you see real character in an animal but this little chap was full of it, much like his two co-stars, so long Ted and don't forget your briefcase!

Sign o the times..

New (Banksy) statue in London, certainly a theme for our times, faux patriotism and (blind) nationalism on the rise (again!)

London Stories

A view of Battersea Power Station (are we allowed to call it that anymore?) looking up from the ground. 

We visited the recently renovated turbine halls and surrounding developments back in March of this year to visit an Egyptian exhibition going on in one of the warehouse-like buildings that are adjacent to the main power station building. Inside the station itself is an upscale (aka posh) shopping centre and various bars and restaurants, it's a nice space, very respectfully done, I believe you can also ascend one of the chimneys for what is probably a spectacular view from 100 metres up, we will return!

Midweek Mirth

Seems reasonable..