Flat White Aliens

We were having a coffee in Gails in Windsor the other week and I noticed a little plaque on the wall (see picture above) Apparently HG Wells the famous Science Fiction author used to work in the same building, obvious not serving up Flat Whites, but as a draper's apprentice in 1880! It's quite a leap from drapers apprentice to science fiction writing, I wonder what inspired him to do that? It's amazing the amount of history that surrounds us every day on our little island!

Midweek Mirth

Feels like England

While in London the other weekend we popped into Southwark Cathedral, I've walked past this building a hundred times but had never been in! It was an impressive building, and while we were walking around the choir were practising, delightful! You can understand why religious types among us get all warm and fuzzy in these buildings, after all, they were designed (by people) to invoke exactly that feeling. There were quite a few famous tombs and memorials inside the building (and a couple outside) here are a few,

• John Gower has a tomb inside the building, he was a poet and mates with Chaucer!
• William Shakespeare - not buried here but spent time in the building, there's a memorial
• John Harvard - founder of Harvard University, again, spent time here but no tomb
• Charles Dickens - some of his stories are based around Southwark, he used to live there.
• Mahomet Weyonomon - an American Indian chief (Mohegans) who came to London in 1735 to petition the king, unfortunately he died of smallpox before he could do that but his tomb is in the grounds.

Here's the bell tower with flag flying and a blue sky (for a change!) the bells are particularly impressive and echo around the whole area on Sunday morning, feels like England!

Instant Hit

A true Verdant classic, sampled three or four weeks ago. Bloom (along with Pulp) is one of the first Verdant beers I ever tried, probably around 2016 (brewery was founded in 2014). Back then they were operating out of a shipping container at the back of an industrial estate in Penryn nr. Falmouth, Cornwall, it was a revelation at the time as very few people in the UK were making this style of hazy hop-forward beer (aka New England IPA) They were an instant hit with me and I've been a big fan ever since. I'm going down to Falmouth later this Summer and hope to sample many more examples both old and new, long live Verdant!

Progress

Looks like HS2 is going the way of many of our large capital projects, i.e. down the toilet. I won't be be holding my breath at the prospect of getting to Birmingham 20 minutes quicker than I can right now...

Tech Trap

Competence can be a curse sometimes, especially in the technology field! The problem is that it's so pervasive and yet hopelessly under supported in schools, workplaces and generally among most people, i.e. most people don't have a clue how most stuff works anymore. I alway used to find it surprising how many people took great delight in professing their ignorance of technology, as if it were some kind of badge of honour, is it any wonder that there's an AI bubble in the stock markets and social media is slowly re-programming our youth?

Friday Smirk

The boys contemplating the fact that sometimes our criticisms of others fall a little too close to home..

Weekend Wines

While in London last weekend I treated my Daughter to a slap up meal at Noble Rot in Bloomsbury (Lambs Conduit St) we were kind of celebrating her completion of a Law conversion course that she's been doing over the last 9 months, her last exam was last Thursday so she was ready to let her hair down a bit! 

We had a really nice long chat and catch up (she has a new boyfriend she was keen to tell me about!) We also had some great food and wine too, classic French bistro style dishes and a bottle from the Maconnais region of Burgundy from one of my favourite producers Verget (more on them here) It was a great wine, crisp green fruits, buttery, nutty, smooth and a nice clean finish, it went down a treat with the splendid pork chop that I ordered. This wine was the old vine (vieilles vignes) version of the appellation, and at only a 2X markup was pretty good VFM for a London restaurant, well done Noble Rot!

Interestingly I noticed that Verget seems to be using screw tops on many of their wines these days, makes complete sense, these aren't wines that need to be aged hugely, a few years at the most and are intended to be drunk fresh and young (compared to other Burgundies) and so the screw cap is probably a superior closure. If this example was typical of the final product then I thoroughly approve!