Snow day

 

Had a bit of a shock today when out for my daily walk, a rather frenzied snow/sleet storm! It was a typical UK Spring day, snow and sleet with freezing temperatures one minute followed by bright sunshine and sweaty armpits the next! It's that time of the year when you've no idea what coat to wear when you go out!

Midweek Mirth

For everyone who has to work closely with "A-Type" personalities this will be familiar (and somewhat depressing) scenario. That line between assertiveness and ignorance is a fine one to tread, sometimes it's better just to smile, nod and get on with your life without the unnecessary hassle.

 

Birthday pairing..

As mentioned in a previous post it was recently the 9th birthday of my local craft brewery Siren for which they made two special beers, I tried the first of them ("Twists") here and I had the second last weekend ("Turns") pictured above. This time the beer was on the dark side, an imperial stout, meaning that it was really thick and gloopy, oozing with chocolate and coffee flavours as well as having a classic (sweet) rich malt character, very nice indeed. The downside of this beer was that at 11% ABV a 440ml can was rather like drinking a half bottle of wine! Fortunately I was able to share it with a couple of people and we all agreed it was indeed a rather "special" effort, good work all round, roll on birthday #10 I'm expecting great things!

 

March of time

It was my daughter's 18th birthday last week and we (for the first time in 2 years) were able to celebrate it in reasonable style, her previous two anniversaries being during lock-downs! It's scary to contemplate how time marches relentlessly on, it seems only moments ago that we were furnishing bouncy castles for her  big day, now it's clothes, jewelry and makeup! Still, we'll be stretching out the festivities to the coming weekend, to make up for lost ground over the last two years but also because she has A-Level mock exams this week and couldn't "big" things up too much last weekend. Hopefully, we're all heading up to "the big smoke" for a swanky meal and other (shopping oriented) entertainments, should be fun!

Monday Mirth

Tee hee..

 

Last Train home..

 

So, yesterday (Saturday) I took the train one stop up the line to Crowthorne to meet a couple of mates for a few beers and a curry. Fortunately, the bar and restaurant were less than a hundred yards from the train station so I decided to catch the train home, but, at 10:30 pm (especially out in the sticks) you do begin to wonder if that last train on the timetable is actually mythical or not! (see picture above) Fortunately for me it arrived bang on time at 22:47 and efficiently delivered me back to my home town so that I could walk the 3 km home from the station there (which walked off the copious curry intake just perfectly!). I do love it when a plan comes together!

Anyway, the moral of the story is to trust the public transport option and relax (use it or lose it in other words)! Have a few beers, a Chicken Dhansak and perhaps some Onion Bhajis to go with it, then wander home at your leisure, what's the worst that can happen? Well, yes I suppose it could be a nightmare depending on where you live, but hey ho, if you're lucky and everything's working then ditch the car and give it a go!

Saturday Smile

I haven't seen a Dicky Dawkins meme for ages, te he..

 

Street food itch...

Had a day off work yesterday so we took the opportunity to catch the train into town (Reading) and check out the new "box-park" down by the market. It's run by "Blue Collar" who are famed in the area for running events in the summer that feature street food, we visited one back in 2018 and had a really good day out. Anyway, the new venue (opened a few weeks ago) is very much styled on the Shoreditch box-park idea, i.e. a music/food/drink venue made up from old shipping containers. It's good, the food on offer was varied and reasonably priced (fully loaded Bao buns for £3) and the beer is supplied by local brewers Double Barrelled, a reliable pint. Sunshine really helps but actually most of the seating was under cover so even the typical British weather will struggle to stop you scratching your street food itch!

 

Friday Smirk

Smirky J&M for a sunny Friday. It's a constant source of wonderment how religious people can venerate their holy books, as much as they do, and yet refuse to measure them in the light of modern morality (or even refuse to accept that moral standards change over time!). It seems to those of us outside of these traditions like a permanent cognitive dissonance that you have to endure by "ignoring it" in order to take these things seriously.

 

Bring me sunshine

Spent the day in London yesterday having booked a conference room for my team in the Fitzrovia Hotel, such a gorgeous day it was a shame to be shut up in a basement for most of it. Anyway, we did allow ourselves some R&R after the event and headed to a local pub called The Albany. Fortunately, they had a decent selection of craft beers on offer and I was able to sample a couple of new ones before jumping on the tube back to Paddington and home. One thing that did strike me was how busy the place was, which, for a Wednesday evening seemed a little weird, must be the sunshine I guess?

 

Happy birthday Siren!

Tried one of the new brews from my local craft brewer Siren at the weekend (see picture above) It was brewed especially for their 9th birthday celebrations and worthy it was too! Around this time last year some good friends and I (logically) celebrated this brewery's 8th birthday. At the time we were just emerging from a Covid lockdown and decided to hold the event outside (to be on the safe side!) with a roaring fire to stave off the lingering March chill, I blogged about it here. This year, we were able to sit indoors (hurrah!) and the beer was fabulous as usual. A banging 7% West Coast IPA (nice can artwork too!), delightful grapefruit sweetness, and somehow sourness at the same time, addictive bitterness and an underlying core of citrus fruits. Part of a brace of beers released for the anniversary, this one was called "Twists" and of course the other "Turns" (review to follow). Fortunately, I snagged three cans of this from their tap yard outlet on Friday so am looking forward to a rematch next weekend, might even have it in the garden if this current warm streak lasts until then!

 

Russian strategy

Both almost invariably involved in wars, often heavily intertwined..

 

Conversion therapy

You can tell when an Atheist converts to a religion, they immediately go out and get a picture of their new God tattooed onto their forearm, you can see mine in the photo above.. (ha, ha)

Friday Smirk

An excellent J&M for a sunny Friday, as Christopher Hitchens used to say, Heaven (as envisaged by the more populous monotheisms) would be like some celestial North Korea, total surveillance and endless praise and adoration, limitless abnegation and abjection of self. This analogy with North Korea isn't totally true of course, at least you can die and leave North Korea!

UK breaking records (again)

Prof Tim Spector from the Zoe project explaining how Covid rates in the UK are the highest they've ever been. The team estimates that there were over 250,000 new cases today, good job we've got this disease beaten then (according to our feckless politicians)! Fortunately the death rates are remaining relatively constant although this last week has seen a reversal of recent declines, this is the same for hospital admissions, it's looking like we're heading into new territory and it doesn't look good. 

Dr. John Campbell, a respected YouTuber on this subject reckons that for double and triple jabbed people (especially older people) the best time to catch Omicron is right now, essentially because immunity from the vaccination is starting to wane and you don't want to catch it when that immunity is weak. Campbell also presents good evidence that natural immunity (i.e. from catching the actual virus) is much stronger and lasts longer than that provided by the vaccination so maybe he has a good point. Anyway I shall be going into town and licking all the door handles this weekend, hopefully when the inevitable happens and we all get Omicron BA.2 the symptoms won't be too severe, or even better, perhaps I've had it already and not noticed (doubt it!) ?

I'll need your boots, clothes and motorcycle..

Nice monologue from Arnie, let's hope many Russians see it although, unfortunately,  I'm not that confident they will..

Midweek Mirth

LOL...

 

Tuesday Titter

I feel the same way about putting a little bit of double cream in my porridge every morning, I'm sure it completely counteracts any health benefits I get from all that fiber, but what the heck, makes it taste great!

 

1977

Gotta get me one of these tee shirts!

 

Sunday smile..

Saw this cartoon the other day it made me smile, thought it was appropriate for a Sunday..

 

Sharks

Cooking dinner for the family this evening (Friday) and sampling one of these from Cornish maestros Verdant. (not for the first time) "Even sharks need water" is a Citra and Galaxy (hops) heavy IPA that looks like chicken gravy but tastes like a little piece of heaven. Citrus fruit, umami and tangerine back notes with a nice smooth bitterness (if that's not an oxymoron) that keeps you coming back for another sip, a tidy example of what makes Verdant one of the most sought after breweries in the country at the moment.

 

Angry with Godzilla

 

This often comes up in debates with Theists. It's claimed that I'm an Atheist because I'm "angry with God", to which my stock reply is, claiming that an Atheist is angry with God is like claiming that Japanese people are angry with Godzilla. Then again, at least I've seen moving pictures of Godzilla..

A good start

Not my first rodeo with this beer but my oh my it's a cracker. A perfect combo of hops for my taste, Mosaic and Simcoe on both the hot and cold sides with the classic Verdant "house yeast" and soft water profile, simply delicious and at four point something %ABV or thereabouts it's a sessionable treat. If you've never tried a modern New England IPA (NEIPA) or pale ale style of craft beer (note the murky, orange juice looks and fluffy white head) with it's fruity and dank outlook and velvety mouthfeel this would be as good a place to start as any.

 

Friday Smirk

 

Another funny J&M cartoon this week, highlighting the often close relationship between the Religious hardcore and sexual eccentricity, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.. 

Cold storage

 

Amazing work going on in the Antarctic. The ship belonging to the Shackleton expedition, the famous, and almost disastrous voyage that took place over a hundred years ago has been located and filmed. This  feat is even more astounding when you consider that the wreck is located at a depth of 3,000 meters and it's final resting position was only ever estimated by the captain of the vessel and yet found within a radius of four miles of that spot.

Monday Mirth

 

I do love a bit of dark humour and I must admit I rather fancy getting myself one of these...

Brisk Northerly

Walked into town today to get a coffee with my Wife, it's a chilly and grey day and as you can see from the weather vane on our local church there's a brisk Northerly wind blowing in, roll on Spring.

 

Cherries for days

Had this little treat while cooking dinner last night, a barrel aged saison beer flavoured with cherries from my local craft brewer Siren, it was delicious! I'm a big fan of cherries generally, I like them in cakes, puddings and drinks and this was a particularly fine example of a fruit flavoured beer, deep, rich and flavorsome, in the best Belgian tradition, top marks!

 

Blue plaque of shame..

 

The "Led By Donkeys" crew (@ByDonkeys) don't hang about - Lovin this..

Shane Warne

Can't believe this legend is no more, far too soon, far too young, a tragedy for the game.

Red means danger..

 

I was sitting on the train coming back from London the other evening and the lady in the seat in front of mine fell asleep on the shoulder of her travelling companion, nothing unusual there, but for some reason I felt compelled to snap a picture of her hair colour. I must admit the reason for this was a particular story about my Dad that came to mind and bought a smile to my face. Years ago when my old man was entering his 50s he decided that his hair was looking alarmingly grey (he was quite a vain man) Anyway, the solution in his mind was to nip out to Boots and grab a bottle of hair dye. Now, I'm not sure what occurred, maybe his picked up the wrong bottle or perhaps he wanted to make a style statement but the next morning at the breakfast table he turned up with his hair sporting a lurid shade of ginger, much suppressed giggling ensued. Anyway for at least a few weeks after that we all took the mickey out of him remorselessly via a new nickname, can you guess what it was?

It was "Swan Vesta"...

This lady made me think of that memory and, even though I have no idea who she is, I thank her for it!

Friday Smirk

 

Jesus and Mo this week pondering one of the big questions, why is space so flippin big?

Lent

For Lent I'm giving up misappropriated pagan rituals.

Midweek Mirth

 

True! I think the West has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to Russia for quite a while now..

Best session beer in the UK?

I had one of these on Saturday evening, for my money it's the best session beer in the UK at the moment. Made by Verdant down in Penryn, Cornwall it's a hazy NE style IPA weighing in at around 3% ABV meaning you could have a few of these and not be the worse for wears. Not only is it a very sensible and refreshing drink it tastes bloody amazing, I reckon if you gave me this blind I'd say it was a modern, flavorful hop bomb of a beer of the highest quality and the body would point to a 5-6%+ NEIPA. It's a real banger of a beer, stunning craft on display from Verdant here.