Orca Tale

Tried a new beer yesterday evening, from one of my favourite breweries, and much blogged about here, Verdant (Cornwall). It's a hazy IPA which is a spin on another of their beers called "Even Sharks Need Water", mostly Citra hops with some fruity Australian Galaxy thrown in for good measure its delicious. 

This special edition has all proceeds being donated to an initiative to produce a feature documentary about a family of Scottish Orcas that are under threat of extinction. The individuals last seen  off the West coast of our island in this family group are between 60-80 years old and their lineage probably reaches back centuries, to lose them, their language and culture would be criminal, we should try to save them, their story is worth hearing.

Modern Life

 

No, not all modern life is rubbish but I've been reading "A man without a country" by Kurt Vonnegut and listening to the subsequent interviews that took place 16 years ago between Kurt and David Brancaccio on PBS. I'm a technologist through and through, cut me and I bleed tech, but this little excerpt made me reflect a little.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: There's a little sweet moment, I've got to say, in a very intense book-- your latest-- in which you're heading out the door and your wife says what are you doing? I think you say-- I'm getting-- I'm going to buy an envelope.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: What happens then?

KURT VONNEGUT: Oh, she says well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope.

I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know. The moral of the story is, is we're here on Earth to fart around.

And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And, we're not supposed to dance at all anymore. ~Kurt Vonnegut

Symmetry

Almost exactly one year ago it was my 60th birthday and my Daughter thoughtfully bought me this posh men's fragrance from Hermes, she's a student and doesn't have much spare cash so I was flattered to receive such a lavish gift! TBH I wasn't entirely sure about it at first, quite a flowery/woody scent, but over the course of the year I've really grown to love it! The best thing about it though is that every morning when, through bleary eyes, I spray a little on it makes me think of her. Anyway, I finally finished the bottle almost a year to the day from when I received it, I like the symmetry of that.

First of the Season

First one I've seen this season, a little jewel on the soggy ground, must be Autumn..

Pining for the Fjords

We were reminiscing about the Summer and our holidays this year and looking through some photo's this evening, and I spotted this one (taken on the way into Bergen) and for a moment couldn't remember why I took it? Then I noticed the grey concrete buildings in the centre of the picture, they are, amazingly, old WWII U-Boat pens, left by the Germans (and knowing the Norwegian penchant for re-cycling, probably used for something eminently sensible today), there used to be three pens apparently but one was destroyed by allied bombing. I didn't know these historical artefacts were here but recognised their form from pictures of equivalent structures in France that I'd seen on various Nazi documentaries on the Discovery Channel (which exclusively features programs on sharks or Nazis) and snapped a picture for posterity, wish we were on holiday again now, I really must retire soon!

Roadworks Ahoy!

A random story that caught my eye the other day. Apparently in Oslo (see picture above) they still use steel sheets salvaged from the WWII German battleship Tirpitz (sunk in a Norwegian fjord) to cover over holes in the ground during roadworks and the like. A truly poignant bit of recycling up there!

Bumper crop

 

On my daily walk today I noticed a bumper crop of berries on quite a few trees and bushes, isn't that supposed to be a sign of a hard impending Winter? (or is it an easy Winter) - I can never remember! Probably more to do with a thoroughly irrigated plant, given the rain we've had this year. 

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo pointing out the inevitable conclusion that most non-believers come to about their believing brothers and sisters and that is, once you're on the hook for this stuff it's very difficult to set yourself (intellectually) free, the delusions run deep when they're placed there as a child.

Sycamore, no more..

I've always had a hankering to trek the route of Hadrian's Wall in Northumbria one day, it looks like a fabulous walk and features some beautiful scenery and famous landmarks. One of the highlights is "Sycamore Gap", pictured above, where a lone tree has stood against the backdrop of wild moorland in a natural dip in the landscape framed by Hadrian's Wall for over 200 years (probably the most photographed tree in the UK) A wonderful symbol of antiquity, man vs nature, the passing of empires and the resilience of the natural order etc. I was surprised and upset to hear today that someone has taken a chain saw to the tree and felled it overnight, police are investigating. It's inconceivable why someone would do this, I guess some arseholes just want to watch the world burn, if I had my way I'd chop their xxxx's off etc. Even if another tree is planted in it's place it's unlikely I'll ever see it in the flesh, fucksocks, one less beautiful thing in the world.

Midweek Mirth

Saw this on the interwebs, made me chuckle, it obviously refers to the current dilemma regarding the future of HS/2 our very own UK high speed railway from London (somewhere) to the North (somewhere) I think it's a no-brainer, we'll (obviously) need much more capacity and competition in our rail (and public transport) network before we can truly cope with net-zero or no one will be able to afford it. As Henry Ford once said, "if you don't invest in machinery you need when you need it you'll find that eventually you've paid for it but don't have it".

Wicked Wednesday

Isn't it interesting how a lot of religious imagery correlates with (or is suggestive of) common male sexual fantasies, here we have the Virgin Mary lactating into the mouth of an appreciative saint (St. Bernard), you couldn't make it up, hold on...

Tallest Tuesday

Interesting mock-up, obviously the taller buildings aren't actually in Salisbury, but it must have been quite impressive to the medieval sheep herders who first clapped eyes on it back in the 13 hundreds!

So, I've ascended a few of these buildings, Salisbury was ticked off on a visit back in the Summer that I blogged about at the time. I've also done the Eiffel Tower and the Shard, I also went up the CN Tower back in the 90s (revolving restaurant IIRC) and visited the Great Pyramids (but weren't allowed to climb them) back in the 80s, however, the other three buildings (the tallest ones) have eluded me (so far!)

Cover Band

Went for a few pints with an old mate on Friday evening after work and we ended up in a bar in Reading that had a live band on, they were fab, and as you can see from the photo, the venue was pretty "intimate" to say the least! I reckon we were the two oldest people in the room though, most of the classic cover songs they did we could remember from when they were actually in the top 20!

"T" for Trouble

Haven't done one of these in a while, in fact I almost forgot how it works, anyway got there in the end. Both my Wife and I had a sore throat yesterday evening and although it had disappeared by the morning we thought we'd better just check (I wonder how many people bother anymore?) Luckily the result was all clear (as you can see in the picture), as I always used to tell the kids, "C" for clear and "T" for trouble!

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo pointing out the often ridiculous core of successful religions, I guess you don't have to have good logic within an enterprise that has convinced people not to value logic?

Epic Misses

Poor RSO Records, an "epic miss" if ever I saw one. Years ago I had lunch with someone who was a book publisher, her claim to fame was that she "passed" on Harry Potter! Apparently she had nightmares about it for years, sometimes it doesn't bode well to dwell on the past.

Midweek Mirth

I see that plans to put men people on the Moon again are advancing at pace, Artemis III is scheduled for the end of 2025, hopefully aliens will now realise that we're not all misogynists down here on planet Earth!

A Man for all Saison's

Tried this little beauty at the weekend, it's a collaboration beer between Duration (Norfolk) and Verdant (Cornwall) The style of the beer is called "Saison", typically a low alcohol beer naturally fermented made in the Autumn specifically for workers in the fields around harvest time (i.e. not strong enough to prevent them working!) Anyway this one is a bit different, weighing in at 7% it wouldn't really work for farm labourers, but it is very tasty indeed! Tart, dry with bags of umami and citrus a difficult beer to describe but so refreshing after a long day (and walk) around Wentworth!

Brand Awareness?

Hey, mainstream media, we're getting bored of hearing about this bloke in the news already! How about we just let due process take it's course and if he did it then the court should chuck him in prison, where he can get all the drugs and attention he needs, and if he didn't then we'll just go on ignoring the interminable gobshite like most people did before - deal?

A good walk, spoiled

One of my good mates had a spare ticket to the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth yesterday and invited me. I'm not into Golf in the slightest, having only played it a couple of times over the years, but I'd never been to one of these tournaments and life is short so why not! I hopped on the train over to Sunningdale, where he lives, and we walked through the woods behind his house to the 14th hole on the Wentworth course. It was a beautiful day, near perfect conditions for a sporting event like this, the sun was shining and no wind to speak of, anyway we had a really good day following some of the players around, liberally sprinkled with pit stops at the various bars and food stalls spread all around the course, lot's of chatting about life and work etc. finally admitting defeat at around 5:30pm absolutely knackered! My watch tells me that we walked about 10 miles and along the way we sunk several pints of ice cold lager, surprising I didn't fall asleep on the train on the way home! Anyway, got back around 7pm and had a long soak in a hot bath, fabulous, what a great day out!

The Sin of Adam

J&M satirising the current fad for taking offence at things our ancestors did (or didn't do). It's a strange thing that some people believe that people who have never held slaves should pay reparations to people who have never been slaves. All because 5 generations ago some people who may or may not have been related to the current population of certain countries participated in the Atlantic slave trade. 

There is no question that by todays ethical standards that trade was abhorrent, but when you look at history you find that slavery has been a human constant, this is not to say that excuses those people who did it in any way but it does make it impossible to simply draw a line around one example of the practice and decide that that is the one which needs fixing. For example, why not get the Italians to pay for enslaving and/or killing countless of their fellow Europeans (and others) during the Roman Empire, or perhaps the people of Morocco and Tunisia to pay Europeans for the Barbary Slave Trade among countless other examples. The problem seems intractable until you accept the premise that people probably shouldn't be punished for the crimes of their ancestors, that's a very old fashioned idea, probably a legacy from ancient religious myths like "the sin of Adam" etc.

Today in History

Seems like today is quite the date in history, not only did IKB contemplate his last engineering wonder back in 1859 but in 1940 today was the day that Hitler threw everything at the RAF and lost the Battle of Britain. A staggering 1500 aircraft took part in the battle, the largest attack against London, and it lasted until evening. In the end the low cloud base called an end to proceedings but over the course of the day the RAF lost 29 aircraft and the Germans 58 with some 500 bombers unable to inflict serious damage on London. 

After the 15th of September 1940, the Luftwaffe switched to night raids and continued to pummel our beloved capital until May the following year. The losses that day (around 100 airmen) seem small compared to, say, the great battles of the first world war, like the Somme or the D-Day landings etc. but such is the power of air superiority that this one engagement was sufficient for the Nazi's to call off their planned invasion of the UK (Operation Sea Lion) and, although by no means finished, the course of the war was shifted in our favour. 

On a related note, I watched the 2020 film "Greyhound" last night, starring Tom Hanks as the captain of an American WWII warship protecting the Atlantic conveys, it's a good flic and illustrates the power of air support. During the film the convey has to pass through an area of the North Atlantic called the "Black Pit", which meant it was too far from either landmass to receive air cover, this is where the German U-Boat wolf packs lurked and reeked havoc on the merchant ships. Anyway, I won't spoil the plot but suffice to say that after much nail biting action, the good ship Greyhound manages to beat the odds in the end and make it to the UK.

IKB

Today is the 164th anniversary of the death of that great Victorian engineer IKB or Isambard Kingdom Brunel, he died on this day in 1859 aged 53 years. I can't help being reminded of this giant, residing next to the GWR or Great Western Railway as I do (I'll be using it today!), and being a frequent visitor to Paddington Station (1854) among many other of his creations, amazing that these things that once only existed in his mind are now everyday experiences for millions of people. 

The photo above is a very famous image of the man, it's obviously posed but I look at it and think about the mud on his trousers, the crud on his boots and the cigar in his mouth, in some ways, it's so obviously not posed at the same time. The man in this picture is definitely an engineer and not a prince or a pope, I think that's what people like about him, he always does well in any "Top 100 Britons" competition, a real force of nature not a pompous parasite.

Friday Smirk

A very topical cartoon from the wonderful XKCD

Many Tongues

Fascinating infographic (click to enlarge) I hadn't realised that Spanish is spoken by more people than English (2nd most popular language after the various flavours of Chinese), makes sense I suppose, the population of big chunks of South America is significant.

Remembering

Nice touch at Aldgate station the day before yesterday (9/11) - I remember that fateful day back in 2001 well, for many reasons over and above the obvious. I've written on the subject several times before and you can read about it here..

Midweek Mirth

 

Yep, this "Karmasutra'esc" cartoon is about true, most men I know wouldn't dream of buying a new garment until their existing one has more or less fallen completely apart!

Not so Fast Train

My Wife and I were out in London on Saturday celebrating freedom again now that the kids are both packed off to University. We had a good walk around some nice lunch a few drinks and then dinner in a posh Mexican restaurant in Bermondsey. At around 8pm we headed back to Paddington to make the journey home via a fast train to Reading however when we got there the concourse was packed and every platform had a train in it, going nowhere, apparently there had been some kind of incident up the line and nothing was moving. Luckily for us we can also use Waterloo to get home so we hopped on the Bakerloo line and fled the scene down to Waterloo station and a (slow) train home, still managed to get in around 9:45 pm so not too bad. The photo's above show Waterloo station in the early 1900's (top) and the modern view (bottom) it's the busiest station in the UK with 24 platforms and around 40 million movements per year. Our own station (Reading) always seems really busy but only ranks 27th with 9 million movements per year and Paddington is 6th with 23 million.

Steel shade

The view of the underside of Blackfriars railway bridge (the one with station on top) impressive steelwork here and providing a nice bit of shade in which to do some mudlarking at low tide. Snapped while walking along the Southbank towards London Bridge, I was looking for the confluence of the River Fleet with the Thames but I don't think you can see it from here, it's obscured by Blackfriars road-bridge, I'll have to work a bit harder to snap a picture of that relic!

Child Labour

My Son lived in London with a couple of mates over the Summer and in order to fund rent he got himself a part time job in a pub in Bermondsey (see above). We walked past it yesterday as my Wife and I were out and about in town and I snapped this picture for him, for posterity. The boozer was very busy in the late afternoon sunshine and when I sent him the photo (he's back in Scotland now resuming his studies) he replied with a certain degree of gratitude that he wasn't having to slave over a hot Pizza oven in 32+ degree temperatures, it's certainly a tough job but judging by the pals he made down the beer mile (lots of free pints!) while he was there I reckon it had it's fringe benefits.

London Stories

There was something about the light that made the Shard look particularly prominent the other evening, almost like someone had dialled up the the contrast setting on reality. It's difficult to get a sense of the scale of the building from a photograph but it did look impressive while walking back to Waterloo from the beer mile to catch the train home, I have many pictures of this building but felt compelled to snap another as I passed by at around 9pm on this late Summer's evening.

Craft Royalty

On the beer mile Thursday, popped into "The Kernel" for a quick half of something tasty and who should I see there but Evin O'Riordain (the founder) he's the chap in the orange tee, he looked very chilled out in shorts and flipflops! 

Founded in 2009 The Kernel is one of the original London based craft brewers and still (IMO) one of the best, this beer (in the picture) is a 6% IPA made with Galaxy (Australian) hops, and it was delicious, oranges and lemons for days. The thing about Kernel beers is that they are all mostly clean and balanced, you get the sense that Evin takes care to make beer that tastes great and is also pleasurable to drink. Many producers these days go for whacky ingredients and outlandish attributes for their beer, gimmicks in other words, not these guys, they stick to the basics and make stuff that is consistent and high quality. They are pretty pervasive in London and you can find their product in most crafty places, but deserve more recognition around the country I reckon. Although, judging from Evin's totally chilled demeanour I would hazard a guess that this is more of a lifestyle business for him, and TBH that's perfectly fine too!

London Stories

Walking from Waterloo station to London Bridge along Union Street and then Snowsfields you pass a large cluster of redbrick buildings built in 1897, they still look great, I could imagine living there today. Built by Edward Guinness, great grandson of the founder of the Guinness brewing empire, they were intended to provide decent housing at affordable rents for ordinary people in London and elsewhere. The original amount of cash put up was £250,000 which doesn't sound much in the modern context but back then was a huge sum, today it would be worth around 25 million and housed around 400 people, a pretty decent thing to do I reckon.

Times they are a changing

I was out in Bermondsey last night and walked past this scruffy looking boozer. I used to lunch here a fair bit back in the 90s as I was doing a project at Computacenter whose offices are located around the corner. If I remember correctly they used to do a mean sausage and chips! Those were the days, hot meal and a couple of pints at lunchtime, wouldn't dream of doing that these days, the waistline wouldn't cope and the PC police at work would start to chatter, funny how times change. Anyway, I liked how the sun was shining through a gap in the building so I stopped for a pic, gorgeous day and good fun along the beer mile.

Friday Smirk

J&M pointing out the obvious correlation between lack of criticism and threats of violence, Christianity learned this back in the middle ages and the Islamic faith has been exploiting it enthusiastically in more recent years. Anyway, you know what they say, "the pen is mightier than the sword" (unless you happen to be at the business end of the sword that is!)

Pots of Gold

Snapped last week in Falmouth, according to legend there should be a pot of gold at the end of this thing! That means the spot where two blue and white ferries (centre picture) that shuttle tourists back and forth to St. Mawes all day are parked. I did think about taking this trip on one of our days there, and had a peak at the fares one morning, I decided against. The legend could just turn out to be correct!

Cheeky!

Tried this new beer last weekend, it's called "Cheeky Westy" from Verdant and was made in collaboration with "Green Cheek" from Florida. My local brewer, Siren, also did a collaboration with Green Cheek and I waxed lyrical about that, it was one of my favourite beers of 2020, but this is better. I can fairly confidently predict that this one will be in my 2023 top 10 (at least) possibly even top 5, it's a classic West Coast IPA (hence the name) and is deliciously grapefruity with and wonderful lip coating bitterness that just lingers enough to tempt you back for another sip, absolutely stunning balance and flavour, a really world class effort from Verdant.

Muddy fun..

Burning Man looked like fun this year (not), plagued by rain and mud then finishing in a traffic jam in the wilderness, might as well have just gone to a typical Reading festival..

Tuesday Titters

 

Great (and amusing) quote from the late great Hitch. The idea that Humans can't behave without some kind of imagined celestial dictator dishing out rules and a threat of damnation if these rules aren't followed, is a very old, very well refuted trope that is still pervasive today, amazingly!

Branch Lines

We had the occasion to catch a local train from Falmouth to Truro last week while on holiday in Cornwall, we wanted to have a look around the city and visit a couple of recommended eating and drinking establishments. So, we made our way to Falmouth Town station and upon paying the £3.50, that an off-peak return costs (with age related discounts applied), we made our way up the long treelined path to the platform. It was a bit like walking into someone's back garden, the line looks like a disused mine track (see photo), totally overgrown and slightly dishevelled and oily. Luckily the train (an old diesel chugger) was on time and we made our way, pretty much hitting every bush and leafy outcrop on the way (at least that's what it sounded like!) bringing a whole new perspective to the term "Branch Line", anyway, we arrived at Truro station about 25 minutes later and had a pleasant couple of hours walking around before returning to Falmouth. 

While in Truro we stopped off at a relatively new craft beer bar called "Red Elephant", it's right next to the cathedral so provided a welcome watering hole after a stroll around the 19th century Gothic-revival building. The bar was nice and peaceful with comfy chairs and good music, a nice selection of around half a dozen beers on tap and plenty of choice of cans from a wide variety of brewers in large fridges around the periphery of the space, they also knocked out a pretty mean G&T (for the ladies) with a choice of the regular gin brands and some interesting local options. After a quick half in the Red Elephant we all decided that a snack was in order so (on recommendation) we sought out an independent bakery in the centre of town and all had a hot pasty to go (what else!) and delicious they were to, traditional ingredients (none of this pigs trotters and stilton nonsense!)

Sunday Smirk

Jesus and Mo making fun of a common reaction of religious people to criticism or scrutiny of their positions, that of accusing the accuser of having a simplistic point of view or event a lack of understanding. Usually this kind of objection is seated in a desire to attack the person rather than the argument (because it's much easier than addressing the actual objection) but I find it's also sometimes a genuine ignorance of the counter arguments to their position, a kind of Dunning Kruger thing. 

Allegorical Ladders

This staircase is called "Jacobs Ladder" (like the story from the Bible), we traversed it a lot (up and down) this week while having a little holiday in Falmouth, Cornwall with the family. It's around 80 steps in all and I can imagine when icy or wet is absolutely lethal, as well as great for getting your heart pumping at the end of the evening! The stairs link one of the main squares in the town, called "The Moor" with the residential streets up the hill and provides a quick way of getting down to the shops, pubs and restaurants in the square and the surrounding roads. The house we were staying in was only 50 metres from the top of  the "ladder" and, although there were many routes down to the town, of varying degrees of difficulty, was probably the fastest (and most energetic!)

Sage Nodding

The holy grail of craft ale  in the UK at the moment, Cornish maestros Verdant and their new tap room in Penryn, Cornwall. Visited earlier in the week for a pint and to pick up some cans for sampling by our holiday crew. Suffice to say they didn't last long, everyone got very into trying all the different styles and hop flavour combinations, much supping in reverent silence while nodding the head sagely, a universal thumbs up!

I visited Verdant four years ago and they had not much more than a couple of shipping containers on an industrial estate on the edge of Falmouth, they've clearly done well since then despite lock-down and expanded a lot. It's a nice set up that the firm has now, a modern brewery with what looked like a lot of new shiny stainless steel kit and a large airy taproom with space for at least 100 people and a pizza oven in the corner, I didn't try one but they looked the part. The only challenge is getting there, it's not easy to do it without a car (which is the last thing you want to have when you visit here) we opted to catch the train from Falmouth Town, it's only 2 stops and really quick, but it's a couple of km to walk from Penryn station to the outskirts of town where the taproom is located. I suspect it might be easier, albeit slower, to catch a bus but we didn't get around to figuring that one out this time, ah well, don't need much of an excuse to revisit sometime.