Must Try Harder

When I was in Scotland earlier in the year (May) and staying in Leith I took a walk one afternoon down the "Leith Walk" to visit a brewery called "Newbarns", unfortunately I decided to go at around 3pm and the taproom didn't open until 5pm (I didn't check!), my little plan thwarted I retreated to my hotel and spent the afternoon walking around the port area instead. 

Anyway, I finally tried one of their beers this weekend, a delicious Pilsner, called simply, "Pilsner Beer" which I randomly picked up at the Siren Tap-yard from their cavernous can fridge. Unlike most craft brewers these days the boys up in Leith are obviously not big on making up pithy names for their beers, but with quality like this I don't blame them! The beer was super, absolutely classic flavour profile and so balanced, a really good job. I must try harder when I'm next up North and visit, I bet this is even better fresh from source! 

Monday Mirth

Sounds like a good excuse, maybe I'll pinch that one for work today..

Mama Mia, what a day!

Spent a (long) lovely day in London yesterday celebrating my Wife's birthday, (21 again!).. We kicked off proceedings by walking into town and having an early breakfast in a local café/restaurant called Hamlets; we like this little independent spot, and they do make a mean sausage sandwich! After that we decamped to the station and caught the train into Paddington arriving some 40 minutes later, we then switched to the "Lizzy line" and hot footed it over to Stratford for some retail therapy in Westfield (the birthday girl had vouchers burning holes in her pockets!). 

Around lunch time we met up with our Daughter and had some drinks before heading out to Pudding Mill Lane (one stop on the DLR), where the main event of the day awaited us. We'd booked for all three of us to see the ABBA Voyage show at their shiny new venue there and after a pit stop in the box park next to the arena we headed on in, slightly unsure about what we were about to see! Understandably the venue disallowed photos during the performance itself, but you could take some before the event started so I snapped a quick pic of the stage (above), a suitably Swedish projection! I must say as people started to stream into the hall we were a little concerned that we weren't sporting enough glitter, I've never seen so much of the stuff in one place and a real mixed crowd, young and old alike!

Once things got going though the excitement was palpable, very much like a real concert, although it felt a little strange cheering and applauding a holographic display! The technology was amazing, saying it was almost like the real performers being there would be a cliché, but it's true. The music, of course, was classic and impossible not to tap a foot and sway a hip to, there was also a live band on stage giving things the oomph needed in a large venue like that. A great concert, surprisingly emotional for those of us that remember the 70s and for the youngsters just a damn good boogie!

After the show we headed back to the West End and propped up the bar at one of our favourite watering holes while we waited for our Son to join us, he happened to be spending the week in Bristol so could hop on the train to London quite easily. We all met up successfully, and had a celebratory toast then headed up the road to our chosen eatery for some banging Mexican food at a great little place called "Café Pacifico" near Covent Garden, after several rounds of margaritas, lot's of catching up chat, and a chimichanga or two we headed back to Paddington and the train home. 

A great day out all round, nice to check in with the kids, superb entertainment and scrummy grub! We arrived home at around 11pm, absolutely knackered, unsurprisingly we both slept like logs and thank goodness there was an extra hour in bed this morning!

Grumpy as Goats

I learned this week that one of my favourite little watering holes in Reading is to close on Saturday. The Grumpy Goat, somewhere I've blogged about here, and here, and here, is to shut it's doors for the last time. Apparently (according to the owners) there has been an argument with the landlords that is irreconcilable and they have been given one week to vacate the premises. Now, I'm old enough to know that there are always two sides to a story and so far we've only had the business's side, but never the less, it's super sad to see a local (and successful) firm, who have built up a strong local following, be put in a position like this for what seems (superficially) the whim of a greedy landlord.

Anyway, I thought I should pay my respects and I needed to pick up a birthday present for my Wife in Reading yesterday anyway so I popped in for a swift pint at around 5pm. I must be honest it felt like I went to a funeral, people speaking in hushed tones, condolences abound, all very sad. I wish them all luck for the future and hopefully they will open up somewhere else, less problematic, and more community oriented, my home town perhaps?

PS. The picture above was taken in their bar, seemed appropriate..

Friday Smirk

J&M on the money as usual. I do recall, when asked about the riots, torching of businesses and deaths, the first response of Arch Bishop of Canterbury at the time was to criticise the cartoons! His bias betrays a much deeper and problematic aspect of the religious mind in my view, namely, the temptation to elevate an "abstract idea" above the life and wellbeing of actual Human beings. It's a problem that our species has suffered from since our consciousness evolved, it's not solely grounded in religion either, a kind of solipsism in the extreme. It provokes a completely recognisable and infantile response, an inability to be happy until everyone else believes my idea too!

Bounce backs..

I noticed this story on the interwebs today and it caught my imagination. Apparently the man (David Kirke) who performed the world's first "Bungee Jump" in 1979, sadly died today aged 78 (I guess he had his 15 minutes!) This pioneering jump was from no less than the Clifton Suspension Bridge and was performed in true English style in top hat and tails! Mr Kirke was a fully paid up adrenaline junkie by all accounts and started the "Oxford Dangerous Sports Club", a wonderfully eccentric and fitting institution for a man who was clearly a can short of a six pack!

Emotional rollercoaster

Watched this beauty in HD at the weekend, some amazing camera work! Several sequences took up to four years to capture but edited down to 5 minutes of viewing, a labour of love you could say. Attenborough was as sanguine as ever, it seemed like every other sentence he uttered had the words "climate change" or "global warming" in it, giving the whole thing a rather emotional roller coaster feel. The script almost wrote itself, i.e., "look at this wonderful creature, so unique and beautiful, but it's probably not going to make it". Looking forward (or not?) to next week now..

Problem Lands..

Many of the world's intractable problems have emanated from this little sliver of land and the myths it spawned..

Monday Musings

That Orwell bloke knew a thing or two about Human Beings..

London Stories

Holborn station 1960 and today, still recognisable and still a nightmare to cross by foot!

Hopfest

Went into Reading yesterday (Saturday) on the train and met up with an old mate of mine. We attended a beer festival (of sorts) at a well known pub over in Caversham called the Fox and Hounds, I've blogged about this establishment before here. Anyway, they had a three day event running over the weekend that featured, 31 lines of beer, DJ's, live bands and specialist foods etc. We pitched up at about 1pm on the Saturday and it was quite quiet so we easily got a table and settled in for a few pints and some eclectic tunes. Above is a dry Irish stout from "The Kernel" (a brewery I've previously waxed lyrical about here), a delicious dark beer featuring luscious Australian hops (Galaxy) in a traditional stout, amazing flavour, body and depth for a 4.x% beer, top marks!

I must say that the music was spot on, prior to the event I wasn't too clear on the specifics of the bands or the genre's etc. but while we were there it sounded very much like old Pink Floyd stuff (weirdly, since the musicians were in their 20s!), abstract, intricate (expansive guitar/string/electric piano pieces etc.) and very long! All that was missing were the projections of oil filled slides and the exotic dancers! 

Unfortunately we both had to shoot off at around 4:30pm to catch various 5pm trains home and satisfy prior commitments, but we both agreed that we could have easily stayed for much longer, the vibe was good, and the beers were excellent! One to look out for next year with better planning on our part!

Here's the poster for the event,

Articulate

I interview quite a few youngsters these days and some of them really have no idea how to best conduct themselves in such a setting, shame it's not something that's covered in schools more as it's really important in this ever competitive job landscape. Sometimes it's an attention span thing and sometimes it's just not being able to hold an articulate conversation thread, then again I suppose I am mostly hiring programmers, awkward buggers at the best of times ! (full disclosure, I'm a programmer at heart)

London Stories

Came across this on the interwebs the other day, a map of the "nicknames of London", I particularly like "The Kardashian" as featured in my post earlier this month.

Urban Sprawl

We tend to think of ourselves as living in a place that's very urban and crowded, well it certainly is crowded with people (and cars) but when you look at aerial view of our little town it's surrounded by quite a lot of green still, I wonder how long it will be before we're just another suburb of Reading or even London?

Friday Smirk

J&M pointing out the obvious  (as usual), i.e. that reason, investigation and evidence are the sworn enemies of "faith"..

Anticipation

Every year my local craft brewers Siren create three new dark beers themed around Caribbean Chocolate Cake, I blogged about it last year when they released three beers called Charm, Curiosity and Candour in collaboration with three other Breweries from Sweden, Florida and New Zealand (they get around a bit!). 

These brews are dark as night, rich, viscous and boozy and typically delicious, last year I particularly loved "Candour" which featured a ton of chocolate flavours. Siren have just announced the release dates for this years offerings, the 10th of November, it's a Friday and they're holding a party at their tap yard, sounds like a date to me..

Seed Season

Some wonderful textures and colours around at this time of year, seeds and berries galore, here's an example from my walk today. I notice that all these ash (or sycamore?) seeds from the same tree have ended up in slightly different places but mostly seem to be pointed in the same direction, I wonder if this is an evolutionary adaptation? Each seed has a slightly different wing size and shape and so you'd expect them to spread out like this which would increase their chances of hitting pay-dirt I guess?

Midweek Mirth

Seriously though, he must be regretting spending all that money on a dead parrot..

First World problems..

It was my birthday recently and I got a couple of coffee related gifts, firstly from my Sister I got 6 double walled glasses, essentially these glasses have an inner and outer wall that traps a vacuum so that your coffee stays toasty hot for hours! An excellent idea and just the job for when I'm bashing away at the keyboard for hours on end writing software and losing track of time. The second gift was from my Daughter and is a machine that simultaneously heats and froths milk, you can see my first attempt in the photo, clearly I have work to do, but great idea! When you use a Nespresso machine for coffee and milk straight from the fridge the net result is often lukewarm, another first world problem solved!

Hellraisers

 

I'm reading a book at the moment called "Hellraiser's", it's a birthday gift from my Son who, I reckon, fancies himself as a bit of a "player" in this regard. Anyway, it's about four British actors who, back in the 50s thru 80s were, as the name suggests, rather fond of raising a bit of hell. The four people under scrutiny are, Oliver Reed, Peter O'Toole, Richard Harris and Richard Burton all well known film and stage actors in their time and well known for being (very) partial to the odd snifter of booze or worse. 

It's an interesting book, starting with the early (poor) incarnations of these film stars, how they scraped a living doing odd jobs and eating cold baked beans while searching for their "break", it then follows them through the early years of success, false starts and broken relationships through to the full blown coke sniffing years of Hollywood scale excess and debauchery. Of course it ends up exactly where you'd expect it to, old age, liver failure and early death! Kind of sad when you think about it, the candle that burns twice as bright etc. What I really wanted to know at the end, was whether there was regret, it's not clear and with all of the mythology surrounding these guys I doubt we ever will.

One of the strangest things you realise when reading the book is the following that these blokes had, an almost God like reverence from ordinary people, admiration for the (often pathetically juvenile and anti-social) alcohol and drug based exploits they had, an adoration that exceeds the normal blokeish response to this kind of thing. I did discover that, in the case of Oliver Reed, there's even a tribute pub crawl around Wimbledon (where he used to live) of eight pubs and a celebratory poster to go with it (see picture above!) - it's a strange old world.

Wagons Roll..

Amazing shot of old Wagon tracks in the Carson River valley in the USA. These tracks would be been made by successive wagon trains running across the land, the amazing thing is that those pioneers made their journey between 1830 and 1860, so these tracks are perhaps approaching 200 years old!

Outhouse rematch

We visited this little brewery in our town back in Nov 2021 and I did make a mental note at the time to revisit it sometime. As usual time flies, stuff happens, and although well meaning, I haven't been back since. Yesterday (Sunday) however my Wife and I decided to take a walk in the gorgeous afternoon sunshine and although there was a definite cold nip in the air we walked into town and happened to pass the brewery. 

I was surprised and pleased to see that the establishment had expanded, the next door unit had been occupied, doubling the available space and it was kitted out as a rather smart bar/tap room, there were quite a few people in there too! It looked inviting and so we popped in for a pint. I had an IPA called "Weekend Juice" (see above), appropriate name I thought and the beer was packed with NZ hops (Nelson Sauvin for sure), although not quite up to the standards of the other bigger and more well established breweries around the town (like Siren) it was pretty decent! I must make an effort and come back sooner next time, maybe I can persuade some mates to pre-empt a Friday evening curry night there and work our way through his menu properly, we shall see.

Santenay Saturday

We decided to open a bottle of white wine yesterday evening (Saturday) and so I delved into the back-catalogue and pulled out an old Santenay from 2003 It's from the Burgundy region (France), Cotes de Nuits to be precise, and is made from Chardonnay grapes. This example had a good amount of bottle age on it and was tasting great, complex, floral and dry with a lovely apricot/stone fruit creaminess going on. A great wine sitting perfectly in the middle of it's drinking window, a real treat.

Saturday Smile

One of my favourite Larson cartoons, a bit like most sales and marketing teams I've ever worked with, until someone who actually understands how the product works turns up.

Train Polly's

It's Friday evening and I'm waiting for a connecting train in Reading, so, headed to the Grumpy Goat for a swift half. I opted for a pale ale called "Back Finder" by Polly's brew co in North Wales. It was spikey citrus with an angular cream soda vibe, delicious, and at 4.3% ABV entirely sessionable! If I didn't have a train to catch then I'd stay for a couple of these, but needs must, let's hope there are cans at some point..

Freedom

Free Palestine... from Hamas (such a waste of potential!)

Time to reveal what you really believe..

A photo of a flag left by Hamas terrorists in the southern Israeli kibbutz of Sufa. If anyone is still confused about what is at the core of this (latest) hatred of Jews, then look at this and understand. It's religion, it's Islamism and the medieval baggage that comes with that pack of delusional garbage, plain and simple. Either we, on planet Earth, can accept/tolerate a plurality of beliefs and cultures or we can't, pick a side and stand behind a barricade.

Friday Smirk

J&M pointing out the apparent arrogance that many religious people exhibit, without realising it..

Out, out

While in London last week we happened to find ourselves walking along Shaftesbury Avenue at one point in the afternoon and saw a big sign above the Lyric Theatre for Micky Flanagan's new residency in London, which kicked-off that very evening. It was Wednesday and as we passed the venue my Wife suggested that we pop into the foyer and see if there were any tickets for that evening since we were staying up in town and could easily go. I was highly skeptical, knowing how popular he is I was convinced that the show would be sold out, however, I was wrong! Fortunately (depending on your perspective) there was also a train strike on that same day and many tickets had been refunded, we lucked out and bagged two prime seats (scarily) up front for only £60.

The show kicked off at 8pm and started bang on time, it was very funny all the way though (even though it was the first night), most enjoyable. It consisted (mainly) of a very perceptive and rich commentary (with jokes) about a variety of subjects, getting old, gender politics, marriage and young people among other things. My overriding impression was that, being almost exactly the same age as Flanagan I could really relate to some of the things he touched on, for example, how once you reach 60 you more or less become invisible to young people, how much every day things annoy you (irrationally) like beeping washing machines, and how communication between married couples evolves over long periods of time. A great night, you could almost say a great night out, out (and yes, as we all anticipated, he did manage to slip that one into the show!)

Private Roads

A rather strange thing on my regular lunchtime walk, as seen in the picture above, a little branch-road off a road called "Lockhart Drive" on a new estate of houses, it only has one house on it and so essentially the road acts as the private drive for the house. Nothing too odd there but just so that you don't forget it, the local council have put up an official road name sign that says "Private Driveway" which makes it totally look like this little road is called "Private Driveway"! I can imagine all kinds of delivery drivers getting confused as hell looking at this thinking, I'm sure the satnav says this should be "Lockhart Drive"??

London Stories

An unusual angle on the "One Blackfriars" building, known locally as the "Kardashian Tower" because of the prominent bulge in the side of the building, ah those cheeky Londoners!

Midweek Mirth

Spotted in Swindon..

Terror Options

 

I'm shocked at some of the images emerging from Israel over the last couple of days, particularly from the ill-fated music festival that was overrun by the Hamas terrorists and where 250 people were killed or kidnapped, let's not beat about the bush though, those "people" were just kids. 

I was particularly struck by the way in which these Arab thugs were treating the bodies of those that had been executed, no respect or decency was shown, barbarity rarely seen today, barbarity which harks back to medieval times. The terror and horror on the faces of the festival victims doesn't bear thinking about. I have two young adult children myself, of exactly the same age-range as these unfortunate people, and the thought of my Son or Daughter appearing in such distress, in such a situation, plastered all over social-media is beyond my worst imagination.

Social media and the modern penchant for distributing pictures and movies of pretty much everything that happens is a double edged sword for Hamas. On the one hand it enables the members of their vile organisation to easily communicate with each other using encrypted public services, it allows them to easily spread their propaganda to their devotees, but, it also allows the rest of us to see their barbaric behaviour. Sympathy for the Palestinian cause and support for a peaceful resolution to this mess would seem to be at an all time low in the West and in Israel itself at this time, and I can fully understand why.

What the next few weeks deliver will, no doubt, be alarming and distressing to all involved and it's difficult to see any form of peaceful or civilised outcome. Perhaps the most likely route from here is a long protracted ground invasion of Gaza by the Israelis, that won't be easy and thousands more will almost certainly lose their lives although lot's of the commentators on the ground seem to be predicting this at the moment. I guess if you're in the mind-space of an Israeli citizen this week there aren't too many options open.

London Stories

When in London last week we wanted to visit a particular pub in Kentish Town but found that the tube station there was closed, so, we went to the next station on the line and walked back to our destination. I wasn't quite sure where to go and we found ourselves walking through a rather grim 70s housing estate, bland concrete boxes, the kind of place that the current King used to call "carbuncles". Anyway, to our surprise we emerged from the estate into a little cobbled street leading down to the Hampstead road. It's  called "Little Green Street" and made us feel like we'd suddenly stumbled onto the set of an Oliver Twist film, amazing contrasts like this are becoming rarer but when you find one it always causes pause for thought. Apparently this Georgian street (c1750) never used to be residential and the bowed windows were once shop fronts, which makes sense. Interestingly, the only reason it still exists is that the houses sit on top of a cut and cover railway line built by the Midland Railway company (now disused) and the lack of demand for high density housing so close to the railway put developers off.

Roll out the Barrel

My Wife and I were sitting in the café of the National Portrait Gallery in London this week enjoying a late-morning coffee after looking around the gallery, and I happened to look up and noticed a strikingly life-like barrel maker statue at the top of the building at the corner of St. Martins Lane and William IV St. The barrel was even spinning around? The ornament stands atop of the Chandos pub, which was built in the 1800s, and probably has something to do with that, or maybe they used to make barrels here, there's not much information about it online so who knows?

Cricket with a "K"

While in London these past couple of days we had lunch at one of my favourite (casual) spots in the West End, a restaurant called "Kricket" (yes, Cricket with a "K") It's an Indian themed/inspired restaurant serving unusual and tasty food in a Tapas kind of style, plates are designed to be shared and you eat at a long bar that encircles the kitchen where you can see your dishes being prepared. It was lush, we went for Samphire Pakoras, Cep mushroom Bhaji and fried Chicken (plus bread and rice etc.), totally delicious and pretty reasonable (i.e. for London prices) for a lunch so substantial that we didn't need to eat for the rest of the day.

Winning combo

I picked up a couple of cans of this yesterday, it's a collaboration between two of my favourite producers, Siren (local to me) and DEYA (Cheltenham) They went for a complete tropical fruit bomb, it has the smooth, soft chalky yeast profile of a classic DEYA IPA paired with the spiky carbonation and citrus finish so common in Siren IPA's, it's a work of art! Must grab a couple more cans from their fridge, before they disappear for ever.

Legendary

Been in London for the last couple of days and finally got to tick off the legendary Southampton Arms pub in Kentish Town. It's an old Victorian building and has a really basic interior, nothing modern or comfortable about it, apart perhaps, from a well used piano and the marvellous selection of beers and ciders on tap. A top spot for craft beer fans but not somewhere you'd take someone you wanted to impress, unless perhaps they were looking to experience a small piece of London that's unfortunately been mostly lost to multinational corporations and pubs that are little more than restaurant chains selling ready-meals and flavourless industrial drinks, i.e. bland and uniform!

German Festivals

Oktoberfest in full swing in the town square yesterday, I'm not entirely sure why celebrating a Bavarian brewing festival is so popular in the UK but it seems to have become embedded in our culture too, pretty much every pub and bar seems to have something going on at this time of year. I thoroughly approve of this trend but I do wish we'd celebrate our local, homegrown brewers more, there's no real need to ship in kegs of German lager to celebrate Oktoberfest there are plenty of UK produced options which are just as good, if not better, although looking at the rate of consumption of many of the participants I'd have to conclude this celebration is perhaps more about quantity than quality..