Craft Royalty

 

Craft beer royalty in the house this evening, James Heffron giving a talk and and answering questions to Siren fans at the Siren tap yard. James is the owner/founder of Verdant down in Falmouth, Cornwall and creators of many a legendary craft beer including titles such as Neal, Sharks and Putty. Doesn't get much bigger than this and I can confirm that in pre-seminar conversation he's a thoroughly nice chap! 

Leap logic

 I always wondered, on this day of the 29th February, how flat Earthers account for leap years?

Nailed it..

Loads of people are really freaking out about the Israel/Gaza war, George had it nailed years ago.

Six-bob Knob

So, 30p Lee (Lee Anderson) is in the news lately, he made a jibe about Sadiq Khan, the Lord Mayor of London, who he claimed was in league with "Islamists". A right old barney has erupted and poor old Lee has lost the Tory whip as a result, his critics claiming that his comments were "Islamophobic" and "racist". Now, I'm certainly no fan of 30p Lee but I don't know if he is a racist and him making a remark about "Islamism" doesn't help illuminate the answer to that question in any way, shape or form; especially since Islam isn't a race!

The lefty progressives at the BBC may well be getting their knickers in a right old twist over this but back in the real world "Islamism" is a political movement and, as are all political movements, is an idea and, unlike people, has no "rights" at all and can be criticised completely legitimately. The question that should be aimed robustly and squarely at Lee (but I am yet to hear from our media outlets) is, what evidence does he have or what linkages can he show that suggests his comment is true? I for one would be very interested to know if Khan has links to Islamists, in much the same way that I'd like to know if Rees-Mogg has links to the Elders of Zion. It's simply a matter of public interest, a matter whose illumination would greatly help people vote accordingly.

There is a big lie and/or delusion sitting at the core of this argument, many liberals in this country seem to (deliberately?) confuse religion (as per scripture) with culture (i.e. WRT to a regional and/or temporal implementation of the religion) and then again with people (who interpret and action, or not, the cultural derivation). As Sam Harris once said, "Islam, i.e. what it literally says in the holy books, is the motherlode of bad ideas". From the perspective of "Western Values" this is obvious. In the West, since the Enlightenment, we have evolved ideas and values around equality (of sexes for example), freedom of speech, justice and tolerance that in extreme Islamic countries, if broken, can still be punishable by death. The values codified in Abrahamic texts are not compatible with modern Western, or British values, to claim otherwise is asinine. Of course if you could rewind the clock a couple of centuries then the "Christian culture" prevalent in the middle-ages would be utterly familiar to hardcore "Islamists" today, i.e. more sudden violent death than you could shake a stick at! Islamists are simply people that wish to spread some literal version of Islam throughout the globe, usually accompanied by the threat of violence, it's not as if the "message" makes any sense after all. Fortunately we no longer live in the middle-ages and most people in the "West" have no desire to return to those "dark ages", Islamic, Christian or otherwise.

We are lucky that the majority of people in "Muslim cultures" don't follow their religion literally, there are variations of course, much in the same way that the vast majority of people in "Christian cultures" don't follow theirs either. Then you have people who, especially when living outside of their original culture have a tendency to assimilate to whatever culture they wish to thrive in, again, this is an obvious and natural Human condition and has been happening for centuries. The problems tend to arise when particular cohorts of immigrants are numerous enough to become "ghettoised" and because of this don't assimilate at all, retaining many of the "literal" edicts and dogmas of their original culture, this is especially noticeable when there are large differences between core values, like how homosexuality is dealt with or how Women are treated or how far people can go in criticising or lampooning any religion or political idea. 

There is certainly a debate to be had in this country around this topic of "cultural ghettoization" when it comes to certain places and events, for example the grooming gangs in Rochdale or the drug gangs in Tower Hamlets or the racist chants outside Parliament. We either stand up for our values or we don't, personally I value the enlightenment far too much to see it wither on the vine at this late stage, I don't want literal Islamic values implemented here any more than I want literal Christian values implemented here, and that means Islamists who hide behind "Islamophobia" and use faux "offence" as a way of shutting down much needed discourse on these matters should be exposed.

London Stories

Fab drone shot over Blackheath common with a big chunk of London laid out on the horizon. The City (financial centre) is the cluster of buildings on the left, Canary Wharf (Docklands) in the centre and the O2 arena middle right. I loved the way the clouds are casting shadows onto the turf, you can just imagine those shadows moving across the landscape with the prevailing wind. A typical weather scene in the UK, although, I fear we maybe headed into an era of more rainfall and less blue sky, meteorological records for such things seem to be being broken ever more frequently.

Tart Treats

Had one of these on Saturday evening, it's a new beer from the Siren barrel store called "Burst Into Song". Aged in a mix of white wine and rum barrels this sour ale was a tart treat! Oranges and citrus for days and an addictive sourness that made for a refreshing change from the usual mix of pale ales that most craft breweries crank out these days, vive la difference!

Big Thames

Walking back to the station from the Fox on Friday, I snapped this picture of some swans on a severely bloated Thames. Normally the edge of the water is a good 10 feet from where it is at the moment, I think if I lived in a house on Fry's island (in the picture) I'd certainly be a little concerned!

DEYA Day

One of my favourite breweries in one of my favourite pubs, it's a DEYA tap takeover at the Fox & Hounds (Caversham, Berks) We spent a delightful couple of hours here on Friday evening, post shopping, with the kids (we still call them that even though they're both 20 something year old adults now!). We played darts and sampled the beers before hopping on a train and home for dinner, a top day.

London Stories

An atmospheric shot of Wilkes Street in Spitalfields, London, it's possible, likely even, that Jack the Ripper stepped on these exposed cobbles, this was his patch and one of his victims was found nearby. Makes you think about all those thousands of people, no longer with us, that wore these stones smooth and just occasionally we get a glimpse of that past historical layer of the city.

Friday Smirk

J and M pointing out an obvious flaw in the whole omniscient, omnipresent "creator of the universe" thing. Apparently these entities (because there are thousands, according to Humankind) are so powerful and clever that they can create entire universes consisting of trillions of galaxies, not to mention multi-cellular life that is capable of pondering it's own existence; but the communication of simple health and ethical messages like "wash your hands after you shit" and "don't own other people as property" are beyond them.

Necessary?

I was doing some work in my study the other day and heard a delivery truck pull up in the road outside, I opened the window blind to be faced with the view above. Now, I'm no prude but I couldn't help thinking, is this kind of advertising strictly necessary in this day and age, particularly in the UK where the chances of sunbathing in a bikini in your own back garden are pretty slim. I can't help thinking that my feminist teenage daughter would have something to say about this kind of thing.

Porter

Had one of these last weekend, it's a banging new Porter from Siren. Porter is an old London style of beer made to provide carbohydrate refreshment to the porters of the various markets, it's usually a little weaker than Stout which originally got it's name from being a "stout porter", i.e. a bit bigger. Anyway, this one is delicious, chocolate, coffee, malt, red fruits and a lingering bitterness an excellent example of the style.

RIP Big Keith

Sad news today about Ewen MacIntosh, the actor who played "Big Keith" in the office. The appraisal scene has to be one of the most satirically accurate (and funny) renditions of that peculiarly corporate (and largely pointless) ritual, a truly hilarious and ground-breaking series delivered by very talented people.

London Stories

What a gorgeous pair of knockers! To be found on Warwick Lane (just West of Paternoster Square) in the City. They're guarding the entrance to the livery hall of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers (knife makers) whose products often featured handles made from ivory, hence the connection.

Overground, underground

So here's the new tube map (click on it to make it bigger) with the Overground lines separated out into named lines with their own colours. From this Autumn we'll have the following lines,

Liberty

Lioness

Mildmay

Suffragette

Weaver

Windrush

Each line name has a particular meaning, for example the "Lioness" line refers to our Women's football team and their achievements, the "Weaver line" has stops that include Liverpool Street, Spitalfields, Bethnal Green and Hackney all areas known for their importance to the textile trade. The "Suffragette line" celebrates celebrate how London's East End working-class community fought for women's rights, the line also runs to Barking, home of the longest-surviving suffragette, Annie Huggett, who died aged 103.

Monday Mirth

Move to the coast they said, you'll see a truck load of beautiful sunsets...

London Stories

Airplane pic of Old Father Thames threading it's way through the city, timeless.

Red for danger

I'm not usually one for red ales but this one came as part of a trio of beers that were made in a similar style and with similar hop dosages, I blogged about one of the others here. It was a really good beer, malty with an underlying flavour of toffee, marmalade and red fruits with citrus bitterness on the finish. It's a smooth drink and you don't at all notice the rather hefty 8% ABV, a case of "red for danger", good effort!

Holy diving

We spent the day in Winchester yesterday and met up with some good friends for a nice lunch and a couple of drinks. The day was a little "grey" and overcast, but nevertheless the medieval Cathedral in the centre of town was looking fine. I remember coming here as a teenager on a school trip, we learned all about how one side of the building was gradually sinking into the marshy land and causing huge cracks to appear in the masonry. It was saved by a dedicated deep sea diver at the turn of the century, who spent years diving under the foundations shoring up the massive walls. 

There's a Fullers pub dedicated to the man just outside the grounds, called the "William Walker" and it even has an antique divers helmet hanging from the pub sign outside. I snapped a picture as we walked by (see below)

London Stories

When you walk from Paddington Station down to the South Bank the fastest route takes you past this splendid arch at the top of Constitutional Hill. It's called the "Wellington Arch" as it's opposite the Duke of Wellington's old gaff at the enviable address of "1 London", being the first (huge) house past the old Piccadilly turn-pike as you entered London. The other obscure fact about this landmark is that the statue on the top is the largest bronze statue in Europe, it depicts peace descending on the Quadriga of War, a pursuit that Wellington was particularly skilled at.

Jab day

Had some vaccinations on Tuesday this week, five in total, Hepatitis A, Typhoid Fever, Diphtheria, Tetanus and Polio, it's in preparation for a long haul trip we have planned for later in the year. Anyway, after so many punctuations of our upper arms we woke up the next morning feeling like we'd previously taken part in a dead-arm competition! Fortunately, 24 hours later, the swelling and stiffness was wearing off but we did think that having so many jabs at once was perhaps a little ambitious! Still, stiff arms for a day or two is probably marginally better than catching Typhoid.

Friday Smirk

 

Jesus and Mo pointing out the mortal enemy of religion throughout history, critical thinking.

Phew what a scorcher

Went for a walk today and I reckon the temperature was hitting 16 degrees (plus) - had to call into my house half way around to unload my coat and jumper before carrying on, I see that yesterday was the highest minimum temperature for Valentines day on record here in the UK, certainly unprecedented warmth for February? 

London Stories

I was in London on Monday and while transiting Paddington I noticed that the new building just outside the station appears to be complete, it's impressive. 

Depressingly Accurate

Depressingly accurate from the wonderful xkcd

HBPG

Happy Birthday Peter Gabriel!

Moment in History

Fascinating photo taken toward the end of WWII it shows one of the factories in the West Midlands producing Spitfire aircraft of various kinds. Makes you realise that winning wars in the modern era is as much a matter of production as it is fighting, luckily at that time the UK had a decent ability to do both.

London Stories

Fournier Street in Spitalfields, London, Jack the Ripper territory. The body of Mary Jane Kelly was discovered only 50 yds from this spot and the pub where she used to drink is at the end of the road, it's still there, the Ten Bells, still serving up spirit and fortitude to the folks of East London.

Ying and Yang

Tough choice for wine lovers, for me it would have to be Bordeaux and Chablis (or white Burgundy); the ying and yang of the fine wine world.

Double bubble

Tried one of these last night while cracking into a new box set. It's a "double" version of a beer that I've had a few times now and even blogged about. Made by local brewer Andy Parker of Elusive Brewing it's an 8% version of Oregon Trail his best selling beer, it's a Westy so quite bitter and hoppy with a delicious citrus/grapefruit underlay. Good stuff!

Boot Test

The weather was awful on Thursday, rain, rain and more rain! However, I went for my usual lunchtime walk and even though I had a big umbrella, I got soaked. The only upside was that I got to test out my new Gore-Tex walking shoes (purchased for reasons previously discussed here) and I can confirm they are indeed water-proof. My jeans may have been sodden but my feet were bone dry, lush!

London Stories

Is this the tallest, thinnest door in London? On Flitcroft Street near Seven Dials (Covent Garden) is this rather imposing green door, I don't know what's behind it (neither did Shaky!), but it certainly looks the part from the alley outside.

Apparently opened in 1904, this building was once home to the Elms Lesters Painting Rooms and was used to store and produce theatre set scenery and backdrops, I guess they needed this kind of door to wheel out large theatre sets?

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo showing how circular most religious arguments are, enough to make one dizzy!

Free Will

Many people love to debate the existence (or not) of something called "free will", are we in fact free to make whatever choices we like in life or are the choices pre-programmed by either Biology or some bearded man in the sky? 

It's an interesting question and one that science is inching towards an answer for but as yet is inconclusive. Religions have, of course, had much to say (or guess) regarding this question, Christians of varying flavours claim that "free will" is the result of God allowing Humans to sin (or not) thereby providing some kind of "get out of jail" clause to their "problem of evil" a solution which isn't particularly convincing to most rationalists, being somewhat circular in nature. 

Current Science seems to favour a lack of free will in Humans, brain studies using new fMRI scanners appear to show that decisions are made in the brain before the person becomes aware of them thereby suggesting that the decision itself is made subconsciously based upon nothing more than brain structure shaped by prior experience. This makes total sense to me, having worked a bit with neural net technology the mechanism for this kind of set-up would seem to be feasible, however, the killer evidence for this position has not yet been discovered and I'm sure (knowing how Biology works) things will turn out to be far more complex than this.

I'm reminded of a CEO who once decided that his "management team" would start every meeting with a can of red-bull (the energy drink) in order to show how hip and liberal they were, and also to provide the "energy" to have a productive meeting. Most people thought this was a cool idea, one person objected, saying that they disliked the taste of red-bull, that person was excluded from meetings. Such is the nature of free-will, as Hitch once put it, we have free-will, not because its a gift from God but because we have no choice.

Hop Quest

My local craft brewers, Siren, have come up trumps again this last week. They launched a set of three beers called "Guess the Hop" and, yes, you guessed it the idea is that you have to guess which hop is in each beer. Once you've convinced yourself on the question of hop varietals, answers can be submitted on their web site and splendiferous prizes await the correct hop gurus among us. I couldn't resist so I popped over to their taproom last weekend and picked up the cans, my deliberations are now finalised and I can announce my results to an eager world..

Beer A - Slight onion/garlic vibe, dank, red fruits, I guess Mosaic (although could be Citra also)

Beer B - Less pronounced, earthy, spicy, could even be an English hop, I reckon Centennial.

Beer C - The most distinct flavour of the three, coconut for days, must be Sabro

I confidently predict I got most or probably all of these wrong, official results out soon, I will report back.

Old Boxes

As previously mentioned on this blog, National Rail are digging up the railway just outside our town station in order to install new signalling. Work seems to be progressing (see photo above) although it's hard to tell if they're on schedule or not, I guess we'll know when we know! Anyway, I hadn't twigged but the new signalling means that the old signal box (on the right hand side of this photo) will be retiring. 

Built in 1933 it's faithfully served it's town for 91 years, that's pretty good going I reckon, value for money you could say. I wonder how long it will be before the new signalling has a 404 error or it's Wi-Fi router needs rebooting after a few flakes of snow, we shall see, such is the march of progress.

London Stories

I see the weather forecast is for colder temperatures to return to the UK this week and next along with rain etc. Ah well, the high pressure was nice while it lasted and thankfully no big freezes so far this Winter. The photo above shows a big freeze from history, 1894 to be precise when the Thames in London froze over (as it has many time in the past) it seems inconceivable these days that cold spells could last for many months, as this one did, from December 1894 to March 1895 and the ice in the river was in places 7 feet thick! The last time we had a severe cold spell like that was probably the Winter I was born 1962/3, thankfully I remember nothing about it and (according to my parents and grandparents) somehow it didn't seem like such a big deal to the people at the time, even though it lasted 3 months.

Seeing red in Windsor

We were at a loose end yesterday afternoon so decided to pop over to Windsor where we parked up in the Great Park and walked the 3k into town. While navigating Park St., which links the park to the town we noticed this vandalism, someone had thrown red paint over the front door and window of one of the houses there. I didn't hear about this on the local news or anything so it could be a fairly old story? My theory is that the house is something to do with the Royal Estate (there's some kind of crown stencil on the windows) and perhaps this was done by anti-hunt protesters (fake blood etc.), anyway, it's a big mess and rather out of place in the usually picture perfect town.

While there we took a walk down the railway arches and visited the Two Flints taproom for a swift half and a crafty (shared) pizza. We'd visited this brewery before back in April 2023 when it just opened, and I was quite impressed with the quality of their offerings then. From the look of the place now they have clearly gone from strength to strength, the range of styles on offer was amazing, and the place was packed out, even though it was only 3pm on a chilly February afternoon. We both supped a nice fruity pale ale called "Alma" which was more West Coast in style than East (i.e. quite bitter) it was really good, balanced and refreshing, definitely one to watch out for!

London Stories

If you walk along the North bank of the Thames just past Cannon St. Station you will come across the following signage (see above), it denotes the location of the medieval Hanseatic trading post in London, "The Steelyard" a compound of wooden houses and warehouses that was the centre of the Hanseatic League in the UK. They also had other sites in Kings Lynn and Boston (Norfolk) but London was obviously the "big apple" as far as medieval markets in the UK went.

This ancient trading group, centred in Lubeck Germany, set up shop in the 1100's and lasted all the way into the 1600's a decent innings for a league of loosely associated people from various Northern European and Baltic cities. They traded various staples of the age, wool, metals, amber, fish, grains and honey and they grew rich over time, garnering various "favours" from the various ruling classes of the cities in which they set up their trading posts. Of course, after a while things became "political" and as the riches built up direct competition from host nation states grew and after a couple of trading wars with various nations, including England, their power and influence gradually waned and by the mid 1600's they'd all but vanished.

I learned more about this period of history while visiting Bergen, Norway last year. Bergen was one of the main Hanseatic centres where a large living museum of their dockside buildings, living quarters and churches still exists today. It's a good tour, like stepping back in time. From Norway the traders took "salt-cod" and amber down to cities like London and Bruges and traded it for things like wool and metal tools. In the snap I took below you can see the crowded wooded warehouses and dwellings in Bergen, most of which are original or restored in their original setting.

Getting back to the "Steelyard", below is a schematic of the area between All Hallows and Cousin Lanes, from the 1600's. Today it's all gone, sold off to the railway companies in the 1800's and is now the site of Cannon St. Station and a few office buildings. In remembrance of that era the bankside pathway in that area is called the "Hanseatic Walk" a reminder that London once contained cities within cities and little (rich) foreign enclaves that helped it grow and prosper.

Go into the light

There's a neat festival going on in Bristol at the moment, called the "Bristol Light Festival" it's a series of installations that feature light shows, images and interactive displays all around the centre of the city. 

The one that particularly intrigues me is "Wild Light" which has been created by the BBC Natural History Unit, which is based in Bristol, these are the good people that brought us Blue Planet, Frozen Planet, Green Planet among many others. Obviously they have a plethora of spectacular images of wildlife and remote parts of our beautiful planet. For their show they've taken over the LHG (Left Handed Giant) taproom/brewpub on Finzels Reach, a great little spot that I've blogged about a few times before, see here. It's the perfect location for a light show as the building already looks like a huge TV. We're promised Hump Backed Whales breaching in the river, Dolphins, Elephants, Penguins and even Tigers, sounds amazing, certainly going to try to find an excuse to head West at some point soon although we'll have to hurry the festival ends on the 11th Feb.

Dancing in the dark

 

I had one of these while making dinner this evening (Shepherds Pie) It's a new'ish beer from Siren called "South Facing IPA" and is a collaboration with Dancing Man brewery down in Southampton. I visited the Dancing Man taproom/brewery a few years ago with some mates on a day out, it was a great spot for a few beers and IIRC decent food too. I recall we kind of ended up there by accident while looking for another brewpub (Unity, now closed) but we fell on our feet that day, it turned out to be a very cool venue. 

Situated in a renovated 14th century "wool house" on the town quay, the building used to be part of the "old" Southampton, mostly destroyed by Adolf in the 40s, the history of the place is fascinating, for example, in the 18th century it housed French prisoners from the Napoleonic wars, a brutal chapter, you can still see some of their names carved into the wooden beams upstairs! In the beginning of the 20th century (1910) it housed an early aircraft workshop, the "Moonbeam II" made it's maiden flight from the site that's now Southampton airport. 

Now, there's not many town centre "spoons" that can make those kinds of claims!

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo illustrating the shear silliness of some religious dogmas.

London Stories

Snapped the other week in London (Covent Garden), the Sun was just setting over the buildings, looked like a nuclear detonation in Leicester Square!