Wet, wet, wet...

Went for a walk at lunchtime, didn't think I'd need an umbrella... 

New Fashion?

While walking to the station the other day I happened to find myself behind a young girl out walking her dog, I noticed a rather unusual bit of branding on her sweatshirt, the name "Voltaire" was written across the back of the garment? One of the key Enlightenment philosophers, thinkers and authors, a Frenchman who also spent time in England and is rumoured to have attended the funeral of Isaac Newton, an infamous critic of religion, committed Deist and all round smarty pants! I did wonder if there was a new fashion for showing off how smart (or otherwise) you are by emblazoning your clothes with the names of famous philosophers**, who would you choose? (I'd probably go for Russell)

**It's actually a clothing brand called Zadig & Voltaire (my Daughter informs me)

Monday Mirth

Ah corporate "happy talk", the customer survey that no one gives a f**k about..

In the can

So, I popped one of my A&H London Black cans last night while making dinner, it all worked perfectly,  the widget in the can created a nice creamy head and the beer was delicious as always, a really good representation of the style and the beer. Not quite up to the high standard of the keg version but pretty good never the less!

London days

Spent a nice afternoon sampling craft beer with a couple of mates in Bermondsey yesterday, the weather played ball for once and it was sunny and warm all day. My friends were down from Cheshire and had never sampled the delights of the "mile" so I took them along the railway arches up to Spa Terminus and The Kernel brewery before turning around and walking back to London Bridge stopping off in selected venues to try out their various offerings on route. Of course I had to drop into Anspach and Hobday for a pint of London Black and was thrilled to find that they had their cans on sale. The canned version is quite new and only came out a couple of months ago and is in very short supply at the moment, I'll be keen to see if it holds up against the draft version which was brilliant as usual! My Northern friends thought it was one of the best beers they'd ever had, high praise indeed, most Northerners I know usually aren't that complimentary about "Southern" brews.

I snapped this shot of the sun over the river on the walk back to Waterloo station, Bankside was bustling with music, food vendors (gorgeous smells!) and people enjoying the evening air, it was a splendid stroll!

Shrouded in mystery (not!)

I'm not sure why so many of our religious brothers and sisters still cling to the claim that the shroud of Turin (pictured above) is physical evidence of their beliefs? Put aside for one moment that the age of this relic was scientifically determined decades ago and it's obviously a medieval fake but take a look at the figure itself, does this look like a first century Jew, more like a Viking god, maybe it's Thor? Now that would be a turn up..

Friday Smirk

J&M pointing out the obvious again. I always wondered how many feminists squared up to some of the misogyny built into mainstream Islam, head in the sand it mostly seems.

Banksy'ish

There's an artist that lurks around our town who loves to stencil funny looking cats onto public buildings and structures. I think they're acting out some kind of Banksy fantasy or something but I'm not sure I'd be too happy to find one of these on the side of my house! Part of my regular walk takes me through an alley between two houses and the picture above is one of the walls, it's just a regular estate house and the cat painter has struck! I guess it could go either way, i.e. either the painting becomes worth more than the house or it's simply criminal damage, only time will tell.

Soane Sunday

 

As it was such a sunny day last Sunday that we decided to hop on a train and meet our Daughter (whose studying in London) somewhere in town. Since it's on our train line and somewhere we'd never really explored we opted for Ealing in West London, Ealing Broadway is an easy 30 minutes from us and only 20 from her so we made a date for lunch and a stroll!

After a nice light lunch at a little Spanish tapas place in Dickens Yard (Reineta) we headed over to Walpole park and the Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery which is a short walk from the station. The manor house there was designed and constructed by architect Sir John Soane in 1800, the house was built as a country retreat for him and his family but also as a showcase for the kind of neo-classical architecture for which he was famous (a live-in advertisement!). 

Even though the designs are now over 200 years old the house has a very modern feel to it, many of the paint colours used would sit happily in a "Farrow & Ball" catalogue (maybe that's where they get them from?) and the layout functional as well as impressive. In the picture above you can see the interior of the entrance hall, the amber glass bathed the space in an orange glow as the sun's rays shone through into the marble stairwell all very well thought out.

Much of the plasterwork on the ceilings and walls is very "Wedgwood Jasperware" looking, I guess it was all the rage back then as Josiah Wedgewood's product had only been going a few years (1775) prior to Pitzhanger being designed. 

One of the good friends of John Soanes was JMW Turner whose relationship centred largely around a mutual love for fishing. The ponds at the back of the Manor house hosted the famous English landscape painter many times, they're still there, but I suspect not as good for fishing as when Ealing was considered "countryside"!

The view above is the rear of the Manor, the conservatory windows can be seen which overlook one of the "fishing" ponds, it was a sunny warm day so the surrounding parkland was filled with people enjoying a relaxing Sunday, lot's of kids running around chasing pigeons, a nice day out!

Interestingly I discovered later (after some Googling) that Soanes was commissioned to create a monument in Reading, it's in the Market Square and one of those things that you see all the time but never notice. It was paid for by a wealthy Reading merchant (Edward Simeon) back in 1804 and is called the "Soane Obelisk", I must take a closer look when I'm next in town (see picture below).

London Stories

It's amazing what you find when you dig a hole in London. This particular hole is in Southwark on the South bank of the Thames near London Bridge, the Shard can clearly be seen behind the site. Workers building the foundations for new buildings uncovered a set of huge Roman mosaics on raised platforms, that are believed to be part of a mausoleum structure for the funerals of well to-do Romans. They also found coins, shoes, pottery, roof tiles and metal objects. Discovered in 2022 it's planned that the finds will be restored and put on permanent public display.

Holy Trinity

Snagged a couple of cans of this beauty the other day. It's a collaboration between three of my favourite breweries, Burning Sky, The Kernel and Elusive to produce an absolute banger of a Westy. Bitterness layered with pink grapefruit, crisp and clean with great body, a very good ale indeed!

London Stories

Nothing special from this view but this terrace in Leinster Gardens, London hides a little secret. All is revealed if you look around the back, you can see that the whole thing is just a façade (see picture below)

Put up to hide the underground railway that runs below the houses!

Lights, camera, action

While walking home from the station late last night we were treated to a fabulous display of excited particles hitting the upper atmosphere. The Northern lights payed a rare visit to Southern England and miraculously it wasn't cloudy! Hopefully we'll get the same treat tonight as well, we'll be watching!

Soft Launch

Spent a splendid evening with friends at the new Siren bar in Reading last night. It's not officially open yet but as an investor I was invited to a "soft launch" to help them iron out the bugs in their systems and test the various elements of the service (food & drink etc.) It was a big success, everything worked just fine although the queues were quite large as I reckon they had at least 150 people there all turning up at the same time, a good test I guess. Above is the new beer board, pretty decent selection across thirty odd keg and four cask taps, the best bit was that since this was an invite only event for investors everything was half price! I can't wait for the official opening (Monday) and for this swanky new restaurant/bar to become a core part of the town's hospitality scene (it surely needs a boost!)

Bring it on!

Amazing what a bit of sunshine does for everyone, our little market town looking splendid today.

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo pointing out the obvious. It's funny how certain tribes of people come together to protest against certain issues and yet completely ignore others where, I suspect, an ideological clash isn't present, could it be that some people confuse morality with ideology? 

I'm thinking of course about Muslims and Jews, in fact when you think about it quite a few different tribes have issues with Jews and have had them for centuries? I guess old grudges take time to fully heal (about four thousand years apparently) in the mean time some people seem to have nothing better to do than pick at the scabs.

Woke-washing?

 

Interesting story hit the wire today, the CEO and co-founder of BrewDog, one of the original UK based craft brewing companies that started back in 2007, has decided to step aside and install a more "corporate" looking bloke from the retail sector. James Watt, the enfant terrible of craft (according to some people) has many enemies in the media and among the more vocal segments of the various woke tribes. He's been central to several scandals over the years and has been accused of "inappropriate behaviour" and fostering a "toxic workplace culture" among other things. 

I think there's no doubt that Watt has sailed pretty close to the wind on several occasions when it comes to edgy marketing and perhaps playing fast and loose with the truth, however he's not unusual in that. It's also a common phenomenon that when a company and/or person achieves success in this country, and particularly when that success is highly visible and fast then there is almost invariably some kind of backlash. It's strange how success is sometimes viewed here, many people appear to resent it. Of course, I'm not suggesting that successful people are somehow immune from the same rules as the rest of us but equally we should all have a modicum of understanding about what it really takes to build a multi-million pound business these days from scratch and how the people at the top of these organisations aren't saints, they're just fallible people like the rest of us. Many of the accusations levelled at Watt have been sketchy to say the least and it's clear that a certain segment of the media are or have been gunning for him, particularly the "right-on" BBC/Guardian types.

Now though, it seems that the board have decided to install a more corporate shaped bloke in his place. Someone who perhaps will dial back the outlandish marketing stunts, focus more on diversity and inclusion schemes, implement more rigid HR policies and essentially woke-wash the whole thing so that the heat Watt attracted is directed somewhere else. Looking at the CV of the bloke that's replacing Watt (James Arrow) though I do worry about a few things. I think it can be justifiably said that although Watt was clearly very driven and successful he was also a bit of a prat! Your classic "A type" personality who jumped into things with both feet and who often put sensitive noses out of joint. He was however passionate about good beer, and had a keen understanding of his product and what this segment of the market is all about. The original message on the back of their flagship beer (Punk IPA) used to be pretty aggressive, I remember reading it in 2011 it was memorable and to the point and the beer (Punk IPA) tasted new, good and different from the bland mass-produced stuff that was pervasive at the time (see  picture below) This kind of anti "corporate happy-talk" attitude went down well with the original group of people that gravitated to the new wave of beers back then, and was a great brand identity forming step for the company. 

Today of course Brewdog is a huge company that has over 2000 employees and 120 bars around the world, like many it has perhaps become what it's founders were trying to disrupt back in 2007! However, I do hope that some of that original spirit can be retained somewhere, if you ask me there's enough corporate  greenwashing, wokewashing, blandness and indistinguishable product in the world, we don't need more.

Tech troubles

Perfectly on point from Matt today.

London Stories

Dr Salter's Daydream, Bermondsey an interesting installation on the bank of the Thames. The figures represent Dr Alfred Salter his Wife Ada and their daughter Joyce and family cat (seen on the wall above) The Salters lived inspiring lives, Alfred, a physician at Guy's did much for the poor of Bermondsey a huge slum at the time (1898) and set up a medical practice there, kind of an NHS before the NHS existed. Sadly his daughter Joyce died aged 8 after a scarlet fever epidemic swept through the slums. The grief the couple suffered at the loss of their beloved girl was channelled into improving conditions in the borough, Ada eventually became the Mayor of Bermondsey, the first Female Mayor of a London borough. The installation recalls happier days for the Salter's, people that made a difference.

Splitting the "G"

Is this equivalent to splitting the "G" (see here for more information) Not Guinness of course but the wonderful London Black from Anspach and Hobday (London), a much tastier porter IMHO.

Wash out

Feeling sorry for all the traders who made an effort to turn out for our local May Fayre, it was a total wash out, crowds were significantly down on last year as our crappy weather dumped rain on the town for the whole day. We walked in just after midday but it was utterly miserable and so we abandoned all hope around 1:30pm and made our way home cowered under a big umbrella (but still soaking wet!), shame.

GSOH

Looks like Gillespie had a GSOH!

Westy

I find myself drawn to Westies more and more these days, I suppose taste and preference is something that swings back and forth and the fruit and piney bitterness of a good West Coast IPA is, for me, currently in vogue. This one from local brewer Elusive (in collaboration with Turning Point, Yorkshire) is a banger, peach and citrus with a decent hit of bitterness on the finish, a great example of the style.

Conspiracy

When wandering through the temples in Angkor Wat back in March this year, this little chap was pointed out to us. The comment from the guide was that obviously the monks in the 13th century knew about dinosaurs! It's certainly true the carving does superficially look like a Stegosaurus and it's also true that the conspiracy theorist sympathisers in the group immediately leapt on the idea as some kind of conclusive evidence, however my little skeptical brain instantly jumped to "what else could this be", there are many possibilities.

There is a genus of lizard in the arboreal forests of Asia called "Acanthosaura" all of whom have spiny or scaly back features, these animals are common in the region and it would be difficult to model small spines in limestone without precision steel tools. Alternatively this may not be a reptile at all, it could be an Elephant or Rhino (both native to the region) and the lumps on it's back may not be on it's back at all as some don't appear to be. It could be some kind of pack animal or even just the figment of the artists imagination, a chimera, as was common in that period and culture (i.e. Hindu monkey and cobra gods like Hanuman and Naga) 

The bottom line is that we don't know what it is, we'll never know and that's fine, all we have is the balance of probability which is stacked heavily in my favour. It's interesting (anthropomorphically) that for many people making up an answer is far more desirable than having none.

Philosophy Corner

One of my favourite philosophers. I bet Rishi is thinking this right about now..

Friday Smirk

Beautifully done by J&M, the problem with infinite regress is something that passes most people by, everyone knows that God isn't real, he's an integer..

London Stories

This old house on Lambeth Rd is where William Bligh used to live (1754-1817) He was, of course, famous for being the captain of the good ship Bounty which was taken over in a mutiny led by Christian Fletcher and the subsequent formation of a colony of mutineers (to this day) on the remote Pacific island of Pitcairn. Bligh was cast adrift in a small boat but managed to navigate 3,600 miles to Timor from where he made his way back to England. Interestingly he eventually ended up, in 1806, as Governor of New South Wales in Australia where there was a rebellion against him (Rum Rebellion) It would seem that on reflection Mr Bligh was a bit of a dick..

London Stories

 

Great before and after shot of Paddington station! It's a terminus I use very frequently and is probably my favourite of all the London stations. Interestingly here's a list of the top 10 London stations ranked by passenger numbers for 2022-23, all the numbers are in millions of entries/exits per year.

1. Liverpool Street (80,448)

2. Paddington (59,182)

3. Waterloo (57,789)

4. London Bridge (47,657)

5. Victoria (45,563)

6. Stratford (44,136)

7. Tottenham Court Road (34,877)

8. St Pancras (33,296)

9. Farringdon (31,459)

10. Euston (31,318)

I would have put Euston higher on this list and not had Farringdon or TCR on it at all, surprising, no Kings Cross or Clapham Junction?