Manchester Mission

 

I took a little trip up North to Manchester on Friday to meet up with some mates and to tour the breweries and craft beer bars around Piccadilly Station and the Northern Quarter. I was a bit worried travelling up there as the weather reports were a little alarmist and once we got onto the Cheshire plain (see picture above) it was quite evident that they'd had a lot more snow than we have down South! Anyway, Manchester itself was fine and the day was bright and sunny (mostly) but freezing cold.

We kicked off preceedings at the Track Brewing Company tap room in the industrial estate round the back of the station and what a wonderful place it was, large and airey with a fabulous selection of beers. I opted for an old faithful, Sonoma on cask, it was great and hardly touched the sides after my 3 hour train ride! I snapped the picture below of their beer board, in fact this is exactly half their beer board, if you can find something you like here then the problem is most definitely you!

After track we struggled through the ice and snow a massive 50 yards across the road to the Cloudwater taproom (it's on the same street as Track!) where the vibe was less industrial and a little more "Jazz Funk", a great little space and another wonderful selection. I opted for a half of their Piccadilly porter which was lovely, malty, dark and rich (see below)

After Cloudwater we walked back towards the station to the arches under the main platforms where the Sureshot taproom resides. I had a nice Westy and the other chaps stuck with the dark beers, a slightly smaller selection that the others and I'd never tried Sureshot before but I can recommend them, it was good tasty brewing!

The afternoon progressed and we sampled beers in the Piccadilly Tap, the Port Street Beer House and then the Marble Arch (which I've previously visited) We ended up at Bundobust, an Indian street food and craft beer joint for a nice curry and a couple more beers, we finished the evening off at around 8pm and I headed off to my hotel for the night with a full belly and happy heart, suffice to say I slept like a log!

Saturday Smiles

When you just have one job...

Memory Drain

Who remembers the year 2020? During that Summer the severe lock down that started in March was eased and we were allowed to go out and buy things from shops as long as we stayed 2m apart from each other! The photo above shows the queue at our local craft brewery on a Saturday morning of people waiting to purchase cans of beer for the weekend. Only one customer was allowed in at a time, the whole process took about half an hour, strange times!

The Full Set

The full set of CCC beers for 2024, I've tried them all now and my favourite is still the chocolate orange one. "Death by CCC" is also great but at 11% ABV it's lethal, fortunately it only comes in little 330ml cans and one of those is plenty!

Power of the Pun

 

Love things like this...

Setting Sons

Released on 16th November 1979 (45 years ago!!) this album was very pivotal in my life. I saved my Council grant up and bought it during first year at University and played it non-stop with the girls I shared a flat with, we loved it. It sounded so modern and clean with brilliant lyrics by (mostly) Paul Weller that we all sang along to, Eton Rifles became a classic.. Happy (uncomplicated) days.

Rocky Road

The second of my CCC 2024 beers, enjoyed on Saturday evening. This one is a more classic dark (stout) beer, flavours of chocolate, coffee and a nice sweet backnote, not too cloying and smooth as you like, another winner from the CCC release this year, I still prefer the Chocolate Orange one though!

CCC time

It's that time of the year again, CCC (Caribbean Chocolate Cake) and Siren have delivered another four fabulous dark beers, perfect for the season. This one (pictured above) stood out for me this year, it's a spin on the idea of a chocolate orange (one of my favourite kinds of chocolate) it's not that dark but tastes just like a stout style beer, the orange comes through really well and marries perfectly with the chocolate flavours from the Cacao nibs a really nice drink.

Big Moon

Went for a cheeky pint with my Son in Farringdon (London) yesterday evening, snapped this rather splendid super-moon while walking back to the tube station, amazing how much bigger it looks when viewed at a shallow angle like this!

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo pointing out the downside for believers to omniscience and it's obvious contradiction with an "all loving" God, as famous Atheists have pointed out in the past, why did a loving God make us so that we don't believe... (hint: a more obvious conclusion is that it's all man-made baloney) 

Wind yer neck in Wes

There's an interesting debate going on within political circles at the moment regarding the upcomming vote on assisted dying. Obviously there are differing views on this highly emotive subject, it's an ethical minefield and unfortunately I fear that emotion (and magical thinking) may get the upper hand on reason, again! 

The Health Secretary Wes Streeting has been running around doing media spots and making his views very clear, he's a Christian (not sure what flavour?) and is against the bill. While Wes is perfectly entitled to his view, secular leaning people (like me!) are also entitled to be a) suspicious of his motivations and b) not keen on the idea that a cabinet member of the Government (who are supposed to be neutral on this issue) is running around offering his strident (and narrow) view to anyone that will listen (without any counter). 

I see that today the Cabinet Secretary (Simon Case) has spoken to ministers and told them that they should "exercise discretion and should not take part in the public debate". On a free vote like this, that's the way it should be, so my view would be that perhaps Wes should wind his neck in!

Full Swing

Autumn is in full swing here in the SE of England, as you can see in the photo, it was a perfect day yesterday as I went for my constitutional walk at lunchtime, a nip in the air but blue skys and sunshine..

Midweek Mirth

This gag will be completely meaningless if you've never seen the recent TV series about the feckless spooks of Slough House run by the unforgettable (and gross) Jackson Lamb, played by Gary Oldman. One of our favourite binge-worthy shows (now into series 4) of the last few years, excellent stuff!

More Treats

While celebrating with friends this weekend we had another treat, a 2004 bottle of Pontet-Canet. This Pauillac wine from Bordeaux is historically one of my favourites, although I ran out some years ago and didn't buy any more as the price sky-rocketed back in the 2010's. Anyway, and fortunately, my friends have a much deeper collection than mine and treated us to one of their bottles. Delicious notes of blackcurrent, tobacco and lead, super smooth with a nice red berry finish, you really can't beat a good Bordeaux wine with some age on it, this one was outstanding.

Weekend Treats

Had one of these at the weekend, it's a collaboration between Verdant (Cornwall) and Duration (Norfolk) and is probably one of the best new IPA's I've had this year. A delicious cocktail of heady Nelson hops from NZ along with a solid backbone of Mosaic and Citra. All grounded with Verdant's house yeast and classic hazy, soft mouthfeel, a real treat.

Perfect 40 year old

 

We celebrated the recent sale of my company with some good friends last night and to mark the occassion I took along a bottle of 1985 Krug (Champagne) It's a bottle that we've had since 1997, one that was given to my Wife at a corporate event (a freebee!) that we both attended before we were a couple, and its been sitting patiently in my cellar ever since. I was a little worried that it would be flawed in some way by now but I needn't have, it was brilliant, dry, nutty with a delightful maderised brioche flavour that was utterly compelling, a perfect 40 year old!

Top 50 Albums

This is the list of the top 50 from Nov 1st 1977, the scary thing is I remember owning many of these as clearly as day. How many do you remember?

Saturday Smile

 

My top 10 Stephen Wright lines...

1 - I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.

2 - Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back.

3 - Half the people you know are below average.

4 - 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

5 - 82.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

6 - A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

7 - A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

8 - If you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain.

9 - All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand.

10 - The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Crud Cartels

Crud oil seems to be becoming the new cocaine.. 

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo pointing out the bleeding obvious, again, believing in the "wrong" God is almost as bad as not believing in one at all..

Poison

I was listening to the coverage of the US election earlier this week and the reporter was door-stepping various Trump supporters asking them why they were going to vote for Trump. One chap came straight out and said he supported Trump because he was a Christian and supported Trump's view on abortion (i.e. that it should be illegal in all circumstances) Now, I'm not suggesting for a moment that people shouldn't be able to hold vile opinions, but you have to ask, when it comes to abortion rights who is the more moral person here? Is it the Christian who thinks all abortion is wrong or the atheist who believes that there are clear and obvious exceptions to this (like rape) and that Women should have a say in how their own body is treated? 

To think about this we have to consider the motivations of the two positions more deeply. The Christian objects to abortion because (primarily) that only "God" should have the right to take life and that we are all "made" in the image of God. The Atheist would typically be concerned with minimising sufferring and would argue that in order to make a claim like this you first have to show how your base assumptions are true, i.e. that there actually is a "God" and this is what he wants.. In other words the Christian bases his claim to "what is moral" upon knowing the mind of God (if he exists!)

So who is more moral or compasionate? The Christian who is happy to ruin lives because he believes in a fairy story* that he can't prove but wishes to impose (by force if necessary) this delusion on other people who don't believe it, or the atheist who would prefer that the people who are the ones that are going to suffer most should have the right to make the decision for themselves. 

IMO Hitch was right, religion poisons everything.

*No one in the entirety of history has ever shown that it's not..

Woeful Wednesday

Imagine an American of average intelligence, then realise that half the population of the USA is dumber than that. I can't say I'm surprised at the election result, Harris seems like one of those politicians who speaks a lot but says nothing, i.e. a mile wide and an inch deep! What happened to all the articulate, intelligent and charismatic American leaders, where did they all go?

Tuesday Titter

About right, many AI projects are aimed at creative endeavours these days..

Too close to call

So, it's the big day for our American cousins tomorrow, the climax of their presidential election process. It seems completely surreal to many of us Europeans that one of the two options for president is a convicted criminal and apparent buffoon who struggles to string a coherent sentence together but there we are, no accounting for taste (or lack of it!) I guess, we've had plenty of buffoons running our country recently although slightly more articulate perhaps. I hope it all goes smoothly and democracy prevails, we wait with baited breath over here!

Random Trains

Had half an hour to wait for a train on Friday so I headed to the Nags in Reading for a quick 2/3rds of one of my favourite Verdant beers, called "Random Rules" it's a pale, hazy IPA made with a ton of Nelson hops from New Zealand along with Verdant's famous in-house yeast, it was delicious.

Milestones

 

For the past 17 years I've been working on building a software company, a company that I started with a business colleague back in the distant and heady pre-banking collapse days of 2007.  It wasn't my first rodeo, I've been involved with a couple of tech start-ups previously, but this was certainly the biggest, most ambitous, risky and longest running. Anyway, there have been many twists and turns, failures as well as successes, but eventually by hook or by crook we built a business that employes around 100 people today and has over 600 large companies as customers, a decent and profitable outfit you could say. 

However, you can have too much of a good thing and having recently reached the grand old age of 60 we both decided that the time was ripe to sell the business and move on. On Tuesday evening this week, after many months of haggling and just before CGT rates were raised by the new Labour Government, we signed the paperwork with a large public US company and they purchased our little firm outright for cash. (BTW this is all public domain news now, in case you're thinking you might make some quick insider money)

When I first started thinking about selling up, apart from being anxious if anyone would want to buy us, I believed that, for me, if it happened it would usher in a time for relaxation, no more do or die decision making, no more sleepless nights, no more 70 hour weeks, no more 5am trains, no more sacrificed pay cheques but instead, a massive celebration, champagne and sausages on sticks all round! But, it's been a little different from that. Don't get me wrong, we are and will celebrate and in style, but I've slowly come to realise that this isn't the end of a story, it's just the begining of a new one. 

For example, the huge anxiety felt by us founders pre-sale is now being felt by our remaining work colleagues post-sale, everyone is worried about their jobs (they don't need to, they're more secure now than ever) and for them this is, understandibly,  a huge voyage into the unknown. My own sense of satisfaction in building something of value and then realising that value is now being tinged with concern that the new owners will somehow ruin it or not treat it right, silly of course, it's just a big pile of software but from this new perspective it's so much more than that, it's been my life for nearly two decades and also a huge collaborative effort with much intellectual and emotional investment from many people over many years. 

Much as the temptation is to pat ourselves on the back right now and toast the future with vintage Krug, I'm also aware that luck plays a much bigger part in these things than anyone would like to admit. I've been involved with several start-up companies over the years and have failed as well as suceeded, once you've been around this block a couple of times you realise that you're nothing special, and success boils down more to hard work than brilliance, practicality than genius. It's a difficult, if not impossible thing to teach younger people. I wished I'd known what I know now when I was 30 but I guess that's the nature of experience, in many ways you realise it's time to quit when you see everyone making the same mistakes you did but dismissing you with a roll of their young 20-20 vision eyes when you point it out, still, I can smirk at them all from the confort of my sun lounger, Pina Colada in hand, now :)

So, it's a huge milestone for me for sure, but my sense is that like the picture above, that milestone for my Wife and I is blank and where we're headed next will be as much of an adventure and a mystery as the last 17 years was, I'm ready!

Friday Smirk

 Jesus and Mo discussing optimism, sounds about right...