Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo this week pointing out the absurdity of the idea that the Koran represents the actual words of the omniscient creator of the Universe (even if they could show that such a being existed!). 

To unindoctrinated people it just looks like a random assemblage of cherry picked essays representing the parochial concerns and interests of a bunch of Bronze age Middle Eastern desert tribes and stories plagiarized from the Torah! 

FFS a child could work this out.

We are the champions!

Well done to local brewer "Elusive" for winning the champion beer of Britain for their "Oregon Trail" West Coast IPA, a delicious beer I reviewed back here.. (well done Andy!)

Wine Whine

We had some delicious wines when in Madeira earlier this month, it surprised me how good some Portuguese reds can be, I know very little to nothing about these wines so I was kind of flying blind, mainly relying on recommendations from waiters and the odd sommelier etc. The one pictured above was particularly good, red fruits, chalky, layered with a decent finish, it cost me around 100 Euro at a posh restaurant we went to one evening, they had a knowledgeable sommelier so I put myself in his hands (also pictured above) I was happy with the choice it wasn't life changing but went very well with the food we had. After doing some research when I got home I discovered that this exact wine can be had for £35 a bottle in a specialist shop in London, I guess I should be conditioned to a minimum 3X markup for wine in restaurants but TBH it still sticks in my throat (unlike the wine).

Here's a picture of one of the dishes we had, a beautiful shoulder of pork with a rich jus and some veg, perfect for a rich red like the one we had. The meal was one of those endless small courses interspersed with amuse bouche affairs, all of them pretty good and the pudding was superb, as we discovered, Madeira is quite a good foodie place and not prohibitively expensive like some places in mainland Europe these days.

One for sorrow

 What do you get for eight?

Cocked Hats

So this is the legendary pint of G at the Devonshire in Piccadilly, London (supposedly the best example in our fair land (England that is)! Well, was it the best? I have no idea, it tasted like a decent pint of mass produced, nitrogenated porter to me, aka Guinness, TBH I don't see what all the fuss is about, when it comes to Porter, "London Black" by Anspach and Hobday knocks it into a cocked hat any day of the week.

Different Perspectives

Our little rock on a rare cloudless day, seen from the ISS.

Fake ID's

I'm wondering who else is sick of "proving" your identity to every tom dick and harry who wants to sell you something these days. I seem to be doing some kind of ID check every week at the moment, they are all easily fakable and some even totally pointless and they all assume that the person being checked can't operate photoshop!

Friday Smirk

Classic Jesus and Mo pointing out that it's only blasphemy if you actually believe it..

Levada Tunnels

While staying in Madeira a week ago we took a day out to hike one of the famous "Levada's". These are channels dug into the mountains along which rain water flows down into the coastal areas for crop irrigation, there are thousands of KM of these channels and they make for superb hiking trails through the mountains and hills in the interior of the island.

In the photograph below you can see one of these Levada channels and water still flows through most of them, as can be seen here.

Sometimes the channels needed to pass over mountains in order to reach their destinations, obviously water doesn't flow up hill and since most of the Levada were made during the 16th, 17th and 18th century pumping wasn't an option so they built tunnels! 25km of tunnels were built over the centuries and many still exist and are used today, we walked through one such tunnel, it was over a kilometer long and quite wet but fascinating (see picture at the top) It was rumored that the early Levada were dug out by African slaves and that later ones used prisoners from continental Portugal in order to perform this dangerous and laborious carving of these amazing structures out of bare rock, following the contours of the mountains.

I shot a little video of the approach to the tunnel, where several Levada meet up and form a larger channel that transits the tunnel, see below..

Collaboration re-brew face-off

Two beers sampled last weekend, both big bold West Coast IPA's both brewed by Siren but each in collaboration with different brewers. First (on the right) we have one of my all time favourite beers made with brewers "Green Cheek" based in the USA (on the West Coast) and the other slightly less glamorous "Elusive" based on the same Berkshire industrial estate as Siren in Finchampstead. It's kind of a face off between two beers in the same style, slightly different hops but essentially the USA vs UK!

Firstly we have "Every Minute Matters (EMM)" first launched five years ago and re-released this Spring. It reached the dizzy heights of #2 in my beers of the year list back in 2020 and is a classic Westy, clean, crisp, marmalade and grapefruit with a fierce bitter finish, lovely. Secondly we have another re-brew first seen in 2023 for the 7th birthday of that brewery, called "Nine Mile Ride (NMR)" it celebrates the famous (well, around here) road that both breweries sit at the end of and is quite similar in flavour profile to the previous example. I get a ton of grapefruit and citrus, the bitterness is there and it's quite dank as well, a delicious expression of Westy goodness.

If I had to choose only one then I think I'd plump for NMR, but it's very close, NMR is just that little bit more drinkable since EMM sits at 7.2% ABV and NMR at 6% and NMR features more Nelson hops which bring something special to the party. But, then again, on a sunny Saturday afternoon with the BBQ flaming away I'd be perfectly happy to sink either one of these beauties.

It's only a number..

I witnessed a rather surreal event the other day while out walking, someone who was clearly having a birthday party in their back garden (accidentally?) let loose some of those big "numbers balloons" used to mark the age of the person. 

They floated up into the sky and tumbled over and over occasionally becoming readable, which looked weird, rather like some 60's sci-fi TV series. The numbers were a four and two zeros, I'm guessing that 400 wasn't the memorable date being celebrated but that there were perhaps two 40's leaving the poor organizer with a remaining solitary 4 with which to do something, could be worse I suppose. I did have visions of the numbers floating up into the path of some unsuspecting flight landing at Heathrow, I can just imagine the air traffic control conversation, worthy of a two Ronnie's sketch.

Research

Of course we couldn't go to Madeira and not try the local wine, in the photo above we're doing a tour around Blandy's which is an old English Madeira lodge founded in 1811 by a young chap from Dorset called John Blandy and has remained in the same family ever since. The wine is fortified to around 20% ABV and allowed to slowly oxidise in barrels over a number of years, it comes in dry, medium and sweet versions dictated by the type of grapes used. It's a delicious drink and ages well gaining complexity and layers over time, the oldest wine we drank was twenty years old but still tasted as fresh as a daisy. In the world of fortified wines and my opinions I'd say that Madeira sits somewhere in between Sherry and Port, I like it more than Sherry but it's not quite as good as Port in my view, clearly more research is needed!

Friendly adicts

Some of the wildlife in Madeira is pretty friendly, here's a little Chaffinch taking crumbs from our hands. Of course the crumbs were from some Pastel da Nata, a Portuguese delicacy (essentially a custard tart) that we became addicted to while staying on the island. I liked the way that the colouring of these little birds was slightly different to the ones we see at home, isn't evolution an amazing sculptor of animals.

In the photo above is the entrance to the "Funchal Taproom", one of my favourite little bars in the city. Many craft beers on offer, mainly from Spain and Portugal but a few local ones too. A much welcome contrast to the otherwise fairly bland beers from the incumbent brewer on the Island, a brewery called "Coral", whose lager was pretty indistinct from any other mass-produced offering you'd find at these latitudes.

Sea Dwellers

Snapped this photo in the main fish market in Funchal, Madeira, it's a bunch of Black Scabbardfish a very popular eating fish in those parts. As you can see the fish have huge eye's and fearsome teeth, a classic deep water species being mainly caught between 180 and 1700 meters depth in the Atlantic Ocean. We had some while visiting Madeira, it's not my favourite but was OK, quite firm with a fairly bland taste, but nice enough with a decent sauce and some carbs!

Departures

We left this place this morning, it's and island in the Atlantic Ocean called Madeira, famed for it's fortified wine, sugar cane, rum and amazing mountains. My wife and I just spent a fabulous week there and we were sorry to leave, it's a magical place with uber friendly people and magnificent scenery, we will be back and I'll create a few posts over the coming days to share the highlights..

Stinky relics

Now I've walked past this spot a thousand times and only today did I notice this rather odd looking pipe sticking out of the pavement (slightly left of the street lamp). It looks to me like an old fashioned Victorian "stink pipe" it's very robust looking, cast Iron with a fancy ornate cap. 

Stink pipes were used to vent noxious gas from sewer systems high enough above the ground so that the foul odours couldn't be detected by passers by or residents, modern sewage treatment and routing has rendered them obsolete, but clearly this example has survived into the 21st Century. No doubt someone will want it to be listed next..

Saturday Smirk

Jesus and Mo pointing out the rather bizarre way in which our religious brothers and sisters always seem to feel unsatisfied with their myths and stories. You would think that if you had a personal relationship with the creator of the universe and were party to "the truth" about everything then you'd be happy, but many people who claim this aren't happy at all, until everyone else around them believes the same myths too.

Foxy Friday

I went to the Fox and Hounds in Caversham last Friday to meet up with a mate and have a good old gossip. I was pleased to see that they had People, Money, Space, Time by Verdant on tap, this is probably my favourite low alcohol session beer, such great flavour in such a tidy 3.4% package!

More bird weirdness

Having had a lonely magpie camping out in our back garden we now have a lone Canada goose sitting on a verge along our road. He's been there for three days now and occasionally gets up and walks around, I think he's eating the dandelions and sometimes ends up in the middle of the road and you have to beep your car horn to get him to move, how strange!

West is best

Tried one of these at the weekend, it's a new brew from Siren in collaboration with Beachwood brewing (USA) The beer is a West Coast IPA done in a crisp modern style and is totally delicious, probably the best Siren beer so far this year and a definite candidate for honors in my yearly round up. Clean and fruity it's a perfect balance between back-end bitterness and up front sweet citrus and tropical flavours, a cracking beer.

Amazing Trees

Spotted this amazing tree near my house the other day, it's in a back street off my usual walking route. Clearly a Horse Chestnut tree but looking splendid in flower, beautiful!

Fountain of youth

Went up to town last Friday and met with my Son and a couple of his mates. I was there to help them with a business idea that they'd had to start a software company with an AI based recruiting product for the legal sector. Since I've built three different software companies in my career (retired now) I do know a thing or two about what it takes, and the pitfalls that may scupper such startups. 

Of course the three chaps I met with were all young, they looked like they weren't much older than 12 to me, but that applies to most people I meet these days.. Anyway, it was great fun chewing the fat over their idea, sharing their excitement and enthusiasm and listening to their "pitch", hopefully I was able to provide them with some wisdom. 

We met at the Old Fountain pub near Old Street tube which is a class boozer with some great beers on tap and since it was (late) lunchtime it was fairly quiet (see picture above) and conducive to a focused meeting. Anyway, we had a couple of pints and a chat before they had to head back to their office and I headed back  to Paddington, I was reminded of times past (i.e. pre-2010) when it used to be de-rigeur to have a couple of beers on a Friday lunchtime before a little snooze at the office in the afternoon before another session in the evening, ah the good old days!

Billy no mates, magpie?

Weird thing the other day, a magpie decided to sit on our lawn all day! This little corvid simply sat in the same spot for hours, I went out and clapped every now and again but the little fella didn't fly away he simply hopped under some bushes and hid, then, as soon as I went in again he resumed his spot on the grass! I'm not sure what was going on here, is this some special magpie behaviour or was this bird ill or injured (he looked ok?), I don't know.. At around 6pm I looked out again for him but no sign, either he'd flown away or hopped somewhere else, maybe he was just meeting some mates at that spot and they were a no show, one of life's great mysteries or just one for sorrow?

Orange beer for orange people..

Being nimble buggers I knew it wouldn't be long before the craft beer brigade started taking the p*** out of the orange man-child across the pond, here's your starter for 10 a nice blond ale from Downlands Brewery down in Sussex.

Friday Smirk

This week's Jesus and Mo pointing out the intrinsic misogyny at the heart of many religions, these religions (especially the Middle-Eastern/Abrahamic ones) were obviously invented by men for men and reflect the narrow interests and limitations of the primitive tribes of humans that invented them.

Long Walk (and run)

Now that we're both retired my Wife and I can go for long walks in the middle of the day without having to worry about being anywhere in particular afterwards, I must admit, it's taking a bit of getting used to, after 40 years of working, old habits of constraining activities into rigid time-slots dies hard! 

On Tuesday we decided to take a stroll in Windsor Great Park in the sunshine, it was beautiful, avenues of welcome shade (see above) next to the "Long Walk" a pathway of some 2.5 miles stretching out into the park from the castle and the venue for the start and finish of the Windsor half marathon (which I did back in the 80s) the path is perfectly straight which is a nightmare for the end of a long run, it feels like the finish line isn't getting closer as it's in view for so long!