Spent a delightful evening in St Johns Wood (London) yesterday with my Son at Lords watching Surrey beat Middlesex in a T20 match. It was great weather for cricket and the runs were flowing, as were the cold beers! In the end Surrey nicked it by 8 runs, a close match with some spectacular catches and shots but most of all it was nice to spend time with the lad sharing a game we both love.
This idea was not invented by Pratchett but has been used in many guises before going as far back as Locke in the 17th century! Anyway, suffice to say we didn't ponder this philosophical paradox too deeply as the beer was far too gorgeous and there was Chinese food to consume!
I have 6 bottles left and last night we decided to take one to a friends house to accompany a Chinese take-away! As can be seen in the picture above, it's a lovely deep straw/gold colour and has grown in complexity over the 20 odd years in bottle, perfect balance, a delicious drop and a good match for spicy food, a real treat for a warm Friday evening!
Looking at the London wine merchants today a single bottle of this will set you back around £50, inflation is a real kill-joy!
The Kernel brewery in Bermondsey moved their much beloved taproom from under the railway arches to a swanky new airconditioned venue just around the corner in Spa Road, and although I've walked past it a couple of times I'd never been in, until now. It's a great new space, lot's more room and an even more impressive tap-list to choose from, I snapped this picture of the offerings available on Wednesday a stunning line up of almost every style of beer you could wish for and being the Kernel you know that they're all going to be excellent. I only had 90 minutes to spare so I opted for three tasting halves, the Citra pale ale, the Brett pale ale and the export India porter, three completely different beers but all bang on the money in terms of style, balance and drinkability. This is a really great place for beer-geeks, thoroughly recommended, I've already made a mental note to return!
So, many people seem to be in melt down over the somewhat offensive chants and lyrics uttered by a couple of acts at Glastonbury this weekend, it seems obvious to me that this is exactly the reaction these click-seekers were aiming for?
First we had Bob Vylan (not his real name) who chanted something along the lines of "death to the IDF" (IDF being the Israeli army) and secondly an Irish band called "Kneecap" who were similarly pro-Hamas in their virtue-signaling outbursts.
The big question (that the police are know looking into) is whether or not these outbursts represent "hate speech" or not. Personally I don't give a monkeys what these people shout from their platforms, I have the ability to turn them over or off, I'd never heard of either group and will never buy anything by them, ever, so as a free-speech advocate/absolutist I can't really complain when people utter speech that I disagree with and the fact that I can hear it means that I can now boycott both sets of ignorant idiots.
Neither outbursts were targeted at individuals nor were they particularly "inciteful to violence" from the context of a pop-concert; if it were me I wouldn't waste police time on it. Ultimately the viewers will make their own mind up and act accordingly, for example I hear that Vylan has already had his upcoming US visa revoked, bye bye US tour and record deal then, what a shame, couldn't have happened to a nicer and more well informed bloke!
It always struck me that consenting adults who are in the final days of their lives (often in unbearable pain) and were prevented from taking the obvious next logical step, was an inhumane constraint. This constraint is often championed and permeated by people who have a medieval and primitive belief system that relies upon the obscure and ephemeral wishes of a supervising supernatural being who's existence is a million miles from being shown to be true in any way, a selfish viewpoint if ever there was one..
IMO We should stick to what we KNOW to be true (as opposed to what we'd like to be true) .. We're born, we live and we die and if we're lucky we get to have some fun and pass our genes onto the next generation, and that's all there is... prove me wrong!
My Son is flying off to New York today for a week to see some of his ex-Uni friends (and to crash on their apartment floor hopefully!) With the aid of the "flightradar" tracking site I snapped this picture of his plane as it flew over our house, you can just about spot it in the gap between the trees. I bet he's fuming up there though, the flight was supposed to take off at 16:20 but this photo was taken at 18:26, apparently a fault was spotted prior to take off which had to be fixed by engineers. The plane is a Boeing so I advised him to head for seat 11A...
Last week saw the return of an old friend, "Nine Mile Ride" was a beer brewed by Siren and Elusive (both located in Finchampstead, Berkshire) and the name relates to a well known road in the area that was built for one of our illustrious regents for the purposes of hunting. It's a classic West Coast IPA made to be bitter with glorious grapefruit and tropical notes, a lovely beer and a strong candidate for the top 20 list this year!
