Winchester pints

I took the train down to Winchester last week to meet up with an old friend for a pint (see above), a gossip and some food at the Wykeham Arms. I hadn't seen this chap since we were 10 years old (over 50 years ago!), when our families used to live in Portsmouth and we were best buddies at junior school, we only knew each other for a couple of years as my family moved away and his remained and we never kept in touch. Anyway, he found me on Facebook a while back and we determined to meet up and chew the fat over old times, last Friday evening we did just that. 

It was great fun remembering our school days and the many times we got into trouble and it was interesting that I remembered events that he didn't and vice versa. It was also very spooky that, over the last 50 years, we'd lead very similar lives, he'd ended up in the technology industry much like me and we both travelled around the world with our work and ended up back in the UK with grown up families and lives in the leafy home counties. We ended the evening around 8pm as I had to catch a train back  to Reading but we agreed that we'd meet again soon for a "re-match", now that I'm retired it's great to be able to do such things at anytime...

Grown Ups

Congratulations to Mark Carney for a historic win in the parliamentary elections in Canada. It's a country I have a great fondness for and have visited many times, I used to work for a Canadian company based in Ottawa and it was the longest tenure I ever had with any company, nice place, nice people. I remember when Carney was the Governor of the Bank of England he seemed like the only grown up in a political landscape blighted by man-children like Boris, if he could have run for Prime Minister of this country at the time I suspect he'd have won easily. I'm hoping that Carney will continue his current resolute battle against that other great "man-child" of our age, Trump, the idea that Canada should become part of the USA is beyond the pale, a reason for Europeans to distrust America even more.

20 Watt Treat

So, having purchased the complete set of "n Watt" beers from Verdant I cracked one of these open this weekend to try. My, my, what a delicious beer, hazy, creamy, tropical and so smooth a real treat..!

Monday Mirth

Sounds about right..

 

Noticing

It was St. Georges day this week, I must say I didn't really notice...

Weekend Smile

Yeah, what ever happened to the "metaverse"?

Friday Smirk

A new J&M for a little end of the week smirk. This question is a real problem for moderate and tolerant Muslims, many try to swerve around it by claiming that this rule only applies in "Muslim countries" but we all know why the rule really exists, the Christians would have the same rule if they thought they could get away with it! Fortunately a thousand years of power erosion by secular society has eased them to the touchline when it comes to making laws for the rest of us.

100 today

This is a post about nothing really, it's just my 100th so far this year and deserves a shout out. To accompany it here's a wonderful drone shot of "The Tower" at dusk a top London landmark both to see and to visit.

Careful!

I noticed one of these signs the other day on my daily walk, apparently we have hedgehogs, I never knew! I will certainly take more care as I'm driving around, particularly at night, I wonder if the population of hedgehogs is increasing or decreasing, so many questions, I must do more research!

Love Hilux?

I love the way that the craft beer industry in the UK is so small and local that the names of the beers are completely baffling. This one is from Verdant and totally delicious, but what the heck does the name mean? Apparently, according to the owner of Verdant, this name relates to a chap (called Roy) who frequented the early taproom down in Penryn, Cornwall who was always preaching the merits of "Toyota, Hilux" vehicles. We can only hope that Roy liked this beer, I can honestly say that I love it but I'm not interested in a Hilux, does that count?

"Better"?

Two meals I had while in London the other week. Firstly (LHS) is a "greasy spoon" at the appropriately named "Breakfast Club" in London Bridge, and secondly (RHS) a rather fancy Lobster Tostada at the Michelin starred "Dorian" in Notting Hill, the interesting question was which one was better?

Firstly, of course, you have to define what you mean by "better", is it cheaper, or is it tastier or is it even which establishment had the better ambience? Of course, this is a highly subjective question which leads to an infinite regress of "betters". So, my definition (for that day) is which one did I enjoy the most and the answer (predictably) was neither, they were both equally enjoyable.

Some people seem to judge things (mainly) by price, I've lost count of the number of posts in beer forums where people from the North of the country are incredulous about the "price of beer in London", their logic is that a £4 pint is superior to a £7 pint, full stop. It doesn't matter to them that the beer they are drinking is some mass produced, accountant driven recipe from AB InBev, verses a hand crafted, no expense spared, one-off creation by a couple of blokes in a garage in Bermondsey, the key (I think) here is context.

So, the "context" of these two meal was as follows, firstly the Michelin starred one was my treat to my Daughter and her two flat-mates, celebrating happy co-existence and friendship and down to the fact that both her flat mates both work in starred hospitality in London and get a 50% lunch discount at said establishment! Secondly, after much delightful conversation and excellent food (and wine!) I was feeling a bit fuzzy the next morning and decided to treat myself to a slap up "English Breakfast" in the Borough!

Both meals were an experience, both were delicious (according to their context) and both memorable for different reasons, in my view it's impossible to say which was "better" without some qualification. I'd have either again, and, I'd probably enjoy them equally as much depending on the context. It's ultimately (in my view) not about the molecules, but about the human experience.

Decent Geezer

Back in May last year, one sunny afternoon, we ventured up to Ealing, West London and visited the Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery, it was a fascinating place and was the "country seat" of Sir John Soane an architect and designer of 18th century des-res for the rich and famous. While in London last week I had an hour to kill while waiting to take my Son to lunch and decided to pop into John Soane's house Museum. Sitting just behind High Holborn and adjacent to Lincoln's Inn Field the building was his London residence which he essentially turned into a huge collection of ancient artifacts. The house hasn't been materially changed since Soane died in 1815 and was preserved via a private act of Parliament (Soane was obviously well connected, and as well as totally minted!).

It's a fascinating place, so much "stuff" and the interior of the house is like a labyrinth of floors and passageways all full of items that Soane collected during his life. There's even an authentic Egyptian sarcophagus in the basement in perfect condition, you can even see the hieroglyphs that were etched onto the inside of the stone vessel, totally amazing. It's pretty unbelievable that one man could amasses such a collection but it's all the real McCoy and I'm sure there's even more pieces in a storage room somewhere, or on the upper floors which were closed off to the public.

The painting above shows Soames at the height of his powers, I can't help thinking that he looks like a friendly chap! Of lowly birth (his Father was a brick layer in Goring on Thames) he worked his way up the greasy pole of London society through architectural skill, innovation and networking to emerge a wealthy and talented man of his time, friends with the likes of J.M.W. Turner (the painter) and designer of prestigious buildings like the Bank of England.

It's a fascinating place, well worth a couple of hours on a sunny afternoon in town, it costs nothing to enter too, which is all thanks to the endowment that Soanes left for future generations, an all round decent geezer I reckon!

I mean what's not to like about an authentic 18th century dining and reception room, untouched for over 200 years!

Night at the Theatre

We went up to town and to the theatre last week and saw the play "The Unicorn" at the Garrick (see picture above) starring Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan and Erin Doherty. It's a good show, challenging content designed to make any well established married folk feel decidedly uncomfortable! It's about a classically middle-class couple who embark on a voyage of discovery into having a threesome with a younger woman, heady stuff with lots of twists and turns, but brilliantly acted and with a delightful script full of humour and human experience, well worth a trip!

Complete Set

I picked up a few Verdant cans this week to consume with friends over the long weekend. In particular I grabbed a complete set of "Moons", the names of these beers is 10, 20 and 40 Watt Moon and each has the exact same recipe but increased ABV and hop doses. The 10 is 4.5%, 20 weighs in at 6.5% and the 40 is a whopping 8%, each has the same flavour profile which comes from Strata and Citra hops both hot and cold side, and they're all flippin delicious. Definite candidates for the big list this year and fascinating to try side-by-side..

Friday Smirk

J&M pointing out the obvious conflict between Science and Religion (or all wish-thinking based dogmas), much as the apologists would like to twist and contort their philosophies in an attempt to re-write reality.

Summer predictors

So, here's a picture of my "benchmark" springtime indicator tree, taken on the 15th of April. As can be seen it's pretty much fully out in terms of blossom, this compares quite favourably with previous years..

• April 18th 2019
• April 25th 2021
• April 14th 2022
• April 19th 2023
• April 10th 2024

I'm not sure that this necessary indicates a good Summer to come, last year full blossom was a week earlier but the rain was relentless the whole year, so...

5 Years Later

Had one of these at the weekend, it's a West Coast style IPA from Siren and Green Cheek (USA) that was first brewed in 2020 (i.e. five years ago) that version hit the dizzy heights of #2 in my beers of the year. This is the second re-brewing by Siren the first being in 2023 when the a tweaked recipe reached #14 on my list that year, the competition for Westys was fierce that year though. This version is more like the original, perhaps a tad more bitter but none the worse for it, classic West Coast flavours and utterly drinkable, it'll be interesting to see where it comes on the list this year, or will it even make it at all? It's been a stellar year for outstanding collaborations in the craft beer scene so far!

Midweek Mirth

 Who ever this receipt belongs to is having a lot more fun than me!

Tuesday Titter

How America see's the rest of the world ATM..

New Box

I noticed that we seem to have a brand new shiny post box at the end of our street, it's been updated to show the logo of the latest monarch (not shorthand for Carriage Return in the ASCII character set, in case you were confused..)