I pitched up at the beer festival around half past eleven after picking up a few items in town. This was probably the earliest I’ve been to a Saturday at the beer festival in all the years I’ve gone. Bumped into a n old colleague who was also helping out, which was quite cool, although we were working on different bars so I didn’t have much contact with him.
I started out working behind the bars and since we had quite a lot of staff it was quite relaxed. All too soon it got a bit busy and with staff off on break or off home, things got quite hectic for times. Around quarter past four I was asked to go and work on glasses; the most feared job at the whole festival.
Well, what an education that was, I’d never realised that glasses could be so manic; we were running around like headless chickens. We had no pint glasses, no change and only two of us trying to service hundreds of people coming and going out. It was total pandemonium. I’ve got a whole new respect for Anthea and Les who do the glasses year after year without complaint.
It wasn’t until quarter to six that I managed to escape, I was going to leave at five, but I couldn’t leave the other chap on his own. So I got myself another beer after ditching the Milton Jupiter and found some friends outside on the grass. After a couple of half pints it was off to catch the bus, which I duly missed. A couple of texts later and Karen came out ot pick me up, which was really nice of her; otherwise I’d have had to wait for another hour for the next bus.
So in the order that I drank them, these are the beers I tried:
- Branthill Light (4.3%), Fox (Heacham)
- Might have been off! Tasted pretty rank, really malty, sickly and a bit cloudy. Ditched after a couple of sips.
- ???
- I had a beer before the Shefford Mild, but I haven’t a clue what it was. Not very good note taking on my part...
- Shefford Mild (3.8%), B&T (Shefford)
- Lovely and smooth with a lingering malt aftertaste
- Palomino Pale Ale (4.2%), Old Stables (Sandy)
- Nice and fruity refreshing pale ale. Recommended this to loads of people and they didn’t complain.
- Jupiter (3.5%), Milton (Milton)
- Ditched it as I was too dehydrated and it was too sickly and malty to the taste. Only ditched so I could get a couple of pints of water down my neck before having a lighter beer, not a reflection on the quality of the ale.
- Beacon (3.8%), Everards (Narborough)
- Nice and light, refreshing with slight malt overtones
- Blue Bell Bitter (3.6%), Plassey (Eyton)
- Nice and refreshing even with the dry finish
All in all it seemed to be a successful festival and I’m pleased I managed to work more sessions than I have done for the past few years. Beer festivals are such an important tool in educating people about good beer, so they deserve all the support we can give them.
Was at the beer festival again last night and managed to work the whole night behind the bar! This was mainly due to telling someone that under no circumstances was I working on glasses and that I was going behind the bar or no where. A teeny bit selfish, but I much prefer to work behind the bar as you get to interact with people more.
So in the order that I drank them, these are the beers I tried:
- Straw Dogs (4.5%), Wolf (Attleborough)
- 8/10 Really quite nice
- St Audrey Ale (3.9%), Fenland (Little Downham)
- 8/10 Quite malty to the taste, very nice
- Lemon Dream (4.4%), Salopian (Shrewsbury)
- 8/10 Tastes vaguely of lemon meringue pie
- Wordsworth (3.9%), Facer's (Salford)
- 7/10 Nice
- U-X-B (3.8%), White Star (Southhampton)
- 7/10 Quite pleasant
- Spitfire (4.5%), Shepherd Neame (Faversham)
- 9/10 Beautiful
The beer of the night had to be Spitfire, it was awesome. I’ve never had it direct from the cask, but I’ll certainly be having more next time I see it; miles better than the bottled version.
I managed to make it to the beer festival a bit earlier last night and was again hoping for a god night on behind the bar, but had to do a stint by the front door for a bit first. After that was done it was off behind one of the bars for the rest of the night which was more like it. I spotted quite a few people I knew last night and had the misfortune to kick someone I thought I knew who turned out to be someone I didn't know, quite embarrassing really.
So in the order that I drank them, these are the beers I tried:
- Meridian (4.0%), Atlas (Kinlochleven)
- 6/10 Nice if a bit watery
- Raspberry Wheat (5.0%), Iceni (Ickburgh)
- 8/10 Very smooth, excellent. Much better than you'd expect
- Lia Fail (4.7%), Inveralmond (Perth)
- 6/10 Good solid Scottish ale
- KSA (4.9%), Eastward & Sanders (Elland)
- 6/10 Not bad for a Kölsch style ale
- Stout (5.0%), Elveden (Thetford)
- 7/10 Not bad, quite a roasted flavour
- Salem Porter (5.0%), Bateman (Wainfleet)
- 7/10 Nice
- Hedonist (3.8%), Wylam (Heddon-on-the-Wall)
- 7/10 Nice light session ale, fruity and refreshing
I was feeling well enough to make it to the beer festival last night; I still wasn't feeling quite myself, but knew I just had to get along and try some of the beer. When I got there I was hoping to get behind a bar and get on with it, but I has to go and work on food. This was a bit disappointing, but sometimes you have to do these things. I did manage to get on the bar for the last half hour so it wasn't so bad.
So in the order that I drank them, these are the beers I tried:
- Amarillo (5.0%), Crouch Vale (South Woodham Ferrers)
- 6/10 Nice
- Gorse Porter (4.8%), Cwmbran (Upper Cwmbran)
- 7/10 Nice roasted portery taste
- Dark Ruby (6.0%), Sarah Hughes (Sedgley)
- 9/10 Rich, creamy, absolutely gorgeous
- Schiehallion (4.8%), Harviestoun (Dollar)
- 7/10 Nice pint
- Village Bike (4.3%), Potton (Potton)
- 7/10 Staff beer can't remember much about it...
- TEA (4.2%), Hogs Back (Tongham)
- 9/10 Nice and smooth, a cracker
The best of the night had to be the Sarah Hughes, Dark Ruby, it's just such an amazing beer. I've yet to see if for sale in a pub though, I only ever have it at the beer festival; the anticipation is rewarded for the year long wait upon the first sip.
The Cambridge Beer Festival opens today and I'm going to miss it. I was planning to go along and even cycled in, but I'm now feeling like death warmed up. So instead of imbibing load sof quality ale, I'll be at home asleep under a duvet hoping I get better for tomorrow.
It was the Monaco Grand Prix today and I was expecting another Ferrari whitewash, fantastically that not what happened. It was one of the best races I'd seen for ages, with loads of incidents and action. Ralph Schumacher once again showed himself to be a plonker, Rubens Barrichello underlined the fact that he's not up to the job and Michael Schumacher also showed that sometimes he doesn't make the best decisions. I felt a bit sorry for Jenson Button as if he'd been a bit luckier with traffic you never know he may have won. I expect the next Grand Prix at the Nurburgring will be a red train again though...
It was the Scottish FA Cup Final today and Dunfermline were in the final for the first time since 1968. As I can't get Scottish telly or radio, I had to make do with occasional visits to BBCi and see what the current score was. I first looked in around half time and was amazed to see that The Pars were one nil up, happy days. However things didn't last and all too soon Celtic had taken the lead and eventually won the match. At least we get to play in Europe next season.
Went karting with work last night to Red Lodge Karting, which is just off the A11 after Newmarket. I was really looking forward to it as the only karting I've ever done has been on the toys ones at the Avimore centre. I really didn't know how quick they'd be, or what it would be like running on a track with seven other teams.
For some reason I ended up getting there first, which I was quite surprised about, so it gave me the opportunity to have a look at the layout of the track. It didn't look very wide, but some of the corners looked quite challenging and it looked like it would be fun to drive.
After everyone else turned up, we got handed overalls, helmets and gloves to wear. Once we were all in our gear we had the obligatory safety briefing and then it was time for practice. When it came to my turn I didn't really know what to expect and I was quite surprised at how difficult the kart was to drive.
The kart seemed to want to pull to the right all the time and with the track being anti-clockwise most of the turns were left handers. This meant that to start with I was really fighting the kart round the corners which resulted in me going sideways on a number of occasions. My times in qualifying were pretty bad but I put that down to the fact that I've never done this before.
The race was to last two hours and with three to a team that meant we'd get 40 minutes racing each. We decide to break that down into twenty minutes blocks so that we'd each get two sessions in the kart. As it turned out most teams did this and I think for a beginner's point of view it was the right thing to do.
My first session was a nightmare, I didn't have a clue how good the breaks were, so I was breaking far too early and thus loosing too much speed through the corners. I couldn't figure out why everyone was so much quicker than me until I someone passed me like I was standing still. I decided that I'd try and follow them and take the same line to see where I was going wrong.
It turned out that you could go flat out round certain parts of the track that I'd been breaking like a maniac on; I'd also been taking the wrong line into most of the corners as well. So I started to experiment and try going flat out round a few of the corners and what would you know it worked! So then I discovered that the brakes were a lot better than I'd thought they were, so I could keep going a lot later before standing on them.
Round about the same time I discovered this it was time to come in a pit, so in I went and our first driver went out again. During the next fifty minutes I managed to grab a veggie burger and a drink and have a wee chat with a few of my colleagues. I also managed to get some tips from the chap doing the food about how to take some of the corners, which was quite cool.
Soon enough it was my turn again and I was on until the chequered flag; quite cool to finish the race I thought. We were sitting in fifth place one lap behind the next car and only around 12 seconds in front of the car behind. Obviously these changed with the pit stop, but everyone else seemed to make one around the same time, so it all evened out.
This time around I was far more confident in the ability of the kart, I was breaking later and taking more speed into the corners and trying to go flat out round more of the circuit. It seemed to work as I was only over taken once, while I managed to over take quite a few people. All too soon though it was the end of the race and I had no idea where we were sitting with respect to the other teams.
As it turned out we were still in fifth place but I had managed to un lap us from the people in front and was only 20 seconds or so behind them, which was about half a lap. I don't know what my fastest time was as one of me team mates set the teams fastest and you only get to find that out. It's a shame not knowing how fast I went as I can't compare how good I was with anyone else.
All in all it was a great evening's entertainment only spoilt by the hand gestures of a colleague who was taking far too seriously. I'd definitely do it again though; half of me is even wondering about just going along and having a go, yet another expensive hobby I could get into...
While on the flying visit to Scotland at the weekend I went out on the lash on Saturday night with a few of my friends. I met them in some sports bar near Waverley station where I necked the evenings first pint of 80/-. We then made our way to the Grassmarket and headed for the beer garden at the Beehive, where some more 80/- was consumed.
While sitting in the beer garden it became apparent that there were quite a few hen parties out and about. We must have seen upwards of 10 groups in the various venues we went to, I've never seen that many in one night before. Bunny girls (x3), Pink ladies, Men + Cocks (that's what they had on their t-shirts), Sashes (x3), L plates and even one bunch with rat noses and ears (very bizarre).
After the Beehive we headed into the Cowgate; this is an area where we used to drink over ten years ago, my it's changed. We started off in the massive Three Sisters, this pub is massive and it's been really busy both time I've been to it. I'm not a big fan of it as they don't do any decent beer and you have to queue to have a slash, simply outrageous!
So we headed off over the road to another place whose name I can't pronounce and certainly can't spell. We stayed there for a bit but it was a bit pants so we left tot go to Espionage. This place is split over five floors and has one club and four bars, it's huge; it was also free to get in which was pretty cool too.
I'm not quite sure how long we were there for, but I was well pissed when we left. We managed to get a taxi from Waverley Bridge and he dropped me off at Dalgety Bay before taking the others up to Dunfermline. I eventually stumbled into bed just before four o'clock and passed out pretty much straight away.
Yesterday was interesting as I hadn't had that much sleep and I'd had way too much to drink. I don't think having 80/-, Guinness and vodka was the best of plans, I felt really, really rough. I made it home in one piece and after dinner soaked for a bit in the bath. I'm still feeling a bit muggy today, so I hate to think what I'll end up like on my Stag night in a month or so's time...
I've made a flying trip back to Scotland this weekend to purchase our wedding rings. I know a man who has this card see... So this morning I was up bright and early and caught the train from Inverkeithing to Edinburgh and hot footed it to the jewellers to buy two platinum wedding bands. In three to four weeks time we should be the recipients of a shipment. One more thing ticked off the list of things to do.
I've been off work ill for the last couple of days and have spent my time under a duvet on the sofa reading books and watching DVD's. I finished Joe Simpson's The Beckoning Silence on Wednesday morning and it left me feeling a bit melancholy; mountaineering books do as I live in flatland and miss the mountains of Scotland. I wasn't sure what I wanted to read next and being ill wasn't helping the decision. In the end I plumped for this Ben Elton novel and settled down to start reading it.
I've read most of Ben Elton's books and I must say I've really enjoyed them; I think he's a superb writer, funny and thought provoking. Even though I think he's sold his soul to do musicals his books have been consistently good. This one deals with the issue of drugs and on MP's efforts to legalise all of them.
Some of the issues that he brings up in the book should by rights be getting debated, but as usual these things are just brushed under the carpet. This country needs to wake up to the fact that eh war on drugs was lost a long time ago and half hearted measures to combat drugs wont work. However in reality legalising all drugs would probably not be the best way forward, the leaders of this country should be doing more than they are.
I started reading this book a few months ago, it wouldn’t have taken me that long to read it normally, but I don’t tend to read much if I’m working lots of hours like I have been lately. The only other Joe Simpson book I’ve actually read is Touching the Void; I’m sure I started to read This Game of Ghosts, but I can’t be sure.
As with Touching the Void, the writing style is really easy to read and I soon got sucked into the narrative. It’s a combination of autobiographical stories and thoughts on the current state of mountaineering in general. As with most of Joe Simpson’s mountaineering exploits the ones he details in this book are quite epic and I felt I could relate to the mental anguish he was going through.
Now to my knowledge none of the people I’ve ever been climbing with have died in the mountains or on the crags. I think the worst thing that happened was an acquaintance called Rob who fell at the Pass of Ballater and shattered both his ankles. The worst that happened to me was falling off Pink Wall (VS 5a) at Pass of Ballater and then falling of Culinary Delight (VS 5a) at Logie Head (this one required stitches to the rather large hole in my leg).
After my two falls I’d lost it mentally and just couldn’t lead without thinking of all the bad things that could happen. This was a shame as I was just starting to break into leading some E1’s and doing quite a bit of sport climbing. I’d love to go back to climbing, but the mental scars from those two falls, especially the one at the Pass of Ballater that could have resulting to two broken ankles make it almost impossible. I just don’t want to put my self at risk like that again.
Funny then that reading this book should reawaken my desire to climb the north face of the Eiger. I’ve always enjoyed hill walking and especially in winter when everything’s covered in a sheet of pristine white snow. When I was working for Tiso in Edinburgh during the early Nineties I did quite a bit of mountaineering, going off for weeks at a time to climb some of Scotland’s best mountains.
There is something amazing waking up on top of one of Scotland’s highest peaks and peering out of the tent into the sun rise. Moving down to Cambridge sort of put pay to any quick trips to the hills as it’s just too far to drive. So for years I’ve done nothing but occasionally dream of getting back into the hills. Then last summer when I was made redundant I too ka week off between jobs and headed for the hills. What a revelation, I loved every second of it; ever since than I’ve been wondering how to get back and do some more.
One of the things I did while working in Tiso was to read mountaineering books by some of the best, Chris Bonnington, Doug Scott and Reinhold Messner to name just a few. I devoured their tails of climbing massive mountains in far flung corners of the world. I even had an attempt on Europe’s highest mountain Mt Elbrus in the Russian Caucasus on a Scottish Scout expedition.
Anyway back to the book and the reason why I’m rambling so much. The final part of the book is all about Joe Simpson’s attempt to climb the Eiger with a friend, both agreeing to give up mountaineering after they climb it. Mother Nature has some other ideas though and they get caught in a massive thunderstorm that sees other climbers on the face falling to their deaths.
The Eiger of all the classic alpine north faces has held a special fascination for me. In 1986 I went to Switzerland on a Scout expedition and we had a day or afternoon at Grindelwald and I can remember walking into a car park and looking up at the north face in awe. A few weeks later I was back with my family and we took the train through the north face up to the Jungfraujoch and had a wander around. Of all the classics the north face of the Eiger has always been the one I’d really like to climb.
In Joe Simpson’s book he delves into the history of the face and the classic struggles of the 1930’s that lead to the first ascent in t 1938 by Andreas Heckmair, Ludwig Voerg, Fritz Kasparek and Heinrich Harrer. Simpson’s evocative prose of the history and his own attempt made it feel like I was on the face with them.
Now I’m harbouring thoughts about going mountaineering and trying to get good enough for an attempt on this classic alpine face. It’s a dream, but one that’s been lingering for many, many years, so you never know. Maybe I should put it on my list of things to do...
As for book, it’s good, although fragmented in places. I agree with quite a lot of what’s been said on the state of modern mountaineering, especially when it comes to Everest. If you haven’t read any of Joe Simpson’s books, then I’d suggest starting with Touching the Void and going from there.
I’ve definitely injured my left shoulder, of that I’m now certain. Ever since I started swimming last year my shoulders have started to let me know they exist, especially if I’ve gone quite hard in the pool. However, I’ve had problems with both shoulders in the past; I’ve injured both sets of rotor cuff muscles, one for sleeping funny, the other from whiplash in a car crash. I don’t think I’ll go swimming again this week to try and avoid doing any more damage; I think I’ll also try and find a physiotherapist and see if there is an imbalance in the muscles as this is a recurring injury.
My brother and I went to have our kilts fitted this morning at Stuart on Chesterton Road. They look very nice and only need minor modification, so we should have them soon. It was also a final chance to decide on what accessories to get, so I finally had to make up my mind on what sporran and belt buckle I wanted.
The biggest surprise was the size of the shoes, I'd ordered a pair of size 7 wide, but they were too big! So it looks like I'll be getting a pair of size 6½ wide instead. I know my feet are small, but they're not that small...
