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THE BLOGGY BIT...

This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular, in the hope that something may strike a chord with you, whether it be graphic design, football or real ale.

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Tuesday 31st August 2010 12:20

I was very much looking forward to going back to where I freelance today, especially as a brand new 27" iMac was waiting for me… how cool is that? The old G4's monitor had been on its last legs for quite some time, especially as half the screen had taken on a semi-opaque blackness, as well as the monitor 'on' switch flashing in a strange morse-like sequence.

I undid the box and then guess what happened? There could be quite a long list of possibilities couldn't there? Well I'll put you out of your misery… as I lifted the beast out and turned around to put it on my desk, I twisted in a peculiar way and did my back in. At first it was just a minor twinge that I thought I'd be able to shake off.

In the meantime, via an ethernet cable, we began to use Migration Assistant to transfer the files from the old G4 to the new iMac… once the operation began, it stated that it would take well over nine hours. I only freelance there part-time so there was every chance that it wouldn't be complete before I was due to go home, even though that time had dropped down to just less than six hours by around 10:45. In the end, we made the rational decision that I go home and work from there, since both computers there were as good as redundant until the transfer was complete.

arthritis research uk

By the time I arrived home, my back was in intense pain, causing me to wince as I got out of my car and walk to the back door in a very precarious manner. As the late morning became early afternoon, I started to realise that the pain just wasn't for going away any time soon. I could hardly walk upstairs by this point so decided to let Tanya know. She suggested that I drove her car around to her work and then she would take me to the doctors so I could be checked over. Trying to do simple things like putting footwear on proved to be incredibly difficult.

Sure enough, the nurse did a few checks and suggested signing me off for the rest of the week. Most people would probably jump for joy at the prospect of being signed off… not me though, and for various reasons. I hate being off unless it's a booked holiday, I thoroughly enjoy my job and the fact that I have a brand new iMac to attend to gives me an even bigger reason to be eager about it, and the main reason, I just cannot afford to take days off.
£14.40 lighter and I left the doctors with two lots of medication, Co-codamol to kill the pain and Diclofenac as the anti-inflammatory. What's even worse is that I have to avoid alcohol. Could life be any worse? Just hope I start to see an improvement, sooner, rather than later.
Whilst there, I was given a very informative booklet all about back pain, of which the information within can be found by clicking on the Arthritis Research UK logo above.

Monday 30th August 2010 11:30

Well, what do you know? Another glorious day, just in time for our return to work. It's pathetic how these things pan out. As with every August Bank Holiday Monday, the Emsworth Show was on at the recreation ground and had both familiar and new acts throughout the day, as well as a wide variety of stalls dotted around. Abbi, Tanya's daughter, had kindly agreed to pick us up en route and I was hoping I'd be leaving with a good few new ales from Alwen Wines, an off-licence that had chosen to have a stall there.

The timetable included another great show by First Class Falconry who provided an excellent show last year as well. The three of us managed to grab seats right on the edge of the arena which meant we had a great view of the birds that were being shown, a Harris Hawk, Peregrine Falcon and a Barn Owl. It's fantastic to see such birds up close as well as seeing their flight pattern and how they go in for the kill. As well as all of this, it was great to hear how many words and phrases originated from Falconry such as, 'hoodwinked', 'fed up' and 'at the end of your tether'.

quack pack

Straight after that, there was another excellent display, this one being a newcomer to the Emsworth Show called 'The Quack Pack'. So what is 'The Quack Pack?' Well, it's led by Welshman, Meirion Owen, and provides a hilariously entertaining demonstration of duck herding. Yes, duck herding. The Quack Pack team comprises of Meirion, a 'herd' of comical Indian Runner Ducks and several Border Collies, today he was using Glen and Kenny.
Meirion is a very accomplished and well-respected sheepdog handler, judge and event organizer. He started sheepdog trialling at the age of nine and has since gone on to win many trials including the Welsh National Sheepdog Championship. He also captained the Welsh team at the International Sheep Dog Trials.
If you're wanting to book a thoroughly entertaining show, or would just like to find out more, please click on the logo above.

cakeshake

Since it was so hot, we stopped off at one of the many food and drink stalls so that we could have something to cool us down. We stopped off at the very intriguing 'Cakeshake' van. I've been able to find out very little about this company, despite sending an email to the owner, Paul Minay.
'Cakeshake' pretty much sums up what they do, they describe themselves as a 'new taste sensation'… they combine delicious ice cream milkshake and blend it with a slice of your favourite cake. You'll be able to see the wide variety of concoctions, including the Classic fruit, Chocolate and Biscuit Selections. Regardless of flavour, they're only £2.20 each with an extra 30p for whipped cream on top.
So there you have it, to have your cake and shake it, please click on the logo above.

Sunday 29th August 2010 13:30

Tanya had one of her, 'I feel like demolishing shit' moods today. Every now and again she has a frantic, slightly psychotic, clear-out. I'm all for it, so long as it doesn't frighten me in the process. Today's antics came from the attic, or should I say, loft.
I was downstairs, nice and chilled out, when I suddenly heard several loud thuds in quick succession. At first, I just thought that she throwing things around, as per usual, in a somewhat demonic way, then I heard her calling me… I started thinking, "Oh my God, what have I done this time?" I sheepishly made my way upstairs in the knowledge that I may need to do a bit of knife-dodging… only they weren't knives, there was a frenzied flow of empty boxes and polystyrene being launched from the loft entrance.
From that moment, I joined in the fun, starting my own launch party from the top of the landing down the stairs, eventually settling at the front door. It was remarkable just how many boxes there were, from television packaging to toaster packaging and childish fun demolishing them all.
A trip to the tip and Tanya had stopped hyperventilating about them all being up there. The world was at peace again.

bolton v birmingham

Early afternoon, I sat down to watch the first televised Premiership match that involved Bolton Wanderers. The season started some three weeks ago so Sky Sports haven't done too badly, particularly as their opponents, Birmingham City are often overlooked when it comes to live games being televised.
I was rather looking forward to the match, especially as Bolton have had a good start to the season, drawing their first game with Fulham, albeit scoreless, and then beating West Ham United away, 1-3. No sooner had the match started and Bolton were on the back foot, trying their level best to soak up quite intense pressure by the visitors. In the fourth minute, defender Roger Johnson made it 0-1, opening up the Trotters' defence with ease. Oh dear, this wasn't good.
Luckily though, Bolton crawled their way back into the game and they definitely had the upper hand, that was until the 37th minute when Jussi Jaaskelainen decided to indiscriminately 'lash out' at Roger Johnson, the scorer of the first goal. Now then, all it was was a friendly pat on his cheek and in no way was the player hurt in the process, especially as he'd done the same to Jaaskelainen, nevertheless, you shouldn't raise your hands in a game of football and he was justifiably sent off. Bolton went in 0-1 down at half time.

slap
© Sky Sports 2010

Five minutes after the interval and Birmingham went 0-2 up… things were looking from bad to worse for 10-man Bolton, having said that though, Bolton were playing with immense passion and certainly weren't going to give up the chase. They had far more possession and Birmingham were hardly getting a look-in. Then, in the 71st minute, Bolton were awarded a penalty as goalscorer Roger Johnson was penalised for climbing on the back of Kevin Davies. The Bolton skipper despatched a ferocious penalty into the top right hand corner, halving the home side's deficit. Game on.
Sure enough, ten minutes later, in the 81st minute, Gary Cahill was fouled on the edge of the area by Barry Ferguson. Up stepped Robbie Blake, a summer signing by Owen Coyle (and an ex-Birmingham City player) to curl in a stupendous equaliser… the game finished 2-2, Bolton keeping hold of their unbeaten run.

Saturday 28th August 2010 11:18

It was quite warm and dry today, so we actually decided to go out and enjoy it. We had planned to visit the place we went to today, earlier in the week, yet there was just no point because of the very bad weather.

bucklers hard

We chose to go to Buckler's Hard, an area of the Beaulieu Estate that is home to a Maritime Museum and an old village that sits very near the banks of the River Beaulieu. Within the village there is The Shipwright's Cottage, once home of Thomas Burlace, one of the men who built Nelson's ship, Agamemnon, and other ships at Bucker's Hard. Further down from the cottage os St. Mary's Chapel, created in the 1880s from a shipbuilder's cottage and is still in regular use as a place of worship.
The Maritime Museum and The Buckler's Hard Story is open every day, except Christmas Day, from 10am and the closing time varies depending on the time of year. It's just £5.95 entry per adult and is incredibly good value for money.
For more information about Buckler's Hard, please click on the logo above.

blue funnel cruises

Whilst in the complex, we spent time on the very informative Woodland Walk, showing many tree species and highlighting their importance during the shipbuilding times as well as many other uses that plants and shrubs such as Honeysuckle, Holly and Bracken. I was going to go into much more depth about this but Tanya has kindly thrown the leaflet away without asking if I wanted to keep it… and I thought it was men who weren't meant to think.
Once we'd finished the walk, we were in very good time to take the River Cruise which runs between Easter and October. It follows the first part of the route taken by ships after they were launched at Buckler's Hard. The ships were towed down the river by rowing boats and then taken to Portsmouth for masting, rigging and fitting out. The cruises last 30 minutes and are ran by Swiftsure River Cruises, part of Blue Funnel Cruises, the Solent leisure line.
To find out more about the cruise company, click on the logo above.

boondoggle

After we'd finished our cruise, we headed for the pub within the village, aptly named, 'The Master Builder's' which is part of the Hillbrooke Hotels chain. We were both very hungry and thirsty so ordered Fish, Chips and Mushy Peas and a drink. An alcoholic one at that.
There were three ales on, two of which were local to the area and came from Ringwood Brewery. I hadn't tried 'Boondoggle' before and I have to say that it was absolutely superb. At 4.2% ABV, this is a perfect summer's day session ale brewed with English Pale Malt, First Gold and Fuggles Hops. This blonde, almost straw yellow ale has a slight hoppy and citrus punch aroma and has an exquisite well-balanced fruity aftertaste. As a matter of interest, Boondoggle is a word meaning 'work of little value, first coined by the Americans in the 1920s… we, the British have interpreted it to mean 'jolly' or 'any excuse for a pint'… and why not?!
To find out more about Ringwood Brewery and their excellent range of ales, please click on the Boondoggle pump clip above.

the master builder's

The Master Builder’s House Hotel was built c. 1729 by Alexander Morris, the tenant of Beaulieu Brickworks. After 1747 the tenant of the shipyard lived in this house. Most famous tenants were Henry Adams and his sons Balthazar and Edward, Master Builders of ships for Nelson’s Navy, including three which fought at Trafalgar – Agamemnon, Swiftsure and Euryalus.
The Chichester Room within was named for Sir Francis Chichester, who in Gipsy Moth IV became the first person to complete a true solo circumnavigation of the earth 1966-67. A celebration was held in The Master Builder’s on his return to his home port on the Beaulieu River in September 1967.
If you're wanting somewhere different to stay for the weekend or just fancy a day out with some good food in between, please click on the pub's logo above.

in bruges

Just before retiring for the night, we sat down and watched a film premiere on television called 'In Bruges', starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. Filmed on location in the Belgian medieval town of Bruges, it finds two hitmen, Ray (Farrell) and Ken (Gleeson), hiding out there after a botched job gets them into hot water with their boss, Harry, played by Ralph Fiennes.
Written and directed by Academy Award winner Martin McDonagh, the violent dark comedy was the opening-night selection for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
Pleas click on the movie poster above to find out more.

Friday 27th August 2010 18:10

Well, I'm sat here thinking, "Where the fuck did our week go?" No sooner had it started, it's now at an end. It has to have been one of the wettest weeks I have ever had the 'pleasure' to take off. Anyway, enough of the doom and gloom because I'm not one to ponder and scrutinise (Whatever - Ed).

the kings stairs by sam styles

Something great did happen today though, our mate Sam, who works at Hampton Court Palace, London, sent us complimentary tickets to the palace, maze and gardens. The interior of the palace looks incredible, especially some of the shots that Sam has taken of it for his 365 project. As of next Friday, he's planned a lengthy trip to Australia and has therefore handed his notice in. Tanya and I wish you all the best on your travels mate, you deserve it.
I've included one of his images of Hampton Court Palace for you to see exactly what I mean. Click on the image above, which is of The Kings Stairs, to view his website.

hampton court palace

The first buildings at Hampton Court belonged to the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, a religious order founded in the 11th century.
In 1514, a new 99-year lease on the property was given, by the Knights Hospitallers, to Thomas Wolsey (c1470-1530), the Archbishop of York who later become a cardinal.
Later, in the palace's history, Henry VIII spent more than £62,000 rebuilding and extending Hampton Court. The vast sum he spent would be worth approximately £18 million today.
In May 1689, William III and Mary II transform Hampton Court by bringing baroque architecture to a second palace, alongside the Tudor one.
There's much more recorded history, apart from what I have covered, please click on the Hampton Court Palace logo above to find out much more.

Thursday 26th August 2010 13:44

Determined not to spend another one of our days holiday stuck indoors, we ventured out into the wilderness today… well, Portsmouth to be precise. Tanya was still determined to find a glasses frame that both me and her liked and the city centre had an ample amount of stores to cater for her needs.

D&A the opticians

The majority of them look the same and it was my job to say, "Yes" if they suited her and, "No' if they didn't. Occasionally there was a, "They're okay" as well. It was like being on a production line after a while, many pairs looking very much like the last thousand… nevertheless, I needed to complete the mission. At times I felt like I was seeing double, although I'm thinking it must have been an optical illusion. What I did know though, was I'd be framed, well and truly.
Please click on the D&A logo above if you're wanting to find something to focus on in life.

cascades shopping centre

Whilst there, we also had a wander around Cascades Shopping Centre in the centre of Portsmouth. Cascades is owned by a major UK pension fund and is property managed by the Managing Agents, Jones Lang LaSalle. The Centre was designed by Chapman Taylor & Partners and opened in September 1989 to local acclaim and this year it celebrates its 21st birthday. The western section of the malls have been recently redesigned and extended to offer a new concept café restaurant gallery and a number of large new shop units. The double height, curved mall is an impressive arena to showcase the latest store concepts – the most recent being Dorothy Perkins, Evans, T K Maxx, Bhs and Bhs café restaurant on the first floor overlooking the mall, with more stores and cafés opening soon.
To find out more about the Shopping Centre, please click on the logo above.

the slug and lettuce

Having virtually lost the will to live, the only thing that would replenish it was to find somewhere to eat. We had, at this point, driven over to Gunwharf Quays, a superb contemporary area right on the coast of Portsmouth city centre, overlooked by the impressive Spinnaker Tower. It proved quite an unenviable task, especially as the majority of eateries were packed, so in the end we opted for The Slug and Lettuce.
The Slug and Lettuce franchise was dreamt up by entrepreneur Hugh Corbet in 1985. His background lay in the wine trade, yet he wanted to create a bar where great wine and food were as important as good beer and sticks by those priorities today. The franchise is now owned by Bay Restaurant Group and is one of the leading casual dining companies, owning Ha Ha bar and grills as well as La Tasca restaurants.
As usual, please click on the logo above to find out more about the franchise.

Wednesday 25th August 2010 22:08

The weather had reverted to how it had been for the majority of the week, that would be utter crap. It just rained all day. Windy, wet, miserable, gloomy, grim, are all words that would describe today.
In the end, we sat down to see if we could find a film worth watching, since it was that horrible outside.

anger management

Despite the fact that the film we selected was made in 2003, neither of us had seen it before. It stars Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson in a slapstick sort of comedy which is very funny in places, other times it just leaves you feeling very angry and frustrated. Directed by Peter Segal and written by David S. Dorfman, it's all about a young Dave Buznik (Sandler) who is about to kiss the girl of his dreams, when a local bully pulls down his pants and underwear, leaving Dave with a lasting phobia about public affection, as well as quashing his emotions.
There are many turns of events and twists here and there, so rather than spoil it, buy it, hire it out or whatever. It's not the best film ever made, nor is it the worst.
Please click on the movie poster above to find out more.

save.co.uk

Later that night, I received a form submission from my website. Most of which comes through is total and utter junk, yet there are occasional messages that I respond to, this one being one of those. It was from a gentleman who works for Coupon Cabin and their UK-based subsidiary called Save.co.uk.
So what is Save.co.uk? Well, it's the ultimate voucher destination, offering UK consumers the biggest and best savings compared to any online voucher site. They can guarantee the very best savings across the widest range of UK shops, with voucher codes that will work every single time. They monitor for discounts on more than 850 online shops and updates its directory twice daily, continuing to add more shops each month.
So there you have it, to find out more about the latest and greatest online savings, please click on their logo above (I could almost detect the cheesy narrative voice there - Ed)

Tuesday 24th August 2010 13:50

It was actually a very nice day weather-wise. About time really, since we'd both booked this week off. We kept deliberating about going out or not, yet we also knew that we had a business meeting about a potential website design this afternoon, so we knew we wouldn't be able to venture too far.

petit shoes

Our meeting was in Fareham, and although we knew that this up-and-coming company were a shoe-based one, we knew little else. It turned out that they've registered their company name and have a very basic website in place that will eventually be selling children's shoes. At the moment, it's predominantly girls shoes and they're all going to be manufactured by a Spanish-based company called Petit Shoes.
It's all quite exciting, especially as they're looking for logo design, photography and web design.
To find out more about Petit Shoes, please click on their logo above.

driftwood café

Having been in the meeting longer than expected, we decided to head off towards home, stopping off at Emsworth for an afternoon tea and a slice of cake. Heidi's, our usual haunt, had pretty much sold out of everything (as they always do at that time of day), so we chose to walk to 'Driftwood', a very trendy and fairly upmarket licensed café.
Out at the back, they have a lovely high-walled courtyard garden and within the decor is tastefully done to reflect a nautical, seaside theme. Their specials are always homemade and everything is prepared each morning, to ensure total freshness.
To find out more, or to view their menus, please click on their logo above.

Monday 23rd August 2010 08:55

We were both up and out of the house relatively early this morning, mainly because we had a busy schedule ahead of us. The first thing on the agenda was to take Tanya's car to the MOT garage in Emsworth in the hope that it would pass after it being unused for a couple of months.

wests bar

Soon after midday, we then drove to Chichester because we both had eye test appointments to attend and wanted to have lunch before we did. The city centre was ridiculously busy and we were hoping to revisit Crumbs and Creams but it was packed out. We then chose to eat at Wests Bar, after all, we'd been earmarking the place for quite some time.
There were several meal deals going on, one of which was two meals for £10 so Tanya went with Plaice and Chips and I opted for the safe bet of Ham, Egg and Chips. It was very nice, especially as I washed my down with half a 'Long Hop', a 4.0% ABV ale from Marston's that I hadn't tried before.
For more information about Wests Bar, please click on the logo above.

boots opticians

We just about finished our meal in time before we made our way to the opticians. Many Boots opticians have now joined forces with Dollond & Aitchison and that's where we both had our eye tests. It's almost four years since we'd both had our eyes tested and were therefore expecting the worst. It seemed to take an eternity to be seen, especially as the store seemed very busy and after several tests, we finally left almost two hours from arriving! Top and bottom of it, there has been little change with regard to my prescription whereas Tanya's has suffered rather badly. She looking at varifocal glasses, if at all possible.
To book an eye test, or to look at possibly buying some new frames, please click on the Boots Opticians logo above.

After suddenly realising that we were meant to be sorting out Tanya's car, we rushed back to Emsworth to be given that good news that her car had passed its MOT with just a couple of advisories. Cool beans, she now has her car back on the road and, after two months, I no longer have to don my chauffeur cap.

Sunday 22nd August 2010 13:05

Surprisingly, I woke up feeling bright and breezy this morning. Having consumed a fair bit of alcohol yesterday, I thought I'd be slightly hung over.
Did very little today, apart from spend quite some time collating information for my blog, whilst desperately trying to catch up with it in the process.
I did manage to sort out my 365 image, a photograph of a Union Jack flag that we'd somehow acquired whilst at the Pompey Beer Festival yesterday. I called the abstract image of the flag, 'Since 1801', because that's when the current design first started being used.

union jack

Originally, the flag was known as the Union Flag and didn't incorporate St. Patrick's cross until 1801, before then, it was just St. George's and St. Andrew's Cross.
It seems almost certain that the flag adopted the name 'Union Jack' by the Royal Navy. Because of the flags regular use on British ships, they used a 'jack staff' (a flag pole attached to the bow of a ship) and from there it seems as if the name 'Union Jack' stuck.

The flag is normally twice as long as it is wide, a ratio of 1:2. In the United Kingdom, land flags are normally as ratio of 3:5 but is 1:2 for most purposes. The three component crosses that make up the flag are sized as the following. The St. George's Cross is 1/5 of the flag's width wide and a 1/15 flag width fimbration. The St. Andrew's Cross is 1/15 of the flag's width wide and the narrow white diagonal is 1/30 wide. Finally, the St. Patrick's Cross is 1/15 of the flag's width wide and the narrow white diagonal is 1/30 of the width wide.

The flag does not have reflectional symmetry, due to the slight pinwheeling of St Patrick's cross, which is technically called the counterchange of saltires. It therefore has a right side and a wrong side up. To fly the flag the correctly, the broad portion of the white cross of St Andrew should be above the red band of St Patrick (and the thin white portion below) in the upper hoist canton (the corner at the top nearest to the flag-pole), giving the Scottish symbol precedence over the Irish symbol. This is expressed by the phrases wide white top and broad side up.

So there you have it, a lesson all about the Union Jack. For a whole list of British flags, please click on the Union Jack above, or if you're wanting to download a scaled vector version of the flag, click here.

Saturday 21st August 2010 15:46

Irresponsibly, I took one of my antibiotics this morning and then chose not to have any for the rest of the day. Why? Well, it was the Pompey Beer Festival this weekend and I'd decided that I wasn't prepared to miss it, especially as Damien, Tanya's brother, had also expressed an interest in going. That sealed the deal for me, and anyway, my leg had improved drastically.
After Damien had picked us up, we then walked to Havant train station from his house, drew out a wad of dosh and boarded the train down to Portsmouth and Southsea station. For any Portmuthian, they will know that that train station lies adjacent to The Guildhall, which is where the 34th annual festival was taking place.

pompey beer festival

A quick exchange of £10 per ticket which gave you a programme of beers and events, a souvenir half pint tankard and £2s worth of beer tokens and we were in. The Festival was taking place in the same hall where we watched Elbow perform, two years ago, this October (Is it really that long ago? -Ed). As the programme confirmed, there were in excess of 120 real ales, ciders and continental beers to choose from… heaven.
To accompany the fine ales available, four live acts performed during the afternoon session that started at 11:30 and finished at 16:00 (there was also an evening session billed from 18:30 - 23:00, though the afternoon was plenty enough drinking for us).
To find out much more about the Pompey Beer Festival please click on the programme cover above.

All in all, we tried 14 new ales, some from breweries I'd already had other ales from and some from breweries I'd never heard of. Events like these are just brilliant, everyone's there to have a great time, enjoy the music and drink some exceptional ale. What better way to spend a day?
I could talk about all 14 ales, yet I've shortlisted it to just four.

cheshire gold

We started our session with 'Cheshire Gold' by the Coach House Brewing Company, based in Warrington, Cheshire. The brewery was established in 1991, following the closure of the Greenall Whitley Brewery which had had a presence in Warrington since 1762.
'Cheshire Gold' was a perfect way to start… a pale golden ale brewed entirely from Marris Otter barley, grown in Yorkshire, and then hopped with Target hops with a late addition of whole leaf Green Bullet hops that supply pine lemon crispness as well as a moreish aroma. At 4.1% ABV, it's an excellent session ale and its smoothness and citrus taste made in incredibly refreshing.
For more information about the brewery, please click on the pump clip above.

MOLE-catcher

Some beers later, we then tried another ale from a brewery that had evaded my beer radar, until now. This time it was Wiltshire-based Moles Brewery, one of a pioneering group of microbreweries that started producing real ale as far back as the 1980s. A quarter of a century later and they've deserved their solid reputation of quality and consistency.
They had two beers available today, 'Double Mild' and the one that we tried, 'Molecatcher'. At 5% ABV, this full-bodied ale could be classed as slightly outside the session beer status, nevertheless, the copper-coloured traditional strong ale had both a spicy hop aroma and taste from Cascade hops, combined with a superb long bitter finish.
To find out more about the comically-named ales the brewery produces, please click on the 'Molecatcher' pump clip above, kindly provided by Lorella at the brewery.

upham ale

The third of the four ales I'm going to review today comes from a small village, approximately seven miles south-east of Winchester, called Upham. Spurred on by the fact his recently purchased farm house had a brewing licence, John McMillan and his father in law launched the Upham Brewery with the first brew in October 2009 under the expert guidance of Richard Eyton Jones.
Upham Ale was the first beer available from this Classic Hampshire Farmstead. At 4% ABV Upham Ale is a very well constructed mid colour ale with a roasted malty nose, a hint of chocolate and a pronounced hoppy finish.
For a little more information, please click on the 'Upham Ale' pump clip above.

british bulldog

The final ale was from a Kent-based brewery, Westerham Brewery, who are brewers of the Supreme Champion Beer of the South East for the last two consecutive years. The brewery was established in 2004, restoring the lost tradition after the Black Eagle Brewery closed in 1965.
'British Bulldog' is brewed with the finest Marris Otter pale ale malt and crystal malt for colour richness and hopped with local Kent Northdown and Finchcocks' Whitbread Golding Variety hops, all grown by National Trust Farms in the area. The ale is a rich, full-bodied best bitter with roasted malt and grapefruit aromas and is a great session ale at just 4.3% ABV.
Please click on the British Bulldog pump clip that Robert Wicks kindly emailed to me, to find out much more.

pissed

Finally, as we left The Guildhall, we saw this gentleman, a little worse for wear, trying his best to stay awake...

Friday 20th August 2010 21:00

Having done a few amendments to a large artwork I've been working on, the overall size exceeded 100MB, therefore making the 'drop.io' website I spoke of earlier this month, redundant. I left me no alternative to look for an alternative (Isn't that some sort of weird double negative? - Ed).

mediafire

As luck would have it, there are a good few sites that offer such a service, yet only a handful where yo u don't have to pay a ridiculous start-up fee. I shouldn't complain about the ones that charge really, after all, they are offering a service.
MediaFire is a service that offers both free and paid subscription. It's a hosting web site that started in 2006 and allows users to upload files up to 200MB each for free or 2GB for paid subscribers and was named one of the 'Top 100 Undiscovered Websites' by PC Magazine, as well as being 'Top Website of 2008', attracting almost nine million visitors in that same year.
Please click on their cool logo above to find out more.

I was also delighted that the very gorgeous Lisa Faulkner won Celebrity Masterchef.

Thursday 19th August 2010 18:16

As many of my regular readers will know, I have a substantial list of bugbears, and within my top five of all time would have to be the misuse of the dreaded apostrophe. In my opinion, either use it correctly or just leave well alone. If it causes that much confusion, why bother trying to be clever by inserting it in everything you write? If anything, I think it makes people look slightly uneducated. If you have a very good command of the English language, surely it should be replicated throughout your knowledge of punctuation as well? May be not, may be I'm being a toffee-nosed arse.

the apostrophe protection society

Luckily, for me, there are quite a few toffee-nosed arses out there, one of which is a gentleman called John Richards. He established The Apostrophe Protection Society back in 2001, with the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this currently much abused punctuation in all forms of text written in the English language. I'm pleased that someone has gone to the trouble of educating people, particularly as the one and only Mr Stephen Fry has categorically stated that the misuse or totally dismissive approach to punctuation doesn't bother him; that's sacrilegiously absurd, Mr Fry, for a man of your eminence.
If you feel the need to be educated, please click on the logo above.

Wednesday 18th August 2010 12:58

On Monday night, whilst chatting to a neighbour in our back garden, a fly bit me on my right leg, just below my knee. Never have I experienced intense pain from a bite like that, it was as if someone had speared a knitting needle into my leg.
The fly couldn't have been any more than 3mm in diameter and was virtually circular in shape, jet black and shiny. I've had it identified as a Blandford Fly, although I only saw it for about 2-3 seconds until it gave me no alternative but to bat it off. Soon after, my knee area had pins and needles and I knew that it was no ordinary bite.
Since then, the bite turned into an aggressive-looking blister, causing the whole of my shin to become red, swollen and infected. The infection had also spread half way up my thigh muscle, causing me pain in my groin if I put my body weight onto my leg. I'd decided to visit the walk-in clinic later in the day to have it checked out.

cellulitis

It turned out that it was infected with Cellulitis which is a spread of inflammation of connective tissue with severe inflammation of dermal and subcutaneous layers of the skin. It can be caused by normal skin flora or by exogenous bacteria, and often occurs where the skin has previously been broken: cracks in the skin, cuts, blisters, burns, insect bites or surgical wounds. Skin on the face or lower legs is most commonly affected by this infection, though it can occur on any part of the body. The mainstay of therapy includes treatment with appropriate antibiotics, with recovery periods can be anything from 48 hours to six months.
And that's what I've been prescribed, a week's worth of Flucloxacillin. Great!

Tuesday 17th August 2010 23:17

Over the past two and a half years, I've talked about all kinds of things on here. It's actually quite alarming just how much I've revealed about myself. For instance, you may have read that I use Gillette razor blades, Lynx shower gel and deodorant spray, either DKNY or Fahrenheit aftershave. You may also know that I like Yorkshire Tea and Tetley Tea and that I often have Curiously Cinnamon for breakfast and that I love eggs… well, I've recently revived a slight addiction of mine, and no, it's not smoking!

softmints

Trebor Softmints have to be the best mints ever, it's just a case of whether spearmint or peppermint flavour is the best… tough choice. So, rather than just say I love them and they're addictive, I thought I'd share a little about their history. The Trebor company began with the recipe for making Softmints as far back as 1935 and their television adverts, broadcast years later, advertised them as "Trebor Mints are a minty bit stronger" and ever since then, the company's success soared, allowing them to develop other mint products such as Extra Strong Mints, Murray Mints, Trebor Coolmints and Trebor Spearmints. Even today, their mints are the UK's best selling.
To find out more, visit their minternet site (their joke, not mine) by clicking on the Softmints logo above.

Monday 16th August 2010 16:12

Tanya's boss, Dave, asked that I redraw a logo for him this afternoon and save it in such a way that CorelDraw would open it. Yes, some people still use it. I hadn't a clue what would or wouldn't open and sent an .ai, .eps and a .pdf, in the hope that at least one of them would recognise a superior file suffix.

rhymes.net

Once I'd completed drawing it, I wanted to think up of a witty put down for CorelDraw… you know the sort of thing, like Windows is called Windoze. In the process of doing so, I found a great little site that would hopefully help me out with a detrimental name - unfortunately it wasn't to be, so the email ended up being too polite… never mind.
Anyway, time to talk about this great little site. It's actually part of a much bigger network of sites encapsulated by STANDS4 LLC, a leading provider of free online reference resources. Having been praised by the press, as well as being awarded several prestigious prizes, the sites serves millions of unique visitors worldwide.

Under the STANDS4 LLC brand there are sites such as abbreviations.com, definitions.net, synonyms.net, quotes.net, references.net, phrases.net, USzip.com, convert.net, kamus.net, lyrics.net and of course today's featured website, rhymes.net. The site, rhymes.net is as simple as it sounds… type in any word and it will find many words that rhyme with it… don't be clever and try purple and orange like I did, after all, it's not clever to do so.
To have your bit of fun with the English language, as well as do the obvious and try the rude words, please click on the logo above.

evasion

Later on in the day, I became addicted to an online game called 'Evasion', developed by Eric D. Lee, who challenges you to aim for the high score. Other than that, there's little else to say about him.
Without further ado, please click on the Evasion logo above to become addicted.

Sunday 15th August 2010 13:32

Unexpectedly, we both spent a good few hours tidying up our computer areas. It's one of those jobs that I find very difficult to get motivated about, yet once I start, the feeling of everything being clean again is a great one. I regularly dust and shake my keyboard, clean my mouse and use my special Apple cloth to clean my computer screen, it's just the rest of the shit strewn around the place that's overlooked.
Don't know about you, but I have a profusion of notes with random numbers, strange names or doodles on - all of which need to be kept, for if thrown away, I'll need them; they could be font names, RGB references, Pantone references or blog notes and reminders.

hewlett packard

Anyway, several hours later, I finally decided to part with my scanner that had somehow become damaged en route from when I moved down here over four years ago. For some reason, I always thought that it would miraculously repair itself one night and all would be well again. Sadly, that didn't happen.
It just so happened that Tanya had also decided to part with hers, especially as she's now chosen to lead a laptop life. Now then, the model she had was purchased at the same time as her very first computer, needless to say, it's old; a Hewlett Packard ScanJet 3300C (look it up, you'll see how aged it looks!)
Not for one minute did I think there would be the necessary drivers to operate it, especially as I'm using Snow Leopard Mac OSX 10.6.4… how wrong I was!
A genius by the name of Mattias Ellert has spent time developing a TWAIN datasource for Mac OSX, across all versions, Jaguar (10.2), Panther (10.3), Tiger (10.4), Leopard (10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6).
To find out more, or to download your own free version of the TWAIN SANE Interface, please click on the Hewlett Packard logo above.

Saturday 14 August 2010 10:40

I made the mistake of telling Tanya that I'd like to buy her some hiking boots within the region of £100 for her birthday, she's been on the hunt ever since, the majority of which has been online. Every two seconds or so, she's been calling me in to 'have a look at these'. Unfortunately, many hiking boots look very similar, yet I'm still expected to 'have a look at these, they're well different to the last ones'. Tanya, they're brown, very much like the other hundred or more pairs you've made me look at.

Anyway, this morning meant a trip into Chichester to have a look at… wait for it, outdoor garment shops. I actually like Chichester an awful lot, it's a great city and friendly with it, so I don't mind going there one bit. Tanya had looked online to see which shops would sell outdoor gear within the city centre, unfortunately though, we could only remember one of them by the time we arrived there.

oxmarket

We visited Millets first and tried a couple of hiking boots on (I'm after buying some as well) and then we were slightly sidetracked, visiting an art exhibition at Oxmarket Centre of Arts in St Andrews Court, just off East Street. There was some excellent work on display, as there always is, although the exhibition on display will be replaced with three new ones, come Monday. 'Artists in the Test Valley 2010' will be on display in the John Rank Gallery, 'Fircroft Returns to Chichester' by Frank Taylor and Friends will be on in the Wilson Studio and Phyl Wilson's 'Scenic Stitches' will be on in the Lobby Gallery; all exhibitions from the 16th-28th August.
For more information about the gallery, please click on the logo above.

From the gallery we then traipsed around the centre in the hope that we'd remember the names of the other two shops, only to become irritated with the fact that we couldn't find them. We then walked back up the street where the art gallery was just off, only to find that Field and Trek, one of the shops, was actually one the shops that made the alleyway going to the gallery. How stupid did we feel? (Very? - Ed)
We tried on a few more boots in there before looking in a couple of other shops, one of which has an absolutely brilliant logo, even though it's a shoe shop.

hotter

Hotter has been trading since 1959, designing and making footwear for over 50 years. Originally, they produced nothing but slippers but in the early 1990s the company identified a niche in the market, stylish shoes with built in comfort. Since then, they've grown from strength to strength. What's even more extraordinary is that their factory is based in Skelmersdale, Lancashire and it's only since moving down here that I first heard about them.
Please click on their ultra-cool logo to find view their impressive range of footwear.

crumbs and creams

After looking in various other shops, including us both having a quick look at some new glasses frames, my stomach was in sheer turmoil because it was desperate to be filled with food. After hunting around all over the place, we finally settled on 'Crumbs and Creams' based at the top end of South Street, on the right hand side, just before you get to the cross. We both opted for Paninis and a sweet to finish, all I can say is excellent waitress service and the food is superb and incredibly reasonably priced.
A thumbs up from the both of us, just a pity it doesn't have its own website, however, I can provide you with a good review (click on the logo above) it's received - can't believe it hasn't been given more!

Friday 13th August 2010 23:06

Today's blog is about a rather cool site - well I think it is. The site's domain name was originally registered as far back as 1997 with the website first becoming live on May 24, 1998, attracting just 24 users. Since then though, it has grown into an incredibly successful site, receiving excellent feedback from the media and visitors worldwide.

timeanddate.com

Time and Date AS is a private, limited liability company based near Stavanger in Norway as is committed to providing people with free time and date related information that may be specialised yet not widely available from other sites. Their applications and services include the World Clock, calendars, holiday and date calculators, various time-related calculators (the reason I stumbled upon this site in the first place was because I wanted to work out how many days apart the two artists birthdays were from yesterday's blog), Time Zone News, sun and moon calculators, including a day and night world map, a free digital clock for websites (offering various styles); and much more besides.

The company owner, Steffen Thorsen is the Chief Executive Officer and has a degree in Computer Science from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. As well as his knowledge and expertise, the company's staff are experienced and trained in the fields of journalism and graphic design, with qualifications at various levels.
To find out much more, please click on the logo above.

Thursday 12th August 2010 21:35

Quite a bizarre thing happened today. I shall explain…
Earlier in the day, I wanted to make a comparison of a photographic style to a particular painter, Piet Mondrian, a Dutchman who was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group.
Mid-afternoon, I received an email from a colleague of mine who is very interested in Art Nouveau (I mentioned Tamara de Lempicka earlier this month), and in his email he mentioned Aubrey Beardsley, an English illustrator who was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement.

So what's so bizarre then? Well, they were born just 167 days apart which is quite spooky when I very rarely talk about two artists in one day, let alone just one artist. They were both born in 1872, Mondrian on the 7th March, Beardsley on the 21st August.

piet mondrian

Mondrian was incredibly well-known for evolving a non-representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism, which consisted of a white background, upon which he painted a grid of vertical and horizontal black lines and the three primary colours; red, yellow and blue.
He had an outstanding career, painting such iconic paintings as 'View from the Dunes with Beach and Piers, Domburg', a 1909 piece comprising of oil and pencil on cardboard, and the 1912 piece, 'Grey Tree' a superb specimen of his early experimentations with cubism.
On the1st February, 1944, he died in New York from pneumonia, aged 71.
Please click on the graphic above to access a website all about him and his work.

aubrey beardsley

Brighton-born Beardsley was the most controversial artist of the Art Nouveau era, emphasising the grotesque, the decadent and the erotic, many of which featured enormous genitalia (Have you a thing with genitalia at the moment? - Ed).
His drawings, usually in black ink, were very much influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, although they were renowned for dark and perverse images, especially his later work. in 1891, he took up art as a profession, and a year later he attended the classes at the Westminster School of Art.
Unfortunately, his life came to an abrupt end, dying of tuberculosis at the age of just 25.
The image shown above is of 'Lacedomonian Ambassadors', one of his more erotic drawings. Please click on it to find out more about him and his work.

Wednesday 11th August 2010 10:21

Tanya had what was hopefully her last appointment regarding her bunion operation this morning at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth. Now then, I could rant and rave about how poor the NHS are and that they keep everyone waiting for hours, but today I won't, mainly because that would be a predictable blog.

Rather than that, I want to talk about a campaign they're running, 'Wash Your Hands', asking that you, 'Give Soap a Chance'. Whether this campaign will make a single bit of difference remains to be seen, after all, there are enough signs in men's toilets asking 'Now Wash Your Hands', only to be ignored. I find it unbelievably disgusting that any man can handle his penis, urinate, put it back and walk straight out of the toilet. Vile! I've known men to have a number two and just walk straight out of a cubicle and that sort of behaviour puts me off shaking hands with anyone.

wash your hands

According to statistics, over a third of men walk straight out of a toilet without washing their hands. It's everything else they touch in the process, the toilet door, their computer keyboard and mouse, their sandwiches if they have them for lunch… all those germs spread around for everyone to share. How any man can do that deserves the consequences from such actions.
By washing your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water, you can prevent diarrhoea and vomiting, food poisoning, influenza, norovirus and MRSA… still think it's clever to not wash your hands? More importantly is if you're visiting a friend or relative in hospital or another environment where healthcare is provided, it's vitally important to ensure you have clean hands to prevent the risk or spread of infection.

The majority of personal hygiene is down to how your parents brought you up. Encouraging children to wash their hands from both an early age and at appropriate times of day will help ensure that the practice becomes a lifelong habit. It really is that simple.
For more information, or to spread the word about simple hygiene, please click on the logo above.

Tuesday 10th August 2010 19:43

Sometimes the amount of work that one company can be involved in is often staggering. I say this because a simple search about the latest Heinz Tomato Ketchup advert led me to find out a whole heap of information about a company that have had their fingers in many many pies.

soundtree

Not only that, if you've visited the cinema, bought an album or simply switched on your television within the last few years, there's every likelihood that you will have heard some of Soundtree's work.
So who or what are Soundtree? Well, they're a meticulous award-winning team of uniquely talented musicians, technicians, researchers and sound engineers who operate and originate an independent sound and music production company, spearheaded by Creative Director, Peter Raeburn.

With extensive and very diverse experience in feature films, commercials, composition, musical direction, supervision, remixing, record production and online media, Soundtree were responsible for such incredible adverts like the foreboding narration of a passage of Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick' over the image of surfers contending with white-horse waves in the famous Guinness advert.
I could go on and on about their work; rather than me do that, you can find out for yourself by clicking on the Soundtree logo above.

Monday 9th August 2010 22:22

It's a while since I've raved about some of my favourite music, so tonight I'm going to do just that. Today's blog features a British musical outfit called Unkle, originally founded in 1994 by school friends James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy. Their musical genre is difficult to pinpoint, some describe it as 'Trip Hop', others 'Downtempo', 'Electronica' or even 'Trip Rock'… whatever it is, it definitely works.
Acts associated with Unkle have covered Queens of the Stone Age, Badly Drawn Boy, Richard Ashcroft, The Verve, Ian Brown, Oasis, Ian Astbury, Massive Attack, The Stone Roses and Radiohead, to name just a few… so we're talking about musicians with a wide range of appeal.

UNKLE

During their history, in effect, they've had four incarnations and have released five full albums, along with rare disc sets and a B-side compilation during their sixteen-years. Their 1998 album, 'Psyence Fiction' reached No.4 in the UK album charts and received critical acclaim, as well as a Gold Disc.
'War Stories', their third album, has to be my favourite to date, especially the track, 'Burn My Shadow' which features Ian Astbury of The Cult… I'd have the track down as being one of my all time favourites.
On May 10th of this year, Unkle released their fifth regular studio album, entitled, 'Where Did The Night Fall' and they look destined for more success.
To find out much more about Unkle, including listening to some of their best tracks, please click on their logo above to access their excellent website.

Sunday 8th August 2010 12:06

Today marked the hundredth shot of my 365… exactly… just where has the time gone?! I'd told myself that I wanted to mark it with something a little different, and it would have to have to include the digits '100' or the letters 'hundred'. This proved to be far more of a difficult task than one would imagine.
I went out at around 07:00 am in the hope that something would jump out at me… sadly it didn't and it ended up being a waste of time and petrol.

aspex

Luckily though, once home, Tanya and I had an exciting interlude for we drove down to Southsea Common to view a relatively new sculpture called 'Luna Park' that has made its home there. The 16-metre tall exhibit was inspired by the 1970s 'discovery' of Ultrasauros, the largest dinosaur to ever roam the Earth. Unfortunately though, Professor Jim Jensen's discovery ended up being a chimera made up of two different species. Nevertheless, Heather and Ivan Morison's sculpture has recreated the accidental dinosaur and will grace the Portsmouth and Southsea skylines until the 26th September.
The whole project is part of Aspex, found in Gunwharf Quays and is Portsmouth's leading contemporary art gallery. For more information about both current and upcoming events, please click on their logo above.

100psi

Later in the afternoon, I ventured out once more, this time to the city of Chichester in the hope that I would find the inspired '100' image and, having traipsed through virtually every street of the city centre, I found one image that was acceptable enough. By the time I was home and viewing it, I realised that a photo I'd taken of an old rusty foot pump was today's winner… can't win them all.

Saturday 7th August 2010 14:24

Had a bit of a disastrous day today. The main part of it turned out to be an absolute waste of time and I'll tell you for why.
During last night's 'South Today', they often cover events that are taking place over the course of that weekend, one of which was 'Balloons over Basingstoke'. I suggested that we drove there as it would make for some excellent photography.

balloons over basingstoke

We set off quite early and, as we approached the town, out SatNav decided to lead us on a right song and dance and we ended up having to fight our way out of a large housing estate. We eventually did find it, having spotted a series of yellow AA signs, so we paid our £3 parking and then the heavens opened. Neither of us had brought coats and we were parked in the middle of a field, the grass was slowly becoming sodden and that made up ours minds for us, particularly as Tanya just couldn't risk getting her feet wet. So we drove back.
To find out more about the event, please click on the logo above.

Whilst driving back down the A272, we did stop off at Cheriton, home of the The Flowerpots Inn, and more importantly, The Flowerpots Brewery. You may recall me mentioning the brewery back in October of last year where I raved about a certain ale of theirs, 'Autumn Blaze'.
Well, it was great to finally go to where it was brewed and the pub is very quaint and welcoming. I asked Paul, the landlord, as to which was their latest ale and was handed two half pints of 'Stormchaser', a golden beer, slightly dry but oozing with a strong hoppy flavour and fragrance. The 4.2% ABV ale was first brewed in June 2008, then again in June 2009 and is sold at The Flowerpots Inn under the name of 'Old Tosh'.

Friday 6th August 2010 18:49

Almost had a fatality last night… Timmy, the resident rabbit, started chomping through the adapter cable of Tanya's laptop, whilst it was on. I'm not sure what alerted me to see what he was doing, whether it was the sound of his gnawing or the fact that he'd practically bitten through half of the cable and may well have been experiencing the start of an electric shock.

instructables

Anyway, I managed to thrust him away before the possibility of seeing him propelled into the air. Even after unplugging the whole cable, blue sparks were coming out of the two severed areas, creating mini electric shocks. We'd both decided that the cable was unsafe to use, unless it was protected in some way.
Once home today, I decided to Google 'damaged laptop cable', and the search brought up many websites, all of which had good advice, one in particular.

Instructables is a web-based documentation platform where enthusiastic people share what they do to solve problems, and how they do it. From there they then learn from and collaborate with others. Eric J. Wilhelm is the founder and CEO of Instructables. Gaining a Ph.D. from MIT in Mechanical Engineering, he believes in making technology accessible through understanding and strives to inspire others to learn as much as they can and share it with those around them.
So, without further ado, get to it and either teach or learn about something inspirational, by clicking on the logo above.

Thursday 5th August 2010 22:08

The internet never ceases to amaze me, and today was no exception for I learnt about a new online collaboration and file sharing service that provides users with a simple, real time and private way to chat and share images, video, audio documents and other digital content through unique, user-created and controlled sharing point called 'drops'.
Just in case you're not au fait with how sites like these work, there's a how to video which explains the basics and from there, you can check out what it means to do it all in realtime for seamless calibration.

drop.io

In just two clicks, users are able to seamlessly create personal sharing points, upload content via web, email, MMS, Facebook, Firefox extension, phone and fax inputs and share it on-the-fly through drop.io's various outputs. As well as all of this, each 'drop' is non-searchable, non-networked, does not require any type of account registration and can be password-protected and set to expire after a period of time, so you're able to share exactly what you want with whom you want for as long as you want!
Please click on the logo above to find out more.

Wednesday 4th August 2010 22:37

I was involved with copying some documentation to do with land ownership today and decided it would make a great subject for today's blog, especially as the Land Registry logo is rather cool.

The process all started in 1857, when the Royal Commission on Registration of Title suggested a system of registration administered by a central registry in London with district offices. The Land Registration Act 1862 was introduced by the then Lord Chancellor, Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Westbury.
Brent Spencer Follett, the first Chief Land Registrar, opened the Land Registry's first offices, at 34 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, on 15 October 1862. At the time, Mr Follett had a staff of just six people and was paid £2,500 a year.

land registry

Initially, registration was not compulsory, and once property was registered there was no obligation to register any future transactions, making it possible for the person registered as the owner of a property to cease to be the owner whilst remaining on the register. Following the Land Transfer Act 1875 there were seven further attempts to introduce Land Registration Acts, all of which failed.

The Land Registry (officially known under the Land Registration Act 2002 as Her Majesty's Land Registry) is a non-ministerial government department and executive agency (since 1990) of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for publicly recording interests in registered land in England and Wales and reports to the Ministry of Justice.
The equivalent office in Scotland is the Registers of Scotland.
To find out more about Land Registry, please click on their logo above.

Tuesday 3rd August 2010 14:20

Imagine my delight when I visited The General Wine Company in Petersfield this afternoon, only to find seven, yes seven, new ales by a brewery I'd heard of, yet never tried any of them.
Based in East Hoathly, East Sussex, the Fallen Angel Microbrewery has been producing top quality traditionally made ales since 2003. Their beers are very distinctive and have what some would describe as unusual flavours, for instance, one of the ales I bought was 'Black Death', winner of the best Chilli drink at the 2007 Chilli Festival.

fallen angel brewery

They also have a range of 'Heavenly Brews', such as 'Cowgirl Gold', a pale golden ale with extraordinary subtle flavour and smoothness, and 'Lemon Weissbier' that possesses a superb citrus kick whilst being incredibly refreshing at the same time.
From the 'Devilish Brews', I bought a bottle of 'Howlin Red Ale', a strong amber red ale and the superbly named 'Naughty Nun', a golden brew, crisp and clear, spiced heavily with orange and coriander.
These ales may not be to everyone's taste, particularly the die-hard ale drinkers, nevertheless, I'm all for a brewery experimenting.

Later that night, I did manage to guzzle a bottle of their excellent 'Alcoholic Ginger Beer', traditionally brewed from an old family recipe, lightly carbonated with a refreshing kick. Absolutely superb and although it states to be 3.7% ABV, it does continue fermenting within the bottle and can reach a higher percentage.
Please click on their logo above to find out much more about their extensive range of ales.

Monday 2nd August 2010 09:34

Having won over a small but loyal fan club, I finally decided to register the domain name, ronthenewt.co.uk
Later on in the day, I wrote the fifth small story that focuses on the pond where Ron the Newt and his companions live, the latest installment named, 'Ron the Newt and The Missing Dictionary'. It features a new character by the name of Rasputin the Mad Monkfish.

ron the newt

I'm now in the very firm position of opting for the self-publishing route and, if successful, all five short stories shall appear on Ron's new website (it will also be given a very commercial look, in the hope that it will appeal to a wide audience).
For the moment though, there's nothing but an index page...

Sunday 1st August 2010 20:30

What better way than to start this month's blog with a review on the second part of a three-part series called 'Sherlock', televised on BBC1. With only one episode left, it almost seems pointless to tell you about it now yet this really has been an absolute masterstroke by co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss.

sherlock

Based heavily on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic books, the stories have been brought up-to-date and now Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson's adventures now take place in 21st Century London in this inspirational, amusing, high-speed remake of Conan Doyle's exemplar.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Sherlock Holmes whilst deadpan Martin Freeman plays his loyal friend, Doctor John Watson. Other characters include Detective Inspector Lestrade, played by Rupert Graves and Mrs Hudson is played by Una Stubbs.
The modern take really is exceptional and it's compelling viewing. To catch up on the previous two episodes, please click on the opening title graphic above.

blog

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