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  • Norwich – Beer Con (Day One)

    Norwich – Beer Con (Day One)

    After the excitement of Warsaw Beer Festival, I thought I’d do something different for a change and so I went to help at Beer Con in Norwich. I accept that it’s quite similar, but it’s a different country so that’s enough variety. Lucy from Norwich CAMRA had recommended a few talented volunteers from the beer festival to help out, as well as me although I come with just slightly less talent. But inclusion is important.

    The event, organised by Boom Towers, was held at St. Mary’s Works in Norwich which was formerly a shoe factory operated by Sexton, Son & Everard.

    More on the volunteering arrangement on my third day post (yes, it is going to be that exciting I’m stretching this to three posts, so that’s both blog readers already besides themselves with excitement), but just to note now that Bailey and Leanne offered a very friendly welcome and were supportive, visible and positive for the whole event. I’d add that the other Boom Towers staff were also friendly, but I’ve forgotten their names and two is enough to mention otherwise it looks less sincere anyway.

    The keg wall.

    The cask and cider bar where I was located for the trade session.

    The cask selection. There was a really decent selection of over thirty cask beers between this and another bar at the event, covering a range of beer styles. I won’t meander on with stories of individual beers from this section, but it would be wrong not to mention Chubbles from Cloudwater and the All Calls Diverted to Answer Phone from Pomona Island. Always a delight to see beers from Deya, Verdant, Burnt Mill and Ampersand to name just a few. If anyone wants more details, they can pop to https://untappd.com/user/julwhite and unpick things from there.

    I thought that this looked like my friend Richard’s parking, but I didn’t message him anything as I don’t like to cause offence.

    Bar snacks for when I had a little rest. I was, by chance, put on the cask beer bar in the morning with Terri, one of the Artichoke Hearts bar billiards team, so that was a bonus. Always good to get (well, share) some gossip and the above average Jen was around to assist with that further.

    In the evening I moved to the wine selection. I was able to show off my knowledge of white, red and rose wine to an impressed audience. Although that is the limit of my knowledge, that there are three types of wine and an orange one. Being able to enthuse about the four primary colours of the vineyard is probably as far as I’m ever going to go, despite attending countless wine tastings where its discovered I only really like dessert wine or barley wine (which isn’t a wine).

    Ivan proved very useful with a little incident, so he was very much in my good books all evening. Ivan is a cellar expert with no qualifications but an ability to do things in the cellar, whereas I’m a cellar expert with qualifications and little ability to do much in the cellar of use. Well, I can rearrange casks and keg in order before they go on, but that’s of limited use to a cellarman (or cellarwoman).

    Actually, there’s probably a debate to be about the contrast between a qualified expert with no ability and an unqualified expert with all the ability as I sometimes wonder whether that’s the very foundation upon which the British hospitality industry is built.

    And a reward for my efforts. The pork pie was delicious but I picked the jelly out. I ignore those who say that it’s the best bit as it evidently isn’t.

    I was going to go home after my busy day, but then I got muddled up and walked to the White Lion. I thought that was a nice treat for landlord Oscar though and he recommended this little number from Ampersand, which I was prepared to try as I’m good like that. And with that, I got muddled up again and went to the Artichoke which was a nice treat for landlord Julian (wiser one).

  • 200 Years Ago in Norwich : New Brewery and Strong Ale at Fountain Inn

    200 Years Ago in Norwich : New Brewery and Strong Ale at Fountain Inn

    Some excitement from 200 years ago this week in the Norwich Mercury. This advert reads:

    “New brewery back of the Fountain Inn, Saint Benedict’s, Norwich. A. Kidd, ale and table beer brewer, informs his friends and the public that he has opened his new brewery as above, where they may be supplied with ale and table beer, and strong ales for draught or bottling. The strong ale brewing is conducted entirely on the Edinburgh system, therefore it is expected that an ale will be produced from the malt of this county equal in strength and flavour to any imported from that city, and at much less expense to the consumer. To meet any immediate demand A. K. has brought a stock of October strong ale from his establishment at Beccles. Private families supplied, in quantities of not less than four gallons and a half.”

    The Fountain Inn was once an important Norwich pub which opened in the 1750s, but in a rather sub-optimal manner, was demolished during Second World War air raids.

    The brewer responsible here was Archibald Kidd and he had his operations at the back of the pub until 1840, when he sold his brewery off. Kidd had previously been living at Primrose Cottage, the Score, in Beccles and he might well have had his brewing operations there before his big Norwich move. Strong Ale, or Scotch Ale, was quite a punchy beer, although there’s more about that at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch_Ale.

  • Norwich – Last Bar Billiards Friendly Before New Season

    Norwich – Last Bar Billiards Friendly Before New Season

    It was the last friendly game before the league games start, so I thought I’d steady my nerves with a non-alcoholic Guinness.

    I was suitably excited about this, it’s the first time that I’ve had to fill this in. And all without my very capable vice-captain Luke to assist, so what could possibly go wrong.

    It’s unusual for the balls to be placed like that, one tucked between the two pins, one right in front of the pin, one near the break-off shot and the other near the baulk.

    The final shot of the match (as the doubles games got rearranged), Gabriel fired the ball into the pocket like a true professional. It’s far to say that he was surprised and delighted, with the video being widely shared across Norwich as we speak….

    That’ll do 🙂

  • Norwich – Anglia Square Demolition and Cinema Comes Down (2 April 2026)

    Norwich – Anglia Square Demolition and Cinema Comes Down (2 April 2026)

    I meandered past Anglia Square yesterday on my way to volunteer at Norwich Beer Con and the cinema is now starting to be demolished. It’s about 25 years since I went there, I think I only ever saw one film there, so I can’t say that I have much of an emotional connection to the place.

  • 200 Years Ago in Norwich : Marriage of Joseph Pease and Emma Gurney

    200 Years Ago in Norwich : Marriage of Joseph Pease and Emma Gurney

    This line in a newspaper article in the Norwich Mercury 200 years ago this week doesn’t really suggest the significance of this marriage.

    Joseph Pease (1799-1892) was a railway pioneer and one of the supporters of the Stockport and Darlington Railway Company. He also later became the first Quaker MP and was one of the advocates for increased animal rights. He was also the son of Edward Pease, who is known as the ‘Father of the Railways’ which seems a nice title to have.

    Emma Gurney (1800-1860) was the youngest daughter of Joseph Gurney, a banker from the Gurney family whose operations were subsumed into Barclays Bank later in the nineteenth century.

    This is a statue commemorating Joseph Pease, a photo I took in Darlington in 2022 where I managed to explore a fair amount of railway history.

    This was a proper political power couple, their families bringing together wealth, railway experience and connections. The marriage would have taken place at the Friends Meeting House on Upper Goat Lane in the city. The current building was opened in 1826, on the site of the former meeting house, so I’m assuming that this might have been one of the first marriages there. Although this assumes that the Norwich Mercury was right, as some other sources are saying that they married in Darlington, which adds confusion to the mix.

  • Norwich – Anglia Square Demolition (31 March 2026)

    Norwich – Anglia Square Demolition (31 March 2026)

    As I was on a double decker bus yesterday going past Anglia Square, that gave me an opportunity to take the below photos. A couple of hours after this they started to break into the cinema, so the demolition of that part has now begun. I’ll go down and take some photos of that tomorrow (2 April).

  • Management Problems at Luton Airport Parkway Railway Station

    Management Problems at Luton Airport Parkway Railway Station

    Luton Airport Parkway is one of the most bizarre railway station operations that I’ve experienced. On two occasions now over recent months, the staff here have launched into quite direct attacks about the management of the railway station at a local level. As I’ve never asked a staff member about their thoughts on the management (nor indeed their thoughts on anything), it seems like there are issues and I’m not sure that customers should be bearing the brunt of this.

    There’s a problem at the railway station that the waiting room is not accessible to anyone on a timed ticket. Initially I was told that customers can’t enter the station more than twenty minutes before the train and then I was told it was fifteen minutes a few months ago. It’s been on those occasions that the, likely harassed by endless passengers, team members explained the problems they’ve had enforcing new rules.

    So, with the comfortable waiting room out of bounds, passengers have to wait here. I just waited without saying anything, but when I tried to put my ticket through at the barrier fifteen minutes before the train left, it failed. There was a staff member sitting down nowhere near the barriers by a heater who managed to get called an “a***hole” by one passenger he ignored, although he didn’t come and help me.

    I got the attention of another staff member and she was very friendly and let me through. She said that the rules had changed again and that customers couldn’t enter the railway station with a timed ticket until the previous train had departed. It’s to stop them boarding it with a timed ticket…..

    The train arrived on time and it was hard not to miss Poland, where I had just returned from. They have the radical idea that passengers on their services can always use their waiting rooms to wait in. It’s all a bit sub-optimal from Thameslink, especially given the huge sums of money invested in this railway station over recent years.

  • Wizz Air (Warsaw Chopin to London Luton)

    Wizz Air (Warsaw Chopin to London Luton)

    I’ve already mentioned that there was a bit of a delay getting to the Etiuda lounge, but it was peaceful and calm when I got here.

    The food selection which was all looking nicely presented and appetising.

    Delicious.

    With all my devices charged and having had enough food and drink, I departed for the gate. The bad news is that it was a bus gate.

    The good news was that I was nearly the first to board the second bus to the aircraft, which meant I had some space to stand in the corner. Little victories and all that.

    There was a group of quite loud British people who were excitedly telling each other what marvellous drugs they’d taken in Poland and they were going to get drunk on the plane. More of that soon.

    Anyway, the aircraft was 9H-WNY and I haven’t been on it before, but it’s yet another new aircraft having only been delivered to Wizz Air in 2025. Their fleet is certainly mostly new and shiny….

    The flight was smooth and, yet again, free of any issues. The seating Gods gave me a middle seat, but the people either side were both quiet and didn’t fidget about, so it was a smooth flight.

    Back to the lads who claimed that they were going to get drunk on board…. They didn’t expect the Polish crew to reject their demands. Impeccably handled by the crew, the whole arrangement felt safe, well managed and professional.

    And back at Luton Airport….. Wooo. We were actually slightly early and there were minimal delays at the border, which meant that I was rather early for my train.

    The flight cost £8.99 and Wizz Air didn’t let me down here. A clean aircraft, efficient boarding, a friendly crew and everything felt well managed.

  • Warsaw Airport – Delays at the Border

    Warsaw Airport – Delays at the Border

    After a week in Poland, this was the rail journey back on Sunday morning to Warsaw Airport to fly into London Luton. It’s the usual SKM train from the city centre to the airport, which takes around thirty minutes. I never really like making this journey as it means that I’m leaving Warsaw….

    The security process was smooth, or it was for me anyway. The three passengers in front of me all had large containers of liquid which were taken from them. One was very argumentative, although it wasn’t a battle that they were ever going to win.

    My flight was at 13:15 and I arrived at the border control area around three hours ahead of that, because I always feel the need to avoid any risk.

    There are two lounges at Warsaw Airport that I can visit, one is in the Schengen area and the other is in the non-Schengen area. Given the delays with the new Entry-Exit System (EES) that have been implemented, I decided to go through the border control immediately and visit the non-Schengen lounge. Traditionally this has taken three to five minutes.

    Anyway, this time, it took just over an hour. This was fine for me, I played games on my phone whilst shuffling forwards, but not everyone decides to arrive three hours early. The border control staff were friendly, but overwhelmed and I did look slightly enviously on those with EU passports who sailed straight through.

    Numerous passengers started to panic and asked to be escorted through the queue to avoid missing their flights. The airport staff weren’t keen to let them do that, but some passengers did it anyway. To be honest, if you’re about to miss your flight, you don’t have much choice.

    It’s all a little sub-optimal, especially for those with kids or other needs that don’t make it easy to wait in line for an hour. It’s an extra stress for passengers that they probably don’t need. Hopefully it’ll speed up as more people are registered on the system, but it’s all just a little chaotic at the moment.

  • Warsaw – Warsaw Beer Festival Spring 2026 (Browar Markowy)

    Warsaw – Warsaw Beer Festival Spring 2026 (Browar Markowy)

    This is the tempting arrangement from Browar Markoway at this year’s Warsaw Beer Festival. They’re located at Hajnówka, which is near the Ukrainian border and a little to the south of Białystok.

    Some of the beer options, cutting nicely across a range of beer styles.

    And from top left to bottom right:

    (i) New Zealand Grodzisz with Riwaka Hops, little a gentle rauchbier, I like the smokiness and it was quite punchy for the ABV.

    (ii) Kornik, this was less twiggy and more full on pine branch, with some ginger added into the equation as well.

    (iii) Białowieskie Lato, this is a nice lemon flavoured blonde, quite gentle.

    (iv) Wilczy Szlak, hop forward, punchy, like a big fluffy cat.

    (v) Owocowy Szlak Kwasna Wisnia, lightly tart, nice cherry flavour and a bit of bite in the finish.

    (vi) Puszczyk Białowieski, a sweet and cream milk stout, lingering coffee flavour.

    It’s the first time that I’ve had beers from the brewery and I thought that they were all pretty decent. That’s another one that I’ll visit at the next beer festival….