I know I’ve posted about these (several times), but I think I’m on the verge of becoming addicted to them. One day maybe Muller will stop passing UK customers off with Frijj drinks and it will move these decadent delights across…. And not only do they give British customers a worse product, but they put it in a smaller bottle than the Poles get. Not that I go on about this a lot, although I suspect I’ll post again in about six months.
I will confess that even I’m getting annoyed at the adverts on my blog, which is just because I let Google choose the best placement. Anyway, there are evidently too many and I’ve worked out the settings that stop the ads from interrupting the flow of my beautiful text. I think I might have a celebratory beer later to mark this event and here’s a photo of the cat I liked in Athens that Richard wouldn’t put in his suitcase to bring back. Also, no-one else commented on the interrupting ads, so many thanks to everyone for their patience.
Just as one of my random posts, it’s a little sad to see that my favourite food writer has penned his last column for the Observer.
As usual, he’s right on so much. Meals should be served on plates and not shovels and the best foods are brown and messy.
But, he’s especially right with this comment IMO:
“Waiters should always write down orders.”
I find it the height of unprofessional service when waiting staff (not that I go many places with waiters, I’m a bit mass market for that) try and remember everything, as it seems to have no advantages and plenty of disadvantages when they remember wrongly. And I will slightly stress and worry during the wait for the meal that they’re remembered my order incorrectly.
But his best comment of all….
“Eating alone in a restaurant is dinner with someone you love and a delicious opportunity for people watching.”
Quite right.
As an aside to my last post (which I’ve had to edit after realising I forgot to mention the go around from the pilot), expect more odd images as I’ve discovered how to use AI to create them. This blog never fails to excite and delight with its cutting edge approach. Well, that’s what I’m saying and I’m sticking to it.
I have a slight penchant (if those two words actually fit together, but there we go) for cataloguing and understanding big data. This video is about trying to understand how the articles on Wikipedia are grouped and how they interact with each other.
It’s a bit geeky I accept, but I was suitably fascinated by this (click on the image to make it larger). It’s how many clicks you have to make to get from a pre-defined page on Wikipedia to every other page on the site. The vast majority of articles can be reached within six links, which is the principle of the six degrees of separation. There are a few pages where it takes ten or so clicks to reach, but there are very few of them and they’re mostly clumped into a few smaller categories. The most clicks you’d have to make is 166, but that’s for a specific reason relating to how one set of roads are categorised on Wikipedia.
Once again I’ve intrigued myself with something really not that important, but these things happen quite a lot…..
We have beer and pizza (not to forget crisps).
What a time to be alive.
I have some good ideas occasionally, I really do 🙂
I haven’t had a beer post for a while, so here’s one for a bit of variety. I want to keep my two loyal readers entertained and fulfilled.
This is the Verdant Brewing Cheeky DIPA, a collaboration with Green Cheek Beer Co. Note the beautiful food pairing that I arranged, but more importantly, this 8.4% Double IPA really is quite decadent. Dank, rich, packed with fruity flavour, hoppy, clean, smooth, subtle, full bodied and really quite elegant, this is Verdant (and Green Cheek from the United States) at their best. Green Cheek are in Orange County in California, so next time I visit my friend Alexis in that grand state, then maybe I can pop along there to check matters out.
Anyway, I thought I’d record just how good this IPA was. Not cheap, but worth it and it’s no surprise that it’s so well rated on Untappd. Back to my usual posts now….
More on the big project that I’m engaged with at the moment at a future point. But, a lot of friends came to support the project last night and I must admit to feeling really quite emotional about how many people came and the number surprised me.
So, thanks to Adrian, Robert, Jade, Susan, Danny, Susanna, Dave, Simon, Jonathan, Steve, Andy, Clive, Michael, Julie, Thim, Roy, Jen, Leandros and Sarah for being there.
But huge special thanks to Liam (for always being there as the chief engineer to all projects), Scott (for spending so much), Ross (for being there at the last project as well), Emma (for support over the last year with so much), James (for helping with Norwich market food shops), Zak (for being my bar billiards trainer which helped the Serengeti top division 2, which I might have mentioned) and Bev (for being so supportive throughout). Marvellous to see them all last night as well.
And also thanks Lisa and Eric for on the spot support, as well to the CAMRA team of Laura and Matt for assisting 🙂 Then thanks to the people about to offer support, not least Oscar who has provided so much help despite so often leading me astray……..
Another post in my series of articles from 200 years ago, this appeared in the Norwich Mercury in 1823. Firstly, any article from this period starting with “the following extraordinary circumstance” is likely to be quite an appealing thing to read and this certainly transpired to be an intriguing story. Not that it was evident from the first line that the newspaper editor wasn’t sure his readers would believe it.
“The following extraordinary circumstance, although scarcely coming within the bounds of probability, is nevertheless undeniably true. A son of Mr. Thurman, of Cotton [I’m not sure of this, it definitely doesn’t say Catton, but I’m not sure where this place is], in this county, tailor, about 15 years of age, being about eight weeks ago employed in shooting small birds which were in the upper branches of a tree on his father’s premises, when the barrel of the piece bursting, he was stuck to the ground, and the report of the explosion being heard, he was found by some part of the family lying apparently lifeless.
On removing him into the house it was perceived that he was not dead, and the best medical assistance being promptly resorted to, it was soon discovered that one of his eyes had been forced inward by some part of the gun, and though animation was restored he was incapable of speech, and any kind of nourishment, whether solids or liquids, weer with the greatest difficulty forced down, in quantities so small as scarcely to be sufficient to preserve him in existence. In this painful and perilious state he continued during the space of five weeks, at the end of which time the part of the gun which the explosion had forced into his eye made its way through into his mouth, which took place in the night, and by putting his fingers into his mouth he brought it away; in the morning it was examined, when, to the great astonishment of all who witnessed it, there was the breech of the barrel, the screw, and a part of the wood of the stock, the whole of which had ever since the accident being making its way through the internal cavities of the nostrils, and which, on being weighed, was found to be the weight of two ounces nearly, since which time (except in the loss he has sustained of one of his eyes) he seems to be in a fair way of recovery”.
I’m mot a medical professional, but is this even possible?
As part of my random series of posts from newspapers of 200 years ago, this article appeared in the Norwich Mercury in October 1823. I can’t say that the subject matter is particularly humorous, although I can’t imagine that I will upset any of his descendants given the passage of time, but I quite liked the style of how the proceedings were written up.
“An inquiry was held at Lakenheath, on Sunday last, by Mr. Wayman, Coroner, upon Mr. William Roper, aged 78, a respectable farmer of that place, who, after eating a very hearty breakfast, and having been previously in good health, dropped down and expired immediately. Verdict – Died by the Visitation of God”.
This “Visitation of God” is really just died of natural causes, but it was a relatively common description used during the early nineteenth century. It’s an intriguing turn of phrase nonetheless…..
