Whisper-stores: The Evil Wizard

A bit of explanation is perhaps required. In my last post I mentioned "whisper-stories". They are something my father used to do, though I don't remember, and that he introduced to my children the last time we stopped over at his house. These are stories that are made up on the spot and are told in hushed tones. The intimacy of the whispers and the fact that they are made up on the spot adds to the wonder. The Girlie started making her own up, aping those told by my father, and both children enjoyed them immensely.

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Archive?

So, I have been listening to Archive tracks a lot since I last posted and I have been enjoying them and I appear to have created a review of some of their stuff, some of which I only found while putting this together. I wish I could have been more productive, I wish there was a more interesting blog post here about something that mattered or relating the whisper stories that have been filling the time with the children, so are relevant to this blog. But there isn't. There is only music. and so I shall just have to do with what I can create. If you haven't listened to any of these tracks before then I can recommend them and advise you to take the time to listen. It's worth it.

Oh, I'll warn you straight out, there's swearing, so listen with caution!

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Maggie Maggie Maggie

I am moved to write about the death of Thatcher. Why? I consider her to be one of the most seminal leaders Britain and the United Kingdom has ever had. She ushered in a new age, coloured British politics in a way that has defied any attempts to remove that colour and completely changed British society.

Thatcher in the 1980s

Her death is sad. For her family she leaves behind and her friends who have seen a frail old lady slowly succumb to dementia and then to die. It is a horrible thing, I suppose, but thankfully her husband was spared the horrid nature of that descent. And she was a driven person who genuinely believed in what she was doing in way that, now, with the internet and the almost eternal cynicism of politics is, well, almost refreshing.

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Beer Review: Ruddles County

The last time I had this beer I was on holiday with friends from University on an ill-fated trip to the Norfolk Broads. We stopped off in a pub on the outskirts of Yarmouth and had a couple of pints each, back then I was more into shots you understand, for the sole purpose of stealing some pint glasses. I remember thinking that the head was a bit like a skein of spittle but that was long before I understood that beers with a creamy head are not my type.

Anyway, yes, tonight I am mostly reviewing Ruddles County by, er, Ruddles brewery.

It is a pleasing chestnut colour in its clear glass bottle and smelled faintly of the fens - all wet and woody and rank with heavy matter and falls of rain. It has a crisp and clear citrus edge to a rather nice flavour too. There's definite elements of sweetness to it, it claims to have toffee and caramel but I can't say as I noticed any of that, and there is a reassuring thickness to the taste as it rolls over the tongue. Not too heavy and not so light that you end up wondering why you bothered. This is a good beer to share with a meal, it has that quality that is necessary in terms of being flavourful but without being too strong or weak. At 4.7% ABV it can stand some repetition as well. I can see why my friends chose it when we were drinking in Norfolk that time!

There is definite edge to the taste as well, which I like, and it seems as though it almost needs food to be eaten with it. So, a mealtime beer in the way that most of the ales that I choose are not.

Enjoy, and you will enjoy it, then with some close friends at any bar or pub you can find.  Have it with a nice meal that you will all like - steer clear of things like steak or chilli and, instead, have something that is filling and innocuous. Failing that, have it with a meal that requires you to be watching that flavour and taste like a hawk, because this is something that will reward that kind of attention. It is subtle and it is well made. It will not sneak up on you and it will not force you into warmth either. It is a beer that defies seasons and I suspect will work well in most times of the year.

The hops, incidentally, are Bramling Cross and taste not a little unlike Fuggles. We likey.

Musicals everywhere!

I'm not really what you would call a musicals fan. Well, okay, my mother thinks I am a musical fan, but she's not right, she bases this idea on the fact that my friends and I used to sing songs from Les Miserables on the way home and the fact that I had a thing for Phantom of the Opera for a while back in the mid- to late nineties. I suppose I am more prone to enjoying musicals because I have a guilty secret love affair with Eurovision every year - my wife and I score them out of ten and actually ended up buying every CD between 2009 and 2012 (we also bought 2007 but not 2008). This would make us pretty sad individuals.

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Beer Review: Spitfire

It's time for beers. I only have one, it's Spitfire.

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Book Review: News from Gardenia

So I've been pootling about on Google+ for a while now rather than hanging out booking face and I ended up following Robert Llewellyn on there. It turns out that he's involved with a new set up called Unbound, that I've mentioned on here before, and that he had published a book through them some time last year. I liked the cut of the jib of that book and said as much to Anna, quite frequently actually, so that she ended up getting me the book for Christmas. Which was nice.

I, of course, did what I usually do with books that I get as gifts and entered the world of that book, reading it in pretty much every free moment that I had from getting up in a morning to going to bed at night and so finished reading it in about three days. It was a good book.

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