So amidst all the stress about money, and pressure to get stuff ready for the trip to Russia, I’d almost completely forgotten about our four day trip back down to Cornwall again.  Although I’ve now seen it several times before, its sure to be a fun relaxing weekend with some sunshine, good company and of course good liquor.

Going down there as a foursome should be interested, just like old times again.  It has its advantages too, I wasn’t there to pick up the hire car, which means I don’t have to drive.  This is a good and a bad thing, bad because I desperately want to drive an automobile again (even if it is a four door Focus), but good because I’ll compensate by drinking, and catching up on some further reading of a new book or Arrested Development episodes.  I swear, this show gets better every time I watch it.

I’ve taken it upon myself to come up with a challenge for this extended weekend, but this challenge won’t involve the best sub £1,000 replacement vehicle for a UK Police Astra Diesel (ala the latest episode of Top Gear). I’m going to attempt to try every Cornish beer I can find, and write a small set of notes on each, The Great Cornish Beer Review.  This will involve going over my favourites from previous trips down to the foot, such as:

• Tribute Ale - A deliciously smooth brown ale, continuously drinkable all night, available in both Oxford, and the Twickenham Tup (20m from our front door), plus probably many other locations around London.  (Warning: ghastly when warm).
• Sharps Doom Bar - If I remember correctly, this bitter had a deceivingly strong taste to it, not that it’s in anyway a low alcohol beer.

The hardest thing about this of course is, despite my vast vocabulary (riiight), I have a pallete about as sensitive as the calloused palms of a full time grave digger.  Indeed, I think the words are in there, but picking the taste of raspberries from a 20 year old bottle of Shiraz doesn’t come to me naturally, at least not without reading the label.  I know what i like, but why I like Guinness, Tribute, Victoria Bitter and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale even though they’re vastly different types of beer, I don’t really understand.

We’ll see how that goes, anyway.

I’m not the kind of person who gets homesick, and I don’t really miss much about Perth, but sometimes I catch a smell, miss a taste, or see a photo which really brings it all back:

Perth, Australia by night

And, even in the year since I’ve been gone, Perth seems to have changed a fair bit now.  We now have a fifth, metro train line, which even has a section underground.  Definitely something to check out when in a little under a year when I get home for a holiday.  I’m sure it’ll be an enlightening experience.

Just like the 11pm train from Kings Cross

The Things I’d do if I was back in Perth :-

• See Family/Friends (of course)
• Drink up a storm at the Queens Hotel in Mt Lawley
• Eat Twisties
• Stock up on Aussie red wine, and Coopers Beer
• Get the best pizza in the world from Il Padrinos (The Pizza King) in Northbridge
• Take a weekend down south in Margaret River
• Ride the train

And that’s about it!

Home Sweet Home!

Damn, it’s been the better part of 3 weeks since I made that nutty 2am post about feelings and love and stuff, which sets a new standard in the life of HD911.  Yes, its the longest time between posts yet, and I’ll have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

We’ll pick up where I left off last time.  The day of the wedding turned out to be a complete success, which could be caused by the fact it was planned rather quickly.  It’s weird, that I’d guess the more thought and planning that was actually put into the event, the more things that can possibly go wrong.  A win-win situation for us really.  And the room the ceremony was held in, The Rosetti Room (Kensington & Chelsea Registry Office), was really pretty, though probably not as nice as it seems, on the website. Damn those photographers and your snazzy cameras.

Most of the weddings I’d been to previously were the church ceremony type affair, with the waiting, and the preparation, and the priest, and the music, and the crying, and the flower girls.  This was nothing like that at all, simply a nice, quiet room with a few friends and family and a registrant in the corner.  No sooner had I walked in to the room and heard 3 seconds of Have I told you lately by Van Morrison, that I had a ring on my finger and was walking back out the front door again, marching down the stairs with my new viiife (the lovely Catherine).

The Apprentice

The day continued to get better and better as we arrived at the London Apprentice in Isleworth about 11:00am and the sun was out, bright and blaring.  There’s no other way of describing it, apart from, “bloody awesome”. The turn out was really good as well with a few family and friends from each of our places of business.

This was about 2:00pm in the afternoon, I was already a little weary.  Who’s that fella on the right?

But I won’t comment any further, as I really can’t remember much after about early afternoon.

It’s not often that show stopping ideas come about, especially from the mind of Shannon. But in a manner that is sure to knock even the greatest minds (Newton, Einstein, Tesla, Edison or Torvalds) off their truly great pedestal, I think know I’ve done it. Like many before, an invention doesn’t have to be ground breaking, it doesn’t have to save lives, clean your house, or do anything in particular, it does need to make its mark though. Without further ado, I introduce the Bloody Genius.

Like the bastard child of Bloody Mary, it’s a new mix for the avid Guinness drinker who wants something more, and whilst the words Bloody and Guinness can never be muttered in the same sentence together, a small play on words was used to come up with the title.  And when the fad grows, the title will no doubt propel it in success.  The idea came to me when participating in the ultimate brain storm, down at Guinness Thursday’s at work, a small one to three hour period that takes part every Thursday.   It’s proved to be a valuable team building experience where many an idea has been born, and buried soon after, and much cod s*#t has been talked.

The worst thing an inventor could do would be “invent” something thats already been created, but a quick search of the most reliable source in the world, Google, returned nothing but an entry in the Guness Book of World Records to a clever Australian who set a record for drinking two full bottles (120ml) of Tabasco within 30 seconds.  A smart move, to be sure.

So, go out get a Bloody Genius, the delicious son of Mary, and enjoy.

I was at our local weatherspoons, the William Webb Ellis, the other night, and they had an interesting sign on the counter comparing their prices to local pubs. This was all very interesting as some of the prices weren’t just less than others, they were a half for even a third.

Now I don’t drink redbull and vodka, but a double smirnoff and redbull for £3 is awesome, especially the rice elsewhere was £7 or more, and i can remember paying at least $10AUD at clubs for a single back in Perth.

When does this type of advertising become slander though? In this age of law suits and rules about vendor verdicts, why can a store hang a sign stating how much better their prices are than competitors? But i guess it happens more than i first thought.

With great regret, I announce the Monopoly Pub Crawl, was not an astounding success.

As many would know, its not often I fail at anything, and certainly not when the job at hand involves alcohol. But alas, 26 pubs in a row, is just a little bit too much. After 12+ hours, 17 pubs and what must have been close to 6 or 7 miles of walking, we gave up, and the Monopoly Pub Crawl for January 2008 came to an unfortunate end. Yes that’s right, navigating for 30mins+ for a quick sit down (15 minutes) and a half pint continuously throughout the day is just not worth it.

We will try again though, in May or June, and it shall be finished. Note to self, wear looser, more comfortable jeans (my good ones were wet), and rely more on public transport as opposed to walking some of the longer stretches. All in all it was a fantastic day though, and the people, beer and fun made the whole thing worth it.

Euston-rs!!!

Hi all,

On this eve of maximus greatness, I’m going for a bit of a change from the pro-Nokia Technobabble (resulting in a continuous burst of traffic ever since) of my posts from the last couple of day. Yes tomorrow is a special day, Monopoly Pub Crawl Day, its somethign I’m surprised we haven’t done before, considering my previous obsession with London placenames and the original UK Monopoly Board.

The Game Board

The Monopoly Pub Crawl involves getting a group of people together and visiting each “property” or pub, (on that street, in that area, railway station or utility if you will) and have a drink at each, with the goal of the day to complete the board in a reasonable period. This will, unfortunately, be done in no particuloar order at all, purely to save on travel time in the already tight time span required to complete the journey.

The Crawl however, isn’t a new idea, as a little bit of research into the craze returned a lot of people who’ve done it before, along with people who’ve done it in other cities around the world. What really caught my eye was the guys over at www.monopolypubcrawl.co.uk came up with the idea of issueing chance/treasure chest cards for a select number of players at each pub, allowing for things such as:

• Pass on drinks for this turn (I don’t agree with this though)
• Swap drinks with the person on your left (imagine the possibiblities, swapping a double Havana Gold Rum for a some iccy Malibu mix)
• Collect on… Get free drink from the group
• Taxes, involving the purchase of a persons drink, or whole round
• Go directly to jail (sit in the corner for five minutes!)
• and so on

Imagine what the pub crawl could grow into if it became an annual event? One Saturday a year everyone could don their battleship, car, iron, thimble or dog costume and do the crawl, though I can’t imagine how to implement the ownership of properties, houses or hotels, but I’m sure there’s a good way to increase the gameplay required but not reducing fun, or drinking time in the slightest.

Anyway, time will tell to see how it goes, but expect to see photos, news and a pub/travel/drink/crawl log soon

And yes, I’ve no doubt they don’t serve beer at the water works or the power station, but I’ll be sure to try and get a photo of me with tinny outside at least one of the utilities