9 posts tagged “beer”

Been home for Easter...

Been Skiing in France...

Eaten close to my own bodyweight in molten cheese (skiing in France = worlds largest fondue) ...

Read an excellent novel...

Gone back to university....

Worked every day on my essays...

Got up at 0800 without the alarm-clock!

And drunk a very nice Belgian Trappist beer (not after getting up at 8 obviously, in the evening).

    So all in all not bad.

...It's been a LONG few weeks.

The Student Union Real Ale and Cider festivals was all that it promised. Me and will teamed up to show whoever wrote the Pub quiz that setting a round on Dinosaurs followed by one on Ancient Rome and when one team consisted of an archaeologist with an interest in paleontology and an ancient historian was a recipe for disaster for them, and a guaranteed win for our teem. We only got one t-shirt, one bottle of beer and six beer tokens between the 10 of us, but the gloating right were worth it. I then promptly got onto the cider (I still maintain that the American phrase "hard Cider" is a blasphemy, ALL cider is by definition alcoholic) which was a nice whiskey cask conditioned scrumpy on the masochistic side of 8% and the rest of the day became quite hazy.

The next day, unwilling to let my unused low value tokens go to past, i went to the beer festivel again and had a far more sedate time with Bullmastiff Son Of a Bitch, Valley of Glamorgan Vog y Grog, Bragdy Mŵs Piws (purple moose brewery) Ochr Tywyll y MŴs (Dark side of the moose) and a whole other range of Porters, stouts and Milds, especially a nice little mild i think was by Rhymney brewery in Mertha tydfil.

Then came Thursdays trip to London to see the British Museum, then go to the millennium dome to see Tut Ankh Aten, later Tut Ankh Amun, well, we knew HE wasn't there, but a lot of his grave goods were in London on display, and although i have seen them, and in fact seen his mummy in Egypt, it was worth the trip to take another look.

However, to get there in time we had to leave Caerdydd at 0600, which for me meant getting up at 0530. For R it meant leaving work at 0430, drunk,  to get there just in time to fall asleep in a doorway, so me and the rest of our friends had to pick him up and guide him to the bus.

This more or less set the tone for the rest of the day as the next generation of the UK's finest archaeologists wandered in a sleep deprived, and as far as at least 50% of these present, hungover state, about the capital ("Hey guys, if we get drunk we'll get to sleep really early and so waking up at five will be okay!"). However the Brit was, as always, excellent, and as our lecturer knew some people there we  got to go behind the scenes and handles some roman finds.

Tut was also good. Sure, the boy king himself was absent and the display on Akhenaten, AKA Amenhotep the fourth, was far to brief, mentioning only that he was most likely the father of Tut-ankh-amen, and mentioning  briefly his sweeping religions reforms that replaced most of the traditional pantheon with the worship of one god, the Sun Disk, The Aten.

So aside from not mentioning the most interesting new kingdom Pharaoh, if not THE most interesting pharaoh exept in breif terms, the exhibit was good. Oh, and i had the minor inconvenience of having to empty all my pockets as the coin that slipped out through the hole in my coat pocket and is not trapped in the lining set of all the metal detectors. Considering that i carry several pounds of largely useless, occasionally VERY useful shrapnel such as miniature screwdrivers for fixing my glasses, a comb, gaffa-tape, a hip flask, a tin of fisherman's friends lozenges and a dozen bottle openers on my person at all times, as well as scrapes of paper with useful aids to the memory, this took five full minutes and attracted a small crowd. Remarkably the security did not bat an eyelid and were quite happy to let a walking toolkit like me in, despite the fact sleep deprivation was kicking in and i was quite possibly dribbling slightly at the time.

The exhibit was... beautiful.

After a full two hours and an quarter oggaling the exhibit, including giving a small child a basic lesson in how to read Hieroglyphs ( read from the direction the animals face, and remeber  that the names of gods come at the start of a cartouche name, so for example Tut-Ankh-amun is written "Amun Tut Ankh") we had to leave as several other groups had lapped us and because as i was wearing my National Geographic top, and the exhibit was sponsored by National Geographic, and because i was telling anyone who would listen about how great Akhenaten compared to the rest of the 18th dynasty several people had mistaken me for staff. Eventually, too tired to even get drunk, we were herded about London aimlessly until we got the bus home were me, R and the third year organizers of the trip ended up stuck next to the bus's emergency loo, one that by the smell had seldom, if ever, been cleaned. Ammonia closet aside, the trip back was utterly hilarious, in that way ANYTHING is when you have had 4 hours sleep in the last 48, some of them in a doorway if you were R.

Fast forward to Saturday; Rugby time!

the weather killed the attendance's at the big open air screen dead- we went twice and the first time about 12 people were there, the second only a few hundred. Considering there more than that on the ground floor of the gatekeeper when we left it to check out the open air screen we went back.

Ireland lost their match, which upset me, but i did take solace in the projector repair man. As the Projector the Gatekeeper mega-pub uses to show big games had broken weeks ago, and considering this was the biggest match for years and they were the closest watering hole of any size to the stadium, and this would be one of the biggest drinking days for years in wales, you would think they would have had the projector fixed before now.

They hadn't.

So when we got there, there was STILL a repair man rising out of the sea of red rugby shirts struggling with a machine that I could from a distance of ten meter, tell was utterly kaput. The burn-marks were a clue. so what did the repair man do facing a potential angry mob if the wales-France match failed to make it from the many small plasma-screens to the giant screen at the appointed time?
 
He went outside for a moment, came back with ANOTHER projector and, i kid you not, strapped it to the bottom of the first one with car-ties and gaffa-tape. Thus the second half of the Ireland match and the entirely of the vital wales France match could be viewed on the big screen.

As for that match i will say only this; I have never been in a more alive crowd and taken part in more genuine jubilation  than on that sweaty and beer-soaked pub floor on that day. It is not something i think i will ever forget, not look back on with anything but genuine happiness.
 

 
Wales, this is for you.

02 We Are The Champions

Queen

Oh and a happy St Patrick's day.

I would like to thank everyone who helped make this weekends great welsh beer festival work out so well.

I would also like to thank Ramblers Ruin, Bullmastiff Welsh Black and Son Of A Bitch, Bull Lane Jacks' Flag, Battledown Turncoat, Mws Piws (Purple Moose) Darkside of the Moose and Cwrw Glaslyn, Stonehenge Original Wood, Valley of Glamorgan (VoG) Grog y VoG, all the German beers upstairs, and the cider and perry table, especially the dry farmhouse perry with the slight natural fizz and the old Foxwhelp Cider, plus anything i was to drunk to write down the name of when i drank it, for giving me a great three days (and a blessed four hours of memory).

and of course, i will thank the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and cask marque and all the volunteers who run this festival.

What are the 10 foods you must have in your refrigerator and/or your kitchen cabinet? 
Submitted by Carol.  

milk, cheese, bananas, beer, bread, tomatos, pasta, juce, yougurt, ham.

What was the last wedding you went to?  Were you in the wedding?

The last wedding I went to was probably my aunts, and that was a good few years ago, in Ireland. first we had to pack about a hundred of my relatives, most of who had started drinking hours ago, into a registry office the size of a broom cupboard since this was my aunts second marriage and so the church refused to take her. Then came a wonderful reception in a hotel in Mullingar with excellent carrot and parsnip soup. I put a red paper napkin in the pocket of my white jeans, ruining them when the were next washed with the napkin inside it. Then came the party at her house. There were so many people there a bus was arranged to come and pick them all up at 11 and take them the 10 miles back to town. I was, at about age 7, press-ganged into manning the Guinness keg as clearly older children could not be trusted not to steal beer, and adults had better things to do. Loved it; possibly the start with my love of brewing and beer. I did, of course, steal beer. Then came 11, and after pleas from the bus driver for everyone to stop dancing (spice girls I recall) to no avail. Someone yelled that someone had better tell the bus driver to either join in and go home when everyone was ready or Feck off. So he Fecked of and everyone slept on the floor for the night. Great fun.

I found a great site with lots of, admitialy pointless and nerdy, but fun quiz bits! Thank you for showing me the way with the booze-quiz people! here are some quiz results (i will me making my own quiz soon, which hithchikers character and which Watership Down Rabbits are you?)

Firstly, boy's toy's. what kind of gun am I?

What Firearm Fits You Best?

You scored as a Sniper Rifle

You like sharpshooting. Stealth, accuracy and range are your best friends. So you need sniper rifle (if you don't already have one).

Sniper Rifle 100% Shotgun 94% Revolver 75% Assault Rifle 75% Machinegun 50% Pistol 31% SMG 13%

well, thats fair. The only fire-arms I've ever used were lee-enfild .303 rifles, shotguns and revolvers so those results look good. Now, what goes well with firearms? Drinking!

 

What kind of alcoholic drink are you ?

You scored as a Long Island Iced Tea

You are a Long Island Iced Tea. Like the drink you have a diverse background. You look tame on the outside, but are a an undercover freak on the inside. Here's the ingredents of you: 1/2 Oz. Rum 1/2 Oz. Gin 1/2 Oz. Vodka 1/2 Oz. Triple Sec 1 Oz. Lemonade Coca Cola 7-Up How to build this mixed drink: Pour all the ingredients over ice and top up with equal amounts of Coke and 7-Up. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

Long Island Iced Tea 96% Tequila Shot 54% Beer 36% Sex on the Beach 25% Champange 18%

welll... I am NOT long island iced tea! ok, it's a good quiz, but it dosent acount for the fack that the same results would also suport any mixed or brewed drink that looks halmless but contians a kick. Also they fialed to ask "Are you a viking?". I am Clearly Mead! 

and now, the grand fenalie; What action hero am I?

Truth be told, i was aiming for Indiana Jones (I'm an archaeologist after all...) but it turns out by saying i liked rum, loved Hats and liked sworrds and pistols, ithe computer matched me with another hero of the screen, and I was thriled to find out i am infact...

Captain Jack Sparrow!

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0

You scored as a Captain Jack Sparrow

Roguish,quick-witted, and incredibly lucky, Jack Sparrow is a pirate who sometimes ends up being a hero, against his better judgement. Captain Jack looks out for #1, but he can be counted on (usually) to do the right thing. He has an incredibly persuasive tongue, a mind that borders on genius or insanity, and an incredible talent for getting into trouble and getting out of it. Maybe its brains, maybe its genius, or maybe its just plain luck. Or maybe a mixture of all three.

Captain Jack Sparrow 83% William Wallace 83% Indiana Jones 79% Maximus 75% Lara Croft 63% El Zorro 63% The Amazing Spider-Man 54% Neo, the "One" 46% James Bond, Agent 007 42% Batman, the Dark Knight 42% The Terminator 33%

To everyone who made the CardiffUniveristy Real Ale and Cider festival 2006-2007 such a good weekend, I thank you.

To the Brewers, I have nothing but the deepest love and respect for people who would produce such fine a product despite the fact economies of scale would work against them and hurt their profits.

To My Friends, that you for turning up and not being total larger-boys and drinking the near-frozen love-in-a-canoe stuff they sell at the Union most days. "Bud-light; just when you thought we had perfected bottled urine, we found a way to extract 30% MORE favour and content."

To the attractive young lady with the pork-scratching. You know who you are; which was more than could be said for me at the time.

To everyone you joined in when we started singing.

And to the Bouncers; I will never forgive you as long as I live. I understand you have to hurry people up at the end of the night, but did you REALY have to tell me I’d have to down the finest pint of winter sipping ale in the world or you would confiscate my commemorative Pint glass? That stuff was like Flayrah, with a kick to it like something that ought to have the words "Pan Galactic" in it's name. You didn't even let me stay long enough to find out what it was called!