Early Risers.

[newbryford]

There has been a minor improvement in my brother's condition, which could possibly open up other options for his recovery.

 

In the meantime, I shall pass on your supportive thoughts to his family - they are hugely appreciated.

[grandadbob]

6 minutes ago, BoD said:

This is probably more than just an urban myth - for several reasons, ambiance being only one of them.

 

 

Different breweries too. The only time I was in Ireland was in about 2001 so was used to the English version which at that time was still brewed at Park Royal. 

[AndrewC]

1 hour ago, Shedman5 said:

Morning, Grey and damp outside, the rain has stopped for the time being.

 

Not sure what's happening today need to check with the boss.

 

Guinness I remember a phase of it being drunk with blackcurrant juice in it, which was okay until someone had one too many and was sick. It looked like they were  bleeding to death! 

Whilst I do like Guinness two pints is enough for me these days, without blackcurrant !!!

 

Many moons ago before I saw sense. (stop laughing) I used to enjoy the snakebite with black @ The Intrepid Fox in Soho. A great bar. The drawback of that is my p!ss was purple for several days afterwards. I understand the Ribena these days has far less food colouring in it. 

 

18 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

the road outside the Guinness Storehouse was being dug up and I told Aditi the exposed pipes were carrying the Guinness to England. She wasn't fooled though  

Halve Man Brouwerij in Bruge has a pipeline under the streets instead of clogging the roads with hundreds of lorries. 

2 minutes ago, BoD said:

This is probably more than just an urban myth - for several reasons, ambiance being only one of them.

 

At one time Guinness used to brew specific batches according to where they were being exported. This is why you can still get versions that are 8%. It is only in recent years that it is no longer brewed in the UK. There was a big difference in the taste back then. The Park Royal Guinness was far less creamy. The crap brewed in Canada by Labatt's was pretty much undrinkable. Explains why that was one of the first countries to get the widget tins brewed in Ireland. 

 

These days if I want a good stout it has to be De Molen's Hel & Verdoemenis. Especially some of the imperial and barrel aged versions. Rasputin from De Molen is also fantastic. Then again so is Het Uiltje's Meneer de Uil - Auchentoshan barrel aged stout. 

 

Greetings all from the boring borough. Now that I've got my beer geekiness over and done with for the day. Little of note happening. Schlepped to Horrorson's this morning for a few items. Yes Ar5e wipe was on the list. Hand to hand combat with some granny for last 9 rolls of Andrex ensued. (joking) Overheard the lady on the checkout moaning with the lady ahead of me about how stupid and ignorant people are. Her checkout had been closed the previous day as some asshat coughed and sneezed all over the conveyor belt and bank card machine. They had to clean down the whole checkout and bin the food the person next in line was trying to buy. 

 

Best wishes to your brother Mick. 

 

Enjoy the day. 

[petethemole]

36 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

I quite like a Guinness or several. Normally drink it if a bar has no decent real ale available.

 

 

P.S. Seemed to taste much better in Ireland.

I had a couple last night as the ales were off in the local.  When most of the Guinness sold in England was brewed at Park Royal, Dublin brewed did taste better. ISTR some areas like Liverpool had Dublin Guinness shipped over. Some Irish bars in London and elsewhere also sold it.

 

Kitchen fitter is here installing the sink and washing machine.  Now I need to get the floor sorted.

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

the road outside the Guinness Storehouse was being dug up and I told Aditi the exposed pipes were carrying the Guinness to England. She wasn't fooled though  

Didn't they ship it from Dublin to the UK in a tanker? 

 

18 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

Many moons ago before I saw sense. (stop laughing) I used to enjoy the snakebite with black @ The Intrepid Fox in Soho. A great bar. The drawback of that is my p!ss was purple for several days afterwards. I understand the Ribena these days has far less food colouring in it. 

 

 

I like beetroot, cooked but with no vinegar. The purple poo was a bit worrying until I realised the cause.

[Tony_S]

45 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

More to the point, did your friend recall it?

He did usually. After a few years (various house moves etc) we lost touch. Once social media got going, I tried to find him. It was slightly difficult as he had reverted his name to a more accurate rendition of the original Polish rather than the spelling his father had been given when he arrived in England at the start of WW2. What I did find was his obituary.  Liver failure; he had predicted it as a likely demise many years before.

[Tony_S]

20 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Didn't they ship it from Dublin to the UK in a tanker? 

 

Lots of these in Dublin.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from LBG where it looks like it might rain.

 

Best wishes to Mick NB for his brother - I hope the medical teams can find a solution for him.

 

Dinosaurs - Elder Lurker had a phase of being obsessed with them when he was around 3. This was great for me as I have a fascination with them too. We bought several different sets of dinosaur top trumps and he knew all of them within weeks, pronouncing their names correctly, identifying the period they came from, what they ate, correcting MiL's pronunciation etc. When he was 4 we had a holiday in the New Forest and went across to the Isle of Wight to visit the dinosaur museum at Sandown. He was far more interested in  the crazy golf next door, and we knew the phase was over...!

Still, I got to do it all again when Younger Lurker came along, although not to the same extent.

 

I think the best pint of Guinness I had was in the bar in Arrivals in Dublin airport; better than any I had the rest of that weekend! As for other stouts, Harvey's Imperial Stout is a cracker.

[polybear]

4 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Morning all from a cloudy and damp place.  It's muddy outside as we had a lot of the hard standing area scraped yesterday. It used to be a parking and turning place for lorries but over the years moss and leaf fall had built up to make it a grassyvarea that has turned to mud this winter. It looks rather muddy now but a bit of rain should wash thstboff and leave it a lot better.   Quizzing was done last night and a bottle of bubbly came back with us.

 

We will soon be talking to daughter and granddaughter then i have a bit of painting to do to finish off the current set of shutters.  Not a lot else planned so time might be spent doing some muddling.

 

Thoughts very much with Mick and his brother and family.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

 

The trick, once painting of the shitters sorry, shutters is complete is to repaint a few each year on a rolling cycle basis - starting next year - whether they need it or not.

Unless you fancy doing the whole lot again in one go in ten years time....

 

3 hours ago, Barry O said:

The Gasman arrived at 08:30... a miracle!  He is now servicing the gas appliances...fingers crossed that all is well!

 

Started sorting my holiday snaps. One for ChrisF from Australia Zoo

 

 

baz

 

Now what exactly is he up to with that paw?  It looks like that leaf could be hiding a multitude of sins....

Edited March 10, 2020 by polybear

[The Stationmaster]

12 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

I tried various googles too but came-up blank. I was hoping to find something with the "both ways arrows". Did DSB ever adopt something like that or is a Lego invention?

With any railway related stuff it's always best to put in the full company name or the initials they normally use.  Putting in 'danish' is as likely to bring up various pastries as it is railway engines.  And don't try BBC if you're just looking for tv or radio programme information

 

And G'day all.

 

The weather isn't wonderful but the Good Doctor took the management shopping which might have to become the case if the Govt tells any of us OFs with a cold to 'self isolate' (sounds like live 'frog' points to me because they always self  isolate one or other of the sidings leading out of them).  So I might give the Basingstoke Show a miss this weekend (a good show but not the end of the world) but it could truly up b*gger things for Ally Pally on Saturday week - unless of course the Ministry of Cancellations decides to do that for me and ban such events by then, what a waste of a free ticket.  But oddly at the same time 'they' are still allowing people to come and go on aeroplanes between Britain and the locked down area in Italy; maybe it should also be locked upwards as well in order to keep out aeroplanes?   Ah well nowt we can do about it but I do have to visit the surgery next week to see Sister Drac - unless she will do house calls?  Now that's a nice idea, I can just imagine the delightful Simone turning up at the front gate on a proper job, old fashioned, District Nurse's bike.  On the other hand it might be Natasha whose Russian origin shows in her build - lovely lady but 'firmly' constructed.

 

In the meanwhile HMRC have been amazingly busy and the cheque which arrived yesterday has been followed by four separate envelopes this morning containing, separately, calculations going back over most of the period claimed and, separately again, a revised tax code for the coming year which works out at a saving in Income Tax of a smidgeon under ten bob a week - better than costing an extra bob a week of course.  Current year recoded as well but I'm not sure without reading it all if that's included in what they sent or will be done separately.  But top score for prompt reply.

 

No other plans for today beyond the sudoku.  And alas I see from next week's 'Radio Times' that the dreaded Gavin survives long enough to be listed in next week's cast - unlike Lynda Snell (no doubt she'll recover in time, I hope, but see below).  And of course we'll no doubt find out that Phillip isn't carrying anything like enough 3rd Party insurance (if any?) to cover the costs of rebuilding Grey Gables let alone paying for loss of business etc - should be some interesting episodes to come.  

I see that Carole Boyd, who plays Lynda Snell, has just passed her 79th birthday and is a part time carer for her husband who suffered a stroke in 2003.  So she might - regrettably - be leaving or, more hopefully, just taking a rest for whatever reason, no doubt we'll find out in time.  Incidentally her main tv credit over the years is doing the voices, almost all of them at various times, for 'Postman Pat',  that came as a surprise.

 

Enjoy the rest of your day one and all 

[Barry O]

51 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Now what exactly is he up to with that paw?  It looks like that leaf could be hiding a multitude of sins....

Never, ever question a Koala.. those claws are sharp for clinging into trees...  and people who upset them!

 

baz

Edited March 10, 2020 by Barry O

[jamie92208]

IIRC, Guiness was shipped in tanker ships to Manchester.  My only trip to Northern Ireland was in the company of a former soldier mate. He waxed lyrical all day as to how he was going to treat me to a pint if proper Irish Guiness at the airport before we left. We got to the bar and the drinks were ordered. Half way through the first pint there was a sputtering from the pump.  They'd run out and didn't have a spare keg.  They ended up giving us the half for free and we shared it.

 

Jamie

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, grandadbob said:

 

Different breweries too. The only time I was in Ireland was in about 2001 so was used to the English version which at that time was still brewed at Park Royal. 

I never really liked the taste of Park Royal Guinness and in my stout drinking days I was a confirmed consumer of Mackeson which I mi uch preferred.  And my 'local' pub (at almost the opposite end of the town as it happened - using the shortest route I passed 5 other pubs to get to it) used to stock pint bottles of the stuff just for me, real customer service back in those days.  However I was very taken with the Dublin version of Guinness which I too thought was much creamier than Park Royal's effort

 

A lot of Park Royal' output went by rail hence their acquisition of two 350 shunters which have finished up on the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway which allows me to make the perhaps unusual claim that I have driven something which shitfed hundreds of tons of Guinness over the years.

 

Our local brewery, like quite a few others, used to bottle Guinness for its tied houses and there was a bulk tank in one corner of the bottling area which could hold hundreds of gallons of the stuff.  it was delivered by bulk  tanker on a Thursday and the last bottling job of the week was bottling the Guinness on Friday.  As always any ullage went into the firkins which we made up in the bottling store for the staff cabin, which was really little more than a hole in the wall, where we obtained our free drinks.  It was amazing stuff as it was made out of the ullage from the pipework after each bottling run plus the pipework ullage from filling barrels in the department next door.  I reckon on that side they arranged it so that some firkins would be 100% full of draught beers while the leftovers went round to the bottling store for completion - we just put into the barrels whatever was left as ullage after a bottling run.

 

The bulk Guinness tank was a rather dangerous work environment because after being emptied it had to be washed down to get it completely clean inside.  This was done by removing a manhole cover on the side then somebody climbed into it to make sure it was thoroughly washed from the top downwards before coming back out to finish off the bottom of the tank.  But when it was first installed nobody understood the danger involved in going inside it and somebody climbed in  immediately after the manhole had been opened - and within minutes collapsed, knocked out by Guinness fumes.  After that nasty lesson the tank was always left a while with the manhole open to allow air to circulate and some hosing down was done before the 'cleaner' climbed in. and splashed about in his wellies in heavily diluted Guinness.

[jamie92208]

Mackeson was of course brewed at Kirkstall in Leeds, visible from the railway line. Unfortunately it's now student flats.  However it was still going in the 80's and nursing mothers at Leeds Maternity  Hospital used to be given a bottle of Mackeson each night. Beth was a recipient when Martin was born in 1980. Perhaps that's why it was called milk stout.

 

Jamie

[Coombe Barton]

2 hours ago, BoD said:

3 hours ago, grandadbob said:

P.S. Seemed to taste much better in Ireland.

This is probably more than just an urban myth - for several reasons, ambiance being only one of them.

Seeing as you're replying to GDB, read that at ambulance and wasn't surprised.

[Ian Abel]

Thoughts with Mick and your brother hope there's continued improvement.

 

Morning all.

Nothing much to report from yesterday, mostly a yawner.

 

Today won't be much different best I can tell so far.

 

-4 and sunny first thing and very little snow left around, vast change from a year ago today when there was still 19 inches on the ground. Expected to get to 4-5 for the high and clouds later.

 

Carry on.

[Dave Hunt]

When I was working at the USN North Island base in San Diego, in the mid-80s there was a bar called the Avenida on Orange Avenue in Coronado just down from where we lived that sold Guinness. Although I quite like Guinness, for some time I didn't try it as I was convinced that it wouldn't be any good - the popular opinion being that Guinness brewed anywhere outside Dublin wasn't worth drinking and even if it was brewed there it couldn't possibly travel as far as California and stay drinkable. Eventually, however, an RAF engineer I worked with told me it was OK and persuaded me to try it. Much to my amazement it was a very decent drop of the black stuff and I continued to drink it when there.

 

Once when the British contingent were celebrating something (I forget what) we took a group of the Americans we worked with out for a few drinks at the Avenida on the understanding that they tried a Guinness to start with. Most of them only had the one pint (or in some cases part of one) before going on to Budweiser or similar but one of them, an archetypical Texan called Dempsey (known unsurprisingly as Jack), said when asked what he wanted for his second drink, "I'll get another of those black soda pops." He continued drinking 'black soda pops' until it was time to pour him into a cab for home. The following morning there was a marked absence of Texans and for the rest of the time I was at North Island we were referred to as 'the guys that broke Dempsey.'

 

Glad to hear that Mick's brother has improved. Our prayers go with him.

 

Dave

Edited March 10, 2020 by Dave Hunt
Correcting bad grammar like

[TheSignalEngineer]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

 Putting in 'danish' is as likely to bring up various pastries as it is railway engines.

You can get some interesting results from other words with geographical connections.

 

 

[roundhouse]

2 hours ago, The Lurker said:

 

 

I think the best pint of Guinness I had was in the bar in Arrivals in Dublin airport; better than any I had the rest of that weekend! As for other stouts, Harvey's Imperial Stout is a cracker.

You must have been desperate for a pint to drink in arrivals

 

I was drinking Harveys Old and then Harveys Porter last night. I have heard and read that Guinness is really a porter than a stout.

[TheSignalEngineer]

I never got a taste for the Park Royal Guinness. About 25 years ago my son introduced me to the Dublin brew. His lady friend since university days is from the north of Ireland.  When he went on to study in London and she was back in Ireland they would regularly meet up in Dublin. He would come back on the late boat into Holyhead and catch the train to see us in Birmingham on his way back south. He used to turn up on the first train out of Moor St with as much Guinness as he could carry.

Edited March 10, 2020 by TheSignalEngineer

[Danemouth]

Who remembers the 1980s when draught Murphys Stout was sold in the UK?

 

SWMBO didn't like me drinking it as it made me snore

 

Dave

[81C]

Afternoon All

I'm was going to give the shows a miss till the late spring I might go to Basingstoke depends on how I feel I've not bothered to get my free Ally Pally ticket you should not have to chase it I would

have thought it would have been in the post being a gold member, that's tosh we will look after you, having had several requests sidetracked for a week or more I'm not impressed after the

Pendon visit with RMWeb which was excellent service has reverted to zero. Pah 

 

The man flu symptoms seem to have abated so I went food shopping as I had run out of everything and went to Argos to pick up my new vacuum cleaner and it knocks spots for those

heavy old dyson things with the digital motor (what a load of tosh no such thing), I purchased A Shark what a lovely crafted piece of equipment pleased with my purchase the entire flat got vac'ed.

 

The car park here is a free for all someone parked where I normally park which is the general rule so I left my car in their spot and placed tape over my door buzzer several neighbours have made

comments about the old Witch will be banging on your front door, the car will be moved when I go out next bet she's sticking pins into my effigy.

 

It wasn't the snoring with Murphy's Dave it was the parping all night that the slapped #rse didn't like.

 

Better get on enjoy what's left of it S.M. Elligit 

 

 

[Kingzance]

During my years in a business related to brewing, I had reason to visit Runcorn, Park Royal and St James Gate. In my mind, the best brew was in Dublin. When Park Royal closed, St James Gate ramped up production to cope. This I believe was added to the volumed shipped in two tank ships that sailed between Dublin and Runcorn. Runcorn also “let down” the concentrate with treated water to reach the normal sales ABV before packaging into bottles, cans and kegs.

 

All bulk beer tanks will have an atmosphere of CO2 and or N2, neither of which will support normal healthy aspiration. Washing with hot water dissolves some but not all of the CO2. Simple spray balls added via the top or through the lower manway (in which case it would be at the end of an extended pipe arm) allowed the tanks to be thoroughly washed without people going inside. If Caustic Soda - the cheapest and most widely used cleaning chemical - is used to clean such vessels in a CO2 environment, the solution is converted to Sodium Bicarbonate before becoming Sodium Carbonate, neither of which will effectively clean beer tanks. “Bright” beer tanks are often cleaned with an inorganic acid such as Nitric and Phosphoric or combinations of them. Most modern breweries have their tanks arranged for in place cleaning through fixed devices that remain permanently installed.

[leopardml2341]

Not much to report from me, except that I have just been told that cross-country trains hope I have a pleasant journey; a mutually exclusive combination of operator and pleasant methinks.

 

En route to CPM via BRI, first stop in CPM will probably be beer - so I may or may not drop by later.

 

Good evening wishes to all.

[AndyID]

Not a big fan of Guinness although I did really like the clock in Paignton.