Torch Relay 2012 at Fulham Broadway

Popped up to Fulham Broadway earlier with the hubby and puppy to watch Lawrence Dallaglio take the torch past. Was a great atmosphere and a really nice spectacle (although a little too much sponsor-advertising).

Here's a few shots from our little trip:
All dolled up for the occasion...

Lots of sponsor trucks preceded the torch itself.

 

New Cocker Spaniel Puppy

I've been meaning to publish a blog on my recent trip to Antwerp (to visit the BierPassie beer festival) and also to write a bit about a recent evening at the White Horse pub in Parsons Green - "Pork Life", another food-pairing event held as part of the annual American Beer Festival.

But I've been a bit waylaid. This is the reason why: I have a new puppy! 

I spent the week before little Henry arrived turning the flat upside down, taking 10-15 years' worth of unworn clothes and other bits and bobs to the local Save the Children shop, vacuuming everywhere (not fun under the bed) and generally giving the place a good going over to prepare it for the new arrival. And since he's been here, well, it's a bit like having a new baby, I think - they require a lot of attention, and the moments when they're catching up on sleep are the moments when you, too, want to get a little nap. Or do other things, like cook, shower, clean, check up on the news, etc..

So here are a few photos of the new little man in my life. It is very difficult not to take dozens of photos every day! Sometimes he is very lovely indeed. Especially when he's sleeping.

He likes to sleep on his back; I think he looks like a little chicken.

Sometimes he is a right little monster, snapping away with those razor-sharp puppy teeth like a deranged lunatic, barking at me with puppy excitement.

 The rest of the time I spend taking him down and up the stairs to the area outside to try to toilet train him - an endless task, I think! Yesterday I taught him to sit. When he's not awake I've become a bit obsessed with taking macro photos of his nose - I just find its patterns absolutely fascinating! It's a bit dry here, as it usually is when he's asleep.

He also has amazingly long eyelashes.

I take him out and about in Parsons Green in my arms or in a bag (with his head peeking out the front) and get stopped every few minutes by people admiring him. He's already been to the White Horse for a pint (he slept through the whole thing)! Most people ask "what's her name?" - must be the eyelashes; he doesn't look very macho, that's for sure. He has very soft ears and the typical beautiful soulful spaniel eye.

He'll be out and about in a week's time, as he's having his jabs this afternoon. You then have to wait a week for them to take effect and then it's OUT time! I can't wait to parade him on his little blue lead through the streets of Parsons Green and let him meet some other dogs on ground level. There's a few I'll steer clear of, but very much looking forward to having a good play.

Beer for Punks: The BrewDog Phenomenon

I am lucky. The White Horse in Parsons Green is my local pub. For anyone with an interest in decent beer, it is an amazing place. Sometimes it can be overrun with pushy, entitled Sloaney types, which earned it the nickname the "Sloaney Pony" many years ago. But it has a nice garden out the front, does great barbeques in the summer, has a lovely quiet bar upstairs, a restaurant at the back, and an amazing selection of international craft beers. And most of the people are just fine.

The pub hosts a few events during the year. For the past five years they've held an American Beer Festival over the July 4th weekend, at the end of August they have a celebration of Belgian Beers, and then there's a British Ale event in late November. Occasionally they host one-off events, and so the hubby and I excitedly booked tickets for a BrewDog beer dinner.
We'd just visited the wonderful BrewDog pub in Camden, and had previously tried the rather extreme Tactical Nuclear Penguin, via a mail-order purchase.
I'm not an expert on beer, and I'm not giving a detailed review of the beers, but just a bit of a flavour of the evening. We were greeted with a small glass of Dead Pony Club, the first of many delicious and interesting beers, the antithesis of the tasteless stuff that had led the creators to start the company in the first place. It was full of flavour and depth. We sat down at communal tables and made new friends. It promised to be a very good evening.

James Watt, an ex-fisherman from Fraserburgh in north-east Scotland,  started off by telling us the story behind BrewDog.

He and a friend were fed up with rubbish beer that had nothing going for it other than the fact that it got you drunk and was relatively cheap. They longed for something with some real flavour and so decided to try to brew their own. To cut a long story short, their passion, determination, good taste, hard work - and a few early white lies to unsupportive bank managers - have brought them to where they are today: a world-renowned brewer of incredibly diverse, and incredibly delicious, craft beers. James' story was an incredibly inspiring one. Some of the beers are very drinkable, every-day IPAs and lagers. Some of them are so strong and distinct in both flavour and alcohol content that they can only be enjoyed in small doses! Their notoriety has been part of their success, and is the reason my husband found out about them in the first place - no publicity is bad publicity, after all. Tokyo*, at 18.2% had problems after its label was banned in Scotland as it was seen as encouraging excessive drinking. They followed this up with a statement beer called "Nanny State" at a mere 0.5%, before heading back on track to produce Tactical Nuclear Penguin at 32%; this had the accolade of being the world's strongest beer. Some Germans were determined to recapture this record, producing a beer of 40%, encouraging BrewDog to go one further: the final creation was Sink the Bismarck, at 41%. It is now out of stock; I'm not sure if there's any more on the horizon.
James talked us through each of the eight or nine beers, before we were allowed to try them. He told us that we had to get to know our beer, to commune with it, to say hello to it.

With the first few beers we were given delicious amuse-bouches, the taste of the beer complementing the taste of  mouthful, and vice versa. Over the first smaller few courses we were given samples of Punk IPA, Barrel Aged 7.7 Lager, before being supplied with blindfolds, for a blind tasting of AB:08, possibly my favourite of the evening. I took a few snaps around the table while wearing my own blindfold - amazing what you can achieve with good autofocus.

The beer tasted very dark-coloured to me, perhaps even black, but it was a rich amber-colour; we were all quite surprised when we removed the blindfolds. Next was the main course - a scrumptious pork belly, accompanied with a glass of "I Hardcore You" - a blend of BrewDog beer with a brew from Mikkeller, a Danish craft beer company with whom they have had a few collaborations.

Stilton was helped along with the intense, almost chocolate-like Tokyo*,  chocolate parfait was paired with the 15% Paradox Jura, a stunning stout aged in old oak whisky casks (you could taste the peaty Jura influence), and finally we got to taste the infamous Tactical Nuclear Penguin, accompanying a Scottish Coffee (the cream was infused with the Penguin for double impact). We toasted "To Evil" and said hello to our beer before hitting our mouths with each wonderful mouthful.

At the end of the tasting some people left, but living a stone's throw away we could linger a little and not worry about catching the last tube home. We hung around, met some more fascinating people, drank a bit more beer and went home thoroughly satisfied.

If you want to try some amazing beer, please head along to the BrewDog pub in Camden, or any other of their bars near you - they're popping up everywhere. I highly recommend the 5am Saint - a lovely rich "iconoclastic amber ale." Beware, though, it may become addictive...