Homebrew and bump news

So, in these straitened times, I've taken to producing my own ale. The fermentation kit remained untouched in the front room till a couple of weeks ago, when I finally plucked up the courage to get brewing.

After three days of fermentation, the hose came out and I started filling up the empty pop bottles stored for such an occasion. The result is a shelf of bottles full of an ominous dark brown liquid akin to Guiness. The stuff is supposed to clear in two weeks, but I have my doubts.

Right now, it's heavy, intoxicating (had to sample it, of course!) and so thick you could probably cut it with a knife.... I await with excitement to see how it turns out, but right now it's so potent it could probably be used for clearing out drains...

With regards to the second part of the post title today, yeah you read that right. "Bump". E is with child, and a very active little creature it is. Gender scan was on Friday, and if all goes to plan, we'll be bringing a girl into the world come early Spring next year!!!

When only a stiff drink or Rammstein will do..

Ever have one of those days when you feel the world conspiring against you?

Man, I did on Thursday. The cherry on the top of my festering cake of angst was some locked gates leading into Bushy Park. After a 2 hour journey home from work, my cut through was closed as it was deer culling season!

Picture the scene: 11pm and I'm stomping my way round the edge of the park, metaphorical storm cloud over my head with only the night buses for company.

It's at that point when a beer will help. All I could do was reach for my trusty MP3 player, dial up Rammstein and turned the volume up to 11 to relieve my frustrations. And believe me, it helped!

Check out 'Ich Tu dir weh" from their last album: bet the LED in the mouth is a great conversation starter down the pub. Handy if you lost your keys in the car park after, too!

A.

Thoughts on Jamaicans runners and my tune collection

Simply Irresistible.. if you want to sell his music online, that is!

Have just been watching the Jamaican sprinters beating the best in South Korea. Had to view the final several times in order to appreciate the talent Usain Bolt is. You gotta marvel at the rate he and Yohan Blake tore up the track in the last 200m. The camera struggles to keep up with Bolt over the last 50 and it looks like he struggles to slow himself down too once he's won! The guy is just extraordinary.

Reminds me of something from my childhood. Did a washed up Ben Johnson end up racing horses over 100m in the 80s or something? Maybe my memory fails me but I seem to recollect the juiced up Canadian taking on a stallion over a sprint.. and winning!

Anyway. With my mind on upcoming things in 2012, we're in the process of having a clear out. I turned my mind to my CD collection which since being downloaded onto my PC, has just sat in a box taking up space. All is not lost though. Courtesy of Music Magpie I intend to turn my stash in to money and get rid of it! What you do is enter the bar code into the website (recognised 2 out of every 3 of mine) and Music Magpie quotes you a price. They send you the insured container for post and apparently you get a cheque soon after. Happy Days!

Peeling the sale stickers off CD cases gives you time to ponder whilst you do the data entry necessary. First thing I realised was the amount of disposable income was floating around back in my late teens. Hundreds and hundreds of pounds went through my hands to create the music collection taking up space on my shelves today. Secondly was the fact that all the albums which gave me my (admittedly sparse) cool music cred are seemingly worth F*** A** today. The Trance and D'n'B collections which made me feel like the discerning music beard stroker back in '96 and '97 are worth 30p a pop nowadays. Yes, 30p! Whereas Best of Dire Straits weighs in at a hefty £1.28 in comparison. It seems popular and MOR = a bigger pile of cash in return...

The aspirational late teen would be mortified by that. Maybe I should've stuck with Robert Palmer and the like instead, I'd be sitting on a few more quid today, I reckon!