Holiday Part Deux - Gigspanner Day

Friday in Rame is Gigspanner Day - perhaps my host is right - it is becoming a small tradition for a party of friends to assemble for the annual Gigspanner gig in Kingsand Village Hall. The day started with a cracking breakfast of everything, at nearly lunch time. Eight hours sleep following the excess of the previous day was rejuvenating and not being woken up at stupid o'clock by Bath's seagull population squabbling over the last of the pub goers suppers was a relief. During breakfast the day was discussed and a walk proposed. In various states of wellness; hang-over, heavy cold and creeking limbs we found ourselves slowly working our way up the steepest part of the climb to the view point at the top of Maker Lane.

Pausing for long moments at gates on the way ostensibly to gasp at the views and in my case catching a breather, we snapped away with our digitals.

The view from the top was, as ever, breathtaking. Despite the slight haze all the landmarks, from St Austell's Hensbarrow Beacon, through Bodmin Moor and Carodan Hill and up the Tamar valley to Dartmoor's Tors, could be seen.
From the top of Maker Lane we crossed the road and headed over the top of Maker Heights past the Victorian Barracks (now an arts comunity) and turned nort-east towards Maker Church. 

More later...

What I did on my holidays!! Part 1 (Coming to you direct from Millbrooker Towers)

It's now the start of the final (non-traveling) day with The Millbrooker, Mrs The Millbrooker and  and other guests at Millbrooker Towers. I had intended to take advantage of their hospitality for just Friday to Sunday in order to enjoy the music and performance of Peter Knight's Gigspanner at a local village hall but since the Wreckers Morris were appearing I had been persuaded (not hard) to arrive on Thursday. The Morris was great fun but I wasn't feeling 100% by 8 o'clock Thursday - a long day.
Thursday actually started badly; on Wednesday. It had probably been one of the worst weeks for a long time and only 3 days! I finally got to sleep early Thursday morning and the alarm clock was set for 06:15. As usual nothing was packed ready so I had all that to do before getting the usually late 08:57 Penzance train down to Plymouth. As usual it was announced on Bath Spa Platform 1 as running 8 minutes late but managed to arrive on time - go figure!! The run down on the train was pretty straight forward until Nailsea and Backwell where we were stopped. The announcement from the Train Manager sent an almost silent groan through the carriage - 'The train is being held here due to a vehicle striking a bridge' then a few minutes later 'The driver has has been allowed to to take the train on at reduced speed'. By Taunton we were only eight minutes late, much of which was made up caning it up Whiteball. The rest of the run was uneventful with my ears full of Black Sabbath and passed the time playing Solitaire on my phone. I do believe I am becoming blazé about one of the most spectacular engineering achievements in Britain, the Brunel masterpiece between Exeter and Plymouth, because a barely gave it a glance.
Plymouth was sunny and as I walked down Armada Way, I realised that I had left my baseball cap at home. I would either have to squint in the sun for 4 days or buy one then and there. Quicksilver or whatever had not much with a big logo on it - I don't like paying for someone to advertise on me - so across the road to BHS for me. They were running a 20% off day so a quite simple summer sun cap for just over £6 was perfect.
Off now to walk down to the Admiral's Hard for the Cremyll Ferry. I got as far as the Taxi Rank and shelled out a fiver for the privilege of not walking down there. 10 minutes to wait for the boat, then across the Tamar to the first pint in Cornwall.
The Edgcumbe Arms served me a fine pint of Proper Job which at only just after midday went down with unhealthy haste while waiting for Sausage and Mash and pint of Tribute. It was blowy and the sun was out so after lunch I found a corner in the lee of an old building by the quay and waited for the bus to Millbrook.
Off to Millbrook on the bus by way of Maker Church and the magnificent view up the Tamar to the Saltash bridges, then down into Millbrook village. By quarter past two I was sat on a bar stool in the Devon and Cornwall Inn enjoying a fine pint of Timothy Taylor's Landlord and the company of budding mathematician Emma behind the bar. It was quiet and Russell was scurrying around preparing for the evenings jollity. a couple of pints later I strolled round the corner to check for undelivered texts.
There a few corners of Millbrook where the finger of Vodafone reaches and these are spots where incoming texts arrive. As I turned back to the pub the phone sprang to life and found that in anticipation of my arrival The Millbrooker had alerted me to the fact that I would find him 'on the patio'. Bidding goodbye to Emma I made my way to Millbrooker Towers. Following Kedgeree 'knocked up' by The Millbrooker he donned his 'tatters' we all went of down to West Street where the Morris was to take  place outside the D&C. It was a wonderful evening and although I was completely beered out and knackered managed to develop a face strain from so much smiling. A wonderful antidote to what I'd left behind in Bath.
The Millbrookers blog of the entertainment is here.

The Western Riverside - Disaster Symptom I

Well!! The disaster has begun, the bulldozers and pile drivers are hard at work and the roofing timbers are in place on Building 4B.
When we met in the Hilton Hotel all those years ago to protest and complain to the Architects and and others about the impact of the plan we were evidently ignored. I personally told the Architect that I thought his designs were brutal and he was surprised. Either way Bath will be a less pleasant place to live in the future.
My reason for writing on what is now a redundant issue is more to do with my feelings on Public Transport. I am not a car owner nor a driver having never taken a single lesson in car driving.
My concern lies in the continued wholesale destruction of, what will come to be know for the crass stupidity that it is, old railway routes.
In the case of the Western Riverside it is obvious for all to see that when, in not too many years time, we need an additional rail corridor into the centre of Bath from Bristol and Radstock it will no longer be available having been planned out of existence. Buildings B4 and B10b sit squarely across that route.
When will these short-term profit driven strategies be finally outlawed.
We are continually being preached to about saving the planet. We recycle what we can, we use energy saving bulbs, we eat food that's sourced as locally as possible but all that is worth nothing, while profiteering councils and other planners continue their headlong destruction of ours and our children's future. Denying the preservation of access to the resources and refusing to countenance anything that involves long term commitment.

I am so angry.

KEEP THE FECK OFF OLD RAIL ROUTES FOR THE USE OF METROS AND TRAMS - this is one for central government if its got the balls to face up to the petrol heads and the oil companies.

PLAN TO GET PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR FECKING CARS - and this one's for local authorities if they've got the balls to get out of the pockets of the local business community. They'll look pretty silly when customers can't get to them to be profited from.

THEY WILL DESTROY US ALL IF WE LET THEM

GIVING UP BOOZE CAUSES CANCER - shock study • The Register

GIVING UP BOOZE CAUSES CANCER - shock study • The Register There are lies, damned lies and statistics.... (Who said that?) Yet again the health lobby rears its ugly and expensive (funded by the taxpayer) head in an attempt to justify it's own existence. 'If we don't keep saying something (however wrong) we'll get rumbled and (heaven forbid) scrapped with the other 'waste of money' quangos. What fun!!!

The Beer Duty Escalator Rumbles On

BBC News - Budget 2011 at a glance: George Osborne's key points: "No additional changes to alcohol duty rates but 2% above inflation rise in excise duties for wine, spirits and beer to go ahead"

Well this will close a few more pubs then - not enough to continue to allow the Pub owning Property Companies (Punch, Enterprise and their ilk) to carry on fleecing their tenants and their tenants customers, this 'Pub friendly' lot have hammered another nail in the coffin of that Great British institution - The British Pub.

When Britain finally wakes up and finds that between the Pub owning Property Companies and the Treasury they've sleep walked into a situation where there is nowhere left to sit and chat with friends over well cellared, hand crafted ales or indeed gas filled euro-fizz for that matter, then a little more of what makes Britain and the British unique will be gone forever. See what's happening in Cornwall.

We know what happens when Beer Duty is increased because we've seen it before. The Treasury puts 7.2% on the Duty for every pint as it leaves the brewer. The Pub owning Property Company will then squeeze a little more off the price they're paying for the beer from the brewer, then add it and more back in to the price they sell it to the tenants for. The poor tenant has no choice then but to put the price up, lose more customers and go to the wall. I don't expect that the rise at the bar will be any less than 10p on a pint and could be as much as 20p.

This is why when you pop in to the pub next Monday evening, there will be fewer people drinking fewer pints, to talk to.

Now we come to the supermarkets; with this 7.2% increase the duty on a pint will now be 44p add in another 50p in VAT at 20% and we're on about £3 for a pint of ale in a pub. The supermarket will sell a 4-pack (about 3 pints) for no more than £3.50 (Tesco - 2 for £7) of which £1.32 is Duty and 70p is VAT. So cheap alcohol bought in the supermarket costs not only the British Pub dear it also amounts to a loss of 26p per pint to the Treasury. On the 2010 figures for UK beer consumption, and bearing in mind 52% (11,618 million pints) of beer is purchased in supermarkets and drunk at home costs the UK £3,021 million pounds.

Where should we go from here? I'm no genius but I can see that if we are going to see the pub survive and tenants able to make a proper living while curtailing the ill effects of excessive consumption the obvious answer is to curb alcohol sales in supermarkets while pricing the beer to the pub competitively with off-sales pricing. The bonus is of course, more drinking will be done in a controlled and 'responsible' environment and less damage will be done to peoples health through excessive consumption of cheap supermarket booze.

My feeling is that an 'off-sales' levy should be brought in to reduce the price difference and at the same time compensate the Treasury for the reduced tax take due to falling volumes. In addition a reduction in health care cost due to excessive consumption would keep the health lobby happy. The only losers would be the supermarkets but business is business!

...and another Shameless Introduction - 2011 Version

I saw the hit count on this blog quadruple last week so I thought I'd better check what my few visitors were looking for and lo and behold it was people looking for the text of the new Shameless introduction. Nothing unusual there as over the years most visitors are looking for that or the link to WNXX but it seems I have failed.

What you've all been looking for is the NEW new Shameless Intro.

Well here it is as far as I can get it despite the muffled and sometime unintelligible bits.

Anyway 'ere 'tis...

Anyone watching thinking, "we know fuck all about knowing fuck all about 'owt", needs to watch their back.

So you've had your Labour reclassifying skunk sending prices sky high literally, literally taking the grass off its own roots.

Now you've got your con-dem-nation, Liberals noshing Tories like altar boys picking dibs up.

Have we had a national fucking stroke or what?

Is revolution a word or was it never?

Anybody watching needs to know we cope better than average with irony in Chatsworth.

Well for fuck sake we live in Manchester and they charge us for water.

I wandered lonely as a cloud necking mushrooms rarely found. Green and pleasant land in ancient times?

Yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap.

It's not theirs anymore. This is our England now.

Party!!!



Correct me if I'm wrong please.
Full credit to the author.

Thanks anon. for the 'necking', Regards.
Thanks anon. for the 'skunk', Regards.
Thanks anon. for the 'clown', Regards.
...following the Comment below and listening again I think it is probably 'cloud' after William Wordsworth. Ta Anon. Regards.
Yes of course 'owt' is correct rather than 'ought'. Thanks Anon. Regards.
...so is it 'alter boys picking dibs up' or 'alter boys picking dimps up'? Regards.

Slow Roasted Pork Belly – with the Cajun ‘holy trinity’ of Bell Peppers, Onions and Celery

Feeds 2 – 3 hours cooking - Easy
This dish was inspired by an ‘Mmmm that looks nice’ feeling when I saw their Pork Belly Stack with Rosemary Mash and Deep Fried Leek Strips, at The Nineteenth House pub in Bath. I’d only dropped in for a pint on the way home.
The dish is relatively easy to cook requiring very little experience; something to impress without too much effort. Serve with a Dijon Mustard Mash.
Ingredients:
Pork Belly - cut in rectangles and about 350g per person
1 Red Onion
2 Bell Peppers
1 Carrot
1 Stick of Celery
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 bottle of Red Wine (150ml for the dish)
2 tsp. Herbes de Provence
Potatoes sufficient for 2 portions of Mash
1 Egg
1 tsp. Dijon Mustard
2 dstsp. Crème Fraîche
½ pint of vegetable stock (Bouillon)
2 tsp. Corn Flour
Salt and Black Pepper
Method:
Light up the oven and preheat to Gas Mark 8 (450°F, 230°C, Hot)
Score the skin and fatty surface of the pork into 15mm (1/2 inch) squares, sprinkle with a little of les Herbes de Provence with Salt and Pepper to taste.
Place in a fairly shallow roasting tin and place in the centre of the oven. After about half an hour check and if the skin is ‘crackling’ up nicely, reduce the heat to Gas Mark 3 (325°F, 165°C, Moderate) and roast for a further hour.
Now prepare the vegetables. Peel the potatoes sufficient for two portions of mash.
Cut the Bell Pepper into 2cm squares, along with the onion. Thinly slice the celery and carrot, crush and chop the Garlic.
When the meat has been in the oven for an hour and a half, take it out cover on a warm plate and set aside while the cut vegetables are tumbled in the juices in the tray, seasoned with black pepper and sprinkled with the rest of les Herbes de Provence . Rest the meat on top of the vegetables and return to the oven for a further hour.
With half an hour to go, make the Mustard Mash. Boil the potatoes and mash. Stir in the egg, Dijon Mustard and Crème Fraîche and a couple of twists of fresh ground black pepper. Put in an oven proof dish and place in the oven to keep warm.
Preheat a second roasting tray. Remove the meat and vegetable from their cooking tray and place on the fresh tray and return to the oven.
With the original roasting tray, place it on the hob and heat. When boiling, add the wine to de-glaze ensuring you stir in all the rich caramelised juices from the meat and vegetables and then reduce. Add the vegetable stock and thicken as required with a little corn flour. Finally glaze with a knob of butter before serving.
To serve the dish, place a pile of Mustard Mash on a warm plate. Pile the vegetables on the mash and pour a little of the sauce over it before topping out with the Pork. Dress the rest of the plate with the sauce.
Enjoy.

PS. I’m going to try this again but vary the flavours with Chilli and chopped leaf Coriander.