Just Say Yes

Just a little Snow Patrol earworm to start with this week 😊 And I'm trying something a little different this week. I was in two minds about it, but going with the post title I decided to just say yes and see what happens. There is also the fact that I'm beginning to see the downside of blogging about beer and cake, in the form of my ever expanding waistline, so it's probably a wise move to lay off both a little, even temporarily. So this week instead of reviews, I'm reflecting on the joy of saying yes.
The received wisdom is that it's important to learn how to say no sometimes, which is probably good advice, but when I think about all the times I've said yes, either to other people, or to myself - especially when I'm in two minds about something, it's pretty much always turned out well. I'ts a cliche, but I do think you're more likely to regret the things you didn't do than the things you did.
Of course, it's partly down to the kind of person you are. I don't like putting people in boxes as a rule, but I do think you can pretty much divide people into those who like to join in and those who don't. I've pretty much always been in the 'join in' camp, which is a bit of a contradiction for an introvert, but (cliche no 2) the more you put into something the more you get out of it, and I suppose I try to apply that to life in general!
Some examples: I imagine most people who get an allotment are happy to get on with growing some veg, and maybe having a chat with their neighbour. Not me, I had to join the committee, and had I not given up my plot last year I would have ended up secretary too (and potentially lost the plot as a result....).
Church - better people than me go to Mass every week, sit quietly in their pew for an hour, go home with not more than a polite word spoken to the priest on the way out. I think it took less than a month for me to end up on the 'teas' rota in my current church, and not much longer than that to end up a Reader. Incidentally, both these things put me quite a long way out of my comfort zone, but that in itself is probably a reason to do something.
Generally speaking, I can't say joining in has more merit than not - it's just a compulsion really, and I imagine life would be less interesting if I didn't, but presumably most people who don't join in are happy enough not to.  So, now to the point, and the 'thing that happened' that prompted me to want to write this post. I've mentioned Tom from Lux Lisbon and his brilliant Song a Week podcasts/blogs previously.  Here's the link again in case you missed it last time. I'm not sure if the start of this story is even a normal experience, but as I was stood at the bus stop on the way to work recently, a thought popped into my head which seemed like it could be an idea for a song. Under normal circumstances it would have just been a passing fancy, but my next thought was 'I know someone who writes songs, I should send Tom an email and see if he can use it'. Of course my next thought after that was, no that's nuts, what kind of weirdo would do something like that? So of course the should I/shouldn't I continued for most of the day until I came back to the point about regretting things you didn't do and I sent the email. Or in other words, just said yes!
I'm sure you've worked out exactly where this is going by now - Tom wrote the song, and I love it 😊
If you'd like to read how the conversation went, you can on Tom's blog here, or, probably the sensible option, just listen to the song here.
Since Lindisfarne was the original inspiration, here's some pics from the last time I was there - if you've never been it's definitely worth a visit.

Obviously, it's beyond amazing that my little thought is now a song, but what's almost more exciting is that other people have heard it and interpreted completely differently to how I originally imagined it, so it's like that seed of an idea has gone off on an exciting journey into the world, just because 1) I said yes to myself and sent the email, and 2) Tom said yes and turned it into a song.
This feels like the end of an episode of Mork and Mindy now, but I guess my conclusion is, if you're ever in any doubt about whether to take a certain path, just say yes, and you never know where it might take you!
I suspect normal service will resume next week, as I've been out on a very windy bike ride today and have a bank holiday beer chilling in the fridge as a reward, but I have to confess, I'm glad I've gone down a different route this week - I'd be interested to hear what you think about it!

What we did on our holidays

Just for the record, I'm referencing the classic Fairport Convention album rather than the recent film in this week's title! I finished last week's post worried that the weather might interfere with our plans for our week in Newcastle, and to be honest it was a bit chilly but for the most part turned out dry and sunny, so yay! Of course that does mean I've got loads to write about this week, and I'm spoiled for choice with photos too, so I'll try not to ramble on too much.....
Bank Holiday Monday was the only day my cycling brother, Jonathan, was free so we planned a ride that we could start together then split up, allowing the boys to go and play in the hills whilst I cycled the 'easy' way home. For any Strava nerds, this was my route so you can have a look at the profile from my half way point and decide how easy it looks 😉

Where the road divides

Nice day for a ride

Next up was a short drive up to Hedley on the Hill for the beer and food festival at The Feathers. We arrived just in time to watch the annual Barrel Race, where teams of 3 run up a hill to the pub, carrying an empty 9 gallon beer keg, with the winners of the race earning themselves a full 9 gallon keg of ale. I like my beer, but I'd definitely rather just pay for my pint thanks! I believe fancy dress is optional, and didn't appear to help much....

Last week I said I couldn't do single handed burger photos, but I like a challenge and just look at this beauty...

On Tuesday we finally cycled a route I've been promising David for a while - up to Rowlands Gill, then down the Derwent Walk to Swalwell for lunch at Pedalling Squares cycle cafe.  I was a bit nervous about the first half of the ride as I remembered it being a fair old climb, and it is a drag, but actually no worse than the previous week's rides.  We were rewarded by the sight of a Red Kite flying overhead on our descent through Highfield which made all the climbing worthwhile! These magnificent birds were reintroduced to the Derwent Valley just over 10 years ago, and there's lots of useful information here if you're interesting in seeing them.
This is David enjoying the view from the Derwent Walk, and some of the sights along the cycle path home. This is one of the things I love about cycling - all this stuff is in a pretty built up area, so countless thousands of people must drive maybe 100 yards from them in some cases, never knowing what they're missing!

On Wednesday we met up with the inlaws for a trip to Beamish.  I'm sure anyone who went to school in the North East over the past 30ish years will have (fond?) memories of school trips here - mine involves losing a tooth, which earned me an ice cream so I'd say I have mixed feelings about that one 😏 It must be over 10 years since we were last there and it's expanded significantly in that time - so much so that we only saw about half of it.  New parts we managed to see included the Masonic Lodge, bakers, and this fish and chip shop where we had lunch.

One of the older exhibits

If you've never been to Beamish, I'd recommend it, but be sure to wear comfy shoes and give yourself a full day as you'll definitely need it.
On Thursday we cycled along the banks of the Tyne to Corbridge - the longest ride of the week, and a bit breezy but not too many hill climbs so can't complain. Lunch at Activ Cycles once we got there helped.  I had a tasty home roast chicken bagel followed with a slice of Earl Grey and lemon cake.  I heartily approve of cafes that put a bit of effort into the side salad, and this was exceptional.

The route is a nice mix of countryside and pretty towns and villages:

Corbridge

Ovingham

Friday took some careful planning - how best to make use of the last day of our trip without ending up knackered for the Lux Lisbon gig we'd both been looking forward to since the tour was announced. For reasons too complicated to go into here (but it's a story I tell often so if you know me you've heard it before anyway, and possibly more than once!) we had to start the day at Long Play Cafe, on the Quayside. We had the heart attack inducing Lumberjack pancakes, because what a stack of pancakes with maple syrup and bacon really needs is the addition of sausage and scrambled egg.....
it was a good job the girl serving us took 3 attempts to bring our coffees over as I doubt I'd have been able to move straight after finishing that lot! Newcastle has a few treasures that, like most locals, I'd never got around to visiting, and we started pretty much next door to the cafe at Bessy Surtees House. This is one, or techincally two, of the oldest buildings in Newcastle and is partly Historic England offices, but the rooms on the lower floors are free to visit. The building itself is pretty interesting if you're an architecture buff, but if you like a good story, Bessie Surtees' is the main draw here.

The blue pane of glass marks the spot where in 1772 Bessie is said to have eloped with a coal merchant's son, who went on to become Lord Eldon, Lord Chancellor of England - so I'd say she was right to follow her heart! 

Next was a walk up the fabulously named Dog Leap Stairs. Apparently Bessie and the future Lord Eldon escaped up these steps on horseback, which seems fairly unlikely to be honest - I struggled on foot! If you've never been to the Lit and Phil (and I confess I hadn't) and you like a good library, you really should pay this place a visit. It's the largest independent library in the UK outside of London and is a stunning building. This picture doesn't really do it justice - you have to go there to feel what it's like being surrounded by over 160,000 books!

Next up was a quick stop for 'refreshments' at the Centurion pub in Central Station. We included this in our 'culture trail' because, well, look at it.....

Let's just say the Victorians knew a thing or two about designing waiting rooms, and loved a bit of tiling!

After a couple of hours pottering around the Hancock museum, or Great North Museum:Hancock to give it it's official title, it was almost time to meet fellow Lux Lisbon fan (and aforementioned cycling brother) Jonathan and his mates for a pre gig refuel - not before a sly half in the excellent Split Chimp micropub mind you! As the gig was in Think Tank? next to the Centre for Life we chose The Bottle Shop for tea, 5 minutes walk from the venue and with a great beer list. I don't really have time for beer reviews this week (you'll be glad to hear) but the NxSE raspberry sour I had in here deserves a mention. Like a boozy pink lemonade in both taste and colour - awesome!

And so to the highlight of the week, and although we're only up to April, a contender for highlight of the year! It's almost exactly a year since we first saw Lux Lisbon at Stereo in Glasgow - it was a great show and thinking about it was probably the point I went from liking their songs to being a 'proper' fan. In the intervening year I've 'chatted' with Stu via his Monday emails (this kind of thing) and as mentioned before I've been following Tom's Song a Week project here. I'd recommend both if you're interested in song writing at all. Oh, and subscribing on bandcamp means I've been able to hear some of their new songs early doors too, so all in all I'd have to say I guess I'm more invested in the band this time around. Last year we were lucky to catch Charlie opening the show with her solo acoustic set, so we made sure we were at the venue earlyish this time around. It might be my imagination, but it felt like a more confident performance this time, and she certainly had the audience in the palm of her hand! 

Next up was local duo Prince and Pearl who play a mix of original material and covers. Let's just say, from their on stage chemistry I'm guessing this isn't just a professional partnership, but regardless of back story their voices do blend really well. 

By the time Lux Lisbon came on stage the venue had filled up, so I should probably apologize to anyone standing behind me for subjecting them to the kind of dancing that should really be reserved for Catherine's Kitchen Disco tm. Also to the band for nearly blinding them in an attempt to get some decent photos - sorry lads, but at least this one came out pretty well:

Great songs, phenomenal musicianship, and a band thoroughly enjoying themselves- that's the recipe for a great gig right there. In fact during new song Change (to stay the same) Charlie and Tom looked like they were having such a blast I was kind of willing Stu to turn around! I'm not sure if it was intentional. but the lighting created a brilliant silhouette effect  for much of the night:

Stu's acoustic number before the rest of the band came back on stage for an encore was a nice change of mood:

This is a band that deserves to be playing a much larger venue than Think Tank?, but selfishly, it did mean I got to catch up with Stu, and meet Charlie and Tom, so I can confirm that not only are they a great band, they're a lovely, friendly bunch of humans too! 

If you've made it this far, you'll be glad to know I'm back at work tomorrow and planning a quiet week. In fact, I'm hoping to have so little to report next week that I can write about what happens when you're not sure whether you should hit send on an email but you do it anyway......

The Green and Red of Mayo

Anther busy week at Eat Drink Cycle towers, including two bike rides, a concert, a burger battle (!) and one or two beers.....
I had a week off work for pottering last week, in advance of this week's Newcastle trip and as most of my cycling so far this year has been pretty flat I decided it was about time to drag myself and Angel (my bike, obviously) up a couple of hills. My first ride was part of the Green Circular, a fantastic walking and cycling route that runs for 26 miles around the outskirts of Dundee.  The section I rode was the stretch from Drumgeith Park, through Trottick Ponds, Templeton Woods, Camperdown Park then back along Riverside and the docks, so most of the climbing is in the first half of the ride. It  was a nice sunny day, but with a cold wind.

This is what remains of some of the last of the flats at Mill o' Mains, taken from the Forfar Road foot bridge.

Templeton Woods looking inviting.  It was quite busy with families as the schools are currently off for Easter, not that you can tell from this picture!










And a fine old tree at Camperdown Park, where I resisted the call of the cafe and made do with the flapjack I'd brought with me.

My second ride of the week was to the oddly named Carrot Hill, and no, I don't know where the name comes from! If anything, it was even windier for this ride, so on top of the challenge of getting up the hill in the first place I had the joy of a 20 mph cross wind cycling down through Wellbank.  Not a problem to a more confident cyclist, I'm sure, but leaning in to the road to avoid ending up in a field isn't really my idea of fun! As this was a tougher ride I'd planned in a lunch stop at Dobbies, which at least kept me going up the hill. On the way up I passed two pheasants who, in local parlance, were 'having a square go', and just before the top a fox ran across the road in front of me.

Don't generally do selfies, but then I don't often cycle up Carrot Hill, so I'm making an exception, plus that's my favourite long sleeved jersey!

 The start of the road up the hill








The view on the way down



And lunch!

If you're wondering about the title of this week's post, all is about to become clear...on Friday night I went to see a band I last saw in 1997, the Saw Doctors. This was a belated birthday present from two of my brothers, as the gig had been postponed due to Davy Carton, the lead singer, needing surgery on his vocal chords.  I have to admit, I did wonder what impact this would have, but it certainly didn't hold him back - if anything his voice is stronger than ever. Between me, David,  my dad, two brothers, one with a friend, one of my uncles and his friend we were a pretty mixed bunch, which reflects a Saw Doctors crowd.  In fact the only thing this audience shared was a love of 'the craic', which the Saw Doctors deliver in spades.  From the more sentimental songs like Clare Island to the sheer fun of 'I Useta Lover' and 'Joyce Country Ceilidh Band' both the band and the audience were in fine voice and having a grand old time.  The Snoop Dogg interlude was a thing to behold, and yes, you kind of had to be there 😜

This was the Green and Red of Mayo...

And this is Leo Moran, causing a fair bit of guitar envy! 

Saw Doctors fans  have a reputation for loyalty, and from this show I'd say it's wholly deserved.  I'm not sure how the venue felt about the 30 minute encore,but as it included some of their finest rabble rousers it went down a storm with the crowd! 

I'm sure further reviews will pop up on #gadgees  blog soon for a different perspective.

A small aside; the last time I saw the Saw Doctors there was probably still a risk of cigarette burns on your jacket at a gig, but how times have changed - a #gadgee who shall remain nameless was vaping something caramel scented, adding a certain Werthers original note to proceedings, so erm, thanks for that!

Oh, and this was the first time I'd been to the O2 Academy in Newcastle. I had it in my head that it was a bit of a flea pit, but actually it's a lovely space. Perhaps not surprising, as it opened as a cinema in 1927, becoming the Majestic Ballroom in 1959 - I'd guess the stunning ceiling is original.  

On Saturday we blew away the cobwebs with a walk at Whitley Bay where the redevelopment of Spanish City seems to be making good progress. 

No trip to the coast is complete without an ice cream, and we got ours from the award winning Di Meos. This is one of those proper old fashioned Italian ice cream parlours you get at the coast where they have so many flavours you always end up panic buying some odd combination of flavours, or is that just me??

Next stop was Wylam Brewery for the Battle of the Burgers, where 10 local companies compete to be crowned, well actually I'm not entirely clear on that part, but any event that involves eating burgers at a brewery was always going to make it on to the agenda. Slightly confusingly, Wylam's new premises are actually in the Palace of Arts in the Exhibition park in Newcastle - nowhere near Wylam. As you may have guessed, the building was built as part of a great exhibition in 1929, and considering it was a temporary structure built from concrete, it is still pretty impressive - well worth a nosy. I had two (small) burgers, from Longhorns and The Shilling which were both very good, but let's face it, we were really there for the beer! no burger photos as I'm not quite up to one handed outdoor burger eating, plus the fact they went down pretty quickly....

I've had a couple of Wylam beers before, and in fact the first one I had at the brewery was one I'd had before, a lovely cream porter called #3000 gyles from home, as it was the 3000th beer they brewed. Next up was Haxan, another new dark beer style for me - a black wit. A very herbal beer with a lot of cloves going on.  It tasted like what I would imagine a medieval ale might taste like, with the flavourings coming from herbs rather than hops, and was refreshing for a dark beer.  Finally I went light with a lemon balm and rosemary saison; the kind of beer you could definitely drink with a meal in place of white wine - lovely! 

From there we wandered back into town via the RVI and University. It's funny how you see your home town differently when you come back as a visitor, but there really is some impressive architecture in this part of town.

Last stop before getting the bus home was Brewdog, who were celebrating their 5th birthday. I joined the celebrations with an Omnipollo/Buxton ice cream pale ale, which tastes exactly as you'd imagine!

I have managed to fit in another pub trip since starting this post, so an honourable mention has to go to the Keelman pub, home to the Big Lamp Brewery, who've been brewing great beers since 1982. Anyone who claims you couldn't get decent beer in the UK 10 years ago wasn't looking in the right place, mentioning no names.....

The bitter may not be an 'interesting' beer, but it's a classic pint, and the Keelman Brown could give some trendier beers a run for their money. 

Sadly the weather's not looking promising for the week ahead, but I'm hoping for a couple of bike rides, a trip to Beamish, and a museum crawl before we go to see Lux Lisbon on Friday.

#punkagm2017

Grab a cuppa and a comfy seat - Saturday was Brewdog's AGM in Aberdeen and thanks to his friend having to cancel I got to be hubby's plus one again.  If you've come across Brewdog you'll realise this is no typical AGM but a chance for Equity Punks (shareholders to you and me) to spend a day at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre drinking great beer, eating great food and catching some great live music.  As all of those activities qualify for this blog I could be a while! 

The day really starts with James and Martin's business update at 1pm.  The big news this year will definitely split opinion, and I'm not giving away any trade secrets here as this has already hit the papers. Up till now, apart from an initial bank loan, Brewdog have mainly funded their expansion through their Equity for Punks releases. These are shares, but have always felt like a crowfunding scheme, in so far as they earn you a discount in the bars and online shop as well as giving you access to the AGM. Well, now they have a big American investor in TSG, and a billion pound valuation they're definitely closer to their stated aim of floating on the stock market in 5 years. I don't know enough about this sort of stuff to do anything else but have an open mind, but I'd say it's time they stopped pretending not to be the biggest fish in the UK craft beer pond!

 Apparently in finance terms this means the dog is now a unicorn - I'll let you look that one up!
Right, on to the important business of the beers 🍺 🍺🍺 a few more than that, but you get the idea....
The brewers getting all the attention this year were the three that had travelled over from America, but I thought I 'd start local with a beer from Fierce Beer.  I'd say it takes a lot of bottle (pun intended) to start a brewery in the heart of Brewdog country, but they've just been named Scotland's best new brewery on ratebeer so they're definitely doing something right. They have some seriously 'out there' beers but the one I went for 'Moose Mousse' was an easy drinking chocolate stout, and when I say easy drinking think alcoholic chocolate milkshake - nice! Next up was our first tasting session of the day with Cycle Brewing from Florida.  

This pair of absolute dudes had a pretty heroic journey from Florida to Aberdeen to bring us some really interesting beers. The first one we tried was a 6% IPA - not a style I really go for, but it was okay. The other one we got to taste was much more up my street - an 11% imperial stout, which was a challenge to check in on Untappd. Someone asked what it was called but apparently this is one of many of their beers that doesn't really have a name, or a recipe as such! They specialise in barrel aged beers and have a bit of an anything goes approach to their barrels. Vanilla barrels, maple syrup barrels - you name it, they'll age beer in it. This one actually wasn't barrel aged as it already had massive coffee and dark chocolate flavours thanks to the addition of cocoa nibs and a random selection of coffee they had lying around, apparently. 

 After the tasting session it was back to the main hall where we headed straight for the Cycle Brewing bar. I went with a 'Cream and Sugar, Please' a lovely creamy coffee porter - had to go outside to enjoy this one in the sun...

                                                                                                                                                          Next up I had a break from the dark beers and went with a fruit beer from Buxton Brewery,or sort of. It's from a range they brew for omnipollo from Stockholm that keeps popping up on twitter and untappd, thanks partly to this label art, but also because they're really interesting beers.   I had the 'original lemon meringue ice cream pie' which was a really tart fruit sour but with just enough sweetness to bring it back from the brink.

Did I mention this might go on a bit?  Next was our second tasting session of the day, with  wicked weed from North Carolina. They specialise in sour beers and have a taproom dedicated to sour beer called the funkatorium, so what's not to love? The chap doing the talking has actually just moved to Brewdog where he'll be running their new sour beer plant. This is him with Martin Dickie:

  The first beer we tried was called Genesis and was a refreshing tropical fruit sour. The other beer for tasting was a different proposition entirely, and a completely new style for me - a dark sour called Silencio. It had a real vanilla kick 'on the nose', like you'd expect from a vanilla milk stout, but then instead of a creamy finish you get a funky sour, which is, erm, fun? Incidentally, if you're a fan of label art check out their bottles.
After a longer than planned sour interlude I headed back to the porters with Luck by Rhinegeist from Cincinnati - the luck of the Irish presumably, and definitely better than 'that' Irish beer 😉 
Sadly by this stage some of the beers we wanted to try from Buxton and Wicked Weed had sold out, but not to be deterred I moved on to a Superluminal from Buxton. Another collaboration, but this time with Stillwater, an American 'gypsy' brewer, ie like Mikkeller they don't actually have a physical brewery but use other breweries' kit.  An interesting approach that seems to create more 'risk taking' beers.  This one was a sour (yes, I know!) IPA and pretty well balanced.  I should say my issue with IPAs, or certainly the American style championed by Brewdog, is that it feels like it's all about throwing as many hops as possible at a beer, which just doesn't do it for me. 
Guess what? My last beer of the AGM was Sourdough by Wild Beer. It's kind of a Berliner Weisse, but at the sour end of the style, and at 3.6% was my lowest ABV beer of the day.  The slightly bready flavour comes from the sourdough culture they use, and probably makes it a good 'starter' sour if you're not quite brave enough for the full mouth puckering sour beer experience! 

Now for a brief foray into beer snacks before I go on to the music. We were spoilt for choice so had to make some difficult decisions about what to try and what to pass on. The food stalls that sadly didn't make the cut included The Mac Shac from Yorkshire, Longhorns, who we may well visit in Newcastle and the Buffalo Truck, who obviously sell fried chicken (!) but had sadly sold out by the time we got to them. I had a very good cheese and chutney toastie for lunch - no photographic evidence which shows how good it was! Mid afternoon and hubby went with a proper beer snack, a scotch egg, but I couldn't resist the black pudding sausage roll from the same stall:

 
Having said I wouldn't have a hotdog as they're always disappointing I did actually end up having a sausage on a finger roll, but it was a 'proper' sausage with some really nice toppings so no regrets! 

 


Well done if you're still with me 🙌 We missed the first few bands, so apologies to The Bellybuttons, Superglu, Black Honey and Clean Cut Kid, but you know, beer. Actually, we did just catch the end of Black Honey's set and they seemed to be going down well. Oddly, I'd not heard of sundara karma but they popped up on Spotify on Friday night - not sure you'd call that karma exactly, but at least I'd heard a couple of their tracks. The lead singer looks like he could be in Hanson, but don't let that put you off, they're probably closer to Two Door Cinema Club (get me being down with the modern musical references 👌) 

  Next up, Brewdog favourites (they've brewed a beer together) from Glasgow Twin Atlantic who are at the heavier end of alt rock I'd say - not the best pic, but I'm fairly sure there was at least one leather jacket going on.

I don't know if it's just because I don't have much of an accent myself, but I really like vocalists who sing with a definite regional accent instead of that pretend American accent you get from a few otherwise decent British bands. I'm thinking more Biffy Clyro and the Futureheads than the Wurzels I should stress....
So finally the headline act, and bear in mind this was effectlively a free gig:

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you - that's the Stranglers. It does slightly beg the question how many original members can you replace before you become a tribute band? Only Fools and Horses reference here - you could almost say they're the musical equivalent of Trigger's Broom, and if you're hitting a blank here, it's on youtube!  I actually found it a slightly odd experience, in that they're not a band I've ever particularily followed, but of course who doesn't know Golden Brown, Peaches, No More Heroes? I'm not sure this makes sense, but being in the same room as the Stranglers playing those songs felt a little bit like the first time I went to London and saw the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace - not quite an out of body experience but like, 'oh, that's the actual Stranglers off the radio/Buckingham Palace off the tv' - weird. Actually, reading this back, the above beer list might go some way to explaining that one!
I suppose I should leave one final note - a day of beer drinking has to be followed by a pretty decent breakfast, and this was mine from Rye and Soda