English customer service 1

There will be two parts to this occasional series on the rubbish that is customer service. There are, obviously, outstanding examples (Beers of Europe and Loch Fyne Whiskies spring to mind). But this is an example of the poor-average.

I like a cigar every-so-often. I tend to use SimplyCigars, who are, generally, excellent and I'd thoroughly recommend them. But this xmas order was an exercise in frustration. I placed it around the 10th of Dec, and received notification that it had shipped a couple of days later. 8 days later it still hadn't arrived, so I emailed - no response (contrary to the claim on the website of response within 24 hours). I ended up ringing 8 times and emailing 3 times, I kept get responses saying they'd get back to me and that it had been picked up by royalmail and was their problem. They generally didn't get back to me, only returning calls twice and no emails. I even rang RoyalMail who said they had never received it - and their response was very quick and helpful. in the end, following a number of increasingly frequent calls, simply cigars shipped a replacement out - which arrived the day before I left for holiday.

Can't say I was very impressed with their inability to get back to me, or lack of ownership of the issues. Their resolution was good, if last minute. And in their defence, their service upto now has been excellent, and I'll stick with them. But still, it's pretty annoying.

holiday reading

You'd think it was winter, aside from the sun shining and blue sky outside. Where's my f'ing snow, eh?!?!

anyway, stocked up the tablet with books for the *snowed in xmas*. in retrospect, I may need to find a few more lighter page turners as this collection doesn't look too cheery:

• No Regrets: writings on Scott Walker [but at least it gives me yet another reason to play more of his genius]
• John Dies in the End
• The Golem [yeah the central/eastern european classic, felt I should read it at some point...]
• Danubia [the lighter read, really enjoyed Simon's other book, Germania]
• Creation: the origin of Life/The future of life [oohhh Science!]

I think i've still got a couple of unread Robert Rankin's lying around which will rock the lighter read stuff.

The downside to those heavy books is that them, and booze, mix poorly. Xmas and booze mix well, and there-in lies a problem...

B

SMWS tasting 3.212

Yeah, bit of a while between drinks - there's some recipes coming, and possibly some quick reviews of recent holidays. maybe. well probably for the recipes.

But upon my return from holiday the lovely chaps at SMWS had sent me a sample to review - based on a taste survey I'd done with them.
People send me free single malts? yep, I can get used to that.

Anyone else is more than welcome to send booze for review, I can even organise a tasting panel (or cabal, as we prefer) ...

SMWS 3.212 'Anti-aphrodisiac' 19yo 55.7%

Nose: pine, phenol, salt, coastal flavour, prickly, old wet socks
Palate: warm manuka honey, aniseed, full mouthfeel, complex, tingly tongue
Finish: med-long

I'd happily give it a 8/10, and happily buy a bottle (which I note, I still can...hmmm)

addition of water gave:
Nose: flatter, pine, bourbon, old wet socks
Palate: smooth flavour, lighter, salty
Finish:  med-short
6/10 Avoid water.

It's good at cask, but avoid water, it doesn't like it. Very quaffable with water, but not interesting.

Love, B

Whisky Cabal Meeting 11 : Two soldiers down

The Cabal met last Tuesday, as we'd realised a number of new arrivals to our respective cabinet families had yet to be sampled. One Doctor down, but channeling the Dunkirk spirit, we battled on.
the photo, pre-attack, captures a rarity in the UK, sunshine coming through windows. Treasure this photo.

Tullibardine Port Finish 46% 
(Link to LFW Tullibardine, but no Port Finish)
Nose: port, rubber, raisins
Palate: port soaked raisins
Finish: medium length

A nice intro dram, not too complex, but very quaffable / easy drinking. We gave it a 6.5-7.5/10 and would be keen to have more of it. Huzzah !

Berry Bros & Rudd Braes of Glenlivet 46%
N: lavender sweets, bourbon, parma violets, green apple, general fruitiness
P:  fruit salad, violets, pineapple, oaky, hint of smoke
F:  short and light, stewed apples
Split the panel this one: 6/10 (A); 7/10 (R); 8/10 (B)

Braes of Glenlivet, or as it's known now, Braeval, distills booze to be put into blends, so a single cask bottling is rare. Which is why I bought it. See, on the edge.

Glengoyne Teapot Dram I
N: chocolate, raspberry, sherry, old leather in a car, golden syrup
P: sherry, chocolate, xmas cake, raisins, treacle
F: long, warming

First tasted by the Cabal in 7 - read the exciting review!
The Teapot Dram, it's kinda a marketing thing, but really when it's this good...from the Glengoyne website:

For almost 150 years, workers at Glengoyne were allowed three large drams while on duty throughout the day. It was the Brewers’ job to select a different cask each week from which to draw the drams. The workers would gather in the staff canteen at 9.00am, midday and 3.00pm to receive their share.   The agreed measure was for it to be “no less than the quantity indicated by the placement of three fingers upon the tumbler” which was usually calibrated by the man with the chubbiest digits. Served at full cask strength, some of the younger workers found it a bit of a struggle to finish. So instead of disposing with the leftovers, the drams were secreted in a copper teapot. The more seasoned imbibers would enjoy a little extra throughout the day – well, it beats a proper tea break. 

we revisited Teapot I as a prelude to Teapot II. Because, when it comes down to it, we're about scientific reviews. We work so you don't have to.

This time around we liked it - possibly even more than the first.
B+R 10/10; A 9.5/10

Glengoyne Teapot Dram II
N: sherry, dark chocolate, molasses/golden syrup, old leather in car.

Oh bollocks to that, it's exactly the freeking same as Teapot I. This is an excellent thing (as my Teapot I died in the tasting).
Like sherry monsters? just buy it.
Possibly apocryphal stories have it that T I was made from 4 casks, and T II from 6. Either way, they've nailed the flavour.

SMWS 'Full, complex and reassuring' 64.43 55.5% 23yo refill hogshead ex-bourbon
N: pineapple, tropical fruit, wood polish, bourbon
P: prickly, spiky
F: short-medium

Addition of water smoothed the profile down a bit, and introduced a more of a honeyed flavour.
7-7.5 /10

Glenglassuagh - Evolution 57.2%
N: bourbon, rubber, vanilla (hint), fresh ozone
P: sweet, bourbon, rubber, citrus
F: medium

Addition of water led me to suggest 'wet sheep' on the nose and palate. The others wanted it noted that I suggested that, not them.

This was one we'd tried at the Whisky Show a couple of years ago and liked (although it's fair to say notes were getting a bit vague by that point). So a tip of the hat to Rich for grabbing a bottle.

7.5-8/10
This was the second soldier left behind.

Longmorn Chivas Brothers 14yo 59.6% d1997; b2011
N: bourbon, apples, pears
P: pears, really good, tasty, prickly warm
F: medium (and more pears!)

Chivas appear to be releasing a number of interesting single cask bottlings from their prodigious supplies. These are coming in 500ml bottles, which keeps the price down (slightly).
7.5-8/10

SMWS G10.5 'A schweppervescence moment' 61% 21yo refill hogshead, ex-bourbon
N: pinenuts, lemonade, iodine, 'wet nuts'  [no, i don't know either, let's just leave it...]
P: effervescent, fizzy sherbet dibdabs
F: fizzy, effervescent, sweet, very long finish

It's a grain whisky, and we're not convinced that it wasted like a whisky at all. But having said that, we liked it.
And in a rare moment, SMWS appear to have a description that *actually fits* what's in the bottle !
A 7.5/10; B 8/10; R 7/10

Slainte, B

Cycling and badgers

I like cycling. Mainly the speed aspect. This makes life interesting on a number of our roads which are of crap quality, particularly to the side where I bike - potholes galore. Brilliant, especially at the speeds I've managed to hit (73.5km/h is the top, so far...).

But since my phone has GPS it seemed silly to not use it and see how long it takes to bike to/from work.

There's a longer route into work which has a few hills (actual, real hills) which makes the ride more interesting, and sweaty.

The distance is pretty much the same either way, although the hills are different which made me think going in was always going to be quicker than coming home.

Morning : heading into work
Apparently: 133m gain; grade -14% to 11%

Date                    Time(min)     Ave Speed (km/h)    Max Speed
22 March 2012    42.09            15.74                        49.92
23 April 2013      38.19            17.28                        56.42
3 May 2013         34.53            18.96                        63.78
12 June 2013       35.25            18.62                        63.11
23 Aug 2013       31.48            20.66                        55.6
26 Sept 2013       28.36            21.97                        53

So that's all heading in the right direction, although I find it interesting that the max speed recently is down, but the average speed and time taken are better. But this year I've cut 10mins off on my new bike, and 14mins from last year on the old bike.

Evening : heading home
Apparently: 171m gain -15% to 21%

 Date                    Time(min)     Ave Speed (km/h)    Max Speed
21 March 2012    37.17            17.93                      
23 April 2013      31.42            20.80                      
20 May 2013       36.49        
11 June 2013       33.19            20.30                        59.42
09 July 2013        32.01            20.62
23 Aug 2013       31.42            20.80                      
20 Sept 2013       29.40            22.14                      

Sadly, I can't do any more morning rides as it's too dark to go hurtling down hills. This was brought home to me the other day as I flew past a dead badger.

For avoiding the Daily Fail

TBH, I'm more likely to click on a link for Nigerian princes than to the DF, but for those of you less in control of your fingers there are plugins which redirect those links to other pages (http://www.teaandkittens.co.uk/ mainly).

Available for Chrome and Firefox here

But the point of this blog is to draw your attention to a comment posted on the Firefox plugin site.

So huzzah and stuff to DeadCars for an inspired review :) Personally my love for the comment reached bursting point around the 'Maybe Princess Diana was a bit overrated?'.

>>

I used to be a massive racist and so naturally turned to the Daily Mail and Daily Express websites for my regular dose of ignorance and thinly veiled race-hate. But this plugin has really turned my life around. I've started having thoughts like "Maybe it's not all the fault of the European Court of Human Rights?","Perhaps there are some substances that neither cause nor prevent cancer?", and "Maybe Princess Diana was a bit overrated?" Thanks to Kitten Block, my fear of imaginary crime has rapidly dissipated and so I last week I left the house for the first time in 18 years. I've also stopped endlessly checking the price of my property on rightmove and started, y'know, being nice to people instead. Thanks Kitten Block, I'm not a unthinking dufus anymore. First class.

<<

Cooking with Bruce : Spicy vegetarian soup

So it's getting chillier (well it is here anyway), and I like spicy food. So in a nod to cultural norms that say autumn/winter is soup time, here's a spicy soup.

Ingredients
Spice Mix
Vege oil
onion chopped
3cm chopped ginger
3-4 cloves garlic
cinnamon (stick?)
2T toasted cumin seeds (I threw them in with the onion)
2 chillis - roughly chopped

Other Stuff
mushrooms - as many as possible
4-5 smallish spuds chopped
2x 390gm tomato tins
500ml vege stock


Cook the onion over gentle heat until soft. Throw all in blender, and process until smooth (may need a bit of water or oil).

Place into pan and cook until dry, add mushrooms/spuds/tomato and mix until boiling, add stock and simmer for 30-45 mins.

I added a bunch of other things (coriander leaves, asafoetida, tumeric etc), but hey, that's just me...

xx

Metal - cheesy metal brilliance

It's fair to say I have a soft spot for folk metal. It's cheesy. And great.
Alestorm have made a few appearances on this page, but there's an Alestorm offshoot - Gloryhammer.
here's the single:


and now a hero who ride a mammoth.


and to end, some more Gloryhammer:


Ahhh bliss.

Cooking with Bruce : Chocolate and Cherry torte

Welcome, again, to the occasional cooking with Bruce series. This time, overloading on chocolate and cherries.

I'd been ordered to make a chocolate cake, however telling me what I'm going to do and me doing it ... herding cats ... etc etc. Which is how I ended up with a chocolate torte, reasoning a) I wanted one b) it had chocolate and c) it's cherry season and I like them.

Not sure where I found this recipe, there's bits I've adapted...

Probably don't need to say it, but:

* chocolate : high quality and 75-80% cocoa

* cherry jam : again the better you can afford, the better the taste - cheaper ones don't have as much fruit and generally more sugar which can lead to bitterness when it's heated

Heat oven to 180C

Base

100g unsalted butter

300g flour

pinch of salt

1t bp

100g sugar

2 eggs

Butter and line a tin with baking paper - I think mine's about 20cm, and that got pretty high and took awhile to cook, so 24cm maybe better.

Place all (except eggs) into blender, pulse to breadcrumbs, add egg and pulse until it comes together. Press pastry over the base and up the sides of the tin. Refrigerate.

Chocolate

150g caster sugar

4 eggs

3T flour

500ml full cream milk

1t vanilla extract

200g 82% dark chocolate [minimum 70%] broken up roughly

200g fresh cherries, and stoned (man)

2-3T good quality cherry jam

1. Whisk sugar and eggs together until thick, stir in flour. 
2. Bring milk to boil, then pour into the eggs mixture while whisking
3. Add vanilla, and place over low heat
4. Add chocolate+jam and stir until mixture thickens and coats the spoon
5. Pour mixture into the tart, sprinkle cherries over the top

Cook for at least 45 mins (my 20cm tin = 70mins), allow to cool before removing and chopping up.

Even I will admit this doesn't need any cream. I know. I'm as shocked as you.

Tomorrow, you may get some indian food as I quite liked the ones I made last night...

Smoochies on your cherry [torte], me

More Wagner

So my first ring cycle, how'd that cherry popping go? 

This was a semi-staged performance, which as far as I can see, is one of two settings for performing opera. Staged is where there's scenery and stuff. Semi-staged covers everything else. I'm sure someone will try and argue there's a not-staged, but it's impossible for opera singers to just stand there and not emote/move at some point, at which point I'd argue it become semi-staged. This one went a little further with some acting, and singers wandering around and on/off the stage.

I loved it. And it had some very good reviews: Das Rheingold; Die Walkure; Siegfried;  Gotterdammerung

The reviews (times, torygraph, etc) were all exhibiting much the same love fest for the cycle. 

Das Rheingold is the shortest of the four, a mere two and half hours, and in order to maintain the descent into general nastiness, there were no breaks. I thought this seemed reasonable, but I did overhear some complaints from the more elderly prommers around me. Thoroughly enjoyed it, I did feel that Wotan was a bit light in places, and Loge, although good, seemed to be playing more for laughs than I'd prefer. But those are minor quibbles. The orchestra under Barenboim was on superb form, and the singing was (overall) excellent. I felt it rocked along nicely, and actually set the scene for next three very well. I've seen a couple of performances where DR was played as a light weight appertif to the others. That's wrong, it sets out the major themes including how/why Wotan is a prick. The giants were great, and along with Alberich, quite dominating (as they should be).

Die Walkure, the one everyone knows one bit of, was the following night. OMG Nina Stemme as Brunnhilde. I felt this was stronger in the singing, in particular Bryn Terfel added far more authority and depth to Wotan. But Nina Stemme, Brunnhilde is a demanding part, and she nailed it. Mesmerising. The ride of the valkyries was good, but I may, just may, have preferred Opera North's version I saw a couple of years ago. I think that was due to the Leeds opera house being smaller, so the power and sheer fuck off-ness of the valkyries was amplified and became almost claustrophic, which seems right. 

Still, brilliant performance. 

Couple of days break, then back for Siegfried. Fatigue? pah. It's by this point that the storyline has become more convoluted than a Deep Purple family tree. Wotan is, in some way, related to over two thirds of the cast (either directly fathering, or grandfathering them), it may be higher, I'm usually confused by this point. In a typical dramatic offering, the main dude (Wotan) turns up in disguise, which doesn't help things. It's long. But it didn't feel like it, in fact Act 2 and 3 rocked along. The main focus is Brunnhilde, and her ability (stamina!) makes or breaks Siegfried. Nina Stemme was perfect. Power, grace, subtle, nailed everything, clear, emotional. It was stunning. She did show up Siegfried a bit. But his performance was excellent at pulling the audience with him, engaging actor that chap. 

Minor sideshow with Tristan and Isolde to break up the Ring cycle.

And then culmination, Gotterdammerung. Which is just the best name (means twilight of the gods) for an opera. Another 6 hour, two interval festival of Wagner. And still the orchestra didn't put a foot (?finger?) wrong. Storyline: quick summary by the Norns, which seems fair enough after roughly 15 hours of opera. Yet another stunning performance by Nina Stemme. And I enjoyed this Siegfried (Andreas Schnager). It's emotionally draining this opera, the first time I've seen it, and things don't go too well for the gods - as you'd guess from the title.  The rest of the audience seemed very appreciative with a very very long sustained applause for the entire ring cycle.

Truely worth every penny, and probably then some. Such engaging performances, absolutely perfection from Barenboim and the orchestra. Thanks BBC Proms. I'd looked at other cycles for the centenary year, but on hearing the rumours of a Proms cycle, held off for that. Glad I did. 

i would also like to say, you don't need to visit a sauna when you've been at the Royal Albert. Some air con wouldn't go amiss...

B