| Thursday |
| Met up with the rest of the nofear massive plus some other bods for the evening. I grabbed the first drink - a nice Beligium Framboise, utterly lovely. So interesting was it to look at that someone asked me what it was - I think they were after a fruit beer for their wife. Didnt' take a picture of it sadly, but it was excellent, and for over 3 quid for less than a pint it should have been! |
 This one was really quite nice. Could I taste rose? Maybe I could, or maybe it was just the powers of suggestion playing tricks on me. It was a fine ale though. |
 By 8pm the site was nearly full and the queue was huge. It was time to take a photo. Note the blue haired person. There are often many people attempting to stand out by using the festival as an opportunity for self-expression.It's also good to try and spot the most nerdy T-shirt slogan. I think I came close with the sighting of "I am a rocket wizard". Hmm... |
 Here's the next one. Goacher's real mild ale. I must be getting better at picking the ones I like as this was a cracker too. Not too strong but with a very nice malty smack to it. I wasn't convinced by the "nutty" description. It tasted plain malty to me.I should point out that I was drinking halves mainly. Avoiding the binge!
I had another one but I didn't take a snap as the light was fading, it was also hellishly busy, one-in one-out was in operation at the entrance to the festival area. Trust me, the best time to go is at lunch time. No queues and no temptation to imbibe too much as the return to work prevents such behaviour! |
| Friday Lunchtime |
 I thought I'd try a bit of Suffolk beer next, but not one of the big breweries. I've seen the Earl Soham brewery in passing, so what more excuse did I need to try their Victoria Bitter. It was good. Normally I'm one for milds and fruity numbers than bitter, but this was really nice. It tasted very clean, and the hops wasn't too much for me. Maybe it's a chemical used in other bitters that I don't like. Either way this was good drink! |
 I had a go on the tombola and did rather well. I won some beer vouchers, so I used one of them to buy another half. I was only going to have one half originally, but hey-ho, free beer!I unwittingly breached the 4.7% limit of the beer voucher by quite a bit. Pig's Ear was a strong but quaffable drink. It was quite malty, but also had an underlying sweetness that gave you an urge to try another sip to see if your tastebuds were lying. An excellent last beer for me for this festival! |
| Saturday |
| Went to the festival for a couple of hours in the afternoon. It was really busy, stuck to mead and a glass of English red wine. Mead was spicy and very good - one of my favourite beverages. The red wine was okay, but didn't have the body that most red wine drinkers would go for. |
May 2007 Archives
I thought that it was about time I shoved one of my films onto the You Tube. Impressively it has a simpler upload mechanism than Google Video used to have - I presume Google Video now shares more of the same technology.
Having uploaded the file I was encouraged to see a mechanism to embed the video in a web page. I'm a sucker for trying this sort of thing out, so here it is:
Of course this video is also available elsewhere on this site!
I noticed that as part of the gradual build-up to this year’s Cambridge Film Festival there are various interesting screenings and events being held around the district. The main showing that grabbed my attention was this 1922 film, essentially in documentary style, about witchcraft and devil worship!
Not only were we to be treated to a fully restored version of the film, but there would also be a live musical accompaniment by acclaimed dulcimer maestro Geoff Smith. At first it seemed implausible that a man, who seriously looked like a contestant in a Ray Winstone competition could have the panache required to play the three custom built instruments laid out on the stage. I was pleased to say that as I was proved wrong, Mr Smith’s rendition of the score was incredibly suitable, the dulcimers gave an appropriate folky feel to a subject riddled in folklore!
The film itself, by modern comparisons, seemed a little slow in places. Overall however the information presented was very interesting, a few surprises were in store for those not in the know. For example I didn’t realise that in a black mass the witches were supposed to kiss the bottom of the devil!
As a Danish/Swedish production the director, Benjamin Christensen, apparently must have stirred up an awful lot of controversy. Haxan was banned when it was released and even now, on this tour, was presented with a 15 certificate!
The costumes in the film were quite good considering the age of the production, and some of the dramatic sequences were quite riveting in places. The interesting thing about the film was how the emphasis, scene by scene, changed from purely documentary to dramatic reconstruction. The final section of the film drew comparisons between modern day quackery and the witch-finder mentality. The overall point seeming to be that women who were old or depressed were quite often prejudiced by society. It was implied that mental institutions were just a natural and supposedly scientific response, to lack of understanding of certain conditions.
Apparently this film, along with Geoff Smith’s dulcimer accompaniment, is touring around the country at present.
**** (out of 5)
The clouds parted and the whistle for lunchtime was blown. Thus it was time to run down to the beer festival on Jesus Green for a James Bond themed event!
Since it was lunchtime entry was free and as a bonus there were no queues. A return to work later meant limited consumption was the watchword. I entered the compound to be greeted by a large inflated "pint" of Woodforde's Wherry.
I moved immediately upon my first selected half, Raspberry Wheat by the Iceni brewery. I'd had this tipple before, and if anything it was even better this year. Exceptionally clean tasting, the essence of Raspberry (no sweetness) was prevalent and it was a lovely drink. Quite thirst quenching despite the relatively high alcohol content. (Summer beer festival brews are often a little lighter for hot-weather drinking)
I surveyed the scene inside the main keg-laden marquee. Very, very quiet indeed. Most of the people were outside in the glorious weather getting sunburn. Some of the regulars were around, the limping man and his entourage were marking up their festival programme as usual.
Having finished the first half (so to speak) I
tried something I'd not had before. This was called "Lavender Honey". The first sip was great, lots of honey taste whilst still being a beer. After that it was all down hill, for me anyway. I hate that bitter over-the-top hops taste, and this beer was full of it. I forced it down, and retreated back from whence I came!
More reports as and when I find time to attend!
The government is proposing a potentially troublesome piece of legislation concerning cyclists' use of cycle facilities. As I understand it this law would go beyond mere encouragement of cyclists to use facilities where provided by leaning in the favour of other road users if an accident with a cyclist did take place when the cyclist was using the road where a separate provision was provided.
In nofear.org's view, regardless of the flaws in the safety argument in favour of the proposal, is that this new modification to the Highway Code is unnecessary. In addition it will complicate a difficult to regulate set of laws still further.
To sign the on-line petition please proceed to:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/roads4bikes/
You need to be a UK resident with a valid email address in order to participate.
Maybe I'm just paranoid, or maybe it's just the Zeitgeist working overtime, but I've had the distinct feeling watching Peep Show on Channel 4 recently that there are common themes with the nofear.org gang's shenanigans.
For example episode 2 contained the phrase "shoes are a bit clumpy", and also "f***-monkey". Insanely enough these are common phrases used by the nofear chimps on their past excursions into binge drinking heaven.
What is more the photo associated with this blog entry was taken on one of our recent adventures last October on a certain British waterway. The Shropshire Union Canal was featured in last Friday's episode of Peep Show (episode 5), leaving me wondering if art was imitating life. Worse still could life be unwittingly imitating art in a sort of bizarre Donnie Darko fashion?
These freaky coincidences aside we're thoroughly enjoying the latest bunch of nonsense from Mark and Jez. I have my own theories about how series 4 will end - but I'll keep them to myself to save everyone's sanity...
Fingers crossed for a possible series 5 of Peep Show next year?
(Oh yes, Magicians should be reviewed here soon!)
