first drapht: we like beer

What's the place like? How much is a pint? What are the toilets like? Who's that creepy guy in the corner? Why is everyone looking at me? These are the questions we will attempt to answer as we visit the drinking houses of the world.

http://firstdrapht.blogspot.com/

This is something I'd been wanting to do for ages and now Mick has set up a blog for that purpose, so expect to see the first pubs on the site soon.

No Mail at the House of Contempt

http://houseofcontempt.blogspot.com/

Well, after moaning at Graham to get himself a blog he has finally set one up. Even though he may be a journalist, witty, a good writer and a master of the pun, that's not the reason I suggested he create one.

No, I know Graham too well and I know he is going to end up going home after a night on the ale and post a drunken blog, wake up with the fear, regret whatever he's written and try and delete the post. That'll be funny!

Any avid reads of the blog (well, there's at least 2 or 3 out there!) will know that Graham has accompanied me on many drunken adventures and has been one of my best mates since school. He also got us lifted in Brasov, Transylvania so I'm a bit concerned as to what awaits in Ukraine in the summer.

Anyway, his blog (suprise, suprise), warns us what to expect: "ramblings about socialism, Mark E Smith, newspapers, Commodore 64 computer games, Doctor Who and Morrissey."

Graham 1996 with Peely


Graham 2006 (note the similarity, beer in hand)


http://houseofcontempt.blogspot.com/

Chernobyl

It's 20 years today since the world's worst nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl power plant.

Official UN figures predicted up to 9,000 Chernobyl-related cancer deaths. A Greenpeace report estimated a figure of 93,000. Greenpeace said other illnesses could bring the toll up to 200,000.

The sarcophagus encasing Chernobyl was built in haste and is crumbling. Despite strengthening work there are fears it could collapse, leading to the release of tonnes of radioactive dust.

Work is due to begin on a £600m replacement shelter designed to last 100 years. This New Safe Confinement will be built on site and then slid over the sarcophagus. The radioactive fuel, however, is going to remain dangerous for thousands of years.

And Labour want to build new nuclear reactors in Britain?

There's some good articles about it on the BBC web site
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/europe/2006/chernobyl/default.stm

Pripyat was built as a town for workers at the Chernobyl power station. The town was abandoned 36 hours after the explosion.

(photo from BBC web site)

We're going over to Kiev in July and thinking about going to see Chernoyl, which would certainly be an experience.

Looks like rain, dear..

In Lochranza there was a deer kicking about beside the water and Andy filmed it on his moby. I especially like the bit when he says 'hey man' to the deer to get its attention and it just stares at him. I thought the deer was going to charge at him :)



Watch the video in a larger screen.

The pub in Lochranza was rubbish, I don't recommend it. Thankfully there is a bus every two and a half hours back to Brodick, so we didn't have to stay for more than a couple of pints.

Arran - Apr 06

I went over to Arran on Friday after work with Alex, Andy and Graham. Got back yesterday, but had cunningly taken today off as I had a feeling I may need a day to recover.

View the photos
Andy's camera phone photos

Had a good time, though Brodick is not a patch on Whiting Bay. We could only find three bars that were open, seems Perishers Bar is shut and another one had been knocked down to extend the car park for the Co-op.

DAB lager for the journey across has become something of a tradition.




To the lifeboats...


It the end it turned out that we didn't walk any of the Glen Rosa Horseshoe following Graham's beer injury on the Friday night. I missed this one unfortunately, but apparently he slipped in the bar at the Ormidale Hotel, did the splits and then fell flat on his face.

The next day it was evident that he was not going to manage a major walk so after a bit of the usual faffing about we decided upon walking the costal walk from North Sannox to Lochranza. Turned out to not be a bad idea as the weather turned pretty wet and windy for the last few miles.

On the costal walk from North Sannox to Lochranza




View the photos
Andy's camera phone photos

Arran

Found this cool and also useful site which gives mountain weather forecasts.

Why did I find that? Well, we're off to Arran soon to either climb Goat Fell again or to do the Glen Rosa Horseshoe (either western or eastern) if Graham gets his way. The western one sounds hellish and I quote "the western half is the toughest, requiring a long ascent, some steep and rugged slopes and even some scrambling on steep rock at times".

Ok, that sounds like fun with a hangover. How about the eastern half?

The eastern half is described as the "easier of the two" but not "easy" and contains "exposed scrambles". Oh, joy(!)

Whilst I enjoy hill walking, I don't like heights, ridges, exposed scrambles or the fog. I like the fresh air, the view and the pub afterwards. A well deserved few pints always goes down a treat.

Looks like we are going to get shitty weather too.

Forecast for Goat Fell.

Trans Siberian Railway

After looking at this site from Stewart, I reckon that's it...Trans Siberian Railway for next year. Looks like more fun than the Mongol Rally and probably less chance of something horrible happening.

Who's up for it? Plenty of time to start saving and planning.

http://www.trans-siberian.co.uk/

Buffalo Joe's

Yeah, ended up in Buffalo Joe's last night. Not my idea, honest. We had our teams monthly update meeting down at the Radisson followed by a few beers over the road at the Wetherspoons. We then went to Bombay Blues for a curry and then someone suggested going into Buffalo Joe's for one, just to see what it was like.

Thankfully it wasn't as bad as Bonkers used to be and it was actually a good laugh. The Buffalo Girls were most entertaining as was watching the boss on the bucking bronco.

Was just thinking, if big Alex ever went, he'd no doubt end up trying to dance on the bar..

The Buffalo Girls






After intending on going for one, I didn't get it till half 3 this morning. Sitting in work with a stinking hangover trying to code some Java. Quiet night in for me tonight I reckon. Think I will watch my Curb Your Enthusiasm DVD.

I can't wait till tomorrow when I wake up feeling better...

Asia Style

I went to Asia Style with Graham and Andy on Wednesday night. We went for the usual winning combination of Malaysian pancakes and salt and chilli ribs to start, followed by soft shell crab and baby squid. Several Tsingtao's were also enjoyed.

Soft shell crabs


Baby squid

Dos cervezas, por favor!

I met Alex and Lynne for a couple of beers at the local on Sunday night. It was quite amusing as Alex was drunk and his most used phrase was, "I'm pure honking by the way..".

He also decided to order all drinks in "Spanish" as he generally does on holiday. Even more concerning was his use of his "Eastern European" accent that he usually saves for patronising the locals when we are over there.

Roll on Kyiv...

Shouting into the Void

Rufus has now got a blog.

Not much on it yet, but I wait with bated breath.



http://rufcut.blogspot.com

Creative Cup 2003

Liam just emailed me a couple of photos of our team at Wheel when we entered the Creative Cup back in October 2003.

Ross, Paul, Liam, me, John, Rufus and Richie

Salthill National 5-a-sides

I'm not quite sure how (or why) I got into this one, but Mick is entering a team for the Salthill National 5-a-sides and wants me to play in goals.



I hadn't played since Wheel entered a team in the Drum's Creative Cup back in 2003. We didn't do too well I recall, but we were more than likely the dirtiest team.

We have started the ocassional lunch time game at work, but it's one think playing your mates for fun and another when it's players from proper teams..

Could be a laugh though and it's in Galway, so we'd get a night out after with plenty of beers after to look forward to.

http://www.salthilldevon.ie/fives.asp

Windows on Macs

Ok, apologies, I've had this blog for a few months and managed to avoid any techie posts, but today I am going to make one.

Since I bought myself an iMac last year, I've become a convert and wouldn't go back to having a PC. Still the news that Apple have released Boot Camp Beta software that lets Intel based Macs run Windows caught my eys.

To be honest, I have found Mac OS X Tiger a much better operating system and don't think I'll be installed Winows XP on my Mac. In saying that, it would be handy for playing Battlefield 1942 :)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4883482.stm

Truffle Shuffle

As Graham kindly pointed out in his comments to the post about the head-wetting ..
"Why no mention of Alex dancing? The highlight of the night. In fact, it's a personal highlight from a lifetime of nights-out..."

He is indeed correct, the sight of the big man doing the truffle shuffle brings a smile to my face. Here's the story, in the club (formally Cuba Norte but not sure what it is called now), there was a red curtain over an archway with a stage behind it and a strong light. The idea being that dancers dance on the stage which cast a silhouette on the curtain. James Bond opening sequence style.

There were a couple of girls dancing but they had stopped and once Alex spied this, he decided that it would be better if he was to dance. I recall looking over to see the large shadow projected by his 'dancing' as did a couple of bouncers. Not quite sure exactly what he was supposed to be doing, as it's all a bit vague but the bouncers took offence and were discussing ejecting him from the club. Luckily he must have got bored and moved before he was chucked out.

Class :)

Mongol Rally

One of the good things about being single is that you get more time to do stuff. One of the bad things about being single (apart from the obvious!) is that you get more time to do stuff.

Anyway, as I like to travel and go on holiday, this year I have 'holiday envy'. I may be off to Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania this year, but a couple of guys from work have teams in this year's Mongol Rally. I have the chance to go as a co-driver, but as anyone who knows me will know, I am a shite driver and haven't driven in about 10 years. It would be the experience of a life time though (but possibly not fun).

Here are the facts and figures on the 2005 rally....

43 cars left London... 27 reached Mongolia...14 reached the finish in Ulaanbaatar. What else happened?

• 43 cars left London.
• 27 cars reached Mongolia.
• 14 cars reached the finish in Ulaanbaatar.
• 2 teams were robbed at knife point.
• 1 car snapped in half.
• 3 engines fell completely out of the cars.
• 1 team were held for 5 days in no-mans land.
• 1 team cycled 200km to get to the finish when their car gave in.
• 100's of tyres were blown.
• 1 team got engaged.
• 1 team found a 10ft deep pot hole.
• 1 team found a 25 tonne crane that had rolled due to a pot hole.
• 3 teams attended weddings
• 1 team had to reverse up a mountain after losing all bar one forward gear
• 1 person spent 24 hours in a Kazakh jail charged with 5 crimes against the state.
• 1 person was stoned by a mongolian nomad (who he then shot at with a gun).
• 1 team rammed off the road after an arguement over water melons.
• 1 person spent a day in a Turkish hospital.
• 3 people were banned from Turkmenistan for a year.
• 1 person was detained by police in Azerbaijan and threated with a beating from a dwarf. This followed an incident with a cow.
• 2 cars flipped over in Mongolia.
• 3 teams were chased by armed bandits.
• 0 teams died.
• every team had a very memorable trip.

I reckon the highlight from that list are...

• 1 person was detained by police in Azerbaijan and threated with a beating from a dwarf. This followed an incident with a cow.
• 2 teams were robbed at knife point.
• 1 person was stoned by a mongolian nomad (who he then shot at with a gun).
• 3 teams were chased by armed bandits.

On the plus side, 0 teams died.

Alex is also threatening to enter the rally next year and as it's his 40th, I said I'd go along (unless I can talk him into the Trans-Siberian Express instead!).

So, it's either the Mongol Rally or going to Cuba for three weeks....

Head Wetting

I was out last night for baby Grace's head-wetting. I have a killer hangover today, no doubt caused by the Belguim beers in Beer Cafe. Top night and a good crowd out..Malky, Graham, Stewart, Andy, Ali, Nick, Sukei, Flash, Alex ...

Ended up going to Beer Cafe and then a club that used to be Cuba Norte but I'm not sure what it's called now. Top tunes though..they had some band on playing really funky stuff, kinda like you'd get at the old Buff Club.

The night out finished for me with Chicago Fries from Wishbones - chips with cheese and bits of bacon. Dunno if they actually have them in Chicago (I somewhat doubt it as they sound decidely Scottish and unhealthy).

Red-Green Glaswegian Grumblings

Stewart's blog with is dedicated to "tackling injustice, Scottish mountains and Jammy Dodgers...".

Sounds fair enough to me.

http://redgreenie.blogspot.com/