The last week has been a whirlwind of the Cambridge Beer Festival, visiting friends and entertaining Mum and so there’s been no time to post – catching up on sleep has been most important! However Mum and I have now hit the road and we’re heading to Manchester to visit relatives so there’ll be time for updates very soon. Hopefully within the next day – stay tuned!
After 2 days of loitering around and getting in for free, yesterday Luke and I finally got some work at the beer festival – and work we did. We started at about 2pm and worked through til nearly 10pm. We started off on the mead and wine counter, then did some glass washing, then when the festival reopened at 5 we were back to the mead counter but then Luke was taken away to serve beer after a bit.
The indoor area before opening. Over 200 ales on tap.
I had a great time with my lovely manager (actually the deputy but the real manager never showed up while I was there) Jo who was really friendly and thoughtful and organised. At the end of the night I told her what a great manager she’d been and she looked shocked ‘Really? What did I do?’ but it’s hard to put into words just how good it is working for someone who isn’t a raging ego maniac, a control-freak micro-manager or useless hippy – like half the people I’ve worked for at Rainbow (an Australian festival).
Working on the mead counter was very enjoyable. My knowledge of mead has gone from zero to better-than-most in one day. I tried nearly all the meads we sold. They ranged from very light to dark and there was a Christmas mead, which tasted exactly like Christmas, if Christmas was made of honey. There was also a blackcurrant mead, which wasn’t bad. We also sold perhaps 10 wines, all made in the UK. I didn’t even know wines could be made in this sort of climate.
The mead selection with the tiny wine (all English) fridges below. Uncorking wine was my least favourite job.
I think our stall was different to most, in that nearly everyone who came up hadn’t tried mead before and wanted advice. This was a bit daunting as I didn’t know anything, but all people really want is to try a couple and decide for themselves. Quite a lot of people were shocked or disgusted by how sweet it is and made funny faces, particularly a group of Japanese people.
A pork pie and a cheese plate. There was a terrific selection of cheeses – sadly not all were put out simultaneously. I’m still waiting to try a scotch egg. Toni – tried a Wensleydale with cranberries. Delicious!
I’ve saved up my tokens that we get for working and bought a few more in order to acquire a couple of bottles of mead for myself. I think there’ll be one to send home (at least!) and one to have here when a bunch of us get together in Edinburgh in July.
The Cambridge Beer Festival is in its 40th year this year, which makes it nearly as old as Andrew. That’s old. Speaking of Andrew, and reasons why I shouldn’t mock him for being only slightly older than me, the hard drive he ordered for my laptop arrived the next day and he and Luke installed it and now I have the internet again and I don’t have to log Luke out of everything to use it. We’re both pretty happy about that.
Back to the beer festival. We’ve been twice so far – Monday and Tuesday. Luke and I had gone into town Monday to do some shopping then figured we’d go by the festival to see if they needed any extra help. We signed in, grabbed our complimentary t-shirts and our name tags and then wandered around the bar area but there were so many volunteers everywhere that there was nothing we could do. There were so many volunteers that most of them were drinking rather than serving, in fact.
So we grabbed a table outside and some drinks and waited for Andrew. The festival is entirely run by volunteers and CAMRA, the campaign for real ale. I don’t like beer but I do like cider. There are over 200 beers and 50 ciders as well as perry, mead and a few wines. One thing I particularly like about the festival is that you pay a small amount to get in and then buy a glass or bring your own. The glass is a great souvenir or you can take it back at the end and get a refund. As volunteers we get to use glasses from previous festivals for free. This means there’s a really small amount of waste.
Food wise there’s vans selling fish and chips and doughnuts etc but the beer tent also sells plates of cheese and giant hunks of bread that you have to rip apart with your hands. Exactly what you want to go with drinks like that.
The first day of the festival I tried a few ciders and ended up meeting two guys who were selling their cider at the festival for the first time. Yesterday I tried mead for the first time and wow! I thought that it would be like cider – a drink produced from a product to which the end result bears a slight resemblance. Not so! Mead tastes and smells a whole lot like honey. I loved it, being the sweet tooth that I am. I tried two, a light then a dark and definitely liked the less burned/medicinal taste of the light better.
I’m in the middle of transferring all my photos from my camera to my computer (all 1808 of them) so no photos today.
I have so much to write about that I barely know where to start.
So many pretty flowers in London.
First of all, turns out my laptop is completely dead. I am quite sad about this, and as I remember things that are on it that are important I will no doubt become more sad. Photos aren’t too much of an issue because most of the photos I’ve taken are either on my camera, Luke’s computer (which I’m currently using) or a memory stick that I transferred a bunch of albums to a few weeks ago. Not everything will be there but the very best are on flickr too so hopefully not too much is lost. When I think that I have less than 10 photos remaining from my whole previous two year trip to the UK I have to admit that really things aren’t that bad.
Andrew has very kindly ordered me a new hard drive and he and Luke will install it when it arrives tomorrow and I swear I will be more diligent in backing everything up. For at least a month or two.
So, to catch up on the things I’ve missed recording so far.
London!
About a week and a half ago on a Friday Luke and I drove to London to meet up with Rowan and Kerry, friends from Melbourne. We had our first decent drive in Van Falen and it went pretty smoothly. As we’d be picking up Mum from Heathrow on the Monday morning and parking in London is crazy, we left the van at the airport and then caught the train into the city. We met up with Rowan and Kerry without incident and our first stop was Camden Markets.
Camden High Street.
If you’ve never been to Camden and you like alternative clothes, art and counter-culture then definitely go. The shops sell everything, from cheap t-shirts to vintage dresses (I bought a dress that looked like it would belong in an Austin Powers movie), there’s hippy clothes, both classic and classy, amazing leather bags, goth and lolita, moroccan glassware, nepalese furnishings and my old favourite, cyber-rave wear.
And the mecca of cyber clothing is Cyber Dog.
When I’d been there 10 years ago it was a big store with a dj and dancefloor in the foyer. These days it’s even bigger. The shop assistants still dress like Bladerunner extras and there’s dancers on podiums in the foyer too. There’s also a queue to get in. It was kinda nuts but fun to check out. Lots of uv stuff and novelty items. I’m not sure who’s wearing all this gear these days but there’s lots of people looking at it in the store. We weren’t supposed to take photos but I got some sneaky footage which will eventually make it into a video.
We wandered around some more shops then headed to the British National Gallery because Kerry was keen to show Rowan and I was happy to go. The BNG is one of my favourite galleries ever. Brilliant collection, gorgeous building, free… what’s not to like? We walked around fairly quickly, stopping at favourites, then met Matt outside.
Matt had come down from Nottingham to meet us and we’d planned to have a night out partying. I suppose the lesson we learned was that, if you’re planning a night out in a city and none of you actually lives there, a bit of planning is in order. None of us had really checked out what was going on and so we had dinner, dropped stuff off to the hotel room and then headed out into Soho. By the time we got out the pubs were closed and the clubs were full. Despite this just walking around was fun and it was great to catch up. The hotel room was big enough for us all to sit comfortably so we ended up having a bit of a party there.
Rowan and Kerry caught a night bus back to her parents’ and Luke, Matt and I got a decent amount of sleep.
The next morning we walked back over to Leicester Square. Matt knew a great Malaysian restaurant, nothing fancy but great food. I wished we’d gone there the previous night instead of opting for mediocre Italian. Then it was M&M’s World, which is just around the corner.
We hadn’t really planned to go but it was right there. Plus I like chocolate a little bit. The staff at M&M’s World were super-dooper-almost-frighteningly friendly. I took lots of photos and, miraculously, didn’t buy myself any chocolate. I did buy some for other people though. Which I haven’t sent yet. So it might be for me.
As a reward for not buying any chocolate I bought myself several Fry’s Chocolate Orange Bars in a newsagent straight after. These are the best chocolate bars in the world and, while you can get them in Australia they are never perfect – always broken and sticky or with that white fat bloom on them that you get when chocolate heats then cools. I got to eat these ones sitting in the sun by the Thames surrounded by tulips. Probably the best place ever.
After that we walked along the Thames and checked out what was going on, which was quite a bit because it was the weekend. Lots of buskers and people being statues (god knows why anyone would do this out of choice), pretty carnival rides and interesting things to look at.
London merry-go-round.
Matt and Luke take a break.
Soon enough it was time to say goodbye to Matt and then head back to the Heathrow Hilton where, instead of having an early night in preparation for meeting my mum at 5:30am the next morning, we stayed up til late watching a terrible movie on the tv. It had Vince Vaughn and Jason Bateman in it and it was about 3 couples who go to an island to repair their marriages. When I read that sentence back I’m not sure why we watched any of it, let alone the whole thing til the end. I can only claim, in my defence, that after 15 years of not owning a television I find them hypnotic. Trust me, it’s a thing.
The next morning, since Mum’s flight got in at 5:30 we thought we’d get to their airport at 6 since customs takes a while and baggage takes a while. Well, turns out they don’t take a while. Waiting for someone who has already gone through takes ages, however. Eventually we worked out that she was already back at the hotel and met up, me feeling quite flustered that I’d messed up the first hour of Mum’s trip. Mum didn’t mind at all – she’s pretty much unflappable – and then we hit the road and headed for Wales. The rest of the journey is recorded in a previous post. Suffice to say, we saw lots of amazing countryside and made it to Ireland largely without incident. Unless you count a flat battery as an incident. Which I do.
Windy days and long hair do not for good photography make.
My computer is having a heart attack, so the long and detailed post I’ve written on Dublin will have to wait, along with the long and detailed post about our weekend in London with Rowan and Kerry. Instead, here’s our adventures in Clonakilty and a few photos.
Look at that weather!
Our plans for Ireland had been pretty loose. I’d wanted to see what Mum wanted to do before putting too much work into research and so we left Dublin with a idea of seeing some gardens and the Waterford Crystal factory on the south coast.
We left Dublin Thursday morning, stopping only to fill up with petrol and let a pigeon poo on Luke’s head (tee hee!). I wish I had photos but you’ll just have to imagine his look of dismay.
The drive south was pretty dull – the view from motorways is rarely good and I wished we’d had time for some shunpiking (my new favourite word – it means avoiding major roads) as our drive through Wales had already proven that back roads get the best views.
We found the Waterford factory pretty easily and had lunch in their sparkly-chandeliered cafe. Probably the best chandeliers in any cafe in Ireland, unsurprisingly. The showroom, where you wait for the tour, was like an art gallery of glass. Lots of pretty things but I couldn’t help thinking that, much like sea shells, when you take these things out of their natural environment (in this case a dazzling black and white room) they just look tacky and accumulate dust.
The tour was pretty good – definitely worth doing if you’re in that part of the world. They take you through the actual factory and you get to peer at the workmen close up, like gorillas at the zoo.
Mum, looking like she’s accepting an award.
We saw the moulding, glass blowing, cutting and etching and some incredible examples of what can be done with glass. We got to hold some huuuuuge trophies and one guy even got to smash a large imperfect bowl – the glass all goes back into the melting pot. One of the other guides ran up and said ‘not that one!’ just as it smashed, which was quite funny. Even the guides seemed to find it funny and they probably heard it 20 times a day. Although causing people to look momentarily terrified would be the highlight of my day too, if I had the power. Which I do because I’m a teacher. Hrm.
Me, actually accepting an award. For writing this blog, obviously. No idea how they found out, but I’m not one to turn down several kilos of lead crystal. Thanks Waterford!
Anyhoo, we then headed along the coast. We’d though to go to Blarney but the day was getting on and we wanted to get out of the car so we headed to our accommodation in Clonakilty, a cute-as-a-postcard seaside town. I’d booked a night at An Sugan guesthouse, which had a bar and seafood restaurant. The rooms were unexpectedly delightful and so was the hobbit-esque bartender who had the most theatrical way of talking I’ve ever come across. He was extremely entertaining to watch and listen to. In fact we liked the place so much we decided to stay two nights.
The next morning we enjoyed the best breakfast I’ve had since Bangkok (why have I not thought to put smoked salmon in scrambled eggs before?) and then headed to Garinish Island, which is accessible only by boat. No one mentioned that we’d see dozens of seals sunning themselves on rocks on the way out – so adorable! We rushed to the sides of the boat to take photos. Speaking of photos, we’ve been extremely lucky with the weather here and we had some brilliant blue skies and sunshine on this day.
I look like I’m freezing but I wasn’t. Much.
Garinish Island enjoys a warm, almost mediterranean micro-climate due to the gulf stream and so they grow plants there that would not survive in the rest of Ireland. The gardens are about one hundred years old and they are lovely but slightly overgrown. The views from the island are gorgeous but I think the boat ride was my favourite part.
About as cute as something can get when it’s shaped like a slug.
Next we stopped at Bantry House, a grand building in which we saw rooms preserved as they had been a long time ago. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside but some of the rooms were quite incredible… and in some cases incredibly garish. Follow this link to see what I mean. Check out the painting frames at the back of the room.
We drove back to Clonakilty and had a drink in An Sugan but decided we couldn’t stand the music being played and walked up the street to look for somewhere more lively. Luke had read about another pub in town that looked interesting so we headed there. De Barra is actually a very well-known pub as it not only has quite outstanding decor (walls covered in music memorabilia and a hall full of masks from around the world) but links to, of all people, Jimi Hendrix, as one of his guitarists was from Clonakilty.
Mum got chatting to a guy at the bar and got some tips on places to visit the next day and then we headed back for dinner at An Sugan. I tell you, Ireland has been good for my tastebuds but not my thighs. The food has been fantastic everywhere. The last couple of days we’ve been good – eating two meals a day instead of three to make up for the enormous breakfasts we’ve been having. Hopefully it’s helping!
Our guesthouse.
We’ve traveled back to Dublin today. We’d originally thought to travel around the south and circle back through the middle of the country but there’s not been enough time. We did stop in Cashel on the recommendation of The Man In The Pub. There’s a castle/religious ruin there in the midst of being rebuilt. It’s a lovely site with great views and we arrived in time for the tour. We stuck with the tour until Mum started to lose feeling in her fingers due to the cold. As long as you’re in the sun and out of the wind it’s beautiful here but the castle was just too exposed. Even the people who lived there centuries ago often moved into town after a while.
Back in Dublin we checked into our accommodation (same place as last time) and walked down the road to the Guiness Storehouse, a temple devoted to beer.
Old on the outside but almost distressingly modern within, most of the building is a multiple level display about every facet of beer manufacture you can imagine. Models of the ships that transported Guiness, old footage of the barrels being made, even a 3 metre high wooden sculpture of a pint of Guiness that had symbology carved into and screens behind it playing a short film on how the sculpture was created. You could pour your own pint, which Luke did. I used to work in a pub in Birmingham so I didn’t feel the need. You got a free pint with your ticket but Mum and I gave ours away. The bar at the top of the 7 floor building had a great view of Dublin but then we were done and headed to a much quieter pub for a couple of drinks and some dinner.
The pub we ended up at is the oldest in Ireland – built in 1198. dates like that confuse my antipodean brain. How can any functioning building be that old? And serve such good food? We had Guiness and steak stew in a giant yorkshire pudding.
Well played, Ireland. Well played.
Tomorrow it’s an epic journey back to Cambridge, which wasn’t terribly well planned since it’s also Mum’s 69th birthday. We’ll find something nice to do during the week… maybe back for some more chicken and camembert pie at the Golden Ball!
Here Comes The Planet 