rogue beers...

not sure why this is getting a whole blog of its own, other than perhaps to encourage our american friends to support an excellent beer trade over there and keep drinking the fine stuff made by your fellow americans.
(and not the rubbish stuff!)

other special mentions go to shiner bock (texas), the pike and anchor (san francisco), sierra nevada (chico, ca), alaskan smoked porter (alaska presumably), petes wicked ales (somewhere north) and fat tire (texas again).
if only we could get these in england more easily...

on a positive note, our local, the cask & cutler, i've noticed does sell the westvleteren 12. for those i've not explained it to, of the 6 trappist monastaries that produce higly alcohol ales, one of them refuses to distribute any of it. the only way to get any of it is to go to the monastary itself, knock on a hatch and buy them off a monk. and you're limited to a maximum of 3 cases at a time. its that rare. anyway, they somehow sell it at the pub and it tastes amazing, especially comnsidering its a 10% dark ale.
yumm yumm.

bea's news...

so i haven't blogged for a while. i have been busy and therefore tired! i can't quite manage my time well yet since being off work but i'm learning. i have discovered that it's best if i don't book things in for the morning.

debbie jones and shannon have just been up to stay which was amazing. i was going to head back to london with them for the weekend but my new skills of setting personal boundaries (!) and being sensible about looking after myself meant that i decided to stay put.

on wednesday night i had my baby prayer shower. the english don't do baby showers as a rule but a few girls i know have had prayer showers and this was something that i had wanted to do too. it was amazing - God really showed up and gave some amazing words and blessings and affirmation. it was all girls and i felt saturated by God's love and my friends' love. God had told me to get some henna for body tattoos so everyone chipped in with their design and I have a big tattooed belly now! andy took a couple of pics while the henna was drying so i think they'll go up in the next couple of days.

i am starving all the time the last couple of days. i think the baby must be having a growth spurt - very exciting as i have been told by more than one person that a heavier baby is generally easier to give birth too - but not too heavy!!

i'm now at the stage where i'm uncomfortable a lot of the time - in bed and when sitting down, particularly i the car. i've also started getting up to pee in the night ( a miracle i've lasted this long - some women know they're pregnant because they find themselves peeing all night long!!).

marco is out of the big brother house. this is sad becasue he was a great source of entertainment. i am not yet addicted to BB but well on the way. my excuse is that it gives me quality time hanging out with my next door neighbour because she's the one with the TV license. i also watched wimbledon on her TV - saw henman have his ass whipped - good job too as the english will now be able to get back to normal! the final is this weekend so may have to watch that - not sure!

mean girls

kinda like that film ID where a cop goes so undercover into the world of football hooligans, that he becomes one. like that only set in an american high school. and not quite so violent.
very good though.

how exciting!

it would seem we now have broadband as soon as it arrived - no 10 day waits...
lovely...
what shall i download?

mary whitehouse experience episodes.... music videos....
hmmm...

entering internet limbo

well, we're now off ntl dail up, but not yet on broadband, so our blog and email access will be somewhat diminished over the next week (hopefully less).
seeya tonight if you're going.

mid summer cider 1096.... mmmmm.....

today's been so far quite a productive day - have transfered the pale ale i made last saturday into the secondary fermenter - thats going pretty well - looks like it'll be ready just in time for the labour inducement party - somewhere around 40 pints worth, at about 4.9% with a nice hoppy taste to it. its all gotta be drunk pretty much that evening, or in the few days that follow, so all hands on deck - drinkers needed!

then today i thought i'd use up some apples from beanies' organic fruit bags by making a cider. with 10 braeburns, 2 peaches, a few raspberries and a couple of other things, plus huge amounts of sugar, i've made up a tester batch of about 750ml of the stuff - with an expected alcohol content of 9.6% i have high hopes for this one - just fresh it tastes awesome. am hoping to have it sometime later this summer on a particularly fitting hot summer's evening.

oo yes.
i've also come about a box of sierra nevada pale ale, a truely excellent example of what americans can brew when they put their minds to it. 12 bottles for about £12, also ready for the labour inducement party (should my pale ale be undrinkable!)

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE HEWSONS!!!

a very warm welcome to sam hewson who arrived this morning! Whoopee!!! this is great news

for you are jolly good parents

for you are jolly good parents

for you are jolly good parents

and so say all of us!!

can't wait to see you three...

talk talk

just so we know who's on it, i thought i'd put a tiny little asterisk next to their names - a special little star if you will, to encourage others to join up.
as if big brother itself wasnt advertisement enough... still cant believe last weeks fight - truely awesome. and now emma's gone.

goodbye ntl... hello talk talk... and hello wanadoo.

well bea and i have now changed over to talk talk, so all others of you out there with talk talk (who is there so far? i know the birchenall's have) can phone us up night and day and talk as long as you like to us. we've gone for the free evening/ weekend package, so we may well be talking to you lot loads too. and hopefully our phone bills will be a lot cheaper too. and all for £5 a month - what a bargain - no more irritating 7p "connection charges" every single time you phone someone up just to get an answer machine/ 1571 - go on everyone - join up and we can all talk for freeee!!
plus....
we have signed up for wanadoo broadband, which wont be working for a week or so, but then will be wonderful, up to 10x faster. well, its a novelty for us anyway.
it does however mean we'll lose our ntl web space so might have to risk the (very real) wrath of ant c and put those little pics of you lot back on dfour.... hmmm....

welcome back mr ward

perhaps he should be moved up into the sheffield community for a bit, now hes back. will ask him this evening of his intentions

ben folds.... big brother....

so, we got the tickets at last to go see him play at the octagon in november.

i dont really get to watch much tv, but when i do, its pretty spectacular - last nights big brother was possibly the most scarily entertaining (as well as just scary) tv i've seen in soo long. truely awesome.

suicide squares... northern general...

well the ceilidh was great fun, as always. there were sufficient songs for bea to have sevral dances, even at 35 weeks. and then there were the ones that weren't...
first on involving stags challenging each other then chasing does around the hall amidst the odd twirl.
then we had the above mentioned dance that was like a ceilidh version of british bulldog, and has to be seen to be believed! everyone form a massive circle round the room, then pushes out to make a square. the opposite edges then grab their partners and charge across the middle towards those coming from the other side of the room, narrowly missing (often only just) the oncoming rush. the other sides do the same, often starting whilst the first edges are just finishing their run so as to stay in time with the music. couples then do a bit of kicking/ hopping, before joining back up into circles with the blokes going round one way, girls the other, stopping at a certain point in the music to have found another random partner and it all starts off again.
and someone also had to be taken off to the above hospital to get her foot looked at after it got a bit trampled on at some point.

anyway.
as always a brilliant evening was had by all.

financial issues

"No sheep on the mountain nor boat on the lake
No coin in my coffer to keep me awake
Nor corn in my garner, nor fruit on my tree,
Yet the Maid of Llanwellyn smiles sweetly on me.

No sheep on the mountain nor goats,
No horses to offer nor boats,
Only hens I have by me,
they are one, two and three,
Yet the Maid of Llanwellyn smiles sweetly on me.

Rich Owen will tell you, with eyes full of scorn,
Threadbare is my coat and my hosen are torn.
Scoff on, my rich Owen,
for faint is thy glee
When the Maid of Llanwellyn smiles sweetly on me.

CHORUS

The farmer rides proudly to market and fair
Whilst the clerk at the ale house still claims the great chair,
But of all our proud fellows, oh the proudest I'll be,
When the Maid of Llanwellyn smiles sweetly on me.

CHORUS"


a song that spoke to me somewhat over the course of today's money problems.

(no offence to my bro, owen...)

really looking forward to friday's ceilidh.
if you wanna come, we're going.
tell us if you want to meet up.
it'll be awesome.

phew-wee!!

I am also 75% British, just like
Michael Caine and Andy. I think we are more likely to settle on the east coast though, in a lovely place called Texas!!

it is hot here - 24c which is 75f for you americans who don't do centigrade!! I know it's not up there with Texas but for us it's hot - apparently today is the hottest day of this year so far, although not yet as hot as last year got.

last day at work tomorrow - yipee!! about to go to the pub for a leaving do and then andy and i are going to lunch at the olive garden tomorrow which is quickly becoming one of my favourite places to eat.

I am 77.5% British

just like Michael Caine
Though you know your way around London you are most likely to retire to the West Coast of the USA.

Take the Brit Quiz at darrenlondon.tripod.com/britquiz1.htm
Quiz written by Daz

reflections upon mr wilkins' reflections

have just read the post si put up about the world war and people dying and has got me thinking again about being a dad (clever link to the other post i put up...).
i kinda said about it on the weekend away i had with dan, lol etc where we went away to play axis & allies, a historically based board game about world war 2. the way you play it was just amassing huge armies and then throwing them into war against each other. and it all seemed so blazé (sp?) the way it happens and when i actually thought about what that would have looked like on a small scale, with hundreds of thousands of people dying, it suddenly got a bit more scary. but i guess that's what it was like. generals pushing around counters, sending thousands to the death. reminds me a lot of various scenes in "blackadder goes forth"... "the pianist" too.
but anyway. me being a dad.
the realization that all those people dying are all somebody's children. i mean bea's still only pregnant, but the time, effort, energy, expense in that alone is staggering. add to that 20 years of raising a kid up, investing everything you have into them, protecting them, teaching them, loving and supporting them. everything you are going into who they are and for them to then just die so easily and so seemingly pointlessly is just unbelievable.
this might be sounding all a bit odd and "doesnt it put it all into perspective" or whatever, but this is where being a dad is really starting to hit home for me - the value of another persons life.
knowing that they are loved.
how much you'll give to another person.

so there we are - its been a long time in the waiting but theres a post about one of the (slightly more serious than facial hair) ways i'm responding to becoming a dad.

grey hair

have been noticing a small patch of grey hairs starting to form on the right hand side of my chin. am not actually that bothered by it all - perhaps its a sign of my impending fatherhood. am probably a bit more gutted about the fact i quite liked the way my beard is actually slightly red tinted, and not just brown.
and now its going grey.

oh well.

uk bloggers

have now got their own section, given the increasing amount of people coming over here but not actually in sheffield

more new stuff

well actually not a great deal thats new, but the side panel's been changed just a little bit - all the pics are off the original server and into basic html form, which translates roughly as "ant's happy, and the page should all load up quicker".
i dont however have a photo for naomi high, si if anyone (ie naomi!) could send me one they like it can get added a lot easier than it would've before. tahnk you.

some more colour

since bea's sudden pregnancy induced reading spurt i thought i'd add a reading list on to the side there - wont get as big as the film one though)
also added pics to the music section too.
hope you like them...