. Favourite Beer of the Week part 2

Previously on Favourite Beer of the Week - I made a pie and the oven declined to cook it, so I drank a beer instead.

This week the oven persisted with it's belligerence, so we had it taken care of.




Sasha loves the new oven very much.




So I was finally able to cook the pie




and it was the perfect pie at 1 o' clock in the morning when we got home from the Megamind wrap party in need of a tasty snack to soak up the whiskey while we watched the last two episodes of "Ivor the Engine."




Do you remember "Ivor the Engine"? It's still great. So much better than that "Thomas the Tank Engine."



Look at him. What an idiot. Not even the magic voice of Ringo Starr could make him cool.

"Ivor the Engine" was written and narrated by Oliver Postgate, who had the nicest voice in the world in all of history ever.




He created about 2 minutes of animation a day.




I do a little less than a second a day. In 3D.




Postgate and Firmin then made "Noggin the Nog"



"Pingwings"



"Pogles Wood"


"Clangers"


and "Bagpuss."



We watched all of Bagpuss this year. I like it even more now than I did as a kid, because now it's all covered in nostalgia.

This bottle of Sam Smith's Yorkshire Stingo looks like it was designed for the nostalgic.




It's like Granny Gravesclothes' Tea -

...There, dark raftered pubs
Are filled with white-clothed ones from tennis-clubs,
And the boy puking his heart out in the Gents
Just missed them, as the pensioner paid
A halfpenny more for Granny Graveclothes' Tea
To taste old age...


The Stingo tasted of old age to me - a bit sour.

"Nostalgia" is the yearning for an idealized past. It was originally described as a medical condition. Fortunately the cure is pretty cheap - "The Complete Ivor the Engine" on DVD - only £3.93 + international shipping.



If you fancy a non-nostalgic beer, I recommend the G Schneider & Sohn Weizenbock on tap at Monks Kettle. Except they don't have it right now because I drank the end of the barrel last Saturday.

Oliver Postgate's memoir "Seeing Things" will be December's Book of the Month. Order yours today!

. Sherlock

Sherlock started last night on PBS. Did you watch it? I thought it was great. Can't wait for the American version with Huge Jackman and that guy from "Two and a Half Men".

. Favourite Beer of the Week

Sam Smiths Brewery Pale Ale is nice pint of olde worlde Bitter. Perfect for washing away that annoying sense of ennui you get from another work-week of creeping failure.
Yum!

For maximum effect follow swiftly with a glass of 12 year old Balvenie and season 3 of the Mighty Boosh.

. Hilary

I made this film at the Royal College of Art in 1993. It is 9 minutes long and features the excellent voice of John Woodvine who was the doctor in An American Werewolf in London and Bob's dad in Bob and Rose which we thought was great but you probably didn't like because, let's face it, we're not really into the same stuff these days are we.

If you would like your very own copy of "Hilary" you can buy it here.

. Murun

You know all those times over the years that I said to you, "Remember Murun Buchstansangur?"

And you said, "No."

And I said, "Really? Murun Buchstansanger. He was on Channel 4 in the 80s."

And you said, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

And I said, "He lived under the kitchen sink and he was gray, and sad, and he had a crush on a girl, but she always liked the other guy, and he went to bed a lot like a depressed person, and it was always raining."

And you said, "That does sound like someone I know."

Well, I finally found an episode. It's not one of the best. But it is Murun. Do you remember now?

. Soupy Norman

Soupy Norman is a Polish soap opera that has been dubbed into English by some funny Irish. This is episode one.

. Conclusions

Spent all day studying HDTV reviews. Here are the results of my research:

. Favourite Beer of the Week

St Peter's English Ale is known in England as St Peter's Organic Ale, because everyone in England already knows that St Peter was English, like Jesus. It is brewed in an old Hall made of bits of a nunnery that Henry VIII destroyed while he was killing nuns for doing things all wrong.
And it tastes like beer.

Goes great with scalloped potatoes and grilled asparagus and salad which I have forgotten to make salad dressing for. Damn. And season one of Comic Strip Presents... Five Go Mad in Dorset.

. Favourite Beer of the Week

Foret is an organic, bottle-conditioned saison ale from Belgiumland. "Bottle conditioned" means its got bits of stuff floating around in it. "Saison" means "season", and that it was originally brewed in the autumn or winter by farm workers who were entitled to 5 liters of it throughout the workday during the harvest season because apparently water was hard to come by. 5 liters is over 10 pints. 10 pints a day! Good lord! This bottle is 1pt. 9.4 fl oz. 7.5% Alc by vol, and has a picture of a unicorn on it.

Goes great with sharp cheeses and other hearty fare, including veggie tempeh indian wraps and Doctor Who season 4.