What are you drinking now?

[thenorthwind]

Just a small glass of red tonight. Last night's indulgence was a bottle of Lowenbrau "Triumphator" doppelbock: very nice. Proper autumn beer.

[Boab]

A can of Pilsner Urquel. Near Wicken Fen, under a tree, listening to ducks and geese making a racket...

[faustus]

Sounds good Boab (you changed your name right?)

Me and my partner went out last night together (without kids) for the first time in two years. Had a most delicious pint of Honey Dew ale by the river Kennet. Followed up in a different pub by a glass of very posh rum which was delicious: Bumbu. Bloody expensive but very nice indeed for a wee tipple, would heartily recommend trying a glass if a bar has some.

[Moder-dye]

Yogi Tea, Christmas Tea

Just found it in the drawer and it's quite nice if you like chai type drinks

[Boab]

Sounds good Boab (you changed your name right?)

Yes, the crusty bikepacker formally known as K1100T...

[Bearlegged]

Brew York keeping the puns coming with "Simon Le Mon", a lemon sherbet sour.

[RIP]

Beer night. Box Brewery "Funnel Blower" Dark Vanilla Porter.

It has come to my attention that Eyam Brewery ("Premium Ales from the Plague Village" - what an advertising tagline eh!) are offering a special edition "with extra vanilla" of their Black Death vanilla stout - 750ml bottle at 11%. Unfortunately for Reg (and some compatriots) he will be passing through the village in December..... plague might be a quicker alternative exit route....

[Bearlegged]

Loxley Brewery's "Black Dog" stout.
Wylam's Macchiato porter.
Frogs, from St Mars of the Desert.

[RIP]

These ramblings should be in the "What Are You Watching Now" thread but I can't be bothered to get up and go round there. It's Friday night.

This "Funnel Blower" is a very pleasant accompaniment to watching the first adventure of Sapphire & Steel, which I've finally got round to after finishing the complete series of The Prisoner. Sitting here in the parlour with the lights off and the fire on, with my glass and a bit of chocolate, it almost feels like winter is here again. My favourite season. Oh. It is more or less here again isn't it. Hurrah!

Anyway, Sapphire & Steel. McCallum & Lumley. Superbly slow-burn viewing. The first episode of the first adventure includes a scary disappearance of some children's parents into a gateway into Time, via the rapidly-receding wall of an attic room. Reminds me of a similar scene in Gilliam's beautifully-crafted Time Bandits where Kevin and his new-found friends disappear in exactly the same way - our Terence must have nicked the idea from S & S surely?

Anyway anyway, slow-burn viewing. Got me thinking, I love slow televisual treats. If most recent telly with its ridiculous "fast cutting" and rapid zooming in/out is the equivalent of, say, a JetBoil, then quality slow films are the equivalent of a BBB 8g or 22g meths stove. They may take a little more concentration, patience and thought but the rewards far more than repay the effort. S & S is one such example - each adventure is generally set in one place, sometimes almost one room, with only a few characters.

I'm going to propose my favourite slow-burners to watch, not in any order:

* Sapphire & Steel
* The Signalman - Dickens' ghost story starring Denholm Elliott and just one other character, in a railway signalbox.
* Under Milk Wood - Thomas's classic. ""To begin, at the beginning..." Ah..bliss...
* Ripping Yarns - what Palin did after Monty P, hidden away under the coat tails of Fawlty Towers and all the better for it
* The Ipcress File - Caine's finest hour (I know, I know.. Get Carter...)
* Duel - Dennis Weaver being menaced by a faceless lorry driver in his scary truck
* 2001 - obviously
* Tutti Frutti - John Byrne's superb failed comeback for The Majestics with Richard Wilson, Coltrane, Emma T, Kate Murphy, Maurice Roeves...
* Dark Star - John Carpenter / Dan O'Bannon's (pre-Alien) antithesis of 2001. "Don't give me any of that intelligent life crap, just give me something I can blow up"..
* Day Of The Jackal - Edward Fox as the cold suave English assassin of De Gaulle, always one step ahead of Michael Lonsdale. Until he's not.
* Escape From Alcatraz - Eastwood/McGoohan, "“If you disobey the rules of society, they send you to prison; if you disobey the rules of the prison, they send you to US"
* Belleville Rendezvous - Sylvain Chomet's towering takedown of Disney
* Sir Henry At Rawlinson End - Sir Viv's mindbogglingly ramshackle incomprehensible tour-de-force.
* The Trip - Coogan/Brydon bickering and gourmandising
Bonus option: The French Connection, with Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider

My penn'orth anyroad. Luckily I have all the DVD's on the shelf for when the need calls. Will probably fire up my 22g at the same time for maximum effect.

[thenorthwind]

An Aberlour, to follow a Westmalle Trippel.

[arkay]

Being easily swayed by a £10 off voucher in the latest Cycling UK mag, and trying to cut down on the booze, I bought a case of Lucky Saint alcohol-free lager. I have to say it is far and away the best non-alcoholic (well, 0.5%) beer I have ever tasted. Unfiltered German-style and without the wateriness or weird aftertaste you usually get with AF brews. Well worth a try. Only problem is at £2 a bottle it is pricier than many normal beers.

[Alpinum]

My girlfriend came home with a bunch of beers. She loves milk stouts, so now we're drinking a chocolate milk stout that tastes like the dark crust of a sour dough bread. Loving it.

[ledburner]

i opened the b'thday surprise box from Berewulf . I started with the lightest because I start early tomorrow. kriek Lambic beer (well its beer Jim but not as I know it!).
Think beer +sour cherryade shandy. interesting but not disagreeable.
the next one is IPA PANTY beer,
I wonder what that tastes like? Persil floral?

[PaulB2]

My second cup of coffee of the day

[FLV]

My second cup of coffee of the day

early start....

I am only just getting to the second

[ledburner]

My second cup of coffee of the day

early start....

I am only just getting to the second

snap...
milk not yet on door step... had to open the 'prepper' can of E²M *


<as you great gran may have had in Emergency Evaporated Milk, besides the others one for tinned fruit. "you ne'er know we may get...
[snowed in /food shortage/ petrol running out or the end of the empire/commonweath.] * as applicable.
Oh, with Bermuda just departing, all now have applied this year.

[PaulB2]

My second cup of coffee of the day

early start....

I am only just getting to the second

My darling child decided that he was awake at 1 in the morning and that he didn't need to go back to sleep.

[Bearlegged]

[sean_iow]

[ledburner]

similar you-a dark ale.. Oproer brouwerij Black flag. it's described as a Cascadian dark ale, a hybrid of IPA & stout.
Nice brew the Beerwulf glass are pants . conical to head forms & rises, it suddenly gets pushed up by the tapered topv& overflows (no wonder they were giving them away.). hence the kitchen roll..

[thenorthwind]

Tynt Meadow, Belgian style dark ale from Britain's only Trappist monastery.

[RIP]

Tynt Meadow, Belgian style dark ale from Britain's only Trappist monastery.

Trouble with that brew, 'Wind, is you're not allowed to talk while drinking it. Certainly nothing that would lead to "unkind amusement or laughter" - which seems to rule out most BBB conversations .

[ootini]

San Pelegrino.... low carb diets are no fun

[Richard G]

Given I'm not training or watching my weight... everything.

Bought this for myself for Christmas.

[ledburner]

I've just had a bottle of Verena new, I mean Zinner bir, Belgium pale ale, and now PANTY ale, by Oedipus, you better lock up your daughters and may be mothers, aswell!
oh The pantys' are not pale but Stout!