Crosby, Stills & Nash

For Jayne's birthday, we got tickets for Crosby, Stills and Nash in Manchester.  I was a little apprehensive for a number of reasons.  The venue, the MEN Arena, is a big  impersonal hall, not ideal for an intimate gig.  I had also mixed feelings after seeing the TV coverage of Glasto, they were a bit ragged in bits.

The first song didn't have the sound balance right, and someone was a bit flat.  Steven Stills couldn't hear himself properly judging by the gesticulations he was making.  I was a bit nervous that they wouldn't get it together.  But by the third song, they had it nailed and were brilliant from then on.

Highlight was Guinevere.  Three encores.  Steven Stills played some fantastic guitar solos.  He did have to go and sit down occasionally. 

All in all, a great night

Cheers

Tim

New Bag

I ordered a new bag from Wiggle a few weeks ago.  Then I got a message saying they were out of stock, back in at the end on June.  Then I got another saying they were due early July, then another saying mid July.  I did a trawl around the internet and practically everyone was sold out.

Except the excellent guys at Bike Plus, who had lots in stock apparently.  So I cancelled my Wiggle order and went with them.  Two days later the postman brought the package, but was too impatient to wait for Jamie to unlock the front door and so I had to pick it up on Thursday from the post office.

I fitted it immediately and was ready for the Thursday night ride.

Its a Carradice Barley.  It has a capacity of about 7 litres.  The side pockets are quite small.  I also have a couple on Nelson Longflap's which are easily twice the size, that I have been using for 20 years.  The Barley is much much smaller, and the side pockets are also correspondingly smaller.  On the Nelson's I have a small light, musette style bag and a lock in one pocket, and a tube, tools and puncture kit in the other.

The Barley side pockets are a bit smaller, I can just about get the lock in one pocket and the tube and tools in the other.  The main section will take trousers, pants and a shirt easily, or two rain jackets and a fleece like it did tonight, without being overly full.  I don't think it will fit my buttie box, change of clothes and laptop, but that is not why I bought it.  It is a good sized day bag.  I can easily fit a rain jacket, fleece, food and my usual tools etc in it easily.

And it is pretty!

Cheers

Tim

Beer Tasting

For a few years now Jayne and I have run a beer tasting evening.  Yesterday was our latest effort.  The format is always the same, six beers of increasing strength, some notes on each before we try them, pizza and garlic bread and foolishness.

The six beers this time round were:

Edelstoff Augustiner - 5.8%

Jupiler - 5.2%

Kwak - 8.4%

Delerium Tremens - 8.5%

Chimay Blue - 9%

Westmalle Tripel - 9.5%

We had got everything setup in the garden and the guys started arriving at about 7:30.  Then the skies darkened and it absolutely tipped it down for about 20 mins.  We did not think it would clear, but as quickly as it started, the skies cleared, the sun came out and it was a very pleasant evening.  We got the chiminea fired up and the beers flowed.  Some of the guys started to struggle at the 4th or 5th beer, not so much because of what I'd given them, as the 3 or 4 "warm up" pints in the Taps before coming over!

All in all a great evening.  The Westmalle was voted the best, Jupiler the least favourite.

Cheers

Tim

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