Author Archives: garymoore

Sam Smiths

I’ve previously mentioned my fondness for Samuel (not John) Smith’s beer.

I took this picture outside Saint Mary’s Vaults, yesterday.

Which is a lovely old pub.

In a lovely old town.

Anyway, it’s nice to see a Sam Smith’s bar being marketed as vegan/organic.

South Shields

This week, our Saturday bike ride took us to South Shields. We stopped off at Bill Quay for refreshment in the Cricketers, which has a great new outside seating area.

Cycling was a little weird at first; I’d switched from P type handlebars to an S. So the riding position was a little alien for the first half hour or so.

We didn’t stay long in South Shields, a pint in the Alum; a nice pub, but I’m not overly fond of it.

And the Steamboat, of which I’m very fond of.

After a last pint in the Address, a pretty strange bar, we caught a Metro home.

There’re some disadvantages to Bromptons, but I’m not regretting buying them. And we still have the mountain bikes should the need arise.

Rocket man

My second in command has been somewhat excited about this evening. She’d been looking forward to seeing the Rocket in the Discovery museum.

It’s been nice to do the history/culture thing, rather than spending the evening in bars.

Enough of that though, we’re now in our fourth bar.

An afternoon in the shed

After my longed for day off tomorrow was reduced to a half day, before being completely overtaken by the stuff I get paid to do, I took the opportunity to take this afternoon off.

After four hours working on the shed, though, I swear it doesn’t look any different.

However, at least I’ve now reduced the risk of imminent collapse.

Beans on toast

Many years ago, I made baked beans from scratch. After the best part of a day in the oven, the beans were still chewy and, despite my best attempts at coercion, my kids refused to eat them. Well, they were pretty horrid.

The episode removed any desire to attempt baked beans again. Until recently. Fed up with cans of beans floating in orange-red, thin sugary slime, I began to think about making my own again.

Fortunately, since my last attempt, the internet was created. So, last night we ate beans on toast.

And they were delicious. Cheap too, a couple of quid and it’d comfortably feed four. Which means tonight’s evening meal will involve leftover beans.

This experience, and our new found fondness for chilli made only with beans, means that legumes will feature more prominently in my diet.

Meizu

After a brief excursion with a Samsung Galaxy, which I hated, I’ve reverted to a Meizu. My third such phone. And I love it.

Suki

If you scroll back a long time, you’ll see, or even remember, that I used to rabbit-sit a lovely little creature called Suki.

She may have eaten wallpaper on one occasion, but she was a great companion when I went through a bad time.

Sadly, she has passed away. Her age was uncertain, since she was found in Ellen’s garden, but she must have at least reached a decade.

It may seem silly, but I’ll miss her.