Channel 4's Four in a Bed

This must be the ultimate bitch programme. It’s the professionals criticising then are outed as hypocrites as soon as it’s their turn to host; some of which are very laughable for the facilities that they offer compared to their manner of judges. Also, a lot of it is staged for the effect of seeking criticism; if you watch the episodes of the areas that you know; you can clearly see that people are driving in the wrong direction; and that visitors seem to be chauffeured whereas it’s just for the effect so that both people can be captured in the same spot. I wonder how it affects people’s business as they’re obviously trying to promote their hotels; yet for the ones that failed; it could be disastrous. Next week, I’m off to a B&B. But I’m not going to tear the room apart just to look for dust. But I will have the freedom to judge like hell without being judged in return. 

I smashed up Smosh

Another app bites the dust. Last night, I deleted Smosh Food Battle from my gaming list. I’d completed the platform on all three difficulties; and was working my up to upgrade all weapons and; more importantly; evolve my pet. I managed to get a weapons pet about a quarter of the way then one day I forgot to feed it and it died; forcing me to buy another. This second pet was much rarer; and this time I got it levelled up to a third of the way; but it then turned out that I was giving it the wrong food; so it too died. In my last attempt, I decided to start the game from scratch to devote the right resources to the right upgrades; and though my first pet was very common; things were going well. Until last night; my pet wouldn’t even show itself on-screen with its special abilities. So rather than waste time trying to figure out the game’s bug; I decided to quit and get out. So goodbye Smosh.

Waddle it be at the Woodman, Birmingham

Our epic pub crawl concluded at the Woodman in Birmingham. For some reason my Brummie friends decided that a taxi would be the best way to get there; but because of the match day traffic I thought that it wouldn't make much difference. We arrived at the pub and the first beer I chose was a pale ale from the dancing Duck brewery; Waddle It Be? It was a great name and a great beer; but the next thing on our agenda was food. The pub had drawn up a Burns night menu; which was launched just for us as part of the crawl. I ordered the haggis burger; while everyone else was contempt with the haggis, neeps and tatties. This caused for another pint; so I tried the new local pale ale from the Indian Brewing company; which was kept well but wasn’t anything special. We were then invited to dine in the upstairs room; the food was very nice apart from the hair which I found but decided to carry on munching as I kind of knew the chef and so decided to give him a chance. My final pint to wash it all away with was an Unweal Stout; which had lots of oatmeal flavours. I was treated to this by a visiting landlord; who also chose to shower our table with pork pies and packs of crisps. I left with the local pubs officer who offered to direct me to the train station. All in all, it was a good day out.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Eoin Colfer tries a teenage attempt of a Terry Pratchett novel with plenty of apathy towards his characters. Any hint of sympathy is automatically put on hold by a plot device; so we never truly learn what the characters are thinking; even though there’s plenty of situations when the characters are alone. How a teenager is supposed to sympathise with a teenage millionaire with a highly trained guerrilla butler; I’ve no idea. And then we have the fairies. A society that has decided to live in exile for fear of being discovered; but armed to the teeth with the latest technology; yet the only magic that they are capable of performing is for healing purposes. There are some creatures with very odd abilities; but these only seem to litter the storyline with toilet humour. We also have confusing plot devices; if the fairies have successfully stopped time then why is time allowed to continue on a video feed? It’s all very confusing with a weak conclusion which is way too simple.

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Redditch Winter Ale Festival 2016

Awesome! Lovely stuff! Great Ale! These were just some of the comments that Redditch and Bromsgrove CAMRA received about the 9^th Redditch Winter Ale Festival 2016. The event, which was held in early February at the Rocklands Social Club in Reddith, showcased 33 real ales alongside a selection of cider and perry, and attracted people from as far as Glasgow! As well as producing a Breakfast Stout at 7% which was one of the favourite ales on offer, festival sponsors Ambridge (based in Inkberrow) also brewed a special Indian pale ale to commemorate the festival’s chosen charity; Troop Aid. Blackheath-based brewers and sponsors Fixed Wheel were voted as third favourites with their Blackheath Stout; with the overall winner being Sarah

Hughes in Sedgley with their Dark Ruby Mild. Striking the chords on stage Friday night were Bromsgrove based band Cadence, who entertained drinkers with their harmonic acoustics. On Saturday evening, visitors were treated to husband and wife duo Mark and Kathy Collinson, with a supporting act by Gary, Jim and Jim. Membership Secretary Doug Robinson was kept busy throughout the festival and signed up over thirty members to the campaign, with 23 people alone coming from the Redditch area. Cider drinkers saw Double Vision from Boughton Monchelsea in Kent as their top tipple, and the festival also raised over £300 for Troop Aid who support sick and injured troops. Festival organiser Paul Richards said: ‘We’d like to thank everyone who came along to support us this year; it was great fun and there was a great choice of beers, cider and perry on offer.’

Hobsons Best Bitter at the Robin Hood, Drayton

Hidden away between the villages of Belbroughton and Chaddesley Corbett lies the Robin Hood at Drayton, a rural pub with a lot to offer. Their well-kept real ales have caught the attention of Redditch and Bromsgrove CAMRA, who have decided to commend the pub as their Autumn Pub of the Season. There has been a pub on the site since 1825 and the lounge itself has mostly been unaltered to create a cosy retreat for drinkers. The bar has been extended into the original storeroom to create a restaurant. Chef Kerry Wynn serves traditional pub food alongside Trina Jelfs, while cellar man Jon Roberts (pictured left) is in charge of the bar. Jon says that the Enville ales that he stocks are very popular; and there’d be a riot if those beers were to change! He also offers Hobsons Best Bitter, Holden’s Golden Glow, and two beers from Wye Valley; all of which are well worth sampling. 

Tribute to Simon Vickers

Simon Vickers was a true trooper. During his early involvement, he looked after the health and safety aspects of the beer festival; ensuring that the equipment that we used was properly documented. As a local member, he strode to make improvements within the committee despite some attendance problems. He was also a dedicated member of the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust, and acted as a warden helping to maintain the site and act as a guide. We were once fortunate enough to be given a tour of the ferns and wildlife; which concluded in the bird hide where we were able to observe all sorts of wild fowl. We knew that he was diagnosed with something, but he preferred not to talk about and slowly drifted away. In his later years, he became a hermit under pressure of divorce, and stayed away from the crowd. My thoughts go out to his family.