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An Ale of a time…

Posted by: on: September 10, 2009

Ale1

The Wikipedia states an Ale to be “Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a top-fermenting brewers’ yeast. This yeast ferments the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste. Most ales contain hops, which impart a bitter herbal flavour that helps to balance the sweetness of the malt and preserve the beer.”

My graduation from Lagers to Ales pretty much happened in London a couple of years back and in the company of friends.

So it has pretty much been either a pub crawl (UK for pub hop) or pretty much the confines of a hotel room.

This time was rather pleasant. I was invited by a friend to his hockey club Real Ale Festival. Some offers are difficult to refuse as they say and this one what was one of them obviously. 14 Ales and 3 Ciders – I didn’t try the ciders eventually. Given a choice it’s Ale, Stout, Lagers and Ciders in that order.

So we decided to do a barrel crawl – go from barrel to barrel with the souvenir glass you see in the image. That glass did hold many of those on the list and I’d avoid mentioning how many, because it is not the quantity but quality that matters. Quality of a good time. An Ale of a time…

Thanks Robbie…it was good, not to mention the overground and underground trains back to the hotel in Central London. 😉

Also the blokes at the Broxbourne Hockey club for being great hosts.

Aleman!

All my bags are packed…

Posted by: on: August 29, 2009

London

London Dreams or London Calling…

Hell freezes over!

Posted by: on: August 28, 2009

When the Eagles decided to break up Don Henley had said that the group would reunite when hell freezes over.  For MTM obviously it’s not so dramatic it’s probably like Glenn Frey said when they got back together ‘For the record we never broke up, we just took a 14 year vacation’.

MTM is hopefully back from vacation after 8 months to its first post this year. It’s been a ‘should I shouldn’t I’ debate whenever I have opened up WordPress to remove the cobwebs from the blog but really have not given it a really hard look to restart it.

Today is a good day in some form – already has a milestone attached to it from six years ago, and I’m happy to have MTM restarted today.

Thanks to all my friends who have been a support on this blog in the past and especially thanks to that one who threatened to pull MTM of his blogroll. Thanks A.

I like the new look at WordPress and hopefully the Mutterings are back for good.

Cheers!

And the award goes to…

Posted by: on: September 2, 2008

Not always does Mutterings that Matter get an award…and I think sometimes those who say awards don’t matter to them are really lying through their teeth. Awards are required to know how accepted you are – much like feedback, except that one that a token to take home, while the latter basically has a thought to take back. Nevertheless was happy when Det-Res awarded MTM for being witty and way with words etc. It was kind of her to do that. Thank you Det-Res.

The Brilliant Weblog Award’s is given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their design. The purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogsphere.

The rules to be followed are:

1. When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link back to them.
2. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in content or design.
3. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing them that they have been awarded with the ‘Brilliant Weblog’ award.
4. Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize to (optional) .

I did think hard as to which seven odd blogs I need to mention, and finally settled on none. Not because no one fitted the bill but because everyone was good in their own right. Some I liked because of the content they wrote, some because of discussions they bore, some because of the banter they had in the comments, some because they wrote so lucidly it became envious sometimes, some because they are just blogs of friends.

So the bottomline – everyone who is one my blog roll are there because I visit them once in a while, some of them more regularly than others.

Here’s to you continuing to write and also to some sleepy one to wake up. Cheers!

Back for ‘Good’?

Posted by: on: July 21, 2008

Was in three of my favourite cities lately – Philadelphia, Boston, and New York (In no particular order of preference just sequence of stay) all by myself. One of those rare occassions when I had no colleagues or friends and more importantly loved ones for company. Sometimes being a social animal takes a different meaning when you are in populated cities feeling lonely. Something along the lines of the famous song by Akon – Lonely

Lonely i’m so lonely,
I have nobody,
To call my owwnnn
I’m so lonely, i’m mr. Lonely
I have nobody,
To call my owwnnn
Im so lonely,

It’s a lonelier feeling when all you are doing is walking the streets of Philadelphia, Boston and New York aimlessly till your knees begin to show tell tale signs of wear and tear. Nonetheless these cities still continue to be my favorite but it’s good to get a taste of the other side as well, as with all things favorite.

For now I’m back for ‘good’. And it does feel good.

Homeward Bound

Posted by: on: July 18, 2008

After going through SFO, LAX, PHL, BOS and JFK amongst others, I’m finally set to go home. Must say it’s a lovely feeling to be on my way back. Will complete the round trip around the globe today. Carrying back memories, memorobilia, and pictures.

Homeward bound
Home, where my thought’s escaping
Home, where my music’s playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
(C) Simon and Garfunkel

Taking the Bus

Posted by: on: June 13, 2008

He typed from 6000 miles away, “Did you catch up with any friends?”.

College friends are fun – Instant catchup.

“Nahin Yaar”, I typed almost sadly. “Not met or spoken to anyone.”

“That’s sad, we seem to be always caught up in work, don’t we?”, “Funny in all these years we have moved from a bus to a car!”

Almost philosophically he signed off.

A sudden realisation filled with memories of all those friends who have been part of my journey thus far.

Some in touch,
Some out off,
Some that I probably can’t remember if we were friends,
Some who still consider me a friend, 
Some that I probably can’t remember if we were friends,
yet you were there when I needed you.

Thank you.

I want my bus back.

Caught Somewhere in Time

Posted by: on: February 1, 2008

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that my first brush with hard rock was with Iron Maiden’s self titled album that I borrowed from a friend and eventually lost it to an older cousin. Having just graduated from the likes of Abba, BoneyM and The Beatles the fodder for the rebellious streak came from the rockers from East London.  That was way back as I was just getting into college. Quite a long time ago, cause when I look back its more than half my living years that I have been fascinated by rock music.

For any rocker a chance to head bang live with their favorite rockstars is like a dream that even the grass puffing teenager hallucinating high up there would never even get close. Especially for us concert starved Mumbaikars, this doesn’t come easy. Battling entertainment taxes and time restrictions there is a slim chance that some rock act will slip through all of this and perform live.

Today Iron Maiden performs live in Mumbai for the first time. They came to Bangalore last year, and they open their world tour from Mumbai. It is no surprise that I will be there, but a far cry from that teenager many years back who was slimmer and fitter and could head bang with ease. Luckily the guys from Iron Maiden also grew older with me – so I wouldn’t feel out of place there. I do hope to let my hair down – whatever little is left  of it – or may be I’ll let my hair down and let it just remain there.

Still caught somewhere in time and I’ll be going there to maybe relive my past – and as they belt out their hits I’d probably map them with my growing up years and the people who introduced me to those hits.

Way to go…

Posted by: on: January 31, 2008

As Mutterings that Matter (MTM) starts of with its first post this year, this time I’d like to start the year with a blog plan for MTM.

Mutterings that Matter (MTM) has been in bloginess for the last 3 years, bloginning on January 20th 2005. It has been a painstaking journey fighting the competition of other prolific bloggers over these three years. To its credit, MTM’s progress is monitored closely and its year end results are audited. Over the last 3 years it has shown an approximately 25% growth in the number of posts. It has also seen a significant change in the visitors and comments in the last calendar year. Last year also saw the biggest spike in number of visitors, probably one of the high points in its short life in the blogworld.

The year end results revealed an interesting statistic – 2005 – 36 posts, 2006 – 44 posts, 2007 – 56 posts, Ironically all divisible by four. If I look closely (thanks to MS Excel) it also sets the target for this year. If we add posts of two years in succession, 2005 + 2006 = 80, 2006 + 2007 = 100, 2007 + 2008 = (120?). If I need to continue to maintain this trend on MTM the target for this year is 64, however that drops the growth % of this blog. Alternatively I could go to 72 posts this year.

I aim to do better than that and concentrate on growth rather than the trend. Already a month late but will play catchup :)Hope to have huge blogcess at the end of this year. Keep watching this space – and also the other spaces that I have diversified in 🙂

Last but not the least thanks to all my blogholders (listed in the blog roll) for keeping the faith.

Happy New Year

Posted by: on: December 31, 2007

Another year goes by –  as we await a new dawn, a new year, a new day…new hopes, new aspirations, a new us.

Here’s wishing a ‘Very Happy and Prosperous You’ this new year. 


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