Music, Books, Beverages (3rd Edition)

I haven’t done one of these lists for a while (since March 8th apparently), so here’s a new, slightly longer one.

What I’ve Been Listening To:

Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
REM – Accelerate
U2 – Zooropa
Antony & The Johnsons – The Crying Light
Jeff Buckley – Grace

What I’ve Been Reading:

Kierkegaard – Repetition & Either/Or
Ivan Illich – The Right To Useful Unemployment
George MacDonald – Fairy Stories
Michel Henry – I Am The Truth
David Held – Introduction To Critical Theory

What I’ve Been Drinking:

An unusual amount of tea, often with a few ginger biscuits
Bodegas Salado Fina Blanca Paloma – a dry white sherry (well, technically a fortified wine ‘cos of the region, but that’s being fussy), which my sister & brother-in-law brought back for me from Spain
Dry ginger ale, again in unusual quantity
Rock Mild – the best mild I’ve ever had, brewed locally in Nottingham
Courvoisier VS – a standard, but very nice, cognac

“Made in Scotland, From Girders”

…is a famous advertising slogan used in the 70s for Irn Bru, the Scottish soft drink that tastes a bit like, well, iron girders. I read a fascinating article today though which tickled my nostalgia for a romantic past before digitalisation and automation. It turns out the recipe for Irn Bru is only known by 2 people in the entire world (and for that reason they never fly together on the same plane). One of those people is company chairman Robin Barr whose great grandfather came up with the Irn Bru recipe in 1901. It has not changed in 108 years, and Robin Barr still every month enters a sealed room at the company’s HQ in Scotland where he combines the 32 different ingredients making up the drink, mixing them in a huge vat containing enough mixture for 8000 litres of the stuff. Robin Barr is soon to stand down as chairman of A.G. Barr, the company which makes Irn Bru, but he will continue for the time being to come in monthly to mix the drink. Eventually, he admits, he will pass the recipe on to his daughter, who will then take over mixing duties. What a brilliant, romantic way of running a business.

It’s made me thirsty… thirsty for a drink made from girders!

P.S. For anyone worried that both people who know the Irn Bru recipe might die from swine flu, taking the recipe with them, they needn’t fear, as it is also stored on paper in a secret, secure bank vault somewhere in Scotland.

Music, Books, Beverages (2nd self-indulgent list)

What I have been listening to…

U2 // No Line on the Horizon

Lindsey Buckingham // Gift of Screws

Lindsey Buckingham // Under The Skin

Fleetwood Mac // Rumours

What I have been reading…

Charles Taylor // A Secular Age

Augustine // Confessions

Stanley Hauerwas // A Better Hope (essay collection)

G.K. Chesterton // Orthodoxy

What I have been drinking…

Highland Park 12 year old (Single Malt Island)

Glenmorangie Original 10 year old (Single Malt Highland)

Hopping Hare (Golden English Ale)

Baileys & Hot Chocolate (Cadbury’s, of course)

Music, Books and Beverages

What I have been listening to…

Leonard Cohen // The Best Of

The Killers // Day and Age

Joseph Arthur and The Lonely Astronauts // Temporary People

Pixies // Wave of Mutilation: Best Of

What I have been reading…

Alain Badiou // Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism

Michael J. Gorman // Cruciformity: Paul’s Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

Soren Kierkegaard // The Sickness Unto Death

…and some of E.E. Cummings poems.

What I have been sipping…

The Macallan 12 year old (Single Malt Highland)

Laphroaig 10 year old (Single Malt Islay)

Apostoles aged 30 years (Palo Cortado Sherry)

Fursty Ferret (English Ale)

Victory celebrations, Munich style

A Little Story About Marmalade

I’ve never been a huge fan of marmalade. That is, until about ten days ago when I was given a jar of this stuff:

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If you can’t tell, that’s a jar of marmalade made with Macallan 10 Year Old single malt scotch whisky.

Now, I first became acquainted with the Macallan 10yo (the beverage, not the marmalade) back in May this year, while hunting for a good single malt to give to a friend in the States. The young man in question, a fireman, had yet to fall in love with Scotland’s finest export (scotch, not Alan Hansen), and so I was looking for something that would ease him in slowly. Nothing too adventurous, but nothing too dull either. I had intended to get him the Glenmorangie 10yo, the single malt which first aroused my love for Scotland’s finest export (scotch, not Alan Hansen), but at the shop felt it was a tad pricey. So, not feeling particularly generous, I opted instead for the cheaper Macallan, a highland malt which had been recommended to me several times* by a friend**.