Coal mine closes with celebration

Congratulations to the men and women who made this happen. My dad used to work down the pit so this braught a lump to the old throat.

"In January 1995, the miners marched back to the pit as proud owners.
Now, as a lack of coal closes the colliery for good, the men will march away from
the pit and salute it.
Tower had reopened in defiance of the large-scale pit closure programme ordered by
the Thatcher government following the year-long miners' strike of 1984-5 - a strike
in opposition to colliery shutdowns.

But the day will be one of celebration, not mourning, according to its chairman Tyrone
O'Sullivan, who led the buyout of Tower.
"When there was the miners' strike, and all the rapid pit closures, there tended
to be something resembling a wake afterwards," said the 62-year-old grandfather-of-three,
who started working at the mine 40 years ago after his own father died there.
"In Tower's case, it's a celebration of the last 13 years. We marched to the pit
when we got it back, so we're going to reverse it this time.
"We'll start from the shaft and go back up the road. Then we'll raise the banner
and tip it towards the pit as a salute for the life it's given us."
From the pit, the 270 workers will head to the Penywaun, the club where the decision
to buy the pit was made, and raise their glasses as speeches are made.

Meanwhile, each miner who donated his redundancy payout towards the deposit needed
to buy it, are now to have their say on the future of the site.
Plans for the future of the 480-acre site are still being discussed, but Mr O'Sullivan
said a new development, with the creation of jobs and affordable homes, would be
a fitting tribute.
"We're hoping 1,000 jobs could be created, maybe in retail, leisure and housing.
There could be lakes there, and places to walk," he said.
"I believe our company can leave a legacy to the community that will see today's
toddlers able to find a job up in the valleys when they're 16 or 17, instead of having to leave the area.
"It will be the greatest tribute that the workers could give. We'll be leaving jobs,
not statues."

Mary Rose Given Lifeline

I've always had a bit of an interest in the Mary Rose since school so good news.

"The world's last surviving 16th Century warship has been awarded a £21m grant.
Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose, housed at Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard, was
raised from the bottom of the Solent, in 1982.
Fears the national treasure would be sold for firewood if the funding bid failed
clouded the 25th anniversary of the ship's raising last October.
The Heritage Lottery Fund grant will be used to complete its conservation and build
a £23m museum around the vessel.
Over 19,000 artefacts recovered from the ship will be on display at the museum, which
is currently a temporary structure.
Admiral John Lippiett, of the Mary Rose Trust, said: "[It] paves the way to complete
the long conservation process and display the majority of amazing artefacts in a
magnificent museum."

‘Station Porter' steams in to be voted Supreme CAMRA Champion Winter Beer of Britain 2008

Wickwar Station Porter from Gloucestershire was named as the Supreme Champion Winter
Beer of Britain 2008 by a panel of judges at CAMRA's National Winter Ales Festival
in Manchester.
The 6.1% abv porter is described in CAMRA's 2008 Good Beer Guide as “A rich, smooth,
dark ruby-brown ale. Starts with a roast malt; coffee, chocolate and dark fruit
then develops a complex, spicy, bittersweet taste and a long roast finish.”
At the announcement, Steve Prescott, Organiser of the National Winter Ales Festival
congratulated Wickwar on its victory. He said, "It's great to see a porter winning
the Supreme Champion Winter Beer of Britain competition as this beer style has
been in danger from disappearing from the British pub. I sincerely hope people
will be inspired to try more porter on the back of Wickwar's victory.”
On hearing the news, Kevin Newbould, Wickwar's Key Accounts Director said, “We are
very pleased to have been voted the best winter beer in britain and delighted that
everybody feels the same way about this wonderful beer as we do. Let's hope we
see a resurgence in people trying more porters in the near future.”
The Silver award went to Robinson's Old Tom and the Bronze to Hop Back Entire Stout.
A panel of CAMRA experts and beer writers at the National Winter Ales Festival (New
Century Hall, Manchester) judged the competition. Drinkers at the festival, which

Up-Close Look At HumanWare Worldwide

This Tech Talk mp3 interview with Gilles Humanware's CEO is rather interesting.

HumanWare Group Worldwide CEO Gilles Pepin and Pierre Hamel, Vice President
of R&D for HumanWare To Provide A Unique "Up Close" Look Into Company's
Operations and Vision For Its Future.
Many of you may have heard that the former president of HumanWare Canada has recently
become the CEO of the HumanWare Group. Tech Talk has invited Gilles Pepin to join
us and discuss HumanWare. Tech Talk participants will hear Gilles talk about his
history in the Assistive Technology industry and how he developed his former company
Visuaide best known for launching the Victor Reader in 1998.

MSP v2.0 beta now available

Some interesting new features added for those MSP users. click the link above to find out more.

Stream 1.2 news

Jerry just sent out an email on the news wire with the below information. Also we expect to add WMA support and other features in March or April.

"support for NIMAS text books which is great news for our students who use the
Stream in the classroom- a Stream built-in SD card format utility- increased loudness
of the Stream's built-in speaker- significantly faster data transfer when the Stream
is connected to the computer with the USB cable- more control of the audio for music
which will make listening to music even more fun- a Go To Time feature to move to
specific locations in unstructured audio books such as podcasts or recorded lectures/meetingsAll
of that and more is expected in version 1.2 in early February. Already we have some
popular requests to enhance the Stream Companion software just released December
21. We will continue to work on extensions to the Stream Companion and will announce
those when available.There is much to say about the Stream but you, the customer,
are the most important factor in its success. HumanWare appreciates your support
of the Stream. The excitement about the Stream and its use for school, work, and
leisure continues to grow. Stay tuned for future news on this exciting technology.Best
wishes,Gerry Chevalier Victor Reader Product Manager"

Bruichladdich Infinity Second Edition

Bruichladdich Infinity Second Edition wais in at 52.5 percent alcohol and is peated containing a blend of lightly peated older laddie with some peated spirit made in 1998 at the time the distillery was run in order to preserve some stocks and some new heavily peated Port Charlotte then all sloshed in to ex-Rioja casks for a polishing.

Nose: the usual fruits one expects from a wine finished malt, strawberries with smoke and oak. Water changes this drastically and the sweetness of icing sugar is evident. Port Charlotte’s signature fennels come to the front with time.

Pallet: big attack at full strength with sweet jam laced with peaty embers. When water is added the young spirit is more up front and I get a little rubber.

Finnish: medium long but a little too drying for my tastes.

Comments: something different for bruichladdich and a good fireside dram, an even better dram to drink outside. let down a little on the finnish.

Bruichladdich Whisky Documentary Correction

Just seen a correction to my info on the whisky dream show on bbc Scotlnd taken from the Laddi blog.

The 30 minute documentary will be aired on BBC 2 Scotland on Tuesday, January 15th
at 10pm.
Tuesday, 8 January 2008

Available on Sky Channel 990.

New Year! Same old Blog

Happy new year everyone. I’ve been busy with work the last week and also had some good traveling around the south east of the country. I went to Canterbury for work so decided to stop off in Favasham the home of Shepherd Neam brewery for a pint of Bishop’s finger. Sadly this wasn’t available on draft in the town and in order to get a pint on cask I would have to travel back down to Canterbury. I thought this strange but did enjoy 3 pints of the uncompromisingly hopped Master Brew and a half of the brewery’s most excellent porter. These drinks were taken in the Sun Inn a really friendly hostelry close to the brewery.

Last weekend RoadKill Chris Steve and I drove out to Orford in north Suffolk and visited the smokeries. The village is beautiful with the remains of the castle visible from the central parking point. The church bells were wringing as it was a Sunday and the smoke wafted across the village. I purchased lots of locally made and smoked sausage, anchovies in garlic and smoked salmon along with some Suffolk bacon and other bits and bobs.

We had a stonking few days over the new-year with friends and I hope everyone else had a suitably enjoyable and pleasant time. It’s now a new year with all the challenges that holds for everyone and I’m looking forward to it.

Happy new-year guys.

Acccess- Eat

My good friend Graham just mailed me the below. check out his blog if you like dodgy and interesting food places.

The Access Eat blog I have been banging on about for a while is now up. The
purpose is to review or discuss places you may have been to eat. their good
points, bad points and anything that makes the place different. I went to
Barbecue Express in Station Road Wood Green London today after an assessment
and this forms the first post.
At the moment, I don't have anyone other than me authoring the blog but feel
free to email me comment on restaurants or take aways you have visited and I
will include them. Ideally, comments should relate to a particular visit
but I am not strict on that one! The blog is only rough and ready at the
moment. if anyone has ideas of how it can be improved or made more readable
then all info and help welcome.
Feel free to pass on to your friends or whoever.