If you’re lucky…

Enough to be Irish – You’re lucky enough!  This means that on the 17^th of March, you get to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a few cheeky pints of The Black Stuff.  Now I will not do the obvious and talk about St Patrick’s Day but Irish Champagne – none the wiser, GUINNESS to you and me.

It’s 1759, St James’s Gate in Dublin, and there is a brewery up for lease.  Standing outside admiring his new sign is Arthur Guinness who has just signed a 9000-year lease agreement for an annual rent of £45.  The brewery is 4 acres in size, disused and has little brewing equipment.  Despite not having the best of starts, Arthur quickly built up a successful brewery and in its 10^th year, had started to export The Black Stuff to England – but the brewery had a completely different brewing beginning.

Arthur began by brewing ale. In 1770 he diversified into a porter.  What is a PORTER, by the way, Craig?  Glad you asked.  Well, it was a new type of beer brewed in England by a brewer called Ralph Harwood.  It was brewed using roasted barley that gave the beer a dark ruby colour with a rich aroma.  It became very popular, and in 1799 Arthur stopped brewing ale altogether to concentrate on his porter.  He had several porters on the go to suit different tastes, including a special export beer called West India Porter. Still brewed today and is known as GUINNESS Foreign Extra Stout and accounts for 45% of Guinness global sales.

By the time Arthur died in 1803, he had built a successful brewing business with a profitable export trade.  He passed his brewery on to his son, Arthur Guinness II, and the business was then passed on from father to son for five successive generations!  Now that is a remarkable brewing dynasty.

It’s time for some gratuitous advertising!   

Getting back to brewing, during the Arthur Guinness II brewing period, they produced a slightly stronger beer called Extra Superior Porter, which is still being brewed today and is known as Guinness Extra Stout or GUINNESS Original.  Brace yourself for some Guinness facts

• In 1988, Guinness came up with a ‘widget’ that allowed draught in a can.
• In 1997 Guinness merged with Grand Metropolitan to form a new company called ‘DIAGEO’ derived from the Latin word ‘day’ and Greek word for ‘world’ because every day around the world, millions of people enjoy GUINNESS.
• The brewery consumes over 100,000 tonnes of Irish barley a year.
• But more importantly, Guinness is sold in over 150 countries and it is estimated that 10 million glasses of The Black Stuff is enjoyed daily around the world.

But its not all about brewing banter, but this Blog has a purpose – families doing it tough, battling a disease that does not discriminate.  The Legends are cycling 1025 km to raise funds to take kids on camps so that they can be kids, even if it is only for a weekend.  So if you want to show your appreciation, please FOLLOW my blog, at least LIKE it or even better sponsor me by clicking on the Camp Quality face below, which will take you to my sponsorship page.

Training has started because as a male in his early fifties it is challenging to get up early at the weekend to hop on the Carbon Fibre Stallion to do a Fernleigh – but nothing easy is worth doing anyway.  Did you know this years ride I get to do a circuit of Bathhurst on a pushy (for those of you who are confused, Bathhurst is a Supercars circuit).  Also I have been allocated a team and its BLUE (not in a melancholy way but racing colour) and I am pleased to announce that my captain is Fatbloke, and Shirley Temple is a teammate.  If you are now totally confused about where this Blog is going, read the post ‘A waddle of King Penguins…’.  With that, get involved, and I am still waiting on the next big freebie offer, now if you want to donate something I can sell on to the riders during 1000ks4Kids then do SO.  I GUARANTEE ALL FUNDS WILL GO TO THE CAUSE.  With that, thank you, SOCK GUY, and if you’re in the market for bloody funky socks for all sports, then check them out!

It’s the Come On URs section.  I realise that some of you may think I could not be bothered doing the scores last month, but that is not true – seriously, January was upsetting for me.  In true QPR style, we kept playing our game, but this month the wins started happening.  So in February the mighty Rs beat Watford (ex-Premier League) 2:1, beat Blackburn 1:0, beat arch-rivals Brentford 2:1, beat Bournemouth (ex-Premier League) 2:1, drew with Preston North End 0:0 but we were beaten by Birmingham 2:1.  The mighty Rs at sitting in 16^th with 40pts, not bad, and the silver lining is with a couple of wins and results going our way, we could reach the playoffs.  I know it sounds crazy, but that the Championship for you – the best league in Britain.

Its been a year and if any of you can remember I reviewed the Fly6 Gen2 in my March Blog ‘Beware the Ides of March…’ well its all gone feckin wrong.  I went for a ride on a sunny morning, all good, plugged it in, next morning it had feckin melted.  So I lodged a call with Cycliq via email, two fecking days later I get a reply from an agent who really wanted to help me but asked one question ‘was it raining’, I went into full Gordon Ramsey mode – does this mean that the Fly6 Gen2 is feckin, pish, shite in the rain.  Fear not we came to an amicable agreement and we arrange for a Fly6 Gen 3 to be shipped as a priority.

Three fecking months later.  My new priority shipped Fly6 Gen3 arrived in its new look really feckin tiny box feckin crammed full of fecking useless useful attachments I will never feckin need as I cannot afford to when I upgrade my bike.  So its unboxed and the biggest drama is pushing that feckin string feckin pish safety cable through the feckin rediculassly small loop for fecks sake peeling the protective covers off the lens for fecks sake there feckin hard to removed for fecks sake.  All good for two feckin weeks for feck sake when the white light came on constantly for fecks sake.  Well you can image I lost my shit my frustration after three feckin months of waiting for the feckin thing its fecked AGAIN for feck sake!

Lodged another call with Cycliq via email, two fecking days later I get a reply from an agent who really wanted to help me but asked one question ‘was it raining’ FOR FECK SAKE does this feckin thing not work if its feckin rains for feck sake.  So after a bit of a discussion Cycliq has agreed to send me a replace as a priority order that was fecking four feckin weeks ago for fecks sake.  When its here I will review my experience and let you know how the Gen 3 is travelling – FECK OFF its too feckin upsetting and my expectations are as feckin low as a snakes arsehole for fecks sake

I hope you liked my balanced and measured review of Cycliq’s Fly6 Gen3 and I might just review the next accessory I decide to buy for the Carbon Fibre Stallion – cheers.

With that, I bid you farewell for another month, be safe people, social distance as it saves lives, respect our front liners, get the jab as it helps and for pity sake look after the oldies! – SAVVY!

Now I usually don’t do this but here is Lo (my daughter) singing at a pop up over Christmas – enjoy!!!