Quarantine Diaries XXXXIII
Sunday May 10th 2020
I love the flash-bang-wallop of a US TV thriller and the icy chill of Scandi-noir as much as the next box-set-addict, but I have to say that there is nothing I find quite as comfortably satisfying as a good ol Brit crime drama. I don’t know whether it’s the careful pacing, colloquial dialogue or the warm familiarity of the on-location shots, but when it comes to crime, I do like it homegrown. Since the onset of quarantine, I have charged through the likes of Deadwater Fell, Flesh and Blood and Bancroft, and am currently part-way through a most jolly jaunt back in time with Life On Mars, a brilliant hybrid of Quantum Leap and Back To The Future – fantastic stuff. Having just finished Gangs of London, JB and I are now filling the big Line-Of-Duty-shaped hole in our TV calendar by watching Spooks from the start, and Sunday, being the traditional day of rest n all, was filled with a mighty blitz on season 2 – I won’t say exactly how many episodes, but it was a lot. The show has aged remarkably well – plot lines from 2002/3 as relevant and engaging as they would have been at the time, and terrific performances from well-known faces who must have been just cutting their TV teeth back then. It is, in fact, so easy to lose oneself in all the fun of the MI5 fair that the entire day slipped from beneath our fingers – a happy, unforced slip of genuine escapism rather than compelled distraction, the kind of TV watching to leave you satisfied rather than fidgety. We would so be binging this even if everything was open! In other news, I completed a fun lil arts-and-crafts project while watching all the telly and managed to whip up a great shakshuka-hybrid thingo with duck sausage, so certainly not a day wasted.
Jester King/Mikkeller Beer Geek Rodeo Imperial Stout
While I have had my ups and downs with Jester King, there was no possible way that I could resist the temptation to get my greedy lil beer-mitts on a collab of this calibre, so we had a lovely excursion out to the Hill Country to grab a pack fresh from the source. We’ve now consumed three of the four cans, and I have to say that although I like this beer, it has been a mixed bag – there is a notable lack of consistency across the cans veering from pungent, heavy sweet banana to full dry-roasty coffee that makes it difficult to give an overall assessment. My favourite of the three was the one that sat in the middle – rich coffee and subtle banana, a highly moreish flavour that meant the following can (the dry one) felt like a bit of a disappointment. I’ve not discerned the tiniest hint of chipotle yet, but the fourth can is still to come – it may all be hiding there. I felt very decedent drinking two of these back to back, they do make for a luxuriant drinking experience, although you don’t know exactly what you’re going to get.
Craft Beer Amethyst 