Category Archives: Out and about

Second coat (part I)

Today has been, mostly, been spent plastering the newly joined ceiling. I’d managed a first full coat before Germany, but I was a little over ambitious and attempted the whole ceiling. 

I’m a slow plasterer and it’s a large ceiling, so a full coat of plaster in a single day was never going to be fun. It took me six hours and the result was rougher than I’d hoped for, but it was only intended to be a first coat to join the two ceilings together. 

So, today, I felt it wise to split the job into segments. With a better outcome. 


The picture’s fuzzy, but I’m quite happy with the second coat. That’s a quarter of the ceiling done, with part two tomorrow.

Yesterday was more pleasant, with a walk along the Tyne. 

Mr McCarthy in Munich

There were no technical issues this evening, so we’d anticipated a less random performance than in Berlin. But that wasn’t to be the case. 

In a good way. Don’t get me wrong, Berlin (as broken as it was) was great. But this evening was astounding. 

After the gig, we had a nice conversation with the man himself. We mentioned seeing him next in Newcastle and he told us that he’d heard that girls don’t wear coats, carry their shoes and piss in the street there. I suspect that Rob (Augustines’ drummer) may have told him that. 

I deeply regret the end of the Augustines, and  hope that they’ll perform as a band again one day. 

Meanwhile, though, I hope that Mr William J. McCarthy has success as a solo performer. And I look forward to pissing in the street with him next month. 

A couple of short videos, I’ll put others on Youtube. 

A pee in a bush and a bit of synchronicity

My second in command made a new friend in Erding today. A lady called Jieun. She’s from South Korea. And very nice too. 

So let’s talk synchronicity first. When I was last in Munich, with Lucy and Ian (Otherwise known as the only man in the world to have a ladybird poop on his shirt) I met a man from South Korea. A businessman. A very nice man. He gave me his email address, but I wrote it  down incorrectly. I hope he wasn’t offended that I never kept in touch. I tried. 

Today was also largely about a beer I developed a taste for a dozen years ago. Erdinger. My second in command and I ventured to Erding  today. We’d booked a brewery tour at the Erdinger brewery. We met the tour outside the fan club , after buying stuff we don’t need. 

Well, maybe we do. We can drink our Erdinger in the garden this sumner, from the proper glasses. 

Anyway, the tour was amazing. At only €15, you get a beer while you watch a film to give you some background information. Followed by a walk through the whole process. 

While they produce 200k plus bottles a a day, the process still takes a month. The place is huge, I mean huge.

No fish are involved in the process. None at all. Which is good since the brewery tour ends in pretzels and sausages and (lots of) beer. The pretzels were very nice, with some pretty heavy duty mustard. I did decline the white, floppy penis-like sausages though. 

Anyway, we, with a group of gentlemen from Nottingham (and my second in command’s new friend), left long after the tour had ended. The brewery called us a cab to the station, where we had two minutes to wait for the train to leave. 

Unfortunately, my bladder required me to pee before the S-bahn to Munich. Which meant that I needed to find a bush near the station. I’d barely started to pee before people started to shout that the train was about to leave. 

So I had around six pints of fresh beer, which meant my S-bahn limit wasn’t great. We’d aimed fot Munich hbf, but I couldn’t quite make it, so alighted at Marienplatz. Where, soon after, we found a nice (local) bar, where we seemed to be accepted. Franziskaner (from a drawer under the bar).


We enjoyed the brewery tour very much. A video of bottles of beer. Many bottles. 

Spaten

My second in command needed to pee en-route to our hotel, so we found a nice little bar. Where we found some Spaten pilsner. 


I’ve not been in Munich for twelve years, but have recognised some places within minutes. Some things have changes though; in common with Berlin, there’s a lot of building work. 

Nurnburg

We’ve made a discovery of great importance today. 

Several years ago, I came across Tucher, a delicious weissbier, in (of all places) Peterborough. Wetherspoons were selling it for £1.50 a bottle, I’d assumed it was something of an experiment since it disappeared after a couple of months and wasn’t available in other towns. At least none I’d frequented. 

It made a reappearance a couple of years ago though, across the chain. While the price has substantially increased, it’s still a preferred choice. 

And, today, while wandering the streets of Nuremburg, My second in command pointed out the numerous pieces of Tucher artwork adorning the exteriors of various establishments. 

On closer inspection, I found that the stuff is actually brewed here. How didn’t I know that?


One could have attempted a brewery tour. I wonder where said brewery is located. 

We enjoyed some other beer here too. 

Rathaus Spandau

I believe that Spandau metro station is the most beautiful of all metro stations. I still recall being taken with it at first sight several years ago. 



However, all of this metro travel is tiring, so we’re having a sit down with a nice beer.

Ich bin Berliner

Apparently, the ein is overkill. A couple of years ago, shortly before heading off to the airport (and home), we stumbled upon a cool bar near Bismarckestrasse. I made a mental note of its approximate location, but recognised that finding the place again would be a pretty remote possibility. 

However, by pure chance, on this very evening, our hotel is just around the corner to the bar. 

Zwei Bier bitte

And, so, I’ve learned enough German to:

– order two beers (or one, or three, or five)

– say I’m doing ok/good

– ask for directions to the toilet/station/bar

– excuse myself if I couldn’t find the toilet

– explain that I don’t understand a lot of German

– explain that I don’t actually understand any German.