Sunday Sesh #18 - New Year's Double-down

Since last Sunday was a dry sesh because of Christmas, this weekend is a double-down. That's right - two beers in one Sesh. Incidentally, Christmas wasn't exactly "dry", as much as I just never got the chance to write about the beers I drank while I was home. So anyway, here are the first two beers of the New Year.

First off the rank is a Matilda Bay Alpha Pale Ale.

Matilda Bay Alpha Pale Ale

This one is a big brew, and there's not much pale about it. It's a dark golden colour, smelling fruity and citrusy - fresh enough for summer.

It's got some big flavours but it's not overwhelming as you might expect. There's a bitterness that lasts a little while, but it's not too over-powering. They say to have this with roast meats, but I accompanied my beer with a rump steak and veg. It went down quite nicely and suited the steak well.

I will have this one again, but it won'te become one of my regulars.

The second of today's beers is from James Squire - Stow Away IPA (India Pale Ale) - quite appropriate since we're hosting a four test series against them this summer, but I digress.

James Squire Stow Away IPA

This also pours quite well, with a frothy but light head. You can see the big difference in these two is the carbonation, but they're almost identical in colour.

The IPA is drier and has a lot stronger bitterness in the aftertaste. It's not too bad though, and I could have a couple of these on a hot day. It also smells a bit like potpourri out of the bottle, as well as wet paper - doesn't make sense to me either, but that's what I could smell.

I prefer the Alpha over the IPA, but I wouldn't say no to either of them if they were offered.

Today's sesh marks the first day of 2012. New Year is normally when most of us take stock of what we've done with the last year and in particular, how we're going to lose the weight we've gained over the Festive Season.

I plan on having a big year in 2012, but I'm not one to make resolutions. I think they're a fast way to failure. I do, however, believe in goal-setting - something I've been lacking over the past year or so. I've been coasting a little, going with the flow and seeing where it takes me. It hasn't been too bad this last year, but 2012 is the year I take the wheel back and start to steer for myself.

The one thing I do want to get done is a revision of my writing plan. I wrote one at the start of last year that more or less just said that I wanted to prioritise my writing. I managed to do that more than I have in previous years, but this year it will go further. One of the major changes will be to set a writing schedule, and stick to it.

I will also start introducing myself to people as a "writer" instead of an "accountant". At some point, I'm hoping that my brain starts to believe it and allows me to start acting like a writer instead of an accountant - not that being an accountant is a bad thing, but it's just not what I want to be when I grow up.

I'm excited about being a writer this year instead of an accountant, and I'm excited about what I hope to achieve. One of the last things I did in 2011 (oh so far away now) was to go through my ideas - books, notes, napkins, post-its etc - and write them down on note-cards. Some of them have working titles, others just start with "The one about...". I've added short synopses on each of them so I know what they're about, and because of that, I feel a bit more organised already.

The other thing I realised is that I can no longer tell anyone I don't have any ideas. I actually have 18 of them. That's 18 novels that are waiting to be written. It blew me away when I realised, and the thing is, I only wrote down the ones that had "formed" to a point where I had a couple of characters, plot points and a general idea. I have a tonne of other ideas that are still percolating in the furthest reaches of my brain. The other thing is, a couple of those ideas are looking more and more like they could be great as series, so who knows how many books 18 ideas can turn into.

With that in mind, and safe in the thought that at any time I feel I can't write anything I can just pull out a new note-card and start working on something different, I'm heading into 2012 with renewed vigour and energy,and particularly, enthusiasm, for my writing.

Blog-wise, I'm still pottering along trying to balance what I want to write about and writing about a lot less on "me". There'll be a few changes - not least of which when Summer is over, there will be no more Sunday Sesh's, but I'm kicking around a few ideas to take its place over the colder months - perhaps reviewing coffee in the local cafes, or even better, the hot chocolates.

I'm also looking at blogging more on writing and my journey, almost as a journal, and I definitely want to include more extracts so you can see what I've been working on.

I'm also considering a weekly post on something topical - politics, scandals, something to get passionate about. I've enjoyed writing about gay marriage this year, not least of which because it affects me directly, but also because I'm passionate about it. I'm passionate about a lot of other things though, and I want to step side-ways a little and post more on the things that make me cringe, face-palm, laugh-out-loud, and yell at the television.

Apart from that, there are a host of other things that I'd like to achieve this year, but rather than bore you with the details, I'll let you go and nurse your hangovers, and if you didn't overdo it last night, pay out on those who did.

Plus, I need to get back to renovating. We're now on a fast-track to getting the house finished as we're on a dead-line. As we speak, power tools are whining away in the back yard cutting timber and drilling holes for the deck. The ceiling has been fixed and patched, so my painting skills are being called on.

It will be great to get the house finally finished, but we may not get to stick around to enjoy our hard work for very long. As I said earlier, I think this year will yield big things, so stay tuned.

Happy new year, and until next Sunday's Sesh,
Cheers!

Sunday Sesh #6 - Matilda Bay Fat Yak

Today's Sunday Sesh is brought to you by Matilda Bay's Fat Yak, an American-style pale ale. Matilda Bay is currently one of my favourite breweries, bringing you crackers such as Beez Neez honey-infused lager, Dogbolter Dark Lager, and Big Helga, a Munich-style, Oktoberfest-inspired dry lager.

As you can see, it's a nice golden colour - darker than your usual run-of-the-mill pale ale. Smells crisp, and it's a refreshing drink, especially after a day working on the house. A great pub beer when it's on tap (it's my beer of choice when we go out), and great with a counter meal. I always try to have some of this in the fridge (if not, I normally have some in stock in the cupboard).
A question to start off the session today - are Wifey and I the only two people in Oz who don't give a toss about the outcome of Bathurst? Sorry Brocky and Dick Johnson (yeh, I know who they are) but Ford v Holden? Meh! Even the fact that I could plant myself in front of the telly with an esky full of beer couldn't make me sit through a car race.

If I wanted to see motor-enhanced action, I'd just sit at any of the main roads in town on a Friday or Saturday night, and watch the heroes dragging each other off at the lights. Come to think of it, I can just watch out my bedroom window at the clowns racing down my street, leaving their tyre-rubber on the corner up the road.

Or I could just get out the scalextric set, and drive the cars myself.

So if we haven't been watching the Big Race, what have we been up to? This weekend is the first we've had in awhile that was free of visitors and commitments, so we decided to work on the house. Wifey has been doing the yard work, and I've been doing bits and pieces of painting and prep-work for more renos. Wifey even got excited and started knocking down the brick back steps in readiness for the new deck. Three hours later and she's only half-way done.

We've also been looking at open houses, as we're hoping to get our house on the market by Jan/Feb, and buy our second house. We've decided on another renovator, but we're hoping to buy up into a better area, so we're looking for a "worst house in the best street" kind of thing. It's been awhile since we've really been looking, but it's nice to know that the real estate jargon hasn't changed.

"Original condition" means nothing has been done on it since it was built - this, funnily enough, is what we're after. Although there is a huge difference between a house that's been looked after, and one that's falling down around itself.

"Entertaining area" is a pretty ambiguous one - a few pavers out the back does not an entertaining area make. Neither does a bit of cement that used to be the old outdoor laundry.

"Lush gardens" usually means overgrown and unwieldy, meaning a complete overhaul.

"Newly renovated" means some stuff has been done to it in the last ten years. Usually badly.

After having a look around this weekend, we've settled on a few areas we want to concentrate on, and know what we definitely don't want. Finding it will be the problem, but we're hoping that starting early will mean we have a better chance. We're also using it as a chance to narrow the field of agents we think we might use. So far, we've been pleasantly surprised and haven't had too many hard-sellers. They tend to leave you alone when you tell them you're currently renovating and just keeping an eye on the market.


There's just over three weeks to go before Nano starts, and apart from cleaning the study last weekend in readiness, I've also been doing some plotting and characterisation on my chosen Nano idea. After working on it for the past week, I've come to realise that I seem to have an obsession with death. It shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise, since I do work in taxes, but I didn't realise how obsessed I was until I looked back over a few of my other ideas that have been percolating in my brain.

In the process of cleaning the study, I also organised my notes and paperwork, and no less than five of my WIP/ideas have a whiff of death about them. Some of them more than others, but it's there. I'm not sure why entirely, although when you kill a character off, that's a pretty good plot point. It's also a great way to get rid of a character you thought was alright when you started, but they turned into a whiney, self-obsessed pain in the ass. The story is not all about them but they take it over, so you know, as God, I get to drive them off a cliff, or get some horrible disease. Or I can just make them disappear - you really shouldn't mess with someone who knows some badass characters......

It's time for another Fat Yak methinks. And to see how the Wallabies went against the Springboks. Rugby isn't something I normally watch, but if we make the final, I'll make sure I support them with a beer or three in front of the telly. Much better than watching cars go around a track all day.

until next Sunday's Sesh,
Cheers!