Hotel

I scored with the hotel room - we emailed the hotel to let them know that we had booked for Sunday night but would not be turning up until early Monday morning, but they obviously missed that bit and had us down as 'no shows' and gave our rooms away. That meant that we got free room upgrades - I'm in a 2 bedroom flat that has a normal tariff of over $800 / night. I may or may not keep the room for the whole week - it depends on demand - but I'm enjoying it whist it lasts.

It has a great lounge / dining room with a small kitchen attached

 With a view overlooking the Emirates Towers and Sheikh Zayed Rd

 

 The main bedroom is huge

 Again with a great view from the window

and it even has a second bedroom, just in case I decide to sleepwalk between berths

 Here's hoping that I sleep well tonight and that I get to stay here for the week!

Dubai - first impressions

I was lucky enough to get an aisle row to myself on the flight out so was able to lay down completely, which helped a lot when it came to having a nap. I probably got around 6-7hrs sleep and more importantly it was comfortable sleep. That meant that I didn't need to use the 'nap time' I'd put aside this morning to catch up and instead went for a 'short walk' to get my bearings.

As always my short walks make long promenades. I started off just checking out some street scenes

But then in the distance I saw the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Doesn't look too far away...

 OK actually it does, but I've put my mind to it now

I was walking down Sheikh Zayed Rd  and because it was only 9am there was a bit of shade from the surrounding buildings, but you could feel how hot it was going to be in full sunshine

I had to hunt around the areas a few streets back in order to find ways to cross some major arterial roads, and it was interesting how quickly the gleaming facades gave way to broken, crumbling pavements

The Dubai Mall sits at the base of the Burj Khalifa and is apparently the biggest shopping mall in the world, holding around 1200 stores. Despite its size it's largely just another overpriced shopping precinct, very similar to what you'd find in KL or on Orchard Rd in Singapore, but there is some impressive sculpture including this huge waterfall 

 and an indoor two-story aquarium

 

I have to admit that my first impressions aren't great. The place seems very soul-less in a way that similar developments in SE Asia don't. I think that's because this whole area has been created from scratch in the last 30 years - before that is was desert - and so the smaller businesses and stalls haven't had a chance to get a toe-hold between the fast food joints and high-end shops. To fight that sterility they resort to novelty, where everything has to be the biggest, largest, tallest or more stand-out in some other way. It's early days though - some of the guys in the office love it here and want to stay, so maybe it will grow on me.

How to be a mountain biker

All too true...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPVRU7jSYkQ

 

Luckily I haven't gone down the clichéd path of dressing like a singlespeeder

Trees!

I've got a week off the bike now. Luckily it was a lovely morning for a quick ride before I fly...

 

Hopdate #2

We have signs of life in one of the pots! Whoot!

 

Bonus tune!

I'm off to Dubai on Sunday (I still have no real idea why, but I'll take it) so this has to be the song of the week....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ9r8LMU9bQ

 

The other option was the Cure's homage to Camus, but that didn't seem to be culturally appropriate...

It's alright Ma (I'm only craying)

Our little Rexy is growing up fast. The other day he tucked himself away for another shell-change, which is always an anxious moment for an owner as you come back and find what looks like a dead crayfish curled up at the side of the tank - legs, pincers, antenna and all

 But who's that peeking out from under the log?

 No pictures please! Damn the crayfish paparazzi!

Happy new-shell-day little buddy.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brNby5IFDnA

Extract brew - with extras

A few months ago I brewed a Stone & Wood clone (named 'Clone & Wood') using tinned, pre-hopped malt extract . The beer was easy to make, crisp, clean, very close in flavour to the original and went down all too easily. Since then I've become embroiled in the world of all-grain and although I enjoy the brewing and the beer, it is a time consuming method.

Because of this I thought I'd try another extract brew this week and get something in my fermenter before I go away. I've based this on a 'Summer Ale' recipe but I'm using Danny's extract techniques, as outlined in the link above. The brewing part was done in an hour or so, it cooled overnight with minimal water and then I spent another 20 minutes or so this morning straining & cleaning. Easy.

So the recipe is -

Take 1 can Coopers Cerveza & 1 can Coopers wheat malt and stand in hot water for 5 minutes or so. Open the tins and pour into a largeish pot (at least 8l).
Add 2 litres of boiling water & 1/2 kg raw sugar, stir well and bring to the boil.
Throw in 50g fuggles hops - I wrapped mine in cheesecloth to make a 'hop bag' but I won't do that next time, mainly because if the hops don't circulate in the pot they don't get utilised properly.
Boil for 20 minutes or so.
Throw in 20g dried sweet orange peel, 2 tbsp. crushed coriander seeds, 25g of chopped ginger and 25g East Kent Goldings (I added these in a hop bag at first but they didn't seem to be having much effect so I opened the bag up and mixed them in).
Boil for another 10 minutes or so.
Put a lid on the pan and leave the whole lot in a sink surrounded by cold water overnight.
Tip into the fermenter through a clean sieve and top up to desired volume with filtered water.
Add yeast (although I pitched mine onto the yeast trub from a previous brew), keep cool and ferment.

And that's the brew day. After the initial ferment dies down I'll throw in a hop bag with 50g of Galaxy to dry hop it and give that fresh grapefruit aroma, and then it's business as usual.

My fermenters are now maxed out - 24l of Jaggery IPA ageing in secondaries, 1 demijohn of strawberry cider and 23l of Summer Ale. I think it's going to be a good summer...