Better Than A Beer From Belgium

How's that for a post title? Gonna get some hits from that, for sure!

Now, we all know that belgians (that being a person from Belgium) make damned good beer. So good that the main world-wide beer tasting competitions are run in Bruxxelles (Brussells for those of you not familiar with flemish).

I'm sure that anyone who's had a beer from Belgium is doubtlessly gonna say that there is NO WAY a beer from Oz (that's aussie slang for Australia) is better than one that the belgians make.

Well... how abouts if the BELGIANS think so?

There is a beer brewed down in Tas (aussie for Tasmania) that certainly qualifies. It has just won a special gold medal at the latest competitions from Brussells. A beer is only awarded this special gold medal if it has WON GOLD MEDALS FOR TEN YEARS STRAIGHT in their tasting competitions.

So, for ten years in a row, the belgians have given this beer a gold medal and given it a special recognition for the wins.

What is this wonder brew? It's James Boag's Premium Lager. It's brewed in Tas, specifically Launceston (pronounced lawns-tn) from water only off of the Esk River. You can only get it in bottles, and even down here it's $12 a six pack. But oh it is a wonderful waste of $12!!!!

When our friend from Alaska was visiting last month she tried one. She is NOT a beer drinker. In fact she doesn't even like beer (something about how she thinks it all tastes like crap, or some such drivel). However... she loves this beer! So much so that she took a few back home with her.  She's now trying to find a source for it in Anchorage (GOOD LUCK!).

She gave one to the Old Fart (my dad). He didn't like it. What do you expect from someone who drinks Hamm's Light?


Next topic: BIRDS

This morning there were 8 galahs in the feeder, and I got some great shots. However, you don't get to see them till next time. For today I have a couple of shots from the other day...







Ain't they purdy????


Next topic: Adelaide Heat Wave

The weather is finally supposed to break this evening and tomorrow is only going to be 88 in the shade... I think I'll have to put a jacket on, perhaps.

What has the heat been like lately? Well, here's a couple of shots, one is of the shade temp, and the other is in the sun on the bricks next to the pool (did I mention we have a pool?).

The first one is in the shade...





This next one is NOT in the shade (duh)!





Next topic: Story Time with Unkie Dave

I really need to finish the story of how we all almost died in the canoe going down the creek when I was a wee lad. But, I'm not going to do that today. Why not? Cus I've got a great title for the post that has the story and since I'm such a moocher for hits now I'll tell you next time (hint, look out for a cool blog post title tomorrow), but I'll copy in the first post now to not only give all my new readers (thanks all!) something to read, but also so that you won't have to go trolling through the archives looking for it.

Death of a Canoe, Part One (from quite a few months ago):

Now on to the section of Alaskan Dave Down Under which specifically focuses on dave (that's me) growing up (HA!) and having fun in the wilds of the north.

Back in the very early 70's, the family moved from the little trailer in a trailer park off Muldoon into a large house by a lake. Since there was a lake, the Old Fart (my dad) got a canoe for us to play around with in the lake. He got a LAKE canoe. Very long with a square stern (for hanging an outboard motor --it's called a transom).

We had some fun with the canoe on the lake; explored pretty much every inch of it --got bored after a few months and then they (the parents --specifically The Old Fart (my dad)) had the great idea to go down Campbell Creek in it.

Yes, I can hear all of you in Los Anchorage saying how the creek is polluted and we couldn't possibly have done it... Keep in mind this was 35 years ago (you know: back when Benson Blvd didn't exist and Northern Lights Blvd was one lane each way and had just recently been paved? Of course you remember!)! There was still a big salmon run in the creek and there was a race down it each year (stay tuned!!!!).

CC (I'm tired of typing The Creek, or Campbell Creek) is fed by snow melt from up in the mountains nearby. This means that it really really really cold. Did I mention it was a tad bit on the nippy side? CC is also one of those that even though it runs through south Anchortown it's still quite the wild and wooley ride when the water's up.

Once you got past the first few easy miles, it turned into a twisty, turny fun ride. On the inside of each sharp turn were what's called "sweepers". A sweeper is a tree on the bank of a river that has had the bank eroded out from under it so that the tree hangs over the river (or creek in this case). If they only hang down to about 45 degrees you can duck under them and their low-hanging branches, but if they hang lower (sometimes even parallel to the creek) then it's really hard to duck under the branches without hurting yourself massively --so you go around.

On the outside of a turn that has sweepers, there's usually a deep hole in the river bottom formed by the swirling eddy's of the river. Think of them as miniature whirlpools. The water swirls around on the outside of a sharp bend and goes straight down into the river bottom and gouges out such a hole that you are well under water if you tried to stand up in one (don't try it!!!!). Also, the eddy's are a great place for big ole logs to hang out in and jam up against each other. Anything that can't float (like a swamped canoe for example) will be jammed against the logs and then shot to the bottom of the hole along with whatever is in it.

We had been down the creek a few times in the LAKE canoe, but we always got out before the ugly part. Weeeellll... to make a long story even longer, there was this time (after weeks of heavy rains) that we decided to go all the way down to Campbell Lake.

Part Two coming up soon: Does the clan pile into the logjam in a whirlpool or do they get gored by the branches of a sweeper... Da Da Da Dummmmm!