A lot of vinyl played this week. Here are the top 5 songs from the last seven days:
And by that I mean the playlist is random, not the driving. OK?
Driving back from the North Wales coast recently, here are the random songs that were chosen by the iPod for forty minutes of the journey.
Dozens of songs listened to, here are five that stood out:
Just for you!
A few years ago, I had an urge to get me an old school set up. I already had my everyday double kick street machine, but I felt I needed something that reminded me of my skateboarding youth in the 1980s.
This Santa Cruz Street Creep was the answer.
I remembered the Street Creep from those halcyon days. I never owned one at the time, though I did own other Santa Cruz decks (see the blog about my Rob Roskopp deck, for one). The Street Creep was a very cool shape and a cool graphic.
Luckily for me, numerous skateboard companies have been re-issuing the old shapes as collectors pieces. I picked this re-issue up fairly easily. I fitted it with some new, wide Independent trucks and some old Santa Cruz Slime Balls wheels and it was ready to go.
The wheels were rescued from an old relic of a board that was passed to me a few years back. I always wanted some Slime Balls, finally I got a set!
The result is a rad skateboard that brings back loads of memories. The shape is great, though it takes some getting used to after skating shorter, thinner boards for ages. It’s a fantastic skateboard for blasting a few old tricks on – I find no-complys and some boneless manoeuvres easier on this set up.
With the big, softer Slime Balls attached, this board is great for carving up some of my favourite banked skate spots. In particular, there’s a messy old “bowl” I like to skate – tarnished with grit and stones, but very skateable with this monster.
Plus there’s the graphic – if you’re an old 80’s skate hound like me, it’s all about the skulls! Check out the close up the graphic and you’ll see dozens of smaller skulls and faces within the image.
Skateboards are a thing of beauty; this Street Creep looks and rides superb.
Top graphic
This weeks “louder then the rest” tunes:
Chez Jules, Chester
OK, so I have to admit: French food is not really my thing. I love France, having travelled there many times, but other than the fabled Croque Monsieur I could take or leave the grub. Or most Northern European food, for that matter. Typically, I much prefer more exotic fare.
I was to be pleasantly surprised by Chez Jules, however.
The restaurant has been offering French meals for many years, though I have never visited before. I was tagging along in a family party. Chez Jules was immediately impressive with its continental style and warm welcome.
We were visiting on a Tuesday evening, when Chez Jules offers a pretty unbeatable offer: two courses and a bottle of wine for just £17.50 each. That’s a whole bottle of wine, to myself. With two courses of food. Absolutely crazy.
The menu changes regularly, but appears to offer a wide variety of temptations. For my entrees, I opted for pork rillettes, served with caramalised onion chutney and toasted French bread. That didn’t mean much to me, but I can tell you I was reminded of pate in style. As always with pate, I ran short of toast – however the excellent staff had provided bread for the table, so I hoovered that up as well. Fantastic start.
For the main, or “plats de resistance”, I ordered a pork, apricot and sage roulade, with potato puree and red wine jus. Think along the lines of a little dome of pulled pork. This was an exceptionally tasty centre for my meal. “Jus” turns out to be like gravy, which was a bit of a relief as I was slurping the (very good!) red wine too easily. I think I was worried that Chez Jules would realise their offer was ridiculous and would want their wine back.
The main courses were accompanied by vegetables (potatoes, broccoli, carrots etc) – plenty to be shared amongst us. This was the only part of the meal that left me under whelmed – I’ve never been a fan of vegetables of this type. No fun at all.
However such is the standard of French (and English) food, so to be scathing here would be like complaining in a Mexican restaurant that they don’t do fish’n’chips. Plus the dauphinoise potatoes were pretty fine.
To finish my meal off, I couldn’t resist a dessert. I had a chocolate and raspberry confection – it was like a mousse – served with creme fraiche. This was new to the menu, me being the guinea pig. And I could have pigged out all day on this, it was wonderful!
My visit to Chez Jules left me very happy and somewhat surprised. The food, though not my personal choice, turned out to be extremely good. The Tuesday night deal was unbelievable value and the staff were professional, yet friendly and down to earth. I would definitely visit again.
Food Quest Test
Chez Jules, 71 Northgate Street, Chester CH1 2HQ
01244 400014
The Chez Jules website is here.
Here are five more tunes that stood out from my listening over the last week. Enjoy!
Presenting a new feature at the Virtual Hot Tub, my Songs of the Week. Each week, I will pick five songs that I’ve enjoyed listening to over the last seven days, and share them here for your enjoyment.
Now I listen to probably hundreds of songs in any one week, so choosing just five won’t be easy. Each track will have stood out for some reason or other – perhaps it was poignant, perhaps relating to something going on in my life. Most likely it will just be a proper banging tune that I’ve loved.
This is intended to be a regular weekly feature, but we’ll see how that goes. It’s not easy running this Virtual Hot Tub, you know.
Here’s the five for week ending 03/07/2016:
There you go – five killer tracks. No explanations necessary. Unless the multitudes of readers want to know why songs are chosen, then I’ll reconsider.
For now – keep rockin’.
I remember the glory days; back in the late 1980’s, when we used to be able to buy root beer in McDonald’s. We used to go skateboarding, and always choose root beer to accompany our meal if ever we went to Ronald’s.
But root beer proved too bizarre a taste for the staid British market, and soon enough it was impossible to buy any from Maccies. Around that time, I embarked on a long personal veto on visiting the burger clown (for several reasons, not just the drinks).
Eventually root beer started cropping up in some super markets, and with the arrival of American sweet shops cans of the stuff were available again. It was like repealing prohibition, but prices were high. 
Root beer is essentially a non-alcoholic (despite the name) fizzy drink. It’s never quite translated well over here, unlike many of it’s soda compatriots.
To be fair, it is something of an acquired taste. I’ve previously described root beer as tasting similar to Dandelion & Burdock with a whiff of Germolene. It’s often compared to mouthwash.
Yet I (and many of my friends) have developed a love of the sweet fizzy stuff. Perhaps it’s the thrill of the rare and exotic. More likely, it the fact that root beer was featured in US comics, films and TV – so just like Twinkies they became a part of a fascinating pop culture.
And don’t forget that classic British skate punk band The Stupids were known to refer to it (see “Root Beer Death” on the Van Stupid album).
Top of the crop is A&W Root Beer. I remember trying this for the first time on my trips to the USA some while ago. I probably tried a few different brands, but this is the only one I recall. This brew is smooth, not too fizzy and not too sweet. Unfortunately it’s usually only available at a premium price from specialist sweet shops. 
A cheaper option, also from a US sweet shop, was the Day’s root beer. This only came in at just under a quid. However, it’s not quite the quality drink that A&W offer.
Another choice is Carters Refreshing Root Beer. This can be purchased much more cheaply, in packs of six from your local Asda. However, this version is cloyingly sweet to the novice, and not as mellow a taste. Still, for the price and ease of purchase it’s worth checking out.
So there you have it: a synopsis of my love of root beer. An under appreciated and derided beverage, it beats a cup of tea any day. ‘Cos I hate tea, me.
