12th bottle from the Advent Whiskey Calendar.
Not a fan of Irish whiskey, but this is a decent one as far as I’m concerned. Smooth, as expected from Irish, with notes of vanilla. At a strange 42% ABV (not 40%, but also not 46%), it still has some warmth in it. For 31GBP, it’s a good deal, although not one I’d take personally.
I’m a free man, I do what I want. I want to give a beer 5 starts, I give it. What you gonna do, complain that no beer deserve such a rating? This stout barrel aged imperial stout Poland does.
It’s a fantastic beer. Haven’t been such impressed since Brau, probably? It says vanilla, I say chocolate and prunes.
From what I can tell, yar also impacts ABV. Mine was 12%, 2022 was 13%, it seems.
10th bottler is Japanese Hibiki Harmony. It’s nice, but not 65GBP for a blended 43% ABV nice. Did I say 65GBP? It’s 73GBP now.
11th bottle is Samuel Gulliver & Co England’s No 6, English whiskey. It has a surprising amount of warmth for 46%, and some sweetness too, and tangy finish. But for 77GBP? I can get much better cask strength Scotch bottles.
I’ve had Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 for quite some time now. They went through a washing machine, and I even managed to repair them once. But one of the buds started discharging almost immediately, so I decided it’s time to get a new version. There are plenty of Galaxy Buds 3 Pro sold on eBay sealed, so I decided I’d get one of these.
They arrived in a couple of days, indeed sealed, and at first I was convinced. The fact that they didn’t connect when I opened the case and weren’t recognized by Wearables app was annoying, but many Samsung users reported the same.
Then I started noticing more details, like the case not having markings on the bottom, and the buds not colour coded as in the videos.
And the final nail in the coffin: typo “copyrigh” in the manual.
So yeah, those are fake. First time this happens to me, as far as I remember.
I started a dispute, learned my lesson, and bought Buds Pro 4 from official reseller this time.
I got to the point of trying to reassemble the weasel on the base again.
First I tried the Citadel glue. It didn’t feel like glue at all. Maybe it only works for very small pieces.
Then I tried the double compound from Araldite. After a day, it still wouldn’t hold the weight of the weasel.
I tried to put a screw through the base. But this only cracked the base.
So I went back to the compound, putting as much as a possibly could around the flatest area of the base. After a few days of curing, it broke again.
So I ordered the JB Weld compound, that I once used to weld a PC case. This one worked.
It was an interesting excercise, painting 100mm model. Required me to learn larger brushes as well.
That’s an independent bottling from Masters of Malt, that was heavily discounted. I’d say even without a discount, it’s quite solid. A bit sharp, but then it’s 10 years old, and definitely heavily sherried. Also at high ABV, 54%. I never tried Edradour 10, but based on Edradour 12 Cask Strength, that’s what I’d imagine it tasting.
I always assumed it is a local stout, because it’s widely availabile in the UK. Turns out it is brewed in Maine. It is smooth, sweet, and while not the most complex, very enjoyable. If I ever run out of Dragon Milk, it’s a valid, if inferior, option.
Another bottle that was hanging around for months, because it’s 14%, so you can’t drink it casually. Although it’s not expensive, as far as barrel ages stouts are concerned. And it’s absolutely fantastic. Drinks like a smooth vanilla liquor with coffee notes. I’m not even sure it can be called a beer at this point.
I wrote to the shop I got the wrong calendar from. At first they tried to gaslit me, saying that the only difference is the calendar sleeve, but I told them that I checked the contents on the site, and they aren’t the same. Then they offered 5% discount if I keep it, which is laughable. By that time I also received the correct calendar, and the funny thing is, it is also significantly larger. I don’t know why yet, as the contents are the same, 24x30ml bottles. But it is also 300g heavier. Either more cardboard or different bottle design.
At least I managed to get a refund for the blue calendar. And now I’ll probably will “sit” on the red calendar for another year, knowing myself.
9th bottle from the Advent Calendar.
It’s a surprise on so many levels. It doesn’t taste of rye much, and it doesn’t have the medicinal taste I often associate with oak. It is sweet, and unbelievable smooth for 56% ABV. Not to be confused with regular Ragtime Rye, which is “only” 45%. Has a long warm aftertaste. At 48GBP it’s incredible value.
I don’t know how much CaDA influences the design. But the approach is quite different to Lego. If Lego builds the chassis, then adds on top, in a horizontal manner, CaDA builds vertical slices: engine, cabin, transmission, and then joins it all together.
The way pieces are grouped is also totally different. As I mentioned, you have 7 different parts you need to build, but for each part there are multiple bags that seem to be grouped by the type of the piece, not where it fits. So you have gears in one bag, pins or axels in another, and so on. I spent a lot of time just sorting those into finer groups.
CaDA also uses some pieces I’ve not seen from Lego. Notably the strange angled pieces. Lego angle is the same thickness. CaDA has thickness 2 going to thickness 1.
Because the bags are just types of pieces and there are just 7 major blocks to build, you have to manage your own time. Unlike with Lego, where I knew 1 bag = 1 hours, give or take. It’s much more difficult. I spent 2:30 hours in 2 sittings, and haven’t finished the 1st block. Got stuck for a long time on this piece called 7-9L Linear Actuator because it just wouldn’t fit. Turns out, it has a screw inside, so you can adjust the length, and I put it in without adjusting,
8th whiskey from Advent Calendar, this one from Wales.
Until now there were some whiskies that were good for their price. This is simply good. It is strong, 60%, but it has everything you’d expect: numbing the mouth, some warmth, a lot of sweetness and muscat notes. Hits with a bang. I was surprised that it’s only 8 years old. At 90GBP it’s not a steal, just the right price.
Four months in, it works. I didn’t have to sharpen my Shun or Miyabi once since I bought it, just to hone them occassionally with Horl.
It does stain from strawberries and such, but the stains also go away. And it doesn’t retain any smell from onions.
I usually wash it by hand, but had occassionally put it in dishwasher, without issues.
It is heavy, but I still use rubber grip mat sometimes.
After buying whiskey advent calendars for a couple of years, I came to a simple conclusion that I’m not excited about Scotch whiskies anymore. I like them the most, but I’m not interested in trying more, because I had most of them, either as a bottle, or as a taster, or a better version of:
And this year I’m going through the World Whiskey calendar, which doesn’t change that much either.
What else is there? There’s Japanese whiskey. Those whiskies are more expensive, and so are the calendars. I always purchased the calendars after a discount, paying around 100GBP, but discounted Japanese whiskey calendars are 160GBP discounted.
And since I was dragging my feet into February, they actually stopped being discounted, and started selling for 250GBP again.
Luckily some shops are still selling them at the old price. Or so I thought.
I’m a simple man. I see Imperial Stout, I buy. Then a year later, I drink.
Holy Goat are based in Dundee, Scotland, and focus on barrel aged beers. This isn’t BA, as far as I can tell, though.
I wasn’t sure what I’m tasting, coffee or cocoa. Turns out, it has both. As delicious as Imperial Stouts get, if I appreciate more when it tastes like coffee without containing coffee.
When I was ordering from AliExpress, the only option available was without a box, so I’ve got mine wrapped in a bag.
Lego model was divided into 23 bags, although some contained smaller bags inside. CaDA divides its bags into 7 groups, each group is about 8 bags. And some extras, like wheels and tires. Wheels are slightly smaller than of McLaren P1, not sure what’s the reason for that, as both should be 1:8 models.
Lego is often criticized for using blue pieces. Those provide more friction, but they do stick like a sore thumb if left exponsed, like on the McLaren P1 front panel. No blue pieces in those bags. We’ll have to see if CaDA uses same color for pieces of different friction, or they just use frictionless black pieces for everything.
7th bottle from the Advent Calendar.
I hate when whiskey producers come up with those witty names. How am I supposed to search for whisky called “the one”?
In any case, whiskey is not just about taste, but also about price. This is a blended whiskey, but at least it’s 46% ABV, and it costs just 35GBP, which is quite impressive for what it delivers.
I decided to take a break from painting Warhammer to painting an alternative model, picking Mousin Weasel Sprint printed by someone from Etsy. Those can be printed in multiple sizes, I went with 100mm.
The problem with 100mm started pretty quickly, as there’s a single spoke that attaches the weasel to the base, and it’s quite heavy, so after gluing, that spoke just broke off and stayed stuck in the base. I’ll need to figure out how to attach it to the base safely later.
The same happened with the mouse tail. But after a couple of attempts, I managed to glue it back together.
Priming it was surprisingly easy. Maybe because it is a larger model, or diffirent plastic that the one Games Workshop uses, but one coat of Abaddon Black was enough. Shading a larger model is tiresome, though. Or maybe I needed a larger dry brush.
Over New Year I finished my Lego McLaren P1. As I predicted, two wrong pieces in bag 11 came to haunt me in bag 23, the last bag, as the engine lid wouldn’t close properly.
Luckily, Lego has a piece delivery system, which doesn’t even require receipts. You just specify which set you are doing and what pieces you are missing.
I’m glad that I submitted the request on the 1st of January, because I received the items only a couple days ago.
But now it’s finally complete. Took 23 sittings, per number of bags, and around 15 hours in total. I didn’t try to rush it, though, had no reason to.
Next, I’ll give CaDA a try.
I’m not a fan of sours, but this one, which resided in my fridge for at least a year, was actually pretty good. So much strawberry I couldn’t believe it didn’t have any additives to it. Overall, great one, as expected from Vault City.
Also, let’s just appreciate for a moment this peach color.