Happy New Year.

Happy New Year! Aye, I know its a bit late but better late than never.

We'll start with a few drinks. Faithir and I were round at Dave's just before Christmas and he brought out the big guns, some Ginger Tam's and a bottle of Tactical Nuclear Penguin. Ginger Tam's is a whisky, honey and ginger liqueur and at 48.5% its got plenty kick. With a few ice cubes it's fucking tasty too.

Ginger Tam's

Tactical Nuclear Penguin is a different kettle of fish. It was classed as the strongest beer in the world when it came out. It's 32% and an acquired taste (fucking boufing). It's sort of a mix between cough medicine, treacle and marmite. This shit will put fucking hair on your chest for sure.

Tactical Nuclear Penguin. For the dedicated.

Between Christmas and New Year (and between two fucking colds, I'm fighting part three off just now) I was out with some of the folk from the ELMTB pussbook page for out annual Christmas/New Year cycle round the local woods. We met at the Winton where the barman Jamie gave us a few ports to set us up. Most of the trails were really gloopy and muddy and half way round it started pishing down with rain, so by the time we got back to the Winton we were all ready for beers and the five massive pizzas we got delivered to the pub from Dino's in Haddington.

Mind I was saying that Tactical Nuclear Penguin was the strongest been in the world? Well Lee brought a bottle of Sink The Bizmark to our Hogmanay party. This shit will fuck you up good and proper. Its even more of a joy to drink than the Penguin and its 41%! The party was pretty good, plenty food, booze, laughs and fires.

Fucking hardcore.

After Hogmanay HB and I took the Fiat 500 north to visit her Dad and her Bro. I managed to get the crack with Drew, Ferg and the rest of the Caithness crew which was good. We also had a wee explore around some places. There's lots of stuff to see and visit hidden all over Caithness. If we'd had a bit more time I would have taken the Pugsley. Next time though.

Crossing the Forth Road Bridge

Ferg and HB

Ferg the sexy bastard gave us a surf demo. It was epic.

Dunnet beach. I'll return here with the Pug for sure.

I got out to the beach on the Pugsley for what feels like the first time in ages. Dave and I cycled to North Berwick from Gullane and back. There's quite a few of us with fatbikes in East Lothian but this was the first time I've met someone else out on the beach. Dave and I met Gary coming along the beach before we spotted some Nate tyre tracks and sent Bruce a text saying we were following him. He came back along and met up with us and we headed along to North Berwick for some posh coffee and cake. We nipped into Law Cycles for a chat with Dave McH before saying cheerio to Bruce and heading back along the coast.

Dave and Gary

A leftover from a Hogmanay party?

Dave and Bruce

Dave havin' a go. It was steep as fuck.

A gid day oot! Now to get this cold to fuck off and get back out.

Smokin' and Cyclin'.

All this good weather we've been having recently has put me in the barbecue mood. The only problem is that my barbecue is fucked. It was an old Weber kettle style grill that I found in a field. It was pretty rusty in spots and one of the legs finally succumbed to the tin worm and collapsed completely. So I decided to make a new hot smoker/grill out of some of the parts of the my old one, and a 45 gallon drum.

 Dave gave me a loan of his angle grinder, which I used to cut the top off the drum and cut a hole to add fuel and wood for the smoke.

Then I had a fire in the drum to burn it clean, and get all the paint off the outside of the drum. I done this twice for good measure.

My uncle Greaser gave me a loan of his welder and Dave welded on the hinge, door and hook so I can close the fuelling door. He tidied up some of the rough edges with his grinder too.

I had some pork to test it with so i fired it up. The lid from my old BBQ fitted the drum perfectly, as did the grill. Sweet!
I smoked the marinated pork for about 4 hours. It was pretty tasty but could have done with a bit longer on the grill.

I've given the drum a lick of paint so it looks a wee bit less jakey and drilled some holes so I can shut the door completely without suffocating the charcoal basket. I'll get some photos up of it completed soon.

The Get Fit or Die Tryin's going pretty well. I went out for a cycle around some local woods with Bruce, Paul and Gavin the other day and actually managed to keep up with them most of the time without feeling like i was going to have a fucking heart attack. The weather was ace as was the route Bruce took us. We were crossing rivers and climbing through coo fields. Quality fun.
I never took my camera, but Gavin and Bruce got some good pics.

Mine and Paul's 456s.

River crossin!

Just after this I done my human torpedo impression.



This hill was like a 45 degree swamp. Fucking nightmare!

While we were out I'd left some pork, beef and salmon cooking away slowly on the smoker. So after we'd had a few pints in the pub it was round to mine for some scran. HB had made some tattie wedges and salad for us to have along side the meat and fish. I forgot to take any pictures of the food but I was pretty happy how it had turned out. The fish was dry as a nun's chuff though. Waaaaaaay overcooked, but the pork and beef turned out not bad. The pork had been on for around 6 hours and the beef 5. I'll try using the heatsheild and waterbath in the smoker next time to try and keep it super tender and juicy.
Here's a wee video Bruce made when we were out. He can wheelie for miles!