November 15, 2016

Tossed salads, scrambled eggs and a side of life changes

Friends. I have some pretty big life-news to share. Rather than metering it out in 140 character bite-sized Tweets, short on context and detail, I’m writing it up long-form. Strap in. TL;DR - We’re moving to Seattle. I’m excited and terrified. Come December, I’ll have been working for Yammer for five years. When I was hired back in 2011, the company were still an upstart startup, pre-Microsoft acquisition, and they had lofty ideas about how they’d build out our engineering presence in Europe.

June 25, 2016

Post-Brexit Britain

I want to prefix this long diatribe with the disclaimers that I am not an expert on politics, I am not an economist, and I’m not even a particularly smart person. For reals. This will be my second ever political blog posting. I’m almost ashamed of myself for doing it. I’m sorry. I’ve just never felt so compelled to write about things like this before - I’ve been on the losing side of every major election I’ve been able to vote in and I’ve brushed it off with a sigh and just, y’know… got on.

June 9, 2016

Referendum-dums

Not normally a political animal, me. I’m not someone who’ll generally preach either - you vote for whoever, or whatever you want to - I’m not here to judge. However, I find myself drawn to write something about this upcoming European Referendum. Friends, family and co-workers have asked me how I’ll vote - which surprises me as people tend to be quite secretive about their political voting habits - like, you wouldn’t ask a colleague at the office who they were voting for in a General Election, right?

May 5, 2016

Wild Turkey & Four Roses Distilleries

Our visit to Wild Turkey was sadly a short one. We had a packed schedule that day and if we were to make all of the stops we’d planned, we’d need to have arrived bang on time to hit the tour running. As it happened, we arrived just as the tour minibus left the car park. Bummer. What wasn’t a bummer, however, is where Wild Turkey are located - above the Kentucky River valley, and this fabulous view: The valley sides are dotted with towering seven-storey rickhouses, all slowly turning black - the growth of “distiller’s mould” - a fungus that grows on rickhouse walls, encouraged by the evaporating spirits inside.

April 25, 2016

Town Branch Distillery, Lexington

If the Woodford Reserve distillery was an example of big-business trying to run an authentic shop the modern way, then Town Branch is the same concept, but taken fully modernised and industrialised - albeit on a small(-ish) scale. The Town Branch distillery is an offshoot of the Town Branch Brewery, which itself is a sub-division of the Alltech livestock and poultry feed and nutrition company. The what-what now? An animal feed company making whiskey?

April 20, 2016

Woodford Reserve Distillery

Our visit to Woodford Reserve presented an altogether different kind of approach to the distillation process. In stark contrast to Buffalo Trace, everything at Woodford Reserve is spotless, new, and highly finished. The entire tour environment is geared for visitors, whereas at the ‘Trace it definitely felt more like you were visiting a real-deal workplace. Even the welcome centre is styled like a modern, colonial homestead, and the gift shop and waiting area is furnished with beautiful leather loungers and an impressive feature fireplace.