Finally went to my first Auckland FC game. The atmosphere was great - a good mixture of family-friendly and dedicated English-style chanting. The quality of the football, however...... Oh, that was woeful. I've never seen so much pushing, shoving and falling over.

Just to be very clear : trans people exist, and therefore they have rights. The rest goes without saying.

Happy Friday. I hereby declare Beer O'clock.

I loved doing this interview. Some fascinating insights.

Craft beer porn at a business meeting tonight

Loads of folk in Metallica t-shirts in the Commercial Bay foodcourt at lunchtime. Anyone would think there was a concert or something.

Tonight's dinner was very photogenic. Pea, leek and spinach soup with halloumi. 🍽️

I have gained much joy from #SecretSantaAoNZ over the years, but I won't be participating this year. It's complicated. Limited funds, a poor experience last time and just a general weariness. I will watch everyone else having fun and smile.

New one rep max on bench press of 98kg today. That 100kg goal is in sight. Nice finish to a stressful week. #liftheavyshit

Very glad to see that Woolworths Browns Bay have moved (most of) the craft beer selection (including my beloved Tigermilk) into the chiller.

Auckland North Shore peeps: the new NZ Blood donor centre is very comfy, right next door to Constellation bus station and has plenty of parking. Get yourselves in there and, if you can donate plasma, please do coz they're having to import it.

Just had my first free MMR jab. Need to go back in a month for the second. As a child of 1970 I have no idea of my immunity status so it makes sense to play it safe.

Can anyone recommend a tool to design a simple flyer that ISN'T overflowing with AI garbage?

Despite living in New Zealand for the last 18 years I was unaware of our involvement in this piece of aviation and world history theupfront.media/flying-blind... Nice work @garius.bsky.social

Really struggling to deal with how bad my dad is doing. He desperately needs a hip replacement. It got canceled a couple of months ago because he got a chest infection. Rescheduled for 20th of November. Everything crossed it goes ahead because his quality of life is non-existent.

This Flor de Cana rum is extremely nice

What a cracker of a T20 series so far.

That's Not Beer! New episode of our podcast is live, featuring another Q&A session recorded at Beervana. This time we feature Three Sisters Brewing and Duncan's Brewing talking about smoothie sours & pastry stouts. linktr.ee/third.pint.t...

Took advantage of working from home, the dog being at daycare and a few days of good weather to get a coat of teak oil on the outdoor furniture before my first meeting.

Busy day, for a non-working (well, not getting paid) day. Life admin (laundry & food plan for the week), gym session, weekly supermarket and veg shop, then some Google AI training. Currently crashed on the sofa with a beer before starting on pizza making.

It was awesome to catch up with Ben, as well as Rob from PhatHouse brewing. We called in at Ben's brewery in Hikurangi on the way home; definitely worth checking out if you're up on the Tutukaka Coast.

Any other Orcon customers in Auckland having broadband issues? I've been sitting in their telephone support queue for nearly an hour.

It was excellent to catch up with Ben from Heaven's Brewing at the Liquid Gold festival in Paihia today. Have a listen to our interview with him: open.spotify.com/episode/6vMt...

Up in Paihia for a bit of a beer festival.

Martin will be attending the Northland Wine, Craft Beer & Spirits Expo in Paihia on Sunday. If you're in the area, it should be a good time.

New socials, who dis?

Apparently it's hosing down at Eden Park, so no cricket. Not a drop of rain here in Torbay.

I hope my friends further down the country are keeping safe. It's getting a bit windy here, but nothing compared to what those down south are having to endure.

I'm thinking I might need to put together a simple website for my podcast. Nothing fancy - links to episodes, bit of expanded description (footnotes etc.) and a comments/feedback facility. Can anyone recommend a straightforward tool and inexpensive hosting provider?

It's podcast time again - a new episode of The Third Pint Theory has just dropped, and I'm really pleased with how it came out. It's a bit of a dive into the rise of craft beer in Aotearoa in the mid 2000s through an interview with Luke Nicholas (Epic) and Steve Plowman (Hallertau).

Hoping that my friends around Aotearoa stay safe in the winds today. It's peaceful here in Tāmaki Makaurau, and I'm glad I don't have to go anywhere else.

The Amazon outage meant that I had to turn my lights off at the actual switch, rather than talking to Alexa. Oh, the humanity!

Good news everyone, my review of the new cask Boddington’s *is* out today, which includes my thoughts on the beer itself, but also a little history to explain why it’s still very much The Cream of Manchester. wb.camra.org.uk/2025/10/10/b...

This is an excellent assessment of the new cask Boddingtons. I agree completely with Matt's conclusion. Well worth reading.

R2-D2's evil cousin is smoking away. It's a pulled pork kinda day.

Ooh, Garbage are playing a "farewell" show at the Town Hall in March. Their last show at the Civic is one of my favourite gigs of all time. Tempted.

Fireworks after 11pm are only allowable at New Year, I reckon.

Oktoberfest at Mythica in Wairau Valley. One of the best beer events of the year.

So far this evening I have had beers from Germany, Cornwall and Waipu.

Here we go with another podcast episode recorded live at Beervana. One for all the lager lovers out there. open.spotify.com/episode/1eb7... podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/t... linktr.ee/third.pint.t...

PEOPLE. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT. MY GOD THERE ARE LUNATICS STANDING FOR SEATS

I absolutely love Cards Against Humanity, and their latest stunt is awesome: www.explainsthejoke.com They're getting around the Mango Mussolini's tariffs by explaining the meaning behind each quote, therefore this is an "informational product" which is tariff-exempt!

Watched the F1 movie at the cinema tonight. Decent mindless entertainment, fairly clichéd but good action sequences.

This aligns with much of what I'm feeling at the moment : open.substack.com/pub/jameelaj...

Very sad start to the day with the news that Dame Jilly Cooper has passed away. My wife met her while working for her publisher over 20 years ago, and we still received a Christmas card every year with a personal message written in Jilly's indecipherable scrawl. A real character, and a sad loss.

My burgeoning media career continues - just recorded my first regular weekly beer segment for Gold FM! Although technically a "career" is supposed to involve payment, isn't it?

Lovely to see the Warriors reserves waltzing to the State championship. Good signs for the future.

Excellent afternoon eating wurst & schnitzel, drinking festbier and celebrating my folks' wedding anniversary. Life's still tough, but you've got to take the wins. And if you're in Auckland, go eat and drink at Twofold in Parnell. They're good people.

Today's cooking project was lasagne bianco (no tomato) from a Sam The Cooking Guy recipe. Came out great.

Fakeaways for dinner tonight. Pizza with sourdough crust and alfredo sauce. Smoked chicken, capsicum and mushroom.