Microbrews and Party Cake

We took our second trip to the North Market to eat, drink and be merry (their words) at the 6th annual Microbrew festival. $20 got us a commemorative pint glass, a $5 food voucher and 10 tasting tickets. Sadly, it didn't get us a beer hat or a Erbe t-shirt.

We worked our way around 7 different Columbus brewers/ brew pub type places and took it in turns to queue and taste. Hoster brewery has been around since 1836 in some shape or form and I'd been keen to try their (relatively) famous Gold Top Dortmunder larger. It was pretty good, and I'll get a full pint some time in the future. Barley's Scottish Ale also went down well with me and Elevator's Nut Brown Bourbon Aged Ale went down with K. It was crazy busy and after a while we just settled for a final pint and hopped back on the bus.

Having not mastered the art of shopping without a car we woke on Saturday morning to find that we had no food and so decided we'd head out for a bit of light breakfast... We wandered down East Hudson street and took our place in the line outside Jack and Benny's. It was a good, fun place with all staff members resplendent in OSU red. We spent a lot of Saturday unpacking our recently arrived shipment from home and generally got lost in boxes and packing paper.

Later in the evening everyone (connected to the OSU English Department) was invited to Nicole's birthday party. We had been told that it wasn't important that we didn't know who she was, but that we should aim to come dressed as a song. I very lazily went for "My name is Jonas" by Weezer and K modified her green beret with two raspberries. "Killer Queen" was as scary as A-ha's "Take on me" was impressive. The real high point of the gathering though had to be the cake: six layers of multi-coloured wonder. Proceedings pretty suddenly took a dive when some serious dancing to Justin Timberlake resulted in a dislocated knee for a 2nd year PHD student. The ambulance arrived fairly swiftly and not much later we also left with all limbs in the right place.

Hair Cuts and Pluots

Where is the place to go and get your hair cut when you come to a new city and don't really know the best place? The place with the best sign of course. So, I went down to The Mug and Brush and got my hair cut. It looks kind of a bit different, but as only my second non-European hair cut they definitely did a better job than the Indian guy in Uganda ten years ago. Jim did a good job of chatting and clipping and probably deserved a tip. When something costs $15 and I pay $15, it makes me feel a bit awkward trying to pull out an extra $1, or should it be two, who knows? The picture is of the business card he gave me, so that I'll go back and maybe give him a 20 and then not take all the change or something...

I'm going to keep to the theme of American firsts and tell you about my first Pluot. It's supposed to be some sort of cross between a plum and an apricot. It tastes pretty much exactly like a plum and maybe has the firmness of an Apricot. There may be little more to say at this stage, just to maybe go to Wikipedia to check out the varieties on offer. $1 for two though, a little steep.

Today I cycled down High Street to check out "Crew at the Commons". This event was billed as a downtown rally and I suppose it was. It was also rather awkward. Check the picture above and the players stood in front of the stage while the general manager talks about how great they, we and Columbus are. For some reason the only current US international (Robbie Rogers) was holding a small dog. It wasn't clear if this was a result of representing the US, similar maybe to the cap system we have back in the UK. The mayor also spoke and suggested that we were going to beat LA's ass and Houston tonight too. He didn't say much else to be honest, but he did wear a scarf. Sure his didn't cost $30 though.

Soccer and Football

With our heavily subsidized tickets (courtesy of OSU ticket office) in hand we headed off down Hudson Street for the short walk to Crew stadium. We didn't really find a pedestrian entrance as such, so just followed the cars in. Our $5 food vouchers were burning a bit of a hole in our pockets, so we checked out our options. I went for the $5 bratwurst and K for the $7 individual pizza. Just how long the cooked pizza had been in the box was another question. With our food in hand we took a while to check out the merchandise on offer. We didn't stay long. $30 for a scarf seems a little hopeful... it almost makes the $70 for a replica shirt seem reasonable, or maybe not. We found our seats and we were in the Nordecke. This seems to have been the area of the stadium assigned for the Crew fans that like to sing, bang drums, wave flags and generally have a good go at creating some sort of atmosphere.

As Toronto were the opposition, we had the pleasure of both the Canadian and the US anthems before kick-off. Columbus were coming in to the game off the back of a 6-2 thumping courtesy of Seattle but were top of the eastern conference, Toronto on the other hand were bottom, so surely should have been a home win. 2-0 down at half time didn't bode all that well and it took until the 67th minute for the Crew to get on the board.

The goal brought about a shower of gold and black streamers and hope of getting something out of the game. That hope was short lived as Toronto took advantage of some very charitable defending to go two goals ahead. It finished 4-2 and Toronto won in Columbus for the first time in their history, which would be more impressive if they hadn't come into existence in 2006!

On getting home, it seemed a good idea to sample a slightly larger yellow atmosphere as Michigan welcomed Notre Dame on TV. College football is pretty amazing. It was Michigan's first night game and resulted in the largest crowd to ever watch a college football game. That'd be 114,804 (all numbers and commas correct). These highlights are just under 4 minutes long; you should really watch them. We only saw the last 1/4, but with the winning touch down coming in the last 3 seconds, the game was beyond believable.

Cheese and NOT waiting

This is my first attempt at American "Cheddar" style cheese. It seemed to make sense to try stuff that they make here that is trying to be like stuff that we make back home as, believe it or not, it is cheaper. This Adams Reserve Sharp Cheddar is $9.99 a pound. And yes, that is cheaper than getting the stuff that comes all the way from "the Somerset county in England", as the helpful information in the Giant Eagle supermarket tells me. What's it like I hear you ask... maybe. Well, not great really. I'm no cheese guru, but I do know what I like, and rubbery texture with a distinct lack of bite is not really what I like. Something from Wisconsin next maybe...

Today I headed out with the mission of applying in person for my social security card. I had heard and read a lot about how terrible a process this might be - long waits, people not knowing what you're talking about, having to come back when your details were in the system and a few other awkward things. After getting through security, I grabbed a ticket, waited ten minutes, went to the window, gave her my form, let her see my passport, took my receipt and was told it would arrive in the post in two weeks or so. That was it.

What is a job-less immigrant to do before 10 am on a Friday morning in downtown Columbus? Well, kind of walk around a bit, find a way to break his $20 bill (a massive cinnamon bun), check out people cutting the grass at the nearby minor league baseball stadium and get the bus home.

Cats and Squirrels

Animals seem to rule the roost around here. Our downstairs neighbour has two cats. They don't seem to like each other too much. Over the past weekend there was no-one in downstairs and it seems that Mia couldn't quite deal with the loneliness and really wanted to get in to the apartment. She held the above pose for a good minute or so, but sadly for her it didn't do the job and she stayed outside until the neighbours returned.

Closely behind the cats are the squirrels. At any one time when you glance out the window at least one or two will be chasing each other around trying their best to beat the other to the next buckeye (what we in Europe might call a conker, also not to be confused with the Ohio State Buckeyes, the name of the college athletic teams here at OSU). Hope that's clear.

With the recent drop in temperature the noise from the cicadas seems to have dropped off. You never really seemed to see them, just hear their ferocious chatter in amongst the blades of grass. Check the Wikipedia link and you too can enjoy that same chatter!

Finally, those at a loose end tonight in the Bristol area could do a lot worse than get down to the Fleece and check out the wonderful Kurt Vile and the Violators. For a taster, you can go here. If I were there, I'd be going, but I'm not, so I'm not.

Slurpees and Sweating

Not Our House

It has begun. The college football season has been talked up a lot by a lot of people, so it seemed only right that we should sample some of the atmosphere around game day. We chose not to wear red and seemed to be the only people, apart from a small group from Akron, that didn't. The 12pm (96 degree) kick-off didn't seem to be doing many people any favours, ourselves included. The only sensible thing to do seemed to be to get a Slurpee. Wild Cherry seemed the most natural choice. Ten minutes later I was cooler, but my stomach and teeth weren't so happy. We high-fived a chap we had never met who ran up to us and shouted "Go Bucks!" and OSU won 42-0.
Further downtown, North Market gave some welcome relief from the sun with tomatoes of different shapes and sizes, pretty authentic looking pierogies, more Jeni's ice cream (not for us this time) and some Amish folks selling their fruit and veg. Will be back on the 16th for their microbrew festival. Labor Day tomorrow and slightly more manageable weather now that thunderstorms have killed off the crazy humidity of the last few days.

Eating out and Getting Hotter

Having been in Columbus for a week it seemed like a good time to go and eat out. We got on the bus and headed up the High St to Northstar Cafe. It was decided that it was more like a restaurant trying to be a cafe than just a cafe, but that is fine. Having ordered a BBQ chicken flatbread I waited for my sandwich. As you can see, I got a really thin lovely pizza type thing, no complaints. Great Lakes Brewing Company provided further refreshment with their Eliot Ness Amber Ale which went down pretty well. Plenty more in their family to work through...

As it was next door, it seemed rude not to stop at Jenis Splendid Ice Creams for a bit of pudding. K had a pretty amazing macaroon with vanilla ice cream and black currant jam squeezed in the middle. I opted for a scoop of Riesling Poached Pear Sorbet and a scoop of Goat Cheese with Red Cherries. The word Artisan may be mentioned but I don't care when it tastes as good as it does. Trying to keep it as a "now and again" treat is going to be the challenge.

Today it is set to reach 96 degrees which for the Europeans out there (OK, most of you) is about 36 degrees C. Our air conditioning does seem to be holding up at the moment but going out again later for a BBQ could be more of a challenge than it should be. End of weather chat.