Short Fuse Misfire

Reposted from the TikiBar Forums:
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So I had my first Short Fuse at the bar on Friday and loved it. I the bought the ingredients this weekend to make it at home.

And I did.

And I hated it. Sickly-sweet, verging to sour instead of clean toffee flavours.

What could have made the difference? Well, there are a few things:
1) The bar had no Cherry brandy, so we used Strawberry Schnapps instead.
2) The beer used was Coopers Sparkling Ale at home, Tooheys New lager at the bar.
3) I used Pepsi Max at home, and Coke (full strength) at the bar.

I'm going to try it again tonight without the Cherry Brandy, just to see, but ugh. What a letdown.

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(About an hour and a half later)
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Success! Go the scientific method!

So, deciding that the only way of controlling the circumstances would be to control the variables, I set out to the bottle shop. I got a stubby of Toohey's New lager and a can of Coke. Once home, I recreated the Short Fuse with the steely calm of a scientician. A third of a shot of cherry brandy was the third change made. Created the Kahlua and amaretto shot (even layered it perfectly), and dropped it in.

Heaven.

The sweeter Coopers ale and sugary Pepsi Max combined with the Cherry Brandy was just too much for my palate. The dry and more structured Tooheys New controlled the flavour of the drink.

Phew! I thought I'd bought Cherry Brandy, Amaretto and Kahlua for nothing (although, admittedly, I would have gotten rid of them somehow)!

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Short Fuse Attempt AKA "My God, It's Full Of Booze!"

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For those of you who don't know, a Short fuse is 8 shots of beer, 4 shots of cola, 1/2 shot of cherry brandy, and then a shot glass with Kahlua and Amaretto is dropped in.

It's wondrous. Like drinking a toffee, but not sticky.

Feel the Burn!

So I rode my bike into work today. Was great. Shaved about 35 minutes off my travel time. Legs hurting a little bit (damned gentle incline up Cleveland st!) but not too bad.

One thing I realised, though.... Here in Australia, the rear brake is on the left. The front brake is on the right. In Canada, it's the opposite. This caused some confusion, but not the comically catastrophic crash I was dreading.

And then I got to work and someone had pulled out my desk drawers, spilling things onto the floor. Nothing was taken, that I can see, but it still made me grumpy.

Mongeese, Cocktails, and Missing Wonga.

For the first time ever, I’ve gotten a bike for Christmas*. Dad bought Tanja and I Mongoose Rockadile bikes. We’ve yet to try them out, but they look pretty fancy. They have (depending on which website you go to) 21, 24, or 30 gears (it says s-30 on the gear shift itself, so I think I’ll believe that). Considering I found my 18-speed over-geared when I was 15, I think that’s a lot.

My bike:



Tanja’s bike:



And we went out for cocktails at the Rose and I somehow misplaced $20. I had $180, then Dad gave me $60 for some shirts, making $240. I then bought myself two cocktails (totalling $20), Tanja’s and my dinners (and a beer for Tanja, totalling $30), and another beer for Tanja later ($5). I now have $175 in my wallet. WTF? I know I had a third cocktail, but Cecil was kind enough to buy me that. I hate when this happens.

*I’ve gotten a bike for a birthday once, but never for Christmas.

Not a LOLcat. Promise.

For all of the complaints (well, ok, two), that lolcat was my most-commented blog post in, well, months. It did it's duty.

The new iPod Touch commercials are using CSS's "Music Is My Hot Hot Sex" as their theme. It's a fun song. I read a review of the band in Mojo and bought that song on iTunes. Now it's in an ad. People are going to think I have the song because of the ad. So, like all those people who actually like "Jerk It Out" by the Caesars (which was also on an iPod ad, which I also have but admittedly, I first heard it from SSX3 on PS2), that was, I must screen what comes out of my speaks for fear of being a trendwhore.

Tanja and I joined a gym. Happily, it doesn't open until late January, early February. The need for it was intensified by Kommi at work, who, after seeing me with a piece of cake from someone's farewell, tactfully asked if I had gained weight. I spent the rest of the evening feeling like I had a bowling ball hanging off my gut. I even contemplated going out and buying a looser shirt on my lunch break. Of course, she DID rectify the situation by saying that I was "a cuddly guy" and that she liked her fiance with his lovehandles. Yeah right.

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