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The Maison de Stuff: Fully Twitterified!

We now have a total of three Twitter feeds for the 'Maison:

@maisondestuff for messages on the message board.

@mds_blogs for new blog posts on any of the blogs on the Maison.

@mds_comments for comments on any of the blogs on the Maison.

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What will SMWS Distillery 126 be...?

I had a tantalising mail from the SMWS this morning announcing the release of a first bottling from a new distillery - distillery 126.

The SMWS give all their distilleries a code - you can see all of these here, however they never explicitly name any of them in their own literature - I believe this stems from some distilleries not wanting the occasionally quite unusual casks bottled by the Society to be associated with their standard brand image.

The codes are allocated in order of when they first bottled from that distillery, and to date we're up to 125. There are around 100 active or recently active Scottish distilleries in total, so that pretty much covers all of them - with a few extras added in for some of the Irish and Japanese distilleries.

So they've announced they're about to launch a bottling from their 126th distillery, but they aren't actually going to tell us what it is!

This got me trying to guess what this was going to be. It seemed there are four possible options for what distillery 126 might be:

A) An early bottling from a new distillery which has just come of age.
B) An established Scottish distillery that had somehow slipped through the net previously.
C) Another of the Japanese distilleries - the SMWS have only bottled four of these so far, and there are around ten in total (see here.
D) A bottling from one of the distilleries somewhere else in the world - England, Wales, Ireland, or further afield...?

So, first of all, new distilleries. Could this be a very early bottling from Kilchoman...? Although their first official whisky - a 3 year old - is planned to go on general release in September, their very first cask was laid down in December 2005, and so as the SMWS will only be bottling a single cask, Kilchoman will have a few by now which will be just over 3 years old, by which point it can officially be called whisky.

Alternatively, Kilkerran, the new Campbeltown distillery opened by the owners of Springbank (in what used to be Glengyle distillery) started distilling in 2004 - so by now there would be 5 year old casks available. Thinking about it, there have been references to this new distillery in some of the SMWS' tasting notes of late - could these have been subtle hints of what is to come...?

Or how about a well established Scottish distillery that the Society has, for whatever reason, never got around to bottling before...? Comparing the society's list to this list I could only find two such distilleries:

Ben Wyvis - built as a malt distilling annex to the grain distillery at Invergordon. It closed in the 1970s and it seems there never really was much output which ended up as a single malt - most of it went to blending. Seems unlikely the SMWS would be bottling anything from here at this stage. As an interesting aside the stills from Ben Wyvis are now active once again in the new Kilkerran distillery in Campbeltown.

The only other omission I could find was the slightly confusingly named Speyside Distillery on the site of the old Drumguish distillery, which started distilling in 1990.

What about the rest of the UK?

St. George's, the one and only English whisky distillery, is almost exactly a year behind Kilchoman - so they won't have any three year old casks until the end of this year, or the start of 2010. I'm pretty sure the society has never bottled new make or sub 3 year old spirit so I think we can rule this out.

Penderyn, the equally unique Welsh whisky distillery, started distilling in 1998 - so they're comparatively well established by now, and to date have never been bottled by the SMWS. They do produce malt whisky - albeit that the style is quite different to the Scotch (or even Japanese) malts normally bottled by the society - but it does seem like a good contender.

Or Ireland...? Well Bushmills and Cooley are already on the SMWS list - as far as I know they're the only two distilleries in Ireland making malt whisk(e)y - Cooley are responsible for Connemara and Tryconnell. I suppose it is possible the society might come up with a new code for one of these other whiskies produced at Cooley, but that wasn't the convention with Scotch distilleries that produce several different whiskies (e.g. Springbank) so it seems a bit unlikely.

Or Japan...? To date the SMWS has bottled from both of the Suntory distilleries (Yamazaki and Hakushu) and both of the Nikka distilleries (Yoichi and Miyagikyo). So that leaves the two Kirin distilleries (Fuji-Gotemba and Karuizawa) - which have produced some really good malts - but I suspect the question of whether the SMWS bottles these may be more to do with business relationships and the difficulties of importing / exporting rather than the quality of the product. Then there are a few Japanese distilleries which are independently owned, most notably Chichibu. Almost certainly too early for the SMWS to be interested in the new Chichibu distillery though, having only started distilling in early 2008 they won't be at that critical three year threshold until 2011 (although their "new born" spirits are really good).

What about something from a more far flung corner of the world? Perhaps Mackmyra, the Swedish malt whisky, or Amrut the Indian malt whisky...?

In the course of writing this article I've had some time to muse over this question, and I think on balance, my money is on Kilkerran. The SMWS appears to already have a good relationship with the owners of Springbank as they often bottle their casks, and a Campbeltown revivial will be close to the hearts of many SMWS members.

Anyway, we'll find out next Friday!
[3 comments]

2008: A Year in Review

As a very self indulgent New Year exercise I thought I'd read back through my blog from last year and try to summarise some of the running themes throughout each of the daily entries, and also pick out some of the highlights and low points of the year.

So here we go, I can't promise this is going to make particularly interesting reading, but it's just something I wanted to do.

January
A lot of January's entries seem to be characterised by work, work, work - I was putting in a lot of hours this month, and it was apparently still very much on my mind outside of the office as well.
Back to Work - Wednesday 2nd January
Career Milestone - Tuesday 8th January
Money Money Money - Wednesday 9th January
Off Sick - Wednesday 23rd January
Cutover - Tuesday 29th January
Another flat viewing, a curry, and a late night - Wednesday 30th January

Another big thing on my mind, reflected in quite a few entries this month, was our accomodation situation. The contract on our flat was up for renewal in February and we'd been told there would be a big hike in the rent if we wanted to stay. We looked at a few flats but eventually just decided there wasn't really anything significantly bettter in the area for significantly less money, and didn't really want all the hassle of having to move, so we ended up staying put. This whole episode was however quite a big source of stress, including a few sleepless nights, which is worth remembering as at the time of writing this article that contract is up for almost renewal again!
Back to Earth - Tuesday 22nd January
Gloom - Thursday 24th January
Winding Down - Friday 25th January
You don't know what you've got 'til it goes up in price - Saturday 26th January
More Flat Hunting - Monday 28th January
Another flat viewing, a curry, and a late night - Wednesday 30th January

On a slightly more cheerful note I tried to make the best of truffle season, which led to a few memorable meals.
Truffle Season is Almost Upon Us - Sunday 6th January
Truffle - Saturday 12th January
More Truffly Adventures - Sunday 13th January

Finally, to celebrate mine and Chie's anniversary of when we first me we had a very nice weekend away in Brussels and Aachen.
Four Countries and Five Languages - Monday 21st January
Brussels - Saturday 19th January
Aachen - Sunday 20th January

February
February appears to have been a relatively uneventful month, albeit quite a sociable one - comparatively speaking quite a lot of nights out etc. By the looks of things - at least in what is reflected in my blog - things were a bit quieter at work compared to the previous month, as that doesn't seem to get so many mentions. So here's a selection of the month's social engagements:

Drinking at the Office - Friday 1st February
Monday Evening at the Club - Monday 4th February
Bebidas con el doctor Lang - Wednesday 6th February
Hiroshimakenjinkai - Friday 8th February
Whisky Society - Tuesday 12th February
End of the Week Drinks - Friday 15th February
The Duke of York - Saturday 23rd February
Pies - Tuesday 26th February
Whisky Live - Friday 29th February

March
The first half of March was relatively uneventful, but we spent the entire second half of the month (including my birthday) back in Japan, which was rather fabulous. We had a surprisingly large number of old friends there to catch up with, and so it was a fairly busy two-and-a-bit-weeks, but great fun nonethless. Some highlights:

First Day in Japan... and My Birthday! - Saturday 15th March
Miyajima - Thursday 20th March
A Random Trip to Shikoku - Friday 21st March
Keeping up with The Thomases - Sunday 23rd March
Atagawa Onsen - Wednesday 26th March 2008
By the Sea - Thursday 27th March 2008
Chichibu Distillery - Saturday 29th March 2008
Hanami - Sunday 30th March 2008

April
I think I must have initially felt somewhat refreshed in mind and body after our long break in Japan, to the extent I was keen to make some belated New Year's resolutions (in a nutshell do more things in London, get some exercise, and spend more time catching up with old friends) which I actually did a relatively good job of sticking to over the coming months.
Back at Work, and New Year's Resolutions - Tuesday 1st April
The Importance of Being Earnest - Wednesday 2nd April
Ordering an Exercise Bike - Saturday 5th April

However, a little further into the month and that post-holiday sense of invigoration and positivity seemed to turn into a post holiday malaise, as several entries attest:
Monday Malaise - Monday 7th April
Tuesday Tedium - Tuesday 8th April
Wednesday Weariness - Wednesday 9th April

...but things did pick up again towards the end of that week with an opportunity to see Lorenzo and a trip to the charming town of Rye:
Lorenzo Pirisino - Thursday 10th April
Rye - Sunday 13th April

Since coming back from Japan I had been noticing a dull but persistent pain in my stomach, and given that this lasted for a full two weeks I decided a visit to the doctor was probably in order. It turned out I had an inguinal hernia, and that seemed to occupy my mind for a large part of the remainder of the month:
Living With A Hernia - Wednesday 16th April
Scan - Monday 21st April
Planning an Operation - Tuesday 22nd April
Kym's - Monday 28th April

Still, it wasn't all racked with worry - towards the end of the month there were a few rather nice social occasions to take my mind off it, including seeing Spamalot for a second time (this time with Rob and Kate) and a very interesting "Japan vs Scotland" whisky tasting session:
Rob and Kate and Spamalot - Saturday 26th April
Japan vs Scotland Whisky Tasting - Tuesday 29th April

May
Following last month's new resolutions to do more things in London and catch up with old friends the month kicked off with a number of fun outings. These included an afternoon's Karaoke with Leon, Gav et al, a rather lovely afternoon tea at the Mandarian Oriental to celebrate Chie's birthday, and a somewhat less than enjoyable trip to the opera:
Smithfields Karaoke - Saturday 3rd May
Chie's Birthday - Sunday 4th May
John Goes to the Opera (and hates it!) - Wednesday 7th May

...and as a further success on the meeting up with old friends resolution I had lunch with Tom, wherein the seed was sown for the hugely succesful Radstock reunion that was to take place later in the year:
Tom and Curry - Friday 16th May

The weather had obviously taken a turn for the better towards the second half of May as all of a sudden a glut of outdoor activities appeared in the blog:
A Stroll to Regent's Park - Sunday 18th May
Champagne and Pizza (and lunch with Dad) - Wednesday 21st May
Chelsea Flower Show - Thursday 22nd May

Oh and towards the end of the Month I went with some people from work to see the long awaited new Indiana Jones film. It was terrible.
Indiana Jones - Thursday 29th May

June
Quite a mixed bag really - some of the entries are obviously continuing in the theme of the New Year's resolutions I made back in April. We have the "doing things in London" category - to which end I rather uncharacteristically went to see a musical, and actually quite enjoyed it:
My Favorite Year (sic) - Thursday 5th June

The other resolution (catching up with old friends) had better results, including Simon's stag do where I caught up with a few people I used to work with:
Not Talking Shop, and Simon Visiting - Friday 6th June
Babysitting - Saturday 7th June
Ai-san - Sunday 15th June
A Short Essay on Japanese Women and Their Career Aspirations, or Apparent Lack Thereof - Monday 16th June
Simon's Stag Do - Friday 20th June

As a tangent to this we also got to know some new friends a little better - Andy and Chika-san:
Andy and Chika-san - Saturday 14th June

Throughout this year Chie and I have been watching a lot of films made by the Japanese director Ozu, and a couple of these crop up in entries this month:
Ochazuke no aji - Sunday 8th June
The Record of a Tenement Gentleman - Tuesday 17th June

The last few days of the month were spent in Cornwall - see below.

July
Spent the last few days of June and the first few days of July on a week's holiday in Cornwall, where we shared a rather splendid house by the sea, on the Roseland peninsula, with various member of my family. Whilst there were a numbers of culinary disappointments (it turns out Cornwall is not a good place food-wise if you're vegetarian), the charm of Cornwall's villages and the sheer pleasure of being by the sea more than made up for this. Here are some of the highlights of a very nice week's holiday:
St. Just and St. Mawes - Saturday 28th June
Veryan, Portloe and Gorran Haven - Sunday 29th June
In Search of Buried Footwear - Tuesday 1st July
Heligan and The Smuggler's Cottage - Thursday 3rd July

I returned to work in style - everyone on my team had planned to go into the office in suits, which made for a very fun day in the office, and almost certainly the best work night out of the year:
Dress Up Monday - Monday 7th July

Probably one of the biggest events of the year (and a huge success in terms of one of my New Year's resolutions) for me was the Radstock reunion in mid July. I was quite overwhelmed with the response - I saw all but one of the people I'd lived with in the 2nd and 3rd year as an undergrad - and we just immediately picked up where we left off. Fantastic.
Lorenzo and Chiara - Friday 11th July
Radstock Reunion - Saturday 12th July
Lunch with Simon - Sunday 13th July

On the downside this month, it was time to say goodbye to Benoit, who had been doing an internship at my company, and had become a good friend and drinking companion. Still, he wasn't going too far away - just back to Paris - and so I was able to catch up with him again later on in the year.
Leaving Do - Thursday 10th July
Bye Bye Benoit - Monday 14th July

This month also pretty much spelled the end to the recent increase in visits to the theatre, in line with my resolution to do more things in London, all thanks to the appalling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Thursday 17th July

Most of the remainder of the month was consumed with my hernia operation (which I'm pleased to report all went very smoothly) and the time spent recovering afterwards. I'm rather proud of the fact that, despite being advised to take a full two weeks off work, with a combination of the timing of the operation (first thing on a Saturday morning) and being able to work from home, I only actually had three days sick leave in the end.
Fretting - Friday 18th July
The Operation - Saturday 19th July
Recovery Day One - Sunday 20th July
Recovery Day Two - Monday 21st July
Recovery Day Three - Tuesday 22nd July
Bandages Off - Monday 28th July

August
It wasn't really a great summer in terms of the weather, as several entries this month attest to:
Golberdon - Friday 1st August

As an experiment this month, Chie and I decided to see if we could avoid eating out, concious of the fact this was consuming rather a lot of money, and was often fairly disappointing. Of course, there ended up being plenty of exceptions to this rule!
Not Eating Out - Sunday 3rd August

Aside from that there were a couple of weddings:
Simon and Vanessa's Wedding - Saturday 9th August
Andy and Chika-san's Wedding - Saturday 23rd August

...and a work offsite which included a trip along the Thames on a power boat:
Offsite - Wednesday 27th August

September
Quite a foodie sort of a month all told. I was keen this year to make the most of the wild mushroom season, and rather confusingly this also seemed to overlap with truffle season (I guess there is actually more than one of these). We also attended the Abergavenny Food Festival, and found some new restaurants closer to home:
Passport to Pimlico - Saturday 6th September
Lobster Thermador au Crevettes with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and SPAM - Tuesday 9th September
Truffle Pasta - Wednesday 10th September
Abergavenny Food Festival - Saturday 20th September

Rounded off the month with my very successful Belgravia Pub Crawl:
Belgravia Pub Crawl - Tuesday 30th September

October
A strong candidate for the worst month of the year. Amongst the major contributors to this were the collapse of Iceland, which made it look like I was going to lose a large chunk of my savings, and made me really rather thoroughly depressed for a couple of weeks:
Black Tuesday - Tuesday 7th October
Not at My Chirpiest - Friday 24th October

...plus Vera, my grandmother, had suddenly become quite seriously ill (although I'm delighted to report her condition improved significantly and she was pretty much back to normal by Christmas). Anyway, at the time it was a huge source of worry, prompting me to take a couple of days off work to go and spend some time with her:
Vera - Sunday 19th October
Monday with Vera - Monday 20th October
Tuesday with Vera - Tuesday 21st October

...and finally a really unpleasant day at work where my manager, usually a very supportive sort of chap, suddenly turned on me for no apparent reason:
Arguing with the Boss - Tuesday 28th October

On the plus side we went to see Liane Carroll again at Ronnie Scott's:
Liane Carroll - Wednesday 8th October

...I (sort of) met the Queen:
The Queen - Thursday 16th October

...We had a nice meal at Manna in Primrose Hill for our "official" wedding anniversary:
Anniversary - Friday 17th October

...and our friend Junchan came to stay for a weekend:
Saturday with Junchan - Saturday 25th October
Sunday with Junchan - Sunday 26th October

November
I spent the first week of November in New York on a business trip which by coincidence happened to cover the presidential election. I was there in Times Square to see Obama elected, it was quite an amazing experience. A few selected highlights of the week's trip:
Off to New York, New York, America - Saturday 1st November
History in the Making - Tuesday 4th November
John's Pizzeria - Wednesday 5th November

Back in the UK, this month I developed an interest in local history, after making a chance discovery that there used to be a gin distillery close to where I live in London. This ended up consuming a lot of my spare time over the course of the month and made for a very pleasant distraction from my ongoing Icelandic financial worries:
Researching the History of London Gin - Saturday 15th November
Korean Food and Sir Frederick Seager Hunt - Sunday 16th November
Antiquarian Bookshop - Monday 17th November
British Library - Saturday 22nd November

In fact the Icesave situation did come to a happy conclusion by the end of this month
Light at the End of the Icesave Tunnel - Tuesday 25th November

December
At the start of the month, Chie got her "indefinite leave to remain" visa:
Indefinite Leave to Remain - Friday 5th December

We spent a weekend in Paris to celebrate our wedding anniversary, including a stay at the fabulous Hotel Raphael:
Saturday in Paris - Saturday 6th December
Hotel Raphael - Sunday 7th December
Monday in Paris, and a Rant about French Food - Monday 8th December

After returning from Paris, the remainder of the month was consumed with the inevitable run-up to Christmas, a mixture of Christmas parties and Christmas shopping:
Christmas Party - Wednesday 10th December
Dodgems and Fortnum and Mason - Sunday 14th December
Engineering Christmas Drinks - Monday 15th December

My last week-and-a-bit at work were a rather arduous slog to fix a single very complex bug, which made for quite a stressful time:
Sisyphus - Wednesday 17th December
Last Working Day of 2008 - Friday 19th December

Oh, and I bought myself a Christmas present - a new Android phone:
Android Phone and Christmas Shopping - Saturday 20th December

Both Chie and I took a much needed whole two weeks off over the Christmas period, the first week of which (covering Christmas itself) we spent in Abergavenny visiting family:
Christmas Day - Thursday 25th December 2008
Boxing Day - Friday 26th December 2008
Big Family Get Together - Sunday 28th December 2008

..and the second week, including New Year's Eve, we spent back in London:
New Year's Eve - Wednesday 31st December 2008

So there you have it - a whole year of my life condensed into a few paragraphs.
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Pimlico's Lost Distillery

I did a bit of research into local history the other night. Spurred on by a visit to a local pub, I had a look around on the web for some old maps of London.

Pimlico, the area where I live in London, was mostly fields 200 years ago, but intriguingly on an 1832 map I noticed a building marked "distillery", very close to where I now live. Further investigation suggested this was called Millbank Distillery, owned by Seager, Evans and Co. Ltd., a partnership between Messrs William Evans and James Lys Seager.

The distillery was founded in the early 1800s - some references suggested 1805, and it remained there until the 1920s when they moved their production to Deptford, although they kept the name Millbank. Their most famous product seems to have been Seagers Gin which I believe was produced up until the 1960s.

James Lys Seager's Grandson, Sir Frederick Seager Hunt was also involved in the business from the 1840s onwards and took over on the death of his Grandfather in 1873. He became a Member of Parliament in 1885, and so presumably most of the day-to-day running of the business was handled by one of the other partners from then on.

A caricature of Sir Frederick was included in Vanity Fair, dated May 18, 1893. The accompanying biographical passage read as follows:

STATESMEN. No. 613

SIR FREDERICK SEAGER HUNT, BART.

JAMES EDWARD HUNT of Cromwell Road (who was quite an eminent railway contractor) married Eliza, daughter of James Lys Seager, Esquire, and had issue two sons and three daughters; of whom the eldest (who is the first Baronet of this ancient family) was born at Chippenham five-and-fifty years ago. They taught him scholastically at Westminster, and more broadly in India, where he travelled in his youth; and among other things he acquired, or developed, a capacity for business that has since made him in more than one way. For he is now the head of the firm Seager, Evans and Co., of Millbank (which was founded by his maternal grandfather), a director of Earle's Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, a Governor of the Westminster Bluecoat School, Chairman of a big Tory organisation and of the United Westminster Almshouses, a Deputy-Lieutenant of the County of London, and Patron of the living of Charmouth, in Dorset. He is also one of the founders of the Primrose League as well as one of Lord Salisbury's Baronets of last year; and having once been defeated for Marylebone in 1880, he has now gone back to Westminster, where he has most constitutionally represented the Western Division of that district for the last eight years.

Although he is now a rich man, he still goes to business daily. He is something of a sportsman, for he is a member of the Four-in-Hand Club, who is very fond of driving four horses at once, and President of the North of the Thames Licensed Victuallers' Cricket Club; which is the biggest amateur thing of its kind in England. Yet he no longer plays cricket. He has done more service to his Party than is ordinarily represented by Baronetcy; for not long ago he was royally "dined" and rewarded by a spontaneous presentation in recognition of his really great services in organising the London Boroughs. He is no orator, and when he is (very occasionally) moved to speak he shows the swaying nervousness that becomes the honest, modest man. He is very popular with the "Trade"; he has a cheery, inspiring face, and he is the husband of a very attractive cousin.

He has shown that he is an inveterate Tory by becoming member of no fewer than four Tory clubs; yet he is so good a fellow that, even in Westminster bear-garden, no decent man has found a word to say against him. He is generous; and, despite the fact he is a distiller, he is a gentleman. He knows a good cigar when he gets it.

It seems that four producers of London Gin were dominant in the 19th Century - Seager Evans, James Burroughs, Booth's and Gilbey's. James Burroughs produced the gin we know today as Beefeater. In fact Beefeater is the only real survivor of these four one time giants - all of the other three have now ceased production in the UK - Gilbey's was bought by Diageo and moved to the US, Booth's was also bought by Diageo and appears to have (relatively recently) disappeared altogether, and whilst there is a gin called Seagers produced in New Zealand, it is unclear if there is any connection.

That aside, information about either Seagers Gin or Millbank Distillery seemed to be actually fairly sparse on the web. Searching for the gin itself generally led to pages with "nostalgic merchandise" for the brand. I was actually rather taken with this rather fetching tray from c. 1950 which included a picture of Millbank distillery, albeit of course by that time the new premises in Deptford. I also found myself at one point at the rather excitingly titled Corkscrews Online, and I have ordered a very handsome Seagers Gin / Millbank Distillery corkscrew from there.

A bit more looking around on the web revealed that Seager, Evans and Co had acquired the Laphroaig distillery in the 1960s, before eventually being swallowed up, Russian Doll style, into a succession of conglomerates - I think they ultimately became part of Whitbread. So that was a nice discovery - that there was a gin distillery which had been right on my doorstep, that had a connection with one of my favourite whisky distilleries in Scotland.

Up until fairly recently a company called Hayman's (who used to make) produced a "Pimlico Gin" - I think it mostly sold overseas - but alas that too has now gone out of production. I even contacted the company to double check a while back. I wonder if that was in some way a homage to the original distillery where Seagers was made.

It is interesting that a lot of gins today refer to themselves as a "London Dry Gin" and yet are there actually any gin distilleries left in London?

Being primarily a whisky fan, I've read a lot about the history of the whisky industry. It seems in malt territory a large amount of research goes into closed distilleries and there is a strong sense of nostalgia - if that is the right word - within the whisky community about these "lost distilleries".

I imagine gin is considered to be much more of a generic product, and doesn't seem to attract nearly the same level of interest as whisky does, particularly where closed distilleries are concerned. It's a shame really - given that gin is the only spirit England can lay claim to, and as my recent trip to New York revealed it does actually seem to be quite popular overseas.

So I consider this my personal mission - I shall continue trying to find out more about Pimlico's "lost distillery".
[9 comments]

An End to Spam on the Maison...?

I have finally got around to hooking Akismet into SBM.

SBM is the homegrown engine that drives the blogs here on the 'Maison. Akismet is a service which will check each comment posted against a big database of known spam and give a spam / no spam verdict.

Thanks to Simon Steele for making me aware of the existence of Akismet in the first place.

Thanks also to Fabio Zendhi Nagao for writing this article about a class he had written to use the Akismet API in ASP. I made use of this class in hooking SBM into Akismet. I did have little bit of monkeying about to do, as his class was written in VBScript, and SBM is (slightly unusually) ASP, but using Javascript. There was a bit of hackery to get Javascript code to be able to use VBScript code, but I got there in the end, and once I had got over that hurdle the integration was painless.

There was already some very primitive spam checking in SBM, basically just looking for URLs and HTML in the comments. Following a simple experiment, recording a day's spam, it looks like this was actually catching about 98% of all spam comments already.

However, it transpires that the 'Maison is bombarded with almost one thousand spam comments every day. So even after the primitive filtering in SBM ditched the vast majority of these, there were still a highly irritating 10 or 20 a day trickling through.

The downsides of using Akismet are that it will now take longer to post each comment (as internally SBM has to make a round trip to the Akismet server), and also there will inevitably be some false positives. I will try to make it clear when that happens, and Akismet does have a process for reporting "hams" (genuine messages falsely identified as spams), so we ought to be able to keep training it over time.
[4 comments]

Champagne Marmite IS Suitable for Vegetarians

(this article has been moved to here)
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NORMAL SERVICE HAS BEEN RESUMED ON THE MESSAGE BOARD

...so please go back and post as normal. You may have to refresh the add message page.
[20 comments]

Lox's Ramblings over Business Trips

The golden gates of five star hotels have never been so "brown"... The true soul of a business trip.
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[2 comments]

Multimedia Professional

I invented the Internet!
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A Poem

Ever striving to bring variety to the 'Maison, I have decided to have a go at a spot of poetry.
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[3 comments]