Top Hops And Caffeine Gods

Today was my sister's birthday and we were up early as she had to go to work, which she was understandably not that happy about considering the occasion but she'd just returned from a trip (more of which later) and was unable to book the day off. We still managed to give her her cards and share a celebratory glass of Prosecco before she had to leave and arranged to meet up later for a birthday meal and agreed that she could open her presents when she got home.
The intervening part of the day was spent with fitting in some exercise, putting a huge wash on, tidying the house and brushing the carpet on my hands and knees as our vacuum cleaner has suddenly given up the ghost and now refuses to pick up any dirt whatsoever. We'd even forgotten to have lunch so by the time it came to leave to meet up with my sister later in the afternoon I was definitely looking forward to a sit down, some good food and a celebratory beer.
We'd settled on having a pizza back in Rochester and my sister said she'd had a pretty good day at work, especially taking into account it was her birthday, and was delighted to receive cards and presents from some of her colleagues and students. We had a lovely time and were even joined later by my sister's friend Margherita, who we'd not met before, for a great chat and some very funny stories.
The only fly in the ointment was that the journey home turned out to be quite stressful. We'd left the restaurant at the height of rush hour and the traffic was very congested. We therefore thought we'd take the 'scenic' way home - a narrow country road which sits alongside the Pilgrims Way. Big mistake - it turned out that quite a lot of other people had had the same idea and the result was massive tailbacks in both directions as vehicles not designed for such a narrow road tried to squeeze past each other - there was a lot of bad driving, horns blaring, shouting and swearing (o.k, so most of the swearing was mine!). A journey that should have taken only 20 minutes ended up taking over 45.
Thankfully we finally made it home in one piece and my sister got to open her presents with another glass of Prosecco and a slice of my brother's magnificent home-made birthday cake. A great end to the day!

Therefore, today's image ended up being a bit of an emergency blip. As I mentioned previously my sister has just returned from a trip - she'd travelled up to The Orkneys via Glasgow and John O'Groats and had a wonderful time. Today's shot is of the gifts she brought back - some local ales and coffee.
The ales are made by John O'Groats Brewery blending the finest quality hops with premium malted barley together with pure highland water to create flavours including toffee with "gentle berry overtones" and spicy fruit with "subtle floral and citrus aromas with an underlying biscuity finish".
The coffees are roasted in Orkney by Valhalla Strength Coffee in Halston, Krikwall with blends idiosyncratically named after Norse Gods and Kings including Magnus (son of Odin and Jarnsaxa, a giantess) and Sweyn (A King of Denmark, a leading Viking warrior and father of Canute).