And now for something completely different - Hailo, hailo hailo!

I just wanted to mention something that happened on Friday. That was the night of our office Christmas party which was at the Bull & Castle. It was fantastic as always. I stuffed myself with food and beer, the venison was fantastic and I hope it's made to be a regular on the menu.

I only had one new beer to me that night. I have never bothered ordering Kwak before but since the boss was paying, I decided to give it a go. The reason I have never ordered it is simply I heard it's ridiculously sweet and I've always found enough Belgian beer to keep me happy without going for something so well known. It turns out that any opinion I had of Kwak before I tried it was completely wrong.

It was no where near as sweet and sickly as I was expecting, I think I had built it up to be akin to mead! It was also a lot thinner than I thought and not a big heavy beer as I had also expected. So how did it taste? Well rather nice actually. Raisins and peaches were the dominant flavours along with some plum. It did not quite seem 8.5% either, maybe 6% and that made it a little dangerous to drink. I nursed it for a while alongside more sessionable stuff like dry hopped Rebel Red on cask and tried it alongside a chocolate brownie desert and it did not quite match very well so it's not a desert beer as I also expected it would be.

I will not be so dismissive of it again, though what the point of the traditional glass and stand is, I can't say though I was somewhat disappointed I did not get one for the novelty of showing it around the table.

Anyway moving on and skipping the fun but uneventful Christmas party, I arrived home at around 1am to find my wife standing at the door. It was her Christmas party that night too. She had left her keys in work so it was a good thing I arrived when I did but she had also left her phone in the taxi, on silent of course. I tried calling it about 20 times and got no answer so I sent a few texts with the address hoping the taxi driver would be able to see it. She has a passcode on it so he would not be able to access the phone itself so I had little hope.

As it turns out though, she ordered the taxi using the Hailo app which meant she had the taxi drivers name and phone number, though the phone number of course was on her phone so that did not help. What did help is that she had a receipt emailed to her with a reference number so the next morning I got talking to Bill at Hailo who tracked down the driver who had the phone. Said taxi driver dropped it over the next evening and I gave him €20 for his trouble.

Had she just picked up a taxi on the street, she might not have been so lucky, though taxi drivers tend to be honest about that sort of thing if they can find the owner from stories I have heard.

So I just wanted to say a big thanks to Bill at Hailo. I suppose it ties in with beer since the chances are, you will be using taxis when on a night out. The really cool thing is that you can register your card in the app and pay with credit or debit card (no fees) so there is no worrying about finding an ATM. It's also cool that you can see on the hailo map, where the taxi is in relation to you and if the driver did have difficulty finding you, just give him directions.

Anyway the great customer service prompted me to give them a mention. Well done, it's a brilliant app and fantastic idea.

In case your wondering, that "Hailo, hailo hailo!" in the title should be said like "ello, ello, ello" in the English accent. As in "Ello ello ello, what have we here then?"