A High and a Low

Well just as forecast we woke up on Saturday to beautiful warm morning and with the thoughts of the BBC forecast in my mind, I looked forward to spending a day in the park, relaxing, reading a book, and at some stage enjoying a cool beer in the afternoon sunshine. However the BBC omitted to mention the serious thunderstorms caused by a ridge of high pressure coming in from Southern Europe. The result was on Saturday afternoon and evening we were treated to right royal display of thunder and lightening, accompanied by torrential rain. So bang went any thoughts of sitting in the park !

Now forced to watch the rugby (at home) - but even this was subject to the weather, as the signal from SKY kept on being interrupted by the weather.

Did finally manage to get out to sit under the new overs at the Flying Frog, for a little sustenance, however a word of advice, when it is raining, do not sit in the tables nearest to the roadside, as the covers do not extend that far, and do not sit at the tables next to the building, as the rain simply streams down the walls and splashed onto the tables and chairs. So one is restricted to the tables in the middle. Needless to say all of these were occupied when I arrived, so the best I could manage was a table against the building. Fortunately by this time the weather had calmed down, so whilst I could hardly call it pleasant, I did manage to indulge myself just a little.

Sunday proved to be a little better, and spent a pleasant afternoon at Sigulda, which for those of you who interested is about to celebrate its 800th anniversary in August this year, so if it lives up to Riga's and Cesis similar celebrations, then it should make for a very pleasant weekend. On my return back into Riga, I came across a new low in cretin behaviour.

After a long afternoon in the fresh air, I did aspire to a have beer, and knowing it was Sunday, I hoped beyond hope that the visiting morons would have aspired to sit in one of the outside bars, in ordwer that I could sample my preferred refreshment- but NO - just 200 meters from De Lacy's - a well known ditti was being regaled by a group of drunken louts.

Well I say ditti, the tune I recognised as being "When you are coming round the mountain" - however these drunken cretins had introduced new verses "You can stuff your foreign women up your a..e" - Needless to say I swiftly about turned, headed for home and had a delightful beer and evening mean at the Cheese Bar in Alunana iela.

Now I have but one comment to make about all of this, with doors and windows of De Lacy's wide open the noise of these louts could be heard from a considerable distance, now if the objective was to ensure that no tourist or local would venture into the pub, well it certainly succeeded. But what I find more disturbing, and remember the "lyrics" -there were at least three female members of staff on duty on Sunday afternoon, in addition to the male manager - was the latter happy to permit this vocally impoverished group with there obscene and insulting lyrics to remain in the pub ?

Now I am sure they were all spending good money getting p....d, and no doubt when they return back to their caves, they will tell all and sundry what a great time they had in De Lacy's, which of course will encourage even more of them.

For me it is sad reflection of what happens to our village hall , and indeed Riga, at the weekend, and I for one will no longer even attempt to visit it at the weekend. But can someone please explain to me why this moronic behaviour is so concentrated in De Lacy's - or is simply that being the smallest of the pubs, it is more visible.

Now on brighter note work will finally start today on the kitchen at Zvannieki, courtesy of V... (Australian/Latvian - what do mean - how much will it cost ? - builder), alongwith two of his henchmen.

And returning once more to the weather - it is Monday, and what is the weather in riga, simply bl..dy brilliant, blue skies, temperature at 6.00am this morning was +20 degrees, and it forecasted to reach +31 degrees. Who said the man upstairs does not have a sense of humour ?

And finally for the more observant amongst you - you will have noticed that my powers of descriptions in regards to our UK weekend vistors, has now extended beyond simply cretins, now I can embrace a whole set adjectives - Moronic, loutish, obscene, drunken and vocally impoverished cretins, and so to those who were here this weekend and all who follow in there footsteps, I offer the following words of wisdom - May you be vapulus and epotus during you stay in Riga.