The lion(s) that roared !

Now that was an interesting end to the week, was it not ? Would anyone have bet only a few weeks ago that Scotland would be top of there group in Football, or that England would be in the final of the Rugby World Cup ? - But as of today that is the way it is, and all we can do is wait with baited breath for the Scotland game on Wednesday against Georgia, and the what I hope will prove to be the highlight of the weekend - England v South Africa in Paris.

Many of the village people had made the trip to Paris so the numbers to watch the game in Riga were substantially diminished - But I suspect A....(Bristolian Zelta supperer) and his good lady, F.... (Australian keeper of the hostel) and his good lady along with his extended Australian family, R...(New Zealander - suffers from verbal diarrhea) and his good lady and there extended family all sufferered the consequences of the England win !!

Last Saturday night saw what was probably the biggest crowd that our village lounge has ever seen, with both upstairs and downstairs packed to the rafters, so much so that at one stage they had to bar people from coming into the place. For my part I chose to watch the game in the comfort of home as circumstances prevailed such that I could not get into the old town for the start of the match. Lord only knows what it will be like for the final, but according to E.... ( Russian and "manager" of the village lounge with a penchant for sampling the goods) they will be putting a man on the door to stop overcrowding, for us locals we can but hope that once again we can "reserve our front row seats.

On the subject of the village lounge, a major capital investment has taken place with the installation of a dishwasher in the upstairs bar. Regretfully the installation took place on the night of M... ( Swedish - hair stylist) monthly get together. So we were forced to watch the somewhat farcical situation of young I..... (Latvian lass with Spanish memories) trying to serve the multitudes whilst the installation engineer complete with electric drill was installing said dish washer. Would have thought it would have been easier when bar was closed, but what do I know about running a pub and getting a dishwasher installed.

The evening had as ever a different food theme, this time it was Mexican, with recipes supplied by the "Doc" (Mexican/Latvian ). As it is a long time since I tasted Mexican Food, so it was with anticipation that I took myself of to the evening. However anticipation is everything, as the only "hot" food was Indian, and all of the Mexican food was cold - never new that Mexicans ate cold food - you learn something new all the time !! Nonetheless a good night was had by all - although it has to be said that the food did seem to have some weird effects on a few of the attendees, how else can you explain the look of these two aspiring gentlemen ??Clearly this monthly function is catching on, and I suspect proving more popular than the previous venue at the Steak House.

Now here is this weeks photographic questions, To whom does the hand at the bottom left of the picture above belong to ? Clue check the drink ! and secondly why is P.... (Irish - linguist of note Sveiki) falling over ? clue - look at the eyes !-and finally who is the masked man ? clue - he just ate the Mexican food

On the subject of Indian food at the Village lounge, it seems to be settling in quite nicely, and last weekend saw a revised and extended menu introduced - so it is clearly catching on. As ever this blog is on top of all the breaking news and I can reveal that as of this evening (Monday) the village lounge will open on Monday nights - never did understand why it closed on a Monday, but good to see commercial sense take hold.

Saturday also saw the wedding of G.... (loves to hold a monologue with you) getting married to a lady from Russia. Catering was provided by our resident chef P... (English - chippy in the making).

So with a weekend dominated by sport, alongwith crappy weather, no time for meandering to view the onset of Autumn, but with temperatures heading into single figures, time to don the vest and look out the winter boots.

To all and sundry have a great week