Tales of the unexpected

Now who would have forecast the way that both Rugby and Football played out last weekend ? As we sat down to watch the Ireland v Wales, all expectations were for an Irish victory. Indeed in our little Six Nations competition only two forecast Wales to win ( both being Irish I might add !) and as for the Scotland v England game, here it was four persons who had Scotland down to win, me of course along with another two Irish and one Englishman.

Now I have to say that neither of these games were classics, but for Wales it means that next weekends match against France in Cardiff, should be a cracker ! for Scotland of course we all know about our record in Italy !!

For me the afternoon was spoiled by the arrival of a group of Scottish cretins, who seemed determined to drink the place dry, and given my low level of tolerance by such morons I took myself off home to listen to the Scottish game - A pity, but for the life of me I do not understand the rational of the lounge management, who seem to tolerate this kind of behavior. Not least of as there were some women in the bar, and the language was up to the usual high cretin standard.

Perhaps it is just me, and my age - but why these louts are allowed into the country escapes me, and personally I felt ashamed to be Scottish !

Sunday was totally different for the France v Italy game, a few young French persons, R...(new Zealander of verbal notoriety), his good Lady D.... (Latvian with artistic talent), C.... (English would be tree surgeon). The game itself was entertaining with the Italians refusing to capitulate, but eventually outclassed.

Briefly on the football side was it not refreshing to hear that none of the so called big four will be in the FA cup final, but as ever the bleating of the defeated managers that they were "robbed" by the referee. Again demonstrates the difference between Rugby and Football. For me it is quite simple some decisions go with you , and some against, but at the end of the day the reality is simple, if you do not score you cannot win !!

A final footnote on Reading, as they have now won two games in a row and climbed away from the so called relegation zone, albeit there is only three points in it.

This week sees the sale of tickets for the Latvian Song Festival to be held in July, tickets are on sale as of 10.00pm - Monday 10th March. So if anybody would like to attend this simply amazing event visit www.bilesuparadize.lv - but be quick ! - Sorry you are to late as all tickets were sold by 13.30pm !!!!

One thing I did note over the weekend was the number of cretins that were in town, every pub at least on Saturday was mobbed, so our looks like our (my) hopes that they had moved onto other parts of the world are dashed. Not helped of course this weekend by a huge write up about the Village lounge in the monthly free newspaper "Baltic Guide" - which of course is available in every hostelry in Riga.

Now I can reveal that one of the great mysteries has now been resolved, Is it possible for two Irish men to drink 34 pints of Guinness ? - well of course the normal answer would be a resounding YES ! - but on this occasion it has proved to be false. A week or so ago at an establishment whose name I will not reveal the establishment concerned, but it is known to all. The Irish + Mexican contingent were having a few beers to celebrate the birthday of a local bar celebrity. When the evening came to a close they were presented with a bill for the 34 pints, but with clear indignation they suggested that perhaps a wee mistake had been made. But at that moment the staff involved took refuge behind the computerised bar till, and indicated that computers do not lie. But as was to prove the case later - garbage in equals garbage out.

Now instead of printing a detailed bar bill, all that that miscreants could obtain was a simple bill showing the total. Now to make a long story short, it was finally established that instead of entering into the till 2 pints, the number entered was 22. A simple mistake when you are working with a modern touch screen computerised screen. But the question has to asked why did it take so long to resolve what was a simple error ?.

Anyhow all has been fixed, but it does serve as a lesson to check your bar bill if you are running a tab, or alternatively just pay as you go.

Now to be fair to all concerned this is the first time I have ever heard of such a mistake ( or at least one of this size).

So there we are another week has passed, and still no word from our New Zealand ex village member, nor indeed from that other ex member now hiding himself in Nigeria.