Straight from the Horses Mouth
The sun can be deceptive - For the last few days I have woken up to clear blue skies and the sunlight streaming into my bedroom. beautiful you might think - but lo when I check the temperature it is -12c and stays below zero for all of the day - so the winter woollies are staying on !
This week sees the annual Irish madness in Riga ( and all over the world)- with celebration of St Patricks Day, why they do not just call St Guinness Day I do not know ? Its not as if everyone heads for a church, although to some the Pub is a church. Every so called Irish bar in town is claiming the Titleof the "best" place to celebrate the day. Of course for some one day is not enough, so they make it a St Patricks Weekend.
So for those contemplating being in Riga this weekend here is the list of the Irish bars Celebrating
Paddy Whelans - www.thepub.lv
Maloneys - www.moloneyspub.lv
Donnegans - www.donegans.lv
Of course not to be left out our local "church" the Kiwibar ( www.kiwibar.lv ) is also participating, and with Guinness at Ls 1.00 a pint, I am sure it will be a sellout. Not least of as they will be the only pub featuring Gaelic Football on the day, as well as traditional Irish dancing, courtesy of Ruta and her girls, and of course Martins will be there to provide authentic non-Irish music. And we should not forget the late evening Irish Dancing and Karaoke at The Funny Fox (www.funnyfox.lv)
Magical Club games such as Kilcormac-Killoughey v St Thomas and Ballymun Kickams v St Brigids will feature on the day - Sunday 17th March.
For rugby fans ( me included ) Saturday sees the last round of the Six Nations Championship, the key game of course being Wales v England. In theory the winner taking the championship - but NO - assuming Wales win ( a big assumption) then they can only be crowned champions if they have scored more tries than England over the course of the championship, but if England win then they are champions. No point in mentioning theScotland game against France, it is being played in Paris at 21.00 local time - who in gods name plays rugby at nine o'clock at night ??
Now on the subject of sport, in this case football, in which my only interest is Reading, who having been taken over by a Russian playboy, have decided to sack the manager, who got them promoted last season, and won the manager of the month in January. Now granted they seem doomed to relegation, but to change managers with 9 games to go - Dumb !! Would never have happened under the previous owner - in fact it is the first time Reading have sacked a manager since Madjeski (previous owner) took charge 15 years ago.
As everyone knows the "horsemeat" has engulfed Europe in recent weeks, and Latvia has not escaped - but another lesser known scandal is the Mutton being substituted for Lamb. Without mentioning any names this was a recent occurence in one of Riga's restaurants - so watch out it could be happening in your town. And how was this discovered, well T.... (Swedish - like delivering things on time) was the one who discovered this meat substitution. So from the horses mouth comes the truth about Mutton being dressed as Lamb.
I have mention before how from time to time the blog brings back old friends from yester year, and so it has proved once again with contact being re-established with B... (English - Newcastle fanatic). It is some years since he left Riga to work in Newcastle, but now seems happy with his lot in life and has even given up smoking - with the resulting increase in body mass. Anyhow good to have you back on the blog, and hopefully as you say we might see you back in Riga in the not to distant future. In his response he claimed his music tastes were , and I quote "classically good NME/ Mojo music taste" No idea what that means !! - However as to my taste in music, well I have to confess I seem stuck in the 60's and 70's music scene, as to my ears it has been downhill since then, and what is Mojo music ?? ( answers on the blog please)
On the subject of music, all of Riga's bars seem to deem it necesary to install the modern day equivalent of the jukebox. Of course nowadays it is a cleverly disguised computer with thousand of songs under its cover. BUT and it is big BUT, unless you feed it money it plays the biggest load of c..p ever recorded. Now most days I just close my ears and suffer, and usually beg the ladies behind the bar to turn the sound down (preferably off) - sometimes they do and most times they do not.
However on day last week enough was enough, and abandoning my usual Scottish Thrifty demeanour, I inserted 50 centimes ( It will take Ls 1.00) and selected my three songs. As this was a historic moment it was captured on camera.
Please note that unlike the old days, this Electronic "jukebox" has a supposed touch screen, but in this case it should be called a "poke" screen - as takes about two to three "pokes" before it recognises what you are requesting. Any how the result was a few minutes of musical pleasure (to my ears at least) and a respite from Rap C..P that it usually expounds. Of course it could just be a clever marketing ploy to play rubbish - thereby encouraging the customers to put money in the slot.
For those interested in Latvian politics (anyone ?) the current Prime Minister has been celebrating the fact that he is Latvia's longest serving Prime Minister - FOUR YEARS !! - well done that man. To celebrate this momentus event what did the State Chancellory present him a with - A bouqet of Roses. I took this as a sign of his succesfull austerity program which has resulted in Latvia having the highest GDP growth in the EU recently, and another step on the adoption of the Euro in 2014. Not surprisngly 65% + of the Latvian population do NOT want the Euro - but what do they know !!
So there we have it another week has gone by - and with Easter fast approaching, which hopefully will herald the arrival of Spring, and with it the return of having food and a beer outside, hopefully in the sunshine.
So Happy Easter to you all - Enjoy !
This week sees the annual Irish madness in Riga ( and all over the world)- with celebration of St Patricks Day, why they do not just call St Guinness Day I do not know ? Its not as if everyone heads for a church, although to some the Pub is a church. Every so called Irish bar in town is claiming the Titleof the "best" place to celebrate the day. Of course for some one day is not enough, so they make it a St Patricks Weekend.
So for those contemplating being in Riga this weekend here is the list of the Irish bars Celebrating
Paddy Whelans - www.thepub.lv
Maloneys - www.moloneyspub.lv
Donnegans - www.donegans.lv
Of course not to be left out our local "church" the Kiwibar ( www.kiwibar.lv ) is also participating, and with Guinness at Ls 1.00 a pint, I am sure it will be a sellout. Not least of as they will be the only pub featuring Gaelic Football on the day, as well as traditional Irish dancing, courtesy of Ruta and her girls, and of course Martins will be there to provide authentic non-Irish music. And we should not forget the late evening Irish Dancing and Karaoke at The Funny Fox (www.funnyfox.lv)Magical Club games such as Kilcormac-Killoughey v St Thomas and Ballymun Kickams v St Brigids will feature on the day - Sunday 17th March.
For rugby fans ( me included ) Saturday sees the last round of the Six Nations Championship, the key game of course being Wales v England. In theory the winner taking the championship - but NO - assuming Wales win ( a big assumption) then they can only be crowned champions if they have scored more tries than England over the course of the championship, but if England win then they are champions. No point in mentioning theScotland game against France, it is being played in Paris at 21.00 local time - who in gods name plays rugby at nine o'clock at night ??
Now on the subject of sport, in this case football, in which my only interest is Reading, who having been taken over by a Russian playboy, have decided to sack the manager, who got them promoted last season, and won the manager of the month in January. Now granted they seem doomed to relegation, but to change managers with 9 games to go - Dumb !! Would never have happened under the previous owner - in fact it is the first time Reading have sacked a manager since Madjeski (previous owner) took charge 15 years ago.
As everyone knows the "horsemeat" has engulfed Europe in recent weeks, and Latvia has not escaped - but another lesser known scandal is the Mutton being substituted for Lamb. Without mentioning any names this was a recent occurence in one of Riga's restaurants - so watch out it could be happening in your town. And how was this discovered, well T.... (Swedish - like delivering things on time) was the one who discovered this meat substitution. So from the horses mouth comes the truth about Mutton being dressed as Lamb.
I have mention before how from time to time the blog brings back old friends from yester year, and so it has proved once again with contact being re-established with B... (English - Newcastle fanatic). It is some years since he left Riga to work in Newcastle, but now seems happy with his lot in life and has even given up smoking - with the resulting increase in body mass. Anyhow good to have you back on the blog, and hopefully as you say we might see you back in Riga in the not to distant future. In his response he claimed his music tastes were , and I quote "classically good NME/ Mojo music taste" No idea what that means !! - However as to my taste in music, well I have to confess I seem stuck in the 60's and 70's music scene, as to my ears it has been downhill since then, and what is Mojo music ?? ( answers on the blog please)
On the subject of music, all of Riga's bars seem to deem it necesary to install the modern day equivalent of the jukebox. Of course nowadays it is a cleverly disguised computer with thousand of songs under its cover. BUT and it is big BUT, unless you feed it money it plays the biggest load of c..p ever recorded. Now most days I just close my ears and suffer, and usually beg the ladies behind the bar to turn the sound down (preferably off) - sometimes they do and most times they do not.
However on day last week enough was enough, and abandoning my usual Scottish Thrifty demeanour, I inserted 50 centimes ( It will take Ls 1.00) and selected my three songs. As this was a historic moment it was captured on camera.
Please note that unlike the old days, this Electronic "jukebox" has a supposed touch screen, but in this case it should be called a "poke" screen - as takes about two to three "pokes" before it recognises what you are requesting. Any how the result was a few minutes of musical pleasure (to my ears at least) and a respite from Rap C..P that it usually expounds. Of course it could just be a clever marketing ploy to play rubbish - thereby encouraging the customers to put money in the slot.
For those interested in Latvian politics (anyone ?) the current Prime Minister has been celebrating the fact that he is Latvia's longest serving Prime Minister - FOUR YEARS !! - well done that man. To celebrate this momentus event what did the State Chancellory present him a with - A bouqet of Roses. I took this as a sign of his succesfull austerity program which has resulted in Latvia having the highest GDP growth in the EU recently, and another step on the adoption of the Euro in 2014. Not surprisngly 65% + of the Latvian population do NOT want the Euro - but what do they know !!
So there we have it another week has gone by - and with Easter fast approaching, which hopefully will herald the arrival of Spring, and with it the return of having food and a beer outside, hopefully in the sunshine.
So Happy Easter to you all - Enjoy !
posted by dfs at Thursday, March 14, 2013
2 comments
