WEEK 15 - THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE

Excitement was rife at Wotsit Towers (the rebranded BRAPA towers) last Sunday evening, as the dice rolling to decide on this week's Western had led me to #1 on the list, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. A surprising chart topper perhaps, as it was about the only film in the top 20 which I'd not heard of. But the critics and fans of Rotten Tomatoes seemed to love it, so we'd see.

The food this week saw me put on a buffet, which always leads to me buying far too much, and knowing I'd have to do the same the following week to stop major food waste.

I had some bread drizzled with Olive Oil, some continental meats, gouda, blue and Somerset Brie cheeses (the latter was the highlight of the platter, ooh #RhymingWithSimon) , some olives, tomatoes, stuffed peppers, and hidden out of shot, a small honey and sunflower seed bread roll I popped in the oven for extra sustenance.

Speaking of sustenance, the Wotsit dice roll was a '5' - oh why dice do you torture me so? Felt quite sick when I went to the loo at 3am, blame Wotsits over Wine. Logical right? At least Tom Irvin will find this dice roll amusing based on his last comment.

Best part of a small multipack, I'd had the 'sixth' bag at lunch the previous day.

Notably, my new 'Sunday' jacket became the first piece of clothing I've ever worn which Pub Twitter fashionista Cooking Lager has looked favourably on!

With Uncle Matt's Western Mixtape blaring around my kitchen on my less than vintage tape player, and the bread in the oven, it was time to crack open this week's wine, a Carmenere, which DaddyWotsit had heard of so perhaps isn't too rare.

I've decided having the first glass whilst prepping the food gets me in the spirit (as you can see above) and makes the whole wine drinking a bit less onerous.

The wine was called Santa Luz (a bit like Roque Santa Cruz but less Lancastrian), and came from Chile, thus ending the recent French reign of terror (3 weeks in a row of French wines).

This one was dangerously drinkable, the hangover wasn't too bad at all, and if I refer to my book, I'd love to be able to tell you I could get hints of raspberry, black pepper and green bell pepper, but it just tasted like red wine to me, just like beer tastes like beer. Am jealous of those 1 in 4 people with highly attuned tastebuds!

My book told me I should be having a barbecue with this wine, but I'm pretty sure burning my flat down would have been the result, as good blog material as that might've led to.

Time to 'go through' and watch the film. And you could immediately see that despite the 1948 release date, this film has aged better than most 60's Westerns.

Basically, Humphrey Bogart and a guy who hated Hollywood but did lots of films (Tim Holt, sounds like an Altrincham left back) teamed up with Anjelica Huston's (off of the Witches) grandad to go gold prospecting in them thar hills in Mexico. They were worried gold might make them greedy, but Granddaddy Huston was an old pro (a bit like the Duncan Mackay of gold prospecting) so knew what they needed to do, and outpaced the young bucks throughout. He was easily my favourite character and best actor.

They struck gold, and soon with all the hard work sifting through it, rough living conditions, and remote landscape, the younger duo got paranoid and distrustful. Bogart properly went off the rails, tried to kill Holt, Huston went off to live with some native Americans cos he saved a Twild from death, and Bogart deservedly got himself killed by Indians for basically acting like a dick.

There was a bit of bar room action as you'd expect from any self respecting Western .....

The pub reminded me of a Joules house, but slightly more civilised. Everyone drank the bottled Bass cos only Slumbering Monk was on handpull which pissed everyone off.

At the end, Holt and Huston bumped into each other, having retrieved the gold they'd painstaking sorted into sacks. But then a giant dust storm came along, and blew it all out of the bags and back towards the mountains where it'd come from.

Huston starts proper wetting himself with laughter, Holt is fuming, but when Huston points out the irony of the situation, Holt laughs too, cut to cactus, and the film ends. Fair do's.

I'd lost a bit of interest by the three quarter mark once Bogart got lynched, film went on a bit longer than it needed to, and also my fault, as my phone kept buzzing when Duncan and Martin's thoughts on the new Good Beer Guide (which I hadn't yet received), distracting me. Note to self, put phone in other room whilst watching film.

15 weeks in, and I'm still learning!

Next week (i.e. tonight at the time of writing), the wine will be a Cinsaut (more commonly known as Cinsault!), my first South African since week 1. Pistori-tastic. More buffet food. Haven't done my Wotsit roll yet (surely am due a 1, 2 or 3).

Bit of controversy on the film front. I rolled a upper 5, so had to go 'through the top' to film #95, Bend of the River. Couldn't find it to download on Amazon, so ordered the DVD but it hasn't arrived in time, so will need to re-roll when I do the Wotsit roll, at about 18:30, and watch BOTR for Week 17, my Hallowe'en special.

Finally, I'd like to say a big thanks to my latest batch of WWWSI compadres. These are Citra (Mick), George Poulton, Quosh (Alex), Beard Sweater and Tim Thomas (Tim). Thanks all, your Western 'names' to follow. 38 followers now, you are all precious. One casualty, film producer Bradley Gallo has left the #WWWSI club, we were always too small-fry for him, no hard feelings, good luck in the future mate.

And on that note, time for a nap and a quick kitchen clean before week 16 begins!

Si