No expense was spared for this, the penultimate #WWWSI before pubs open indoors and BRAPA can resume on a full time basis.
And if you are somehow reading this but have never heard of BRAPA, it stands for British Real Ale Pub Adventure where this fantastic guy and his cauliflower travel the length and breadth of the UK, leaving no stone unturned, to write some of the most honest pub reviews out there. Intrigued? I would be if I wasn't me.
No expense spared anyway, because tonight was the birthday special and I must commend the dice, for allowing me to finally watch the film I'd been most highly anticipating from that first ever #WWWSI outing back on 31st May last year. 34 weeks, I've had to be patient. Yes, I often moan about the dice when I have to eat six bags of Wotsits for a 15th consecutive week, but I couldn't fault it here.
I'd ordered my most expensive wine ever, some new Wotsits, a 30 day aged fillet steak, and was raring to go on the Thursday night just gone.
I was proper buzzing for this one, and rolled the first dice of the night with a shaky hand, producing a '5' on the Wotsit front. That meant I could finish those motley out of date giant ones, and sprinkle on a bag of new normal sized ones. A delicious combo I'm sure you'll agree.
Next up was the wine. A difficult grape to get hold of this week, Plavac Mali from Croatia.
Look at my happy reflection! £30 I spent on this 2010 vintage, insane, easily the most I've ever or will ever pay for red wine. Luckily, a website called Croatian Wines made it possible. Drinking the first bit of it with a straw felt kinda wrong, but also kinda right, being in tune with the birthday party atmosphere and all.
The wine was called Ivan Dolac, which made me chuckle as I'm sure there was a footballer in the 80's called that. I checked. Ivan Golac! A Southampton full back, turned Dundee Utd manager. Perhaps I was also thinking of Terry Dolan. Time for a quick quiz? Ok then.
GOLAC OR DOLAN?
As a manager, who took their players to smell flowers during training sessions?
Who had a spell running a chocolate factory?
Who's defenders couldn't stop laughing when they realised during one match that their manager had a 'Golac Out/Dolan Out' sticker stuck on his head whilst still barking touchline instructions at them?
Who learned English from listening to Rolling Stones records?
Who was a consultant to the St Vincent & Grenadines national team?
Answer correctly below and you may well win a special #WWWSI prize when I next see you.
It was a fabulous wine, much higher quality than last week's slightly lame Pinotage, dark, lots of tannins, and packing a nice thick powerful punch.
Now the party could really begin and when I pressed 'play' on the original Uncle Matt's Western Mixtape, what song should be half way through but 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' by Gene Pitney? How apt. Great song, though it came AFTER the film so was not featured in the film at all.
"The man who shot liberty valance, klopp, he was the greatest of them all". I wonder if Liverpool fans sing that.
Time to concentrate on getting that steak right, so I looked at my notes I'd taken from a combination of Ben and Emily from work, plus Gordon Ramsay's YouTube video. And it came out pretty good, but maybe a bit more 'rare' than the 'medium rare' I prefer so perhaps 30 seconds longer. Note to self for next time.
I had it with some nice chunky chips and peppercorn sauce, which I did a lot more steadily this time after exploding the microwave last time out. I was going to grill a tomato too but forgot and had already rinsed the pan, but still had some cold ones which kinda worked!
Not sure how it looks, but it tasted great. I even did some garlic in the pan too to give it a kick. The sauce thickened up as time went on.
Time to go through and watch the film .......
I wanted to savour the steak, so I didn't start the film immediately. Just silently sat there, savouring every mouthful. Well that was until a pixilated Sister Wotsit popped up on WhatsApp to wish me happy birthday.
I didn't have the heart to tell her I was mid meal, seeing as she still made the effort to ring me having had a really bad day at work, so I had a nice 20 min chat with my vegan sister as the steak ran bloody red onto my plate the other side of the camera!
Once we'd agreed to meet at 2pm for our epic all day pub session the day later, I decided the sooner I finished drinking the wine the less hungover I'd be, so started gulping it down with gusto.
'Twas nearly 10pm until I finally pressed play on the film. I had no recollection of the details, despite having seen it in 1999, I just remember enjoying it more than any other film I was made to watch as part of my Media Studies module in Sunderland.
Hank's Saloon was decent boozer, if a bit Nicholson's London-esque, really rammed on a Saturday night.
What I didn't realise about the film was that it was set in the future (not in a sci-fi way!) and told the tale of John Wayne's character who had recently died. We then got a flashback which lasted most of the film.
Basically, James Stewart rides into Shinbone, but gets the shit kicked out of him by my favourite Western baddie, Lee Marvin (Liberty Valance), the always good value Lee Van Cleef, and an annoying Mexican Richard Hammond.
James Stewart is all like "WTF dudes, why do you put up with this Liberty Valance chap?" as he's nursed back to help by this kind love interest, and two kitchen workers who are obsessed with making steaks for everyone in their poxy diner.
The local sheriff is just a cowardly slob who loves the steaks but hates confrontation.....
And even the local town hero, John Wayne, has a bit of a 'can't be arsed' attitude about him. which winds up James Stewart further, which gets worse as both are competing for this same young lady's affections.
John Wayne does annoying things too like sit on the bar when people are trying to get served. This is why so many people want table service to remain after lockdown .....
John Wayne's sidekick is the always reassuring presence of Woody Strode who's featured in plenty of WWWSI nights ......
Say what you like about the baddies, at least they followed Covid rules and 'masked up' even when they were in the pub garden ......
In the end, Liberty Valance challenges James Stewart to a shoot out, and ya know what its like in Westerns, if someone says it, you HAVE to go along with it. James Stewart was the massive underdog, but he has been practising, and seemingly wins out against the odds ......
But then the massive plot twist, and I apologise to Dave Basic at this point, it later transpires that it was John Wayne lurking in the shadows that got the decisive shot.
By now though, James Stewart is a hero and running for some local politician role or something (the wine was kicking in) and everyone agrees best to let the general public believe that.
So no wonder that when John Wayne's character dies, everyone is back in Shinbone to pay their respects to the actual man who shot Liberty Valance.
Great film, much recommended. Probably my third fave so far after High Noon and Buster Scruggs.
So now you know your Valances from your Valances, and your Dolans from your Golacs, all that remains is for me to say I staggered back into the kitchen, mind very much alert, legs very much uncoordinated, and rolled the dice for our final outing next Friday.
An upper 11 means I'll be watching another Top Tier Western, Rio Bravo so hopefully, we'll be ending on a high. The wine will be Sangiovese, and I think I'll do a nice little platter for old times sake. See what is left in the fridge before my first BRAPA holiday of 2021.
I even had the energy for a bit of late night Hungerford Town (Football Manager 2020), we were off to Huish Park and for the first time in 4 years, the game was played on a snow covered pitch.
And we only went and won it 0-1! Totally undeserved, 'the classic away performance'.
Of course, I felt proper rough at 6am but plenty of water, back to sleep, and by 10am, I was all recovered. Classic stuff, see you next week for the finale!
Si