Good evening all! It has been a while.
And no don't worry, this doesn't mean we have entered another Lockdown, Monkeypox or otherwise.
I've just found myself getting semi-nostalgic for those dark days when pubs were closed, everything was closed, and I whiled away my 2020/21 season with Wine, Westerns & Wotsits.
Now I'm not bringing it back properly so you might think this all feels a bit half-arsed, but the thought of having one night a week where I watch a random western, surrounded by good food and a bit of red wine, you know, kind of appeals to me! Change of routine.
Let's look at the elements one by one, and see how I'm doing them differently.
Wine - With pubs back, I can't justify a full bottle in one night, which I got quite adept at taking down in one sitting! But I still like the drink, so just one or two glasses, nice n leisurely. Ticking off grapes in my Red Wine Encyclopaedia was fun, but seems a bit elaborate now so I'm sticking to Sainsbury's!
Westerns - This bit hasn't changed, in fact my list has grown to 120 Westerns now and I'm still rolling a dice to decide which one, then checking Netflix, Amazon Prime, eBay etc to see where I can get hold of a copy cheapest.
Wotsits - I'd knocked Wotsits on the head in favour of Keto snacks of late! But that is silly, you can't have a challenge with Wotsits in the title, and not have any. So they are back on the agenda as of next week, just maybe not six bags in one sitting!
And the food? Still loving my cheeseboards, platters, buffets, call them what ya like. Will I branch out and get elaborate again? Who knows, but like I say, I've been doing Keto (plus the ale!) since March, so bready sugary things are out!
Last night, I settled down to watch one of the more lowly ranked films in the list #109 in the league, in global football terms, that is Mallorca ......
A critic rating of 40% is quite terrible! And although you can't scroll right, the audience approval rating is actually 71% which is decent. Who would you trust? The commoners or the so called experts?
I didn't even get dressed up in any Western garb, I'm really slacking, as I poured myself the remnants of last week's Italian wine from Puglia, Terre di Faiano. The rusting owl wine stopper meant it had a slightly more metallic taste than last week!
The man who supplies our WWWSI music, in cassette tape form for added vintage, 'Uncle Matt', had recently given me a 'Novelty' selection, and this was my first chance to hear Side B - an interminable but enjoyable version of Donald Where's Your Troosers one of the stand out moments. It may've even led into another song about trousers.
The food was ready, and it was time to go through and watch the film. The back up small Aussie wine never got opened, and the Cheddar Cheesies are 'amusing' but no Wotsits. Some almond flour crackers made their debut, quite nice, slightly gingery. Three types of cheese - Stilton, Sheep's Cheese from Parlick Fell, and some old Brie that's been in my fridge a bit too long!
Death Rides a Horse certainly wasn't as bad as 40% in my eyes. I found the acting incredibly jarring at times, or was it just bad dubbing? Or is Neighbours on such good form in it's death throes, everything else pales by comparison?
It was an Italian film. The soundtrack was by our old mate Ennio Morricone, haunting and original, but maybe a selection of his outtakes, as I could see why people might lazily describe the whole film as a low budget The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Another old mate, Lee Van Cleef was on top form. He and a young blonde dude (with the voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger!) had to track down four blokes who'd wronged them badly in different ways. A bit like pub ticking, the blokes were situated all over the place so they had to 'tick em off' one by one, even going to Mexico.
Of the two pubs in the film, one resembled the Doghouse in Selby, the other the Albert & the Lion 'Spoons in Blackpool.
Selby vibes. See, it is uncanny.
The young blonde dude realises the 5th man who's face he'd never seen killing his family actually IS Lee Van Cleef, so LVC rather magnanimously owns up and says "tell yer what kid, I'll help you kill these four cos you are rubbish on your own, and then you can kill me at the end".
But in the final shootout between the pair, LVC walks away, you think Young Blonde Dude has shot him in the back, but no, he's got a leftover baddie still on roof about to get LVC in the head. Then they say toodle-pip and go their separate ways.
Unmissable drama as we say in Neighbours, definitely not a bad film. Take that critics!
I've got a few other weeks to catch up on, which I'll try and do over the next week. NOT that I can remember back to Hallowe'en.
And I'll be back this coming Thursday, where the film is either The Tall T or a 3.5 hr Swedish epic called The New Land. Depends what DVD/Blu-Ray arrives first.
Thanks, Si