WEEK 5 - BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID

The final Saturday before THE PUBS REOPEN ™ on 4th July, and with a (lovely but) rather high maintenance work colleague due back from her holiday on Monday, I did not fancy tackling her at 8am with a raging hangover, hence bringing this one forward by 24 hours.

It was a late start because, try as I might, I could not seem to turn Michael McIntyre off. Yes, this Lockdown hits hard. Foodwise, I had plenty of cheese, olives, tomatoes, stuffed peppers, bread etc left over from week 4, so I ‘rolled’ the buffet into a second week.

Special bonus point if you can name all elements of the 'banquet'

Talking of rolls, the special green dice duo were retrieved from the magic kitchen drawer, and a ‘3’ meant I’d be eating three bags of Wotsits (I’m still yet to roll a 1,2 or mercifully, a 6).

On the film front, I rolled an ‘upper’ 27 which shot us right up to Western ranked in 20th position, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. I’d seen it in Sunderland University’s Forster Building as part of my Media Studies course, can remember nothing about it, but was still expecting big things due to the positive reviews I’d heard.

Film #20 - Cross it off!

Wine wise, my new book on the different types of grape that make the wines had a very BRAPA-esque alphabetical checklist to tick them all off, so OF COURSE my brain is telling me I have to try each one in order, especially as some are hard to get hold of. We start in Greece with a Agiorgitiko variety. Even the wine-educated Momma and Dadda BRAPA don’t get Greek ones!

At about 10pm, we were finally ready to go.

You can only be happy in a hat n tee shirt combo like this!

The wine stung my eyes on opening the bottle and taking my first sip, it really packed a punch, full bodied, powerful, bang! I’m glad I had to Sunday to recover. Lovely drop though, best yet. And strangely, despite not being able to walk in a straight line to the loo at midnight, the hangover was actually not too bad.

The film was a cracker too. Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman off the salad dressing) was the charming, sensible one. The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) was a bit weird, but good at shooting stuff. They seemed to share this girlfriend/wife (Katharine Ross) which was a bit weird. There wasn’t a really good bar scene sadly, but it was shot in a stylish way and to know it is actually based on a true story was kind of astonishing.

'The Hole in the Wall Gang'? Isn't that me and my friends having a few Marstons in York.

There was no escape for Butch and the Kid, so they chose randomly to go to Bolivia where they could finally errrm escape, and the pickings were a bit easier, well once the girlfriend/wife taught them the Spanish for ‘up against the wall’, ‘where’s your safe?’ and other heisty favourites. Still, just as they were trying to enjoy a rare steak dinner in the market place, the law caught up with them and the film ended with them being killed, presumably, by a barrage of gunshots. Burt Bacharach did the top tunes, ‘Raindrops keep falling on my Head’ the highlight, despite the lack of rain in the film, I could hear it on the window outside!

Any other business?

Well, next week’s film is Jeremiah Johnson. Who I’m sure was a Championship midfielder in the early 2000’s.

I’m aiming for Friday for the day next (this) week. Where does the impending return of BRAPA leave WWWSI then, I hear no one ask?! Well, less wine, less of these pointless blogs, but I'll still do the Twittery bits.

Any excuse to get the green Stabilo out! Can you guess which wine is next?

Four new followers to introduce to you, and give them their honorary Western nicknames …..

Saimon “Stab!” Clark – Not to be confused with Simon ‘Sy’ Clark who once came on a BRAPA trip, Saimon seems to love nature, has a good sense of humour, and might live somewhere near Martin Taylor. Follows BRAPA, seems a sound chap.

Pub “Pain Inflicter” Curmudgeon – Needs no introduction. Pub blogging legend. Great writer. Loves cats, ABBA, the same types of pubs as me, sends me CAMRA vouchers, once took me round some pubs twixt Wigan & Cheshire.

Cooking ‘On the Boil’ Lager – Another Stockportian pub legend, been pubbing with him, very personable chap, less scary than his twitter persona, has a quality coat.

Bradley ‘Bonanza’ Gallo – Most famous follower since Protz, he must’ve somehow seen my account and seems he’s a Californian film producer and have even heard of some of his films.

Welcome all four to the crazy world, and sorry to Becca Robertshaw, just making sure you aren’t a robot. Nice seat belt by the way.

Til next week, take care all. Si