Пора, мой друг, пора! покоя сердце просит —
Летят за днями дни, и каждый час уносит
Частичку бытия, а мы с тобой вдвоем
Предполагаем жить, и глядь — как раз умрем.
На свете счастья нет, но есть покой и воля.
Давно завидная мечтается мне доля —
Давно, усталый раб, замыслил я побег
В обитель дальную трудов и чистых нег.
Pinched from this rather wonderful site.
but prematurity is a symptom of (my) life, and I will be as busy as pants (to quote dear BiB) all day today (apart from sleeping). So Happy New Year one and all. Here’s to 2006 (he takes a sip of Staropramen).
(how’s that for an alliterative title!). The new Russian TV adaptation of Bulgakov’s classic has proven to be an enormous success. I for one cannot wait to get my hands on the DVDs…
of Staropramen, Gambrinus and other Czech beers over at BiB, as well as a comparison with the more Teutonic beers of Berlin, and a slight Petrozavodsk/Piter-based reminiscence about Baltika and Bochkarev, I did feel an urge to publish a top ten of Central/East European beers. I failed miserably in this endeavour because:
1) I can’t remember the names of 10 beers.
2) Those of you who are native to or resident in these areas will disagree, and I could really do without the hassle at the moment.
3) Apart from Staropramen, the only beers from anywhere east of Dublin I’ve drunk in the last 6 months were a rash of bottles of Polish beer from an off licence in Hanwell. One was raspberry flavoured, and I cannot for the life of me remember what the others were called.
4) This site, despite being shockingly American, is rather good: www.realbeer.com. And does far more justice to Central/Eastern European beers than I ever could.
Instead I’ll leave you with some Slovak drink-driving humour, simply labelled “Promile”:
are the only words I can use to describe the Domino’s Pizza website. For those of you too lazy to pick up your phone, dial and place your order, you can now set up an account and order online. It is very tempting though… Mmmmm pizza…
the Drunken Master HiFi has brought in a supersub a la Ronnie Rosenthal or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to DJ with us on NYE @ the Hansom Cab. We will be there from 7pm onwards, and remember, free entry, pub prices and open till 2am. For those of you born after 1979, John will be adding a hint of modern music that youngsters listen to, rather than the Vera Lynn, George Formby and Schubert I was going to play. Anyway, the invitation stands, dear readers. Be there or be somewhere else with better music, cheaper drinks and people you know…
are grinding to a halt as we speak due to snowfall. A whole 6 inches last night. Trains have been cancelled in the south east. Temperatures are expected to drop to -10 tonight. As far as I can remember, certainly back to 1982, the year I started at infant school, it has snowed/been cold/been icy in the UK every year. Maybe not in Central London, but snow has fallen to some degree somewhere every year. And yet we are still entirely unprepared/unable to deal with it. I have travelled on trains in Russia towards the end of winter with snowdrifts several feet deep either side of the tracks. Germany and the Czech Republic are both seemingly capable of dealing with harsher winters than us. Surely more could be done than simply sprinkling grit on the roads, advising drivers to carry food and blankets in case they get caught, and telling commuters to leave London before 8pm to avoid being stuck if snow starts to fall.
again for another year. this seems to have been the shortest Christmas on records. Driving back on Boxing Day was ludicrously busy, and there were queues of cars waiting to get into Brent Cross – surely people must have no money after the rash of late Christmas shopping this year, or maybe the lure of slightly reduced towelling in Fenwicks was too great. Or, more likely, I believe, retail therapy is required after a morning/afternoon/evening/day/Christmas dinner with their families. Or maybe they simply want to return all the presents they received and swap them for a trouser press or something equally useful. Anyway, all I remember is that when I was a kid, it was nigh on impossible to find anything open from mid-afternoon Xmas Eve to 9am on the 27th. This is, of course, to say nothing of the sales with online retailers that began at midnight on Xmas Eve… I am not (as you may have been able to tell) a religious man in any sense, but this has been the first Christmas I have not worked in 8 years, and let me tell you, it is bliss. Everyone should have these few days off, irrelevant of race, sexuality, religious persuasion or whatever. It is nice.
will see the Drunken Master HiFi in session at the Hansom Cab, Earl’s Court Road, London. 7pm-2am. No ticket required. Pub prices. The ideal place for a drunken funky New Year’s Eve party. Some of the songs Sam and Luke will be playing as the evening progresses (and the blood/alcohol level increases) will include:
House of Pain – Jump Around
De La Soul – Buddy
Oliver Cheatham – Get Down Saturday Night
McFadden & Whitehead – Ain’t No Stoppin Us Now
Madonna – Hung Up
Mylo & Miami Sound Machine – Doctor Pressure
The Jackson Sisters – I Believe In Miracles
Deee-Lite – Groove Is In The Heart
Dan Hartman – Vertigo/Relight My Fire
Sub Sub featuring Melanie Williams – Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use)
of Slade fame once sang/screamed “It’s Christmas”. And today it is for our Czech and Polish cousins (and probably other Central Europeans as well, but I simply do not have the energy to check at the moment – I’m sure those of you with more experience in these matters will be able to tell me…). Here in Blighty, it all kicks off tomorrow (well, it all started mid-September this year, but nonetheless), and, having made my trips to friends and relatives in the provinces, I am now enjoying the usual fare of Paul McCartney Christmas hits (never play The Pogues “Fairytale of New York” enough for me). So dear reader(s), I wish you all the best for the Xmas season, and for 2006. Enjoy.
