It’s a Blog ! Not a Log !

you discover one of you ancestors was a former Ukrainian Vodka Distillary owner….

Well if your Dan Edelstyn, you get the next flight to the Ukraine to learn more about how his great-grandfather’s vodka distillery seized during the  Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, you hunt down the village that is home to this long lost distillery and along the way film the adventure.

But suppose that’s not enough, suppose you find that the distillery is still there but on the verge of closing, thus rendering a large chunk of the villages populace out of work, most people might just get on the next flight home with there curiosity about their family history satisfied, but then again those people aren’t Dan, who decides that maybe just maybe he can turn around the fortune of the village and the family’s former distillery, so how does he do this, he decides to start producing Vodka again, a vodka that resonates with  history Zorokovich 1917 Vodka . . . and so the adventure begins . .

First Dan has to find companies that are willing to believe like he does that there is a market out there for a new vodka, one of the earliest to take an interest is Babelgumwhich has helped finance the film he’s making about the distillery and is hosting it on there website, he also meets with one of the biggest Ad Agency’s Saatchi and Saatchi to discuss ways to market this new Vodka . .

Dan’s also set up a Vodka club, whereby members invest £50, which helps pay towards the filming costs, this little donation also gets you a credit on the eventual theatrical release of the film he’s making of his adventures, but not only that you also get  a pair of tickets to one of the premiers, and an actual bottle of  vodka from the distillery. . .  might have to see about investing myself come payday

But instead of me telling you how he’s progressing in his adventure why not follow him yourself on Babelgum, to start you off I’ve posted the first part of his adventure

If you enjoyed this episode of his adventure more can be found here http://www.babelgum.com/vodkaempire , a new one is posted every couple of day’s so keep checking back to see how Dan and his Vodka’s getting one, eventually the whole series of episode will be combined as a documentary that will be appearing on More4 later this year, so this is a chance to see the whole thing as its being made.

You can also follow Dan’s adventures via his blog My Vodka Empire & also his Twitter account danedelstyn.

I’ve managed to acquire some of the early samples of this family vodka and I can say its not a bad little number, though I’d recommend chilling it first as this seems to enhance the overall feeling you get from drinking it, which is a smooth sweet taste with a slight burn to the back of the throat, which you’d expect from a vodka, all in all its a very smooth drink and I’ll be watching out for it when it hits the shelves.

Been taking Blue on her new walk over the past couple of weekends, the lovely Tatton Park, lots of grassland for her to run about on, lakes to play in, woods to explore and lots of new smells.

I can highly recommend Tatton Park for a nice day out, lots of nice open space to have a picnic and exercise the dog.

 

There’s also the lovely village of Knutsford nearby to explore with its narrow streets and shops and there’s a Market there the first Saturday of each month selling good country fair to cook for tea

Thats what we were after visiting the Valentines Market in Piccadilly Gardens today, it was really just the Farmers Market with a few extra stall’s, nothing you’d want to write home about, though the Farmers Market in itself is fine, why try and dress it up as something else.

Anyway after spending about 1/2 looking at stalls we’ve previously seen we went for a bit of a wander round Manchester doing window shopping, no spending money this month, to skint for any of that malarky, we headed to Chorlton and Electriks for a Latte and a beer, as usual Blue got lots of compliments from the clientele old and new, it’s nice how Blue gets people talking to each other and it’s pretty cool have everyone say shes such a beautiful dog (I sound like a proud father, maybe I am in a dogchild sort of way).

Spent about 2hrs there surfing the net and just generally people watching, Mel saw a friend from work so had a bit of a natter with her then headed home so I could catch up on last nights LOST, which by the way gets more and more confusing every Season and with this being the penultimate season its getting even weirder . .  whats with the crossed reality’s bit . . just gonna have to wait and see how it pans out I suppose.

So not to much of an exciting day today I’m afriad, but at least we got out of the house thats the main thing, can’t be staying in on one of your days not at work can you . .

Time for bed now so sweet dreams and all that other bollox people say before going to bed and farting the night away . .

 

This weekend what with it being Valentines day, Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens will be hosting a new Market, this time selling all those things that you might need to ensure that your Valentines day runs as smoothly as possible, there will be stalls selling the usual Valentines fare flowers and jewellery and chocolates, but along side it there will also be fashion and clothing stalls selling all those outfits ready to buy for the lady in your life.

The Market runs over 2 days, the 13th and 14th of February, were going to be heading there ourselves on the 13th to see what bargains we can get, so if your there be sure to keep an eye out for me the missus and our dog Blue.

kennys party 071, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Kenny reached the grand old age of 50 last week along with Andy reaching the 40 mark, so they had a joint party to celebrate and used the oppurtunity to get everyone back togeather again.

It was good to see all the faces from the partys togeather again having a laugh and just generally getting on, party kicked off at of all places Stretford Cricket Club, then moved onto Lisa’s flat, where drinks flowed and people talked bollox (mainly due to what they’d had).

We left fairly early on in the morning 5:00am so maybe not so early, but the party carried on after we left, ending only when John, Ben and a few others decided to place most of Lisa food stuffs in the freezer . . . oh and after Ben had emptied a full bag of flour over the sleeping Lisa’s head (not nice Ben).

Gotta say Kenny was looking good for an old man and no doubt has many years left in him, all the best Kenny and Andy

this time they’ve been helping the members of a local Age Concern keep fit and healthy, heres a few pictures and the press release :

FIT WITH THE OLD FOLKS!

Members from a Manchester based Age Concern group turn to the Wii Fit to help keep active

Members from Out in the City, a local Age Concern group have struck upon a novel way of keeping fit.  Leisurely walks, bowls and swimming have been usurped in favour of a new hi-tech training tool – the Wii Fit.

Four members, aged in their late 50s, 60s and 70s, visited the new wireless lite Carphone Warehouse store at the Trafford Centre this week and were given a demonstration in the popular game.

After the demonstration, the store donated the Wii Fit console and game to Age Concern so that members will regularly be able to use the different Wii fitness games, helping to keep themselves active and agile.

Thanks to the games console, they will now be able to regularly participate in Tai Chi, fitness programmes and can even monitor their posture and BMI.  For those wanting something a little more strenuous, snowboarding, skiing and dance classes are the order of the day!

Jane Barcoe of Age Concern said, “The members love keeping active and doing something different!  This is a great gift from The Carphone Warehouse and I’m sure we’ll have no shortage of people who want to use the Wii Fit.  This is a really innovative way to help our members interact and keep fit!”

Neil Sears, Store Manger of  The Carphone Warehouse at the Trafford Centre, said, “Technology can be a great way to connect with other people and in this instance a perfect way to keep fit too.  The range of technology on the market is expanding, and age shouldn’t be a barrier so our aim is to breakdown the walls and make gadgets simple for everyone.”

The ‘wireless lite’ Carphone Warehouse at the Trafford Centre offers a wider range of mobile communications such as laptops and gaming products too.  The store is one of four to be trialled across England and offering a new format, with expert advice and counsel given on all manner of high-tech issues and gadgets.

Feel rough as fcuk, seems to be more water coming out of my nose than goes over Niagra in a day (ok maybe not, but it feels that way), already on my 2nd box of tissues . . I want my bed !

And was presently surprised to discover that it’s a Dell Inspiron 1750 Laptop, 17″ Display, Dual Core, 250gig drive and 4gig of Ram

Quite liking it alot, so anyways arrived at the Carphone Warehouse at 10:45am and by 11:00am the photographer had arrived and then spent the next hour having photo’s of me in various poses picking up the prize, hopefully be getting some pictures emailed across to me by the Photographer a very nice man called Paul Francis, his website can be found here Paul Francis Photography, check the site out to see the sort of work he does, I think you’ll be impressed, plus he’s a top bloke

After having the photo’s taken I rang Keri at Bisslancaster to thank them, after all it’s not every day you win a laptop is it . . ., also thanked the people at Carphone Warehouse and the guys behind Geek Squad for donating the Lap Top as a prize, hoping that in the next few weeks that I’ll get a call telling me whether I’ll be getting gadgets to review for them or not, hoping I will as I have in mind to set up a sub-domain on my webhost and set up a specific blog just for the reviews.

Now suppose I’d best go play with the new Lap Top a little bit more so that I can hopefully review it on here

Thanks again Carphone Warehouse

I never thought 6 words and 1 number would make me so happy but “Last day at work for 2 weeks” has made me a very very happy man indeed.

In the 10 yrs I’ve worked for the company I’ve never taken more than 1 week at a time for holidays, it’ll be so nice not to have to think or worry about anything work related for a whole 14 days.

Picture 095, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Did’nt really post to much over the weekend as I spent quite alot of it in bed, due to being called out to an alarm call at my workplace, was there from midnight Friday till 5:30am Saturday morning, so spent quite a while in bed recovering.

So seeing as most of Saturday was spent in bed thought we#d better do something on Sunday, was’nt sure what to do or where to go, but in the end we decided on Chelford Car boot.

Got there for about 12:30 and spent a good hour or so just wondering round looking for bargain’s but think we missed most of them, so just ended up buying lots of quaility cheeses instead, more about those in another post.

After leaving we thought we’d best take Blue for a walk and on the way back we chanced upon Styal Estate a rather good dog walking place, we’d heard about it before but never actually bothered to go look for it, really wish we had cause its definatly a dog friendly walk, lost of paths and fields for Blue to galavant in, I’ll stick some photo & videos up this weekend so you can see for yourselfs.

Anyway its close to 8:00am and I’d better start making my way to work, cyas laters
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