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.

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

As mentioned earlier headed across to Chorlton to take Blue round Ivy Green, met up with Luke at Electriks then headed across to Ivy Green, anyways decided to head along the Mersey to Jackson’s boat for a beer, absolutely stunning views with everything totally whited out by the snow, like being in another country.

Met a few other dog owners along the way and just generally enjoyed the walk and then it happened . . . Blue headed for her favourite bend in the Mersey, where she usually goes for a drink of water, but the edge was all iced up and Blue being Blue didn’t bat an eyelid, just went storming onto the ice, well ice and a 7.5 stone dog don’t exactly miss and the next minute there’s the sound of ice cracking and Blue disappears into the inky black water of the Mersey to reappear a few seconds later out of the ice hole she’d just created.

Soon as I saw her disappear I dropped my camera and dived down the rivers bank trying to get to her, she was a couple of feet out, way beyond my reach, but luckily for her and me there was a fcuking big branch log just laying nr the bank, so used this to smash through the ice and create a passage for her to get to the side, scariest 60 or so seconds I’ve experienced in a long time while smashing that ice I can tell you.

So managed to get her to the side and she was back to her normal self in a few minutes, though slightly damp for her ordeal, she soon shook it off, then headed to Jackson’s Boat so she could warm up and me and Luke could get a beer.

Apart from the unexpected dip in the Mersey it was a pretty good afternoon, nothing like trapping through snow and cold bracing fresh air to make you feel alive, finished the afternoon off with some very tasty French Onion soup at electriks, now at home watching Blue chilled out on the bed with Mel pampering her.

Might head out that way again tomorrow, but this time stay away from the ice . .

Went to Oddest Bar in Chorlton today to have a drink after last nights refusal, was allowed to sit outside with my dog this time, however did find out that they do indeed refuse dog’s and dog owners entry after a set time and also found out from talking to two seperate family groups, one in Horse and Jockey and one in Electriks bar that apparently couples with children are also refused entry after 5:00pm.

Now considering there are a hell of a lot of couples with children in the Chorlton area it seems as though Oddest are going to lose alot of custom from due to this policy, cause theres nothing a mother/father will remember more than being refused by somewhere because of their children, fair enough don’t have kids in bars after a certain time, but 5:00pm seems very harsh.

As for myself and Blue returning to Oddest for a drink or something to eat, well unless they change there no dog policy after a certain time I don’t think we’ll be heading there much in the near future.

So sorry Oddest if this is’nt the sort of review you’d like on a random blog, but how can I honestly review somewhere when I’m only welcome at certain times of the day.

Well apart from Blue, yeah poor Vince is holding down the fort while Mel’s having a girls night in Blackpool with her sister, I was hoping to have a lad’s night, but it seems most of them are in the Lakes at either Phil’s or Ben’s caravan, so what is Vince going to do with himself today ?

Thus far I’ve done Blues morning walk round Ivy Green, i’ve managed a Supreme Breakfast at Orlando’s and now I’m sat in Electrik’s having a nice cold Hoeggarden and watching the world of Chorlton slowly go by, actually thought there’d be more people out and about today, but’s it fairly quiet round here, not many people in the bar, guessing there all outside somewere enjoying the sun.

Tried ringing Ben and John to see if the’d care to join me, but Ben’s got plans at the moment and as for John he’s still in bed recvering from last nights excess’s after the Prodigy gig, no doubt he and Sophie went overboard and probably did’nt get to bed till stupid o’clock this morning, I’ll try giving him a call later and see if he’s up for drink or 2 tonight.

Anyway while I was at Orando’s had a quick chat with Rupert who’s given me the heads up about his next little project, can’t really say much at the moment, but watch this space, for when the time comes I shall divulge more.

Best get back to people watching and drinking my Hoeggarden before it gets to warm and the sun disappears.

Laters

Heading into Chorton last night with Ash, John and Sophie for a night of merriment and met random strangers, said random strangers where however very decent folk and to top it all were actually Yorkshiremen, well 2 of them were anyways.
The Yorkshiremen in question were Paul originally from York and his dad Steve who’d come over to visit him, they’d come out with what I’m guessing were Pauls mates in Manchester and we just sort of sat next to them and then just instigated ourselves into the group, though by the end of the night it felt we’d known them for alot longer then a couple of hours.
I’ve added a few photo’s to the flickr account of the night, not many though as I was to pissed to take that many, it was a very enjoyable evening in the Nook and I most certainly think we’ll be going there for a drink again in the not to distant future

I’m going to end the post here as its still only 7:58am in the morning, I’m still hungover and have now got to find some mug who’ll drive me to Chorlton to pick up my car . . . wish me luck.

Thats what I had last night and now matter how many times I’ve had it now I just don’t get bored of it, which considering when I first heard of Curried goat I didn’t exactly like the idea of it as a meal, let alone eating it on a regular basis, and eat it I do, as soon as I’ve had my first forkful of the stuff I can’t stop piling it in until the plates clean, its one of those meal’s that once you’ve started you cant stop until its all gone, very rare you find a food that nice and that good you don’t even want to to stop to make polite dinner time conversation, so for those people who think I’m being ignorant “I’m not” I’m just enjoying my food to much to waste time talking.

Anyway as you’ve guessed we were at Orlando’s Bar again last night, Mel had just had her hair done and wanted to go out, so we headed across to Chorlton for tea, glad we did actually as we discovered another lover of Cane Corso’s, and how’d we know he loved Cane Corso’s ? well he’s the first person we’ve met who actually knew that Blue was a Cane Corso, quite a shock for the pair of us, turns out he’d seen some in Canada while visiting his brother and he’d actually bought one when he got back to the UK, she was a Blue girl as well, but sadly  she was born with a heart defect that couldn’t be operated on and she was sent to sleep, he’s thought about getting another one, but his wifes sort of put paid to that, though he’s said now he’s seen Blue, it’s put the idea back in his head, so you never know in a couple of months Blue might not be the only Cane Corso in Chorlton soon (Booo Hisss – Only Joking).

Blue was certainly lapping up the attention last night, she was being spoilt by Rupert and his bar staff, in total she had 4 sausage’s (she had 2 when me and Blue went there for brekkie) and a piece of stewed beef, I think she likes Orlando’s Bar a lot, which is understandable, its got good food, good drink, friendly staff and most of all a really nice chilled relaxed atmosphere

Its arrived . . . the day when Bernie celebrates her 43rd year on planet earth and how is she going to celebrate . .  yep she’s going out with us lot . . . poor poor Bernie, what is she letting herself in for, the plan so far is to meet up at the Green Windmill in Stretford drink large quantities of beer and then head back to Bernie’s place for the end of the evening/morning.

We’re intending arriving about 9:00pm-9:30pm, by which time it should be in full effect, so I hopefully won’t have much time to drink before we head back to Bernie’s, as don’t fancy getting wasted tonight as still recovering from last weekend’s shenanigans at Ben’s.

We’ve now gone and bought Bernie her b-day present and I’m not going to reveal to you lot what it is, you can just wait until the after Bernie’s party post to find out.

I’m probably going to do one quite early from the party as Blue our Cane Corso’s still feeling a little under the weather with her phantom pregnancy, so don’t want to be leaving her all alone all night as the last time we did she apparently kept the neighbours up with her howling, seems she was missing us and wanted the world to know, just a shame it was at about 2:00am in the morning, sorry Jane

On the subject of Blue and her phantom pregnancy, it does seem to be subsiding now and the only symptoms remaining are her need to carry fluffy toys around with her all the time and her lactating teats, the lactating being the major symptom me thinks, thankfully she’s no longer pacing up and down all night or digging holes in the garden (this caused no end of trouble, what with muddy paw prints and shaken dirt distributed around the house), she’s also managed to get her appetite back which is good as she lost quite a bit of weight and she’s also alot more bouncier as well, all these symptoms are the reason we ended up taking her to the vet in the first place.      We’ve still got one more visit to the vets in the next week or so, just to have a check up and to arrange for her to be splayed (something I suppose we should have done when we got her), once she’s been spayed she shouldn’t suffer from phantom pregnancy’s or any form of pregnancy again.

Its seems that I won’t be going out this weekend to have a belated birthday drink with the boys, as a number of them have dropped out for various reasons :

Ash can’t make it cause he’s broke

John Fiddy can’t make it because Ben threw him of a set of garden steps for a laugh and now John’s laid up with a bad back and is unlikely to be available for any party’s for the next couple of weeks.

So at the moment I’ve just got Liam, Kenny, Andy and possibly Ben who are up for a Saturday night round Chorlton, but that’s about it, so I’m going to have to postpone until either Ash gets some cash or John gets better.

It always seems to happen to me, didn’t get a party last year either, but hey there’s always next year.

In other news the cat’s got back from his holidays so all the mice at work have had to start working quietly in case he hears them and there’s no more playing around either

Also just been looking at another festival for the Summer, its called BeatHerder and is just outside Manchester, tickets are only £55 for 3 days in July 4th-5th-6th, so there’s definitely a possibility it might not rain.

As for the line-up a few to many for me to type here, but well worth checking out, not just for the bands but also for the sound systems in attendance, I can particularly recommend the Stumblefunk Sound System, who will be there again this year

Anyway here’s a video from last years BeatHerder

Hopefully in July there will be another video of Beatherder, but this time it’ll be one I’ve filmed, so watch this space and maybe see you there in July.

Is it really a year since last years Giant Bradley day, god how these things come round so fast . .

Me, Mel and Blue shall be setting off straight after work tomorrow to be sure we arrive in time for at least a drink before last orders, though don’t wanna get to many in as we’ve got the rest of the weekend to enjoy, plus we’ve got to give Blue a bath and pretty her up just in case they have another dog show like they did one year at GB day, we’re determined to enter her and we’re pretty sure that her good looks will win her some sort of rosette.

GB Days not just about celebrating Market Weightons most famous son, it’s also about catching up with old friends and seeing who else has made the great trek back to Weighton, it’s also about catching up on those friends who still live there and seeing how there lives are going and just generally getting all the local gossip since last you were back.

Where intending staying for the full weekend so expect to see alot of photo’s on Flickr and no doubt videos on YouTube