The old thread was a deal of great fun for me, and as I am having a Birthday Party this weekend, I had hoped to revitalise the old Thread, which may be found here:

Polish Vodka?

Now consigned to being history, it still has much warmth and humanity in it, and hopefully we can carry on talking about such wonderous moments as we did then in this thread from now on!

ATB from George

Moved Reply:

Dear Patrick,

A couple of minutes ago I was 47, and you made me really smile. First of m 48th year. Thanks!

George

Moved Reply:

You kids up all hours!
Happy birthday George.

Moved Reply:

Cheers George.

Happy Birthday!!

happy birthday george! hope you see some poulenc soon :-)

Good morning Fredrik, hope the party went well and I second the happy birthday. I hope that got my SMS yesterday - sorry it was early!!

FF

Well, it was a lovely sort of a Party! Good compnay, good conversation, and a surprising number of empty bottles!

Five 0.7 litres of Wyborowa, and out of twenty Lechs, only six left, and all bar one serving of the Bigos was eaten as well. It was five kilos to start with! Eaten by eight people!

I was roundly ribbed for failing to make conversation in Polish but as it was my making of the Bigos, I was forgiven!

No headache, but that sort "I'd prefer to be asleep" feeling just now. I do not quite remember the end of it, which is a first for me, but it did not take too much effort to tidy up earlier, so no catastrophies!

One to remember for a very long time. There are some photos, but essntially not terribly good.

ATB from George

Will speak to you later George.
Sounds like you had a good one.
How much apple juice?
Munch

George,

Best wishes and many happy returns.

George.

Two litres of apple juice, one and half of orange juice, and two litres of Coca Cola!

It was a good one! One of the best and everone seems happ today, and two of our number were at work at six this morning though both were forgiven and came home early!

I suspect they must have looked a bit ropey at six o'clock, as they still looked somewhat done in by half past one!

ATB ...

The happy ending.

Each part-guest, when the have seen me since simpl has broken into a Cheshire Cat grin, and commented that it was the best part they'd been to in England!

It was certainly the best part I have been responsible for preparing, and that is down to the wonderful people whom I asked to be there ... Oh and my apparentl very fine cooking. To give Bigos to Poles is the culinary equivalent of taking coals to Newcastle.

A risky but entirely brilliant and brilliantly excecuted plan even if I say so myself. Apparently wh I woke up, well rested, in bed is because that is where I was put!

ATB

God you would be missed on this forum George.
You are a true Legend.
Your Typos are the dogs bits tonight .
You did the last of the Wodka after our chat then.
Munch

Dear Stu,

I keep trying to fix the bloody typos, and the ****ing PC keeps crashing! I'll leave 'em alone now!

No, I only had a couple of shots about half way through three crashes in the last twenty minutes! BUT Ihave a good two inches left, so its a good job I am in a good mood - that is a flasehood ...

But I have old Bach's Goldbergs on, so a good further hour to get into the frame of mind to sleep!

Catch ya soon, G

Thought you would be in bed by now

I know I am ready for a holiday, when I am so tired that I get home dog tired and go straight to sleep ... and then wake up later.

Unfortunately I fell over in the blast freezer today and that did me no good at all, so I am feeling a bit wretched ...

I could crack a bottle of Herb Vodka [Stomach Vodka as it is good for settling stomach ailments], but I am saving it for a special occasion! Has anone heard the one about ...? It's too long for now. Here is a shorter one:

Thinnk of an alternative word for a rabbit who always looks on the bright side! [See end for answer].

We have the electric off all day on Friday week [end of last full week before Christmas], so we may get a day's early holiday, though we have been incredibly busy bwith unexpected big orders for ice cream in the last two weeks - tubs for the theatre trade - so perhaps people are doing the old-fashioned thing and going to Pantomimes this year.

It will be very quiet after Christamas though as many restaurants are going to stay closed except one or two days a week, so we have been told. A sign of the times I am sure.

ATB from George

A hoptimist!

Well just in case you never hear from me again, I sm off to Frank and Mrs F's in the morning in Spain, where apparently Frank has seen to it that there is a sufficient stock of Wyborowa [very fine Polish Wodka] for my week's stay.

I then have another "extra week" off till 12th of January to get further down the slope of destiny when my best Polish friend returns on the 5th, no doubt fully armed with some more!

My New Year's resolution will be that I shall only only enjoy the purest and best drinks, so that at least I have the minimum of headaches and other ailments. I have never had a great wish to live into ripe old age, however!

Merry Christmas to you all!

And if you want to make my day go and look at the Klemperer thread, read the last two posts, and then go and order what is discussed!

Catch you all in the New Year! George

PS: What is the difference between a Snowman and a Snowlady?

Snowballs!

PS: When I get back I have new [second hand] bike to collect.

A good friend who is my age [and known since childhood] and who is also a bit of an athlete - oarsman still, and apparently time trialler on bikes in his younger days - has given me his old Carlton Racer. Seems that my suspiscion that he would choose a very good machine is correct looking at Carlton's history. So now I shall be able to crack on very nicely rather than fighting low gearing and huge tyres on my Eagle MTB!

I would rather a nice old style machine in preference to these modern bling monsters that weigh a ton and go nowhere fast! The Carlton will be very different from the Pashley that I was investigating, which all things considered was beyond the budget.

His wife has ordered it thrown out, so I guess I am rescuing another antique from oblivion! My collection of great ancients grows, to add to a very old Volvo, CB 140 etc!

ATB from George

So we were having a nice time in the Christmas sun and someone dropped in!!! Perhaps he had too much Vodka,

FF

Well this was not so funny. At least it was a [flyweight] Lemon parked on the stairs, and not a two ton Volvo.

But ...

On Christmas day you have to keep a sense of humour.

In the last two days I have been so priveleged to enjoy the company of two Forum stalwarts and great people as really met - my two oldest Forum friends, Frank and Geoff - and most kindly Frank's dear wife, Anniu ...

Twelve courses on Christmas Eve from Anna, and a truly English Christamas dinner from Frank today.

It was so nice this afternoon to bring Geoff into Frank's front roon and listen to the least heroic of Beethoven Symphonies - the Eighth - and then settle tosome equal master pieces from Astor Piazzola.

This was replayed via a set which is acually precisely what I would dream of as my perfect replat set [see Frank's profile no doubt], so no question that what emerged was well done ...

I suspect that Geoff found the old BBC tape not quite as fine as the best studio recordings, but could find the result at least an indication of significant, and possbly great music making ...

_______________

I have been priveleged to listen to vinyl replay via Ekos 2 with akiva on a top Linned TT, Dyn XVS on Aro [Naimed LP12 without Keel] and I did not care for the Akiva one tiny bit - perfectly hateful cart.

Well, at my request we shall try the Dyn on the Ekos, to see how kind that might be compared to the Aro.

And we shall see what comes with the Scoutmaster from VPI, which is such a kind TT.

Maybe we shall fit all these great cartridges to the simple [not so simple as a Rega] deck ...

_______________

But the morning started with Haydn's Clock Symphony 101] bringing a certain joy to the house, via the eminently kind CDS3 ...

_______________

I should emphasis that my old Volvo is parked safely in Bristol Airport, and that I am not going to join the tendency to take Dutch courage in driving ...

Best, and sincerely kind wishes from George

Dear George,

thank you for this entertaining report. It seems you are really enjoying your trip.

How about joining the Vienna Naimie Meeting in June 2009?
Vienna meeting

It would be great to meet an expert of classical music at this spezial place.

Best wishes

Manfred