Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Recommended Posts, April-June 2008

Guided Tour - recommended posts
from the 2nd Quarter of '08




1) And.... they're off! - 3rd April

One of my most inspired pieces of frivolity: my options for the evening's entertainment depicted as a horse race.



2) Why we drink??? - 7th April

A terrifyingly good quotation from Charles Bukowski.



3) The Plan evolves... - 9th April

Arch-commenter 'Tulsa' goads me into a further elaboration of my infamous Plan for improving my love life.



4) The 'lost' haiku (HBH 24!!) - 16th April

An 'extra' haiku in mid-week, prompted by my belated discovery that I had somehow missed No. 24 out of the series.



5) HBH 76 - 18th April

A haiku celebrating a particularly good - particularly damaging - evening of excess with Jack Daniel's.



6) More mordant txt msg humour - 19th April

I rediscover text message still stored on my phone from 15 months previously: one of my funniest, one of my darkest.



7) More wisdom of the txts - 21st April

A gal pal and I discourse on the mystery of love via SMS.



8) This week's party excuse - 22nd April

My friend DD and I plan a party from scratch during a 10-minute cab ride.



9) The surrogate drinker - 25th April

The Man In Black suggests "I drink, so you don't have to" as the new tag-line for my blog.



10) The weekly bon mot - 28th April

Some wise words from Dr Johnson prompt a little aside from me on the quaint Chinese inability to distinguish between different varieties of alcoholic beverage.



11) A small green thing...... - 29th April

I have a less-than-ideal eating experience at my favourite Xinjiang restaurant.



12) The curse of 'three' - 1st May

Fate taunts me once again in regard to my 'love life'!



13) The Last Table - 4th May

Recollections of the epic drinking that occurred at a Chinese wedding I went to over the May Holiday (along with fellow Pool Bar regular, Crazy Chris).



14) Note to self - 8th May

Will I never learn??



15) Sudden outbreaks of piety - 10th May

Some anecdotes of my struggles with a dodgy knee cartilage (I am sometimes mistaken for a devout Muslim when I kneel on the floor, rocking to and fro and muttering, as I try to pop it back into place).



16) Chinese football fans - 15th May

Having to suffer the company of a horde of Chinese "Manchester United fans" on the final Saturday of the Premiership season brings out the curmudgeon in me - how could it not?



17) The graveyard of good (cultural) intentions - 19th May

I analyse why I didn't actually get to go to any of the concerts I had been planning to see this past weekend - and conclude that it is largely because I have been drinking too much at Room 101 and the Pool Bar!



18) In search of.... the Yanjing Brewery - 21st January

Finally - after 5 years! - I make my long-planned pilgrimage to the factory (lots of photos!) where they manufacture most of the beer that I drink.



19) Gobsmack Double Whammy - 26th May

Two more mind-blowing recent examples of awful service in Chinese bars.



20) The Great Chuanr Crawl - 27th May

'The Lads' and I take on 4 or 5 different yangrou chuanr venues in a single night - the beginning of a Great Quest to find The Best Xinjiang Restaurant In The Neighbourhood.



21) HBH 82 - 30th May

Recollections of a bracing evening meal, consumed outside, in the midst of a violent windstorm.



22) Redemption (2)??? - 31st May

Last night's brilliant Ian Sherman Benefit Gig makes me wonder if the previously dreadful D-22 has finally become a decent music venue - and a decent bar - after all. The jury is still out on that.



23) Weekly bon mot - 2nd June

One of my own, this time.



24) Kolegas birthday gig photos - 3rd June

Some pictures from the awesome 3rd Anniversary concert at favourite music bar, 2 Kolegas, the previous weekend.



25) Bon mot of the week (Wisecrack of the week?) - 9th June

A great line from one of the great films about bars.



26) Man-Eating Sofa 2, Euro Football 0 - 10th June

A very short post, but it became the discussion forum on the European Football Championships - one of my busiest threads ever!



27) Marjorie Daw - 29th June

I enlist the help of eccentric barhound, Crazy Chris, to chat up a woman on my behalf. This is a mistake.



28) Bon mot of the week - 30th June

Bukowski again - this time via the Mickey Rourke film, Barfly.

No comments: