Good afternoon, evening, or whatever time of day it is where you are. Since the re-opening of Uborka, I have noticed that the main difference between now and pre-hiatus is that now I work for myself, I don’t have time to sit around writing idle blog posts about imaginary alcohol anymore. Drinks are being served later every week, which may please the american team; and those of us in the european camp may find that they can have real cocktails at the same time as the virtual ones. What’s not to like?

We have no theme this week; Pete said it didn’t matter, when we discussed it over breakfast. Perhaps at the time he was already planning to ask for a plain beer. I meanwhile was happy with a cup of tea, because we accidentally drank most of a bottle of wine when I got home from teaching, at 10.30 last night. Oopsy. I haven’t yet managed to have my second cup of tea, so I’ll start with that, and then get back to serving drinks.

Right. I’ve got a nice Earl Grey and I’m sharing it with Lisa, who did suggest we have a tea themed week. I’m not sure I know what we would actually do in a tea themed week, other than drink it with added enthusiasm and take photos of the tealeaves. Lisa, along with Clair, are my virtual running buddies. Lisa started C25K before me and still hasn’t finished but hasn’t injured herself. So who’s winning? I think it might be her. Perhaps we could form the Uborka Running Club [urunka?] and invite Stuart to join us. We might all need a bit of Jeeves’ Restorative at this rate, followed by a nice large G&T in a plastic glass [Clair, think of the environment!]

I hope you all managed to read Sevitz’ deeply moving interview on Tuesday. It rendered even Lyle tearful. I am being careful not to mix up Sevitz’ mint julep and Lyle’s Absinthe, Aquavit and Aftershock. Alcoholic enough, do you think?

Mike, the old fogey, has asked for a small sherry. I found some super sherry cocktail recipes,, and, having been asked for inspiration, can offer Pix a Fino Mandrino Martini. I like the sound of that. Lori is after a pina colada, which might be fun, but not as much as a Fino Mandrino, surely?

Asta asked for a cherry blossom. I looked that up and found all kinds of ingredients I have never heard of; check this out. Cherry blossom is coming out all over Berkshire, too. Pockless snuck in just now and requested a Soproni Aszok. This sounds fancy but is actually just hungarian lager. It’s more fancy than Anna‘s hat, though. Those last two drinklinks are youtube videos, almost certainly SFW, featuring beer and hats. Not at the same time. Watch out next week for Anna’s interview, as requested with much lovely loveliness by Sevitz.

Once again I have spent the day talking about boobs. It was nice to spend half an hour writing about booze, but now it’s back to the coalface. And by coalface, I mean boobs. Happy weekend!