THIS WEEK FROM MOUSE TO PIG

I'd like to start this weeks blog with a competition. It has a real prize for the winner!!!! The question is how many nuts does a mouse have. Naughty naughty!!! we won't even go down that road. Whilst working in the garden the other day tidying up for the winter and working my way through the compost heap, I came upon these. Some small mammal had been so busy hording hazelnuts for it's winter stash. Now I know Cadburys take 'hazelnuts whole hazelnuts and cover them with chocolate' but this little mouse had hidden them deep inside my compost heap, I couldn't pass up the opportunity and thought,  I feel a competition coming on.So the question is how many nuts were in this store? Yes I did count them and have the answer in a sealed envelope locked in a safe place, I just hope I can remember where I put it. NOW FOR THE PRIZE. The winner will receive, one weeks free accommodation at the five star (*****) resort of 13 Upes Iela, yes completely free of charge, { conditions do apply}and no it is not 'timeshare'.

 

                 Answers must be received by the 20th of November 2011.

In my PS. last week I mentioned that we were off to see a show in Riga this week so here is the full report.
  Valerie is a fan of Radio Skonto, one of Latvias most popular radio programs, and while listening to it the other day she caught the name of  an American gospel quartet,who we listen to each week on a Swedish TV channel. Checking it out on the Internet she found that they would be at the Riga Kongress hall on the 1st of November, tickets could be bought online,so here was an opportunity not to be missed. With my birthday just passed, our wedding anniversary next week and Valeries birthday due shortly, we could roll these up together with Christmas,and with a McDonalds { last of the big spenders} meal give ourselves a present we could enjoy.
Booking tickets online is supposed to be a simple task, and finding the sight to do it was, but that was when it all started to go downhill and fast.
Step one check out the seating plan and choose seats,  check
Step two place order, check {sorry the seats you require are not available, I know I just chose them and booked them}!!
Step three go back to step one.!!!
Sorry connection broken!!!!!!!!
Step four return to booking site and go through steps one and two again!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry  your Gmail log in has expired you need to log in again,!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and so it went on but eventually I had successfully booked,paid and printed tickets.

Erni and Signaturesound in Riga on Tuesday

 The good thing about the whole saga was it prompted me to phone our Internet providers and ask them to check if we had any problems with our modem {think that's what it's called} anyway it's the box that sits outside with a sticky up bit on it} Bearing in mind this was Saturday morning Janis the boss said he would have someone come to see us, no not next whenever we have someone available but within half an hour, true to his word an engineer was with us, he checked,  fiddled and did what engineers do I guess and Bingo!!! we now have Internet that is working well. As we rely on things like email,Facebook and Skype to keep in touch with family and friends this is a real blessing, and one of the things we take for granted until it goes wrong.
But I digress, back to our trip to Riga, the good thing about booking when I did was we didn't have a long wait, so Tuesday saw us all dressed up with somewhere to go. We have found the best way to approach Riga is on the tram and with this in mind we drove to the outskirts of the city and boarded the number seven tram, which would take us  the central market  and just a short walk from McDonalds.

The central market Riga

 Here you see the market {according to Wickapaeda} the largest market in Europe housed in five Zeppelin hangers it's a virtual Aladdin's cave. We were not looking for gold or treasure but something much more mundane, ground cloves and allspice, try as we might we have been unable to find these two in the supermarkets here, would we be lucky? As Latvians would say 'but of coarse' and sure enough there it was on display with dozens of other spices, 100g of each plus another find glace cherries cost us the princely sum of 82 santimes, and we were on our way, for the per show dinner. Five minutes walk away found us in McDonald's. The last of the big spenders that's me, a fifteen  minutes walk and we were at the venue with plenty of time to spare.
The concert was just the best ever and with about a 1000 others we enjoyed almost two hours of  music of all shades from very loud up to date ear splitting gospel music to soft gentle four part harmony old and new songs all performed with feeling. As the concert came to an end the group performed a piece and encouraged the audience to join in and as we all sang they left the stage, this we found to be a very moving time, we were then treated to an encore to bring the show to a close. Everone  rose from their seats and started to move twowards
As we left we found the whole group of singers and musicians in the foyer waiting to say hello,sign cd's tickets or whatever and shake hands or have a hug, in Valeries case two hugs from the man himself.
 Walking out into a clear cold night. As the trams run until midnight took a romantic stroll through the park, the way the trees have been lit and the autumn leaves still hanging on them made it look really lovely as we made our way  back to catch  tram .The Autumn leaves and the lighting A great end to a great afternoon and evening.We arrived home about midnight
Monday morning brought us back to earth with a bump, and a leaking shower which had be taken out and replaced, but that's a story for next week. The other highlight of the week was the purchase of half a pig,which I had to collect from the farm I had to put my butchers hat on but it is now jointed and packed away in our freezer.