Mahinda’s Little World

I’m no good at getting to bed early. Take the weekend before last, for example…

It’s Friday night, I’m absolutely knackered after a hard week, and I’m just about ready for bed at 9pm.

However, I had a busy day planned for Saturday, and needed to prepare a few things first. Those done, I settled down on the sofa, with Housemate Lynda, for a well-deserved beer before bedtime.

A day or two previously, I’d introduced Lynda to the fact that vodka isn’t tasteless. Well, decent vodka, anyway - there are all too many people for whom the very pinnacle of vodka is Smirnoff Red…and the Blue isn’t much better. It’s like those poor misguided souls who actually believe that Budweiser is beer.

But I digress. Before the Budweiser Rage takes me, I shall take a deep breath and continue.

I’d had an open bottle of Żubrówka for a few years*, so I brought it back out (having given Housemates Lynda and Andrew a capful the previous evening) and mixed it with some apple & raspberry juice, adding a good squeeze of lemon as well, and a bit of brown sugar. While not ideal, this is very very tasty.

* No, I don’t know how either.

After the Żubrówka ran out, I introduced some aged Havana Club rum, and found some Coke…plus more lemon and brown sugar.

All in all, we basically sat there, chatting and watching music videos, until Housemate Helen came in at about 3am, with her bloke.

So I went to bed. Only six hours later than planned. Oops.

Żubrówka with a Twist

This one’s one of my favourites.

In a straight glass, put:

• Two shots of Żubrówka
• Splash of Aftershock (or cinnamon powder)
• Plenty of ice
• Juice of one whole lime
• Big spoonful of honey
• Top up with apple juice

Very tasty indeed.

The Sinister Dr. Stone

Mad, bad and dangerous to know

So, Saturday. I woke up, cursed my lack of early-to-bed willpower, packed my stuff into the back of the car, and headed over to Howell’s place, for something completely different.

Howell’s mate Henry does films, with the aid of Howell and a plethora of others. Short, cheap films, under the guise of Foiled Productions - as featured at the previously blogged Foiled Evening. You can download lots of their previous stuff from the website.

Tempting, ne c’est pas?

Anyway, I got my big break in this one, starring as The Student. I’m not going to give away too much, suffice to say that the day was much fun but very very gruelling. Having a couple of 500W lamps shining in a confined space for most of the day means you’re going to get a bit warm. I even added some real blood to the set, after Antony cracked me one on the head. The things one does for ones art…

Howell’s photos from the days filming are here.

Also notable from that afternoon was the sheer beauty of Tenby Towers.

I live on an avenue lined with lots of mature lime trees (technically lindens). Usually they serve two main purposes:

• Dropping evil sap on to my car
• Giving birds somewhere to sit so they can drop stuff considerably more evil on to my car

However, it is beautiful, especially in summer with the dappled light shining through the leaves. In the autumn, for a while, the gold and bronze leaves put the place into a different light as well…until they all fall off, turn to mush, and clog the drains.

While prepping Howell’s flat for filming, it was reckoned that we needed a stepladder, so I drove home to get ours, and was treated to the rare sight of leaves dancing all around the street. Whenever a gust of wind hit the trees, thousands of leaves would float down into the street, whirling and dancing on eddies of air, as though being twirled by invisible strings.

To be honest, I can’t even begin to do it justice, but it really was like something out of Hero, or perhaps Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Well, that’s quite enough for now. And I’ve not covered Saturday night yet!