Saturday night NCAA finals for wrestling, after a night of whiskey and not as bad a hangover as expected, Black Cannon (Clipper City Brewers) IPA.
It is a dark and thick IPA, and I loved it.

Plenty of booze over the weekend, IPA's, wines, rumbullion and calvados.

It's Coca Cola zero for me the rest of the week....oh no its not! It's Disneyland Paris later in the week, I will need to imbibe fully there to take the edge of the tacky naffness and queuing up for an hour for a one minute ride on the tea cups.

Shepherd Neame Double Stout 99p for 500ml @Lidl.

Only 3.9% but it has  strong bitter stout flavour. 'Three coloured malts, additional roasted barley and generously bittered with choicest East Kent hops' according to the label.

Sake, sake, sake and beer.
Sake from 7/11 24 hours @ $2.20 aud for small glass container with rip top.

Best - fresh fish market Niigata, buying loads of fresh fish very cheap for home made sashimi later, eating fish grilled on a stick @$3aud, freezing cold, on footpath, small stall with hot water bowl in fish pond, heat up takeaway glass container of sake in water drink and eat fish standing on footpath.

Yes, I was there for a couple of years in the early 2000's: lived on Prudente de Morais in Ipanema, but ended up in digging in the Sol Ipanema as my favoured pad.

Actually, the Brazilian sugar cane liquor: cachaca exists in many forms, from ultra refined single malt style to the dregs of something spewed out of an oil refinery. I remember the cheapest rot-gut variety being less in cost than a glass of beer.

I always thought sake was high proof but on looking at a few bottles most of it was only about 6% - 8% - pretty much the same as beer and only about half Aussie Shiraz

^Why buy in Madrid when you can purchase in Rio state? There is chain of Menas Gerais style food restaurants - forget the name - but there's a couple of them outside of Rio and up near you in Buzios that sell premium cachaca. Some over 200 GBP as I recall and others in the 20-40 GBP region are pretty much superb, I bought a bottle for my nan. Excellent food in the restaurant well, great vegetables and of course of meat.

I thought you were living in Saquarema RR?

For some reason, I thought you were an alias of NJS.