Opening Ceremony, Russia 2018
In South Africa they had the awful Vuvuzela’s and Shakira dancing with little black babies, ah the cute little things, but very little else. While in Brazil they not only had Shakira back but this time she brought a little dog with her, Pitbull. More dirge, and very little for me to signify a World Cup was in Brazil. (Edit I see it was Jennifer Lopez and not Shakira, my mistake not knowing the difference between the generic leggy Latino pop stars, me bad!)
Still the best World cups for me in terms of atmosphere or world cup songs was the Korea/Japan event where the passion came from the stands, and the 1990’s when music was still something to behold.
So will Russia be any different? You would like to think so, but this time round we are going to be treated to “Live It Up” by Nicky Jam feat. Will Smith & Era Istrefi. I know Will Smith, but had to Google the other two, an American rapper and an Albanian singer, great! Not only did they not get a Russian to headline, they also are singing in English. Why does everything have to be diluted into corporate nonsense? Will Smith! Really? And why always is it rap shite, ok granted footballers have generally bad taste in music, but why do the fans have to suffer?
So I probably wont be looking at the opening ceremony. The music might be trash, sorry, will be trash, and I couldn’t really stomach seeing the corporate in their suits guffawing in the prawn sandwich seats, while doing the two step to look down with the kids.
But to be fair, generally opening ceremony’s be they in Olympics or World Cups are a bit dull. The best for me was definitely the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics. They had an open air concert, with a good combo of traditional and modern music. The worst was Beijing, everything was faked even the fireworks. Makes you wonder why they even bothered.
As for music, surely the best ever was Pavarotti and his rendition of “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini‘s Turandot. Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras, “The Three Tenors” of 1990, will linger long in the memory.
Pavarotti with the best World Cup song EVER
The Open Ceremony, Russia, 2018? Nah, will pass. The football should be more than enough to get me in the mood. But if I did miss something be sure to tell me!
And the best World Cup Song representing a national team, definitely this one………………
Well it is an unfiltered wheat beer made with 50-60% malted wheat, which creates a cloudy amber colour and provides a refreshing crispness. The beers typically are sour and salty. They have a low hop bitterness, and a complementary dryness and spice from the use of ground coriander seeds and a sharpness from the addition of salt. They usually have a moderate alcohol content of 4 to 5% ABV. (Thanks to 
Unfortunately with the advent of World War Two, and the increasing prevalence for Pilsners, the popularity of Gose took a bit of a nosedive, with nearly all the Gose brewery’s shutting down. It wasn’t until Armin Brandt from the Leipzig micro-brewery “Zum Kaiser Napoleon”, on September 9th, 1999, had a trial run with the old Gose recipes from the Ritterguts Gose Brewery. Starting small, in a handful of restaurants, but expanding to 20 in time, he showed that there was a market again for this old classic. 
The Original Ritterguts Gose, “Das Original Seit 1824”, has won several accolades, including a gold medal at the World Beer Awards in 2013. 
Not a bad style, could get into it. 
Head is flat, none to speak of, but the colour looks great, a nice clear orange coloured beer, which looks tops. 
On the nose I get the Gose trademark smell, the salt and the coriander. 
There is a quiet confidence with this England team and the manager has also done very well to blood the team with a lot of new young players and letting some big names retire early. This is an England team without the big stars and big egos of English teams past. Wayne Rooney is finally gone, thank Christ, and there are no Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Owens type players to raise expectations. Ok Harry Kane could arguably fill that bracket, but he is still relatively unproven at international level, and with him we have Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford, Danny Rose and Dele Alli, a bunch of players who have had good seasons with their clubs the last few years, and who if they gel together can propel England far in this World Cup. 
They are in a relatively easy group. Ok Belgium are tough, but England should have too much for Tunisia and Panama, and I’d fully expect them to come out of the group without too much bother. Their last game against Belgium should be a great head to head to see who gets to play either Colombia, Senegal or Poland in round two, all beatable teams for England either way. But after that it is either Brazil or Germany in the last eight awaiting, and both teams are tough to break down. But the good thing for England is that Southgate has the team well drilled on penalties, a nice change from previous managers who didn’t think it necessary! England should get to the last eight, but after that they might need Kane to hit the form of his life to go beyond that. 
Called “Kabinet”, to reflect a cabinet of curiosities or wonders of life, “a collection of distinctive, unique items, all that is rare, strange and precious, finest handicrafts, natural wonders, usually received and gathered from the exotic travel as an examples of the natural, geological, religious, ethnological and artistic value”. Founded by a Serbia couple, whose “wish is that the Kabinet Brewery, as a cabinet of curiosities, gathers in one place all the amazing tastes and smells of the beer world that has long inspired us”. It certainly sounds all great. 
The smell is very nice, a typical IPA style smell, very fruity, very hoppy and very strong on the nose.
Again a strange looking logo, a modern art kind of thing, is interesting enough but I am not sure its the best looking logo for a simple beer. Apparently, according to the artist who designed it, it is meant to represent the evoking of our sensations after drinking a Mozaik.
Typical IPA taste, hoppy and bitter, fruity, citrusy, get it all at the start, lingers too especially the caramel on the tongue. 
They brew quite a wide and exciting variety of beers, and also some unique collaborations. For example, their PMPRNL (Jessenhofke Pimpernelle) is in collaboration with a herbalist Sanguisorba from Ranst, while they also brew Blueberry beers, Chocolate beers, beers brewed with beautiful Mont Roucous spring water, and so on. That is part of the attraction for the brewery, you just never know what they will come up with next, but as they are a Belgian brewery you can be assured they will be at least quite hoppy!!
But what does it mean to be a bio beer? To achieve the bio label is not easy, they don’t hand it out to any brewery that fancies going eco friendly! You really have a lot of tests to go through and reports to be filled in, certain strict conditions in the company have to met, and all the time, checked regularly by independent supervision agencies, and they check on everything from the raw materials to the production process. No chemical products are to used on the product, no artificial smells, colours or sweeteners, and, of course, no genetically modified ingredients. This extra mile that the company goes through results in a beer that is slightly more expensive than a regular brew. But I think most consumers can accept this extra expense when they realise that if more breweries cared about the well being of the environment and ultimately the health of their customers, then everyone would benefit so its really a small price to pay for, in reality, a better, cleaner product. Hats off to Jessenhofke and to Gert and Christel for giving the market a real alternative. 
Coming in a lovely little stumpy black bottle with RSRV in big white distinctive lettering. The RSRV signfies Reserva, i.e higher quality than usual. An organic beer that is of high fermentation.
On the taste, the initial mouthful was lovely, brilliant, creamy and definitely the beer started with the “wow” factor. 
The taste was very silky on the tongue, smooth, and easy to sip and enjoy while sitting down to view the football.
As a light blonde, you get that usual light pale yellow golden appearance, that one would expect, also a little hazy with some small carbonation. A white head that is small but sticks around. Not a bad looker, looks nice.
On pour get a thin white head with a nice looking golden yellowish coloured beer, looks ok.
The beer is re-fermented in the bottle and all ingredients are organic. The little stubby bottle with BRWN spelled out in big lettering as the logo. 
On the taste opened up with nice big sweet mouthfuls, got the flavours of malts, caramel, of the chocolate, sugar, the barley, all nice at the start, all very refreshing in the taste.
Lovely big mouthfuls to begin with, very nice on the tongue, sweet and fruity.
Looks good on pour, with a nice hazy white head, and a nice golden colour, looks very good in fact. 
The