Bears V's Eagles....Best Day Ever!

November saw my first Bears game and what a day! For those that haven't been tailgating in the US, I can honestly it's something you have to do - it's seriously the best thing ever.

People rock up at 8.00am - set up camp before the game, and grill out, play games, serve you drinks, share their food - it's crazy. Think Ascot races, but a bit more ghetto. Fi, Sarah and Me went tailgating with some of my softball friends - BP, Monkey, E.Bail and Zac and it was immense. We had eggs and ham, chilli, chicken wings, rum and coke, beer, baileys the lot.

The game was brilliant. We were sat up in the gods, block 400 and Soldier Field is a mighty impressive stadium. Having been to see the US Soccer Team (sorry football!) I knew the Stadium was awesome, but it was crazy to see so many Bears Fans. I smuggled in my hip flask (my 21st Birthday present from Jade Brain!) and added the contents to our hot chocolates to keep us toasty. The Bears played well and won convincingly and I donned my Fridge Top, so was awfully proud (and it's such a good talking point). I also had a little play on one of the drumming band's drums before the game....brilliant!

Can't wait to go again and I'm already excited about Super Bowl. Only disappointment....The Bears have no cheer-leaders. Shame....I will just have to stick to watching the Robinettes at SWFC to see that!

And this photo is with me and Giant stuffed bear.....strapped to the top of some dude's car. It looked like a dead gentle Ben!

Stuck in Chi town!

Well, it's been an interesting few days. I was supposed to fly home for Christmas with the family on Saturday and poor old Blighty has been hit by snow, so Heathrow is shut - absolute disaster. So it's now Monday and I'm hoping to fly tonight or Tuesday night, so I can get back home for at least a few days. It's Stu Parkes' wedding on Wednesday, so fingers crossed I can at least make that. I do feel like I'm Kevin from Home Alone right now - waiting for a bus and brass band (and John Candy) to rescue me.

Fingers, toes and badger claws crossed....never have I wanted to be somewhere more!

The coffin

And finally...here's a photo of the coffin on Halloween that Suzy and decided to climb into at the end of the night...that had, I might add been on the streets for over a month outside our Pizza restaurant - Dags. All I can think about is dead people and homeless people.....gross!

Halloweeeeeeen....part 1 and part 2

Well, it was my first 'proper' halloween in the US of A as an american resident. For the last two years I'd managed to time well planned business trips, so I have actually been in Chi-town for the last two celebrations and I therefore knew the epic nature of such a weekend and it totally lived up to expectations!

On the Friday night - Mussy and I had a halloween party at the Brit-pad and it was awesome. We spent the week preparing, decorating the flat, hanging the creepy witch, getting the nasty shots ready with eye balls floating around and making bats and ghosts! We were in our creative element. The flat looked brilliant.

Now as many will know Halloween in the US means you can dress up as absolutely bloody anything and the array of costumes were brrrrrrrilliant. We had Fred Flinstone (Bart), a giant pengiun (Fire-crotch), a male Pamela Anderson (which did slightly disturb me with the double d's), A mexican (Dust), Lady Gaga (Mussy) and I was the little mermaid. Highlightable costumes were a giant penis (and the jokes were endless) Inspector gadget (nice job schoolyard), Woody from Toy Story (Westbrick), A boy scout (Harty) and Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons (aka The Queen and Amy Winehouse for those that remember the Brit part) - hilarious and the high kicks and lunges did not stop all evening.

Everyone had a blast and the apple bobbing was hilarious. The guy throwing-up off the balcony was a low light, but we will brush over that part (sorry people that live on Southport). The arrival of a million Argentinians was also very funny, especially when they said this was the first American house party they had been to - Suzy and I didn't have the heart to reveal we were indeed not yank!

The night came to an end when we blew up the sound system (I blame Best Buy) - but all in all, it was probably timely (at around 1am) and we all rolled to the pub for a very swift drink. The final part to the night was lying in a coffin outside Dags - well who wouldn't!

Halloween Part 2 - was hitting a bar and doing an all you can drink special. The costume for that night - a real American, including sequin dress (which was rather heavy) long locks, and a tiara....oh and a Green Card!

We had a ace night and went to Harry Carey's with Joe K and friends (who were a crazy rock band), and the girls and boys and got sozzled on wine. Highlights - surveying the bar to find out if the girls statistic of the US male population is indeed true. And I would like to confirm that 85% is probably right - Good work girls.

Funny lights - Becoming a band groupy and Mus having a ruck over a cab with some douche....just wish I could remember that part!

Great weekend - can't wait for next year already! Oh and July 4th so I can wear the dress again.

Dip, Duck, Dive and Dodge….

Well I can honestly say this sport...if you class dodgeball as one (which I now do) is both the worst and best sport I have ever played. On one hand it’s the most un-coordinated, un-natural, fight all your natural instincts and you will probably do well type sport and yet, at the same time you get to hurtle balls at people all at once – throwing a fairly solid ball as hard as you can. And by george some throws were like rockets. And it somehow requires skill....although I haven't quite worked out what that is.

The venue was a ropey old school gym and I really did think I was going to have spanners and wrenches thrown at me, like in the film.

My team is a bunch of individual players, so all very nice and in a similar boat to me – we’ve got a Canadian on the team (good player) a girl called Molly with a fierce right arm and 2 dudes called Craig and John who look like they murder people for a living – and were bloody awesome!

Somehow I obtained the name Oxford rather quickly and the referee just kept on shouting Oxford when I did things wrong (which was throughout most of the games). Oxford it is.

Result 6 games a piece – so a tie. Not a bad start to the dodgeball career for Oxford. I won't be giving up work quite yet, to compete professional, but a spot of DB-Boot-Camp will commence this weekend.

Duck it,
Dizzle x

The Brits take over Chi-town!

Blonde Jo and Blonde Claire came for a wee Holiday to Chi-town and we had the best week and it was so lush having them to stay. They loved the roof top and we made the most of it, having dinner, drinks and sunbathing lots up there.

The weather was a bit crazy at times, and one day it was scorching, so we hit the beach all day, the next day I think we had a mini tornado and Jo Jo wanted to go Tornado chasing!

We had lunch at Ralph Lauren with bubbles - loved being ladies that lunch! We had mani-pedi's - which was hilarious. Jo and I were so busy chatting the girl scrubbing the badger claws asked what language we were speaking - and she was positive it was Spanish.....errrr no love, Bristolian I think you mean!

Jo did feel slightly violated by her first pedicure...glad it wasn't just me that found it creepy when they start massaging your shoulders!

We did a boat trip (yes just looking at buildings) ate giant ice creams and had cocktails up the Hancock tower which was lush (and one of the best views of the city) Shame the couple practically having sex on their table were right in our eye line!

We also went to a Cubs match and the girls loved it and the Cubs won - whoop! They got hats and t-shirts and giant foam hand (we were the only people in the stadium to have such a thing, but they wanted to go all out!) We saw people with mullets and eating nachos that looked like someone had thrown up in a bucket. It's all about the toxic cheese....yummmmm!

And this picture I just had to post and we saw it as we taking a stroll and this is seriously someone's number plate....it's just not right!

Miss the girls already and I can't wait to see them in August...I wonder if another wedding will be on the cards soon.....Sorry Mendez!

Dust's Birthday

Dust's Birthday weekend involved....karaoke at Trader Todds - funniest bar with a beach concept and a shower curtain as a toilet door! We didn't get to sing (there were 27 songs infront of us) but we did get to go on a boat in the bar and I Smirnoff Iced Dust royally!

This photo just makes me giggle!

Such a funny evening...thanks our Dust. Although that shot-ski was pure agony....

England...2 kegs, flip cup, plastic cheese and a whistle

So Saturday was the big game the world cup opener - England V's The US of A and Suze and I decided to have a bit of a world cup themed party. On the Friday, we were in party prep mode...making home made burger, pasta salad and planting plants for our roof deck...we were like Desperate Housewives, just without the picket fence.

On Saturday morning we were up early doors as it was the start of our marathon training. We ran 6 miles at 6.30am and then home to shower, change and get on the footy attire.

The kegs were delivered (2 giant barrels of beer) - the grill was fired up and everyone arrived in time for the big game. It was a brilliant day and despite the absolutely rubbish performance, we all had a great time. We had England V's USA at Flip Cup (unfortunately the Brits lost, but then we are novices and it was only my third competitive game...I've now improved muchly!) We had bags on the roof, dancing, cheese throwing (thanks Kwiec) plant hugging (thanks Kwiec) and pouring beer into people's mouths from the top roof to the second balcony - pure genius Jake and Alex!

Some of the party had red and yellow cards so we could card people for bad behaviour. Yellow card and you had to down your drink, sending off resulted in a shot - mainly vodka tea in a teacup. Oh and of course there was 'You've been iced' - Brits for those that don't know about this - check it out on Youtube...best game ever and I got iced in a friggin saucepan!

We even had a few yankee doodles in England tops! Nice work Lindsay!

My new party trick now appears to be trying to get into my suitcase. And you are probably wondering why we have a suitcase on the roof.

Well this isn't a normal American thing (I promise) but for some reason we borrowed a table with 3 legs and so some clever sod's idea was to use my suitcase as the fourth leg. Well after a few beers I think Sara and Dust said to try climbing into the suitcase...and being me I did exactly that. I'm determined to fit in and travel somewhere...

And this is Jake pouring beer into Alex's mouth! BRrrrrrrrrilliant!

Birthday weekend….bingo bongo

My Birthday weekend in Chi-town was aces and thanks to all those that made it so so special – you really are a bloody brilliant bunch. The festivities started on the Thursday night with Ferrick’s Birthday. We went to this great place called the Violet Hour which is a bar set in the prohibition times. There’s a hidden door in a big green wall – no signage and you have to knock to be let in (a bit like the Caz Bar on the Cowley Road in Oxford). You then go through a curtain into an uber cool bar. Here the girls and I had a few cocktails, followed by a couple more drinks and then I joined the softball lot for a cheeky drink….which turned errrrr messy.

Friday’s fun included some driving range action (I hit them ok….my friend, errrr not so much….sorry Joe!) and then off to the hairdressers to try and look remotely nice for the big night out.


Now for the Brits among us, the Blackhawks (Ice Hockey Team) are in the final of the Stanley Cup, which is a really big deal. The final consists of 7 games and who ever wins the best of, wins the cup. So Friday was game 4 and Chicago was buzzing. So we changed the plans slightly to engineer watch the Hawks and went to Piece in Wicker Park to watch the game and it was brilliant. The bar ended up giving us the pit and we had a giant screen to watch the match – Suzy and Dust got me a Hawks t-shirt which I love – so I wore that for the night. (Unfortunately the Hawks lost that game - but it’s not over until the fat lady sings).

We then ended up at a bar called Innjoy where there were slippery nipples, dancing, shoulder snogging (not me I hasten to add) drinks being spilt into poor boys laps and just general chaos – it was much fun. On the way home, our neighbours in our building were having a party, so we called in to consume a bit more wine (because clearly you can never have too much wine). I don’t remember a lot of that party but Suzy reckons there was a man swimming in goggles….I wish I could have seen that!

On Saturday – the Birthday marathon continued in true Carpenter fashion and Suzy and Dusty and I had Birthday breakfast. I then skyped the family and we had Internet present opening (man skype really is the best thing ever) – the only down side being that you could blatantly tell if I didn’t like a present (sorry Mum!) But Ads (my mum) excelled herself this year – two lovely tops from old Ted – so I was so happy as I do miss Ted – jewellery and an England whistle! And C-bass and Simon got me the best England Shirt ever ready for the big game next week. Suze also got me spaghetti hoops ready for spagehetti hoops on toast with HP sauce – I’m so excited.

After that Suze and I had a bumble and had our nails done, had a cheeky mimosa and then we all went off to Alex and Lindsay's BBQ just down the road. They’ve just moved in together so it was a celebratory BBQ (with little birthday cup cakes, that were delicious!) AND It was an absolutely RIOT! There were so many games but highlights we’re ‘You’ve Been Iced’ (which unfortunately I did within about 2 minutes of arriving) flip cup, slapping the sack, dance offs, knee slides, crunk, shower curtains being pulled down by mistake). Hilarious.

Sunday Funday then involved softball – which was fun. We lost 9-10 but had a good come back in the last couple of innings. A few beers in the pub (and a fish bowl…don’t ask!) then a game of bags (another great game) and a cheeky beer and then off to Schoolyard to watch the Hawks and YESSSSS it was a bloody brilliant game and we totally won. So know it’s all down to Wednesday’s game and I’m in California, which I’m excited about, but I did also want to be in Chi for the Hockey.

Bring on the trophy….it you like a lot of trophies in your cabinet join our club (sang to the theme tune of the Club chocolate bar advert…for those in the know!)

Kitchen / Bathroom – what all good apartments should have….

I just had to post this picture and some of you will have heard of the Kitchen / Bathroom Apartment story from back in October last year, when I first got the job offer in Chi-town.....

Well I was bumbling down the road the other day and realised that this is the outside of the apartment that Suzy and I viewed before we found our place that made us roar….when we were shown it had a Kitchen / Bathroom – so I could be cooking and Suzy could have a cheeky crap while she waited.

Seriously, and stupid Bret (Bret…Jermaine) the estate agent thought we liked the apartment and kept on asking if we had any more questions and if we wanted to move in. I know I’m a fan of poo stories, but errrrrrr Crumbs chief! This apartment was categorically the worst apartment I've ever seen and at $2,500 a month - what a snip!

Bridesmaid Bar Crawl....

So the group do this Leo Sayer (all-dayer for the Yanks) every year called the Bridesmaid bar crawl (BMBC). Because the yanks are all in a million weddings each year (the Val for instance has 7 weddings this summer) they all have a ridiculous number of wedding dresses. The concept is that everyone dresses up - drinks all day, plays games and drinks some more.

The venue for the crawl is Southport (which is right handy as that's mine and the Mussers road) so we hosted the breakfast. Lots of the pups came over and we ate scrambled eggs in little pastry baskets (made by Chef Lindsay) bagels, bacon, sausages and we drank black velvets (champers and Guinness) yummm!
We then all paraded down the street to High Bar (a great Bar with a rugby theme, so the Brits liked it!) In there was played flip cup. Now this was my first flip cup experience and I totally sucked.

Now those of you that know me, know I'm not happy when I'm crap at something and having me on the team was like having a handicap. In fact I really was a Joey. So I decided to put myself in the corner and practice for a bit, until I could learn the feeling of a successful flip. Unfortunately I have still not managed to learn such motor skills - but that's got to improve over the next two years right?

This is a picture of the winning team (not that I really contributed....crap bags). N.B Cousin Stu - I reckon at the big wedding we should play Beer Pong and flip cup!

As we walked down the street the granny Musser and I decided to wave like the queen - it was mighty funny, but I think the Americans just thought we were special. Although we did teach them the calorie free wave.

After High Bar we rolled to Newport, Justin's, Schoolyard & Wellingtons. I may have missed a pub in there, because it goes a bit blurry. There were fish bowls - men dressed as women and even chuffing Mrs Doubtfire! Wang was one of the first casualties (he fell over) and everyone else lasted pretty well.

All in all - The Bridesmaid Bar Crawl was Bingo Bongo!

St. Louis Road Trip.....

This weekend we went to St. Louis on a rooooaaaaad trip! It was brilliant. 11 of us went and Crabbers (Andy) and Kacy organised the whole thing and it was so much fun. The drive was 5 hours each way (yep...as much as driving to Scotland and back) and in our car was me, Lauryl, Suze and the Wang. Poor Wang had to put up with us talking absolute rubbish - like girls do - including chapters from tickle his pickle - but he took it all in good spirit.

On the Friday, when we arrived we met up with the others and went for dinner and wine. We then ended up in an Irish bar that was playing country and western music - like all good Irish bars do - it was hilarious! There was a real mix of people including hill billies (hope that's PC) and even a bride and groom and their wedding party. The red wine was the worst red wine I've ever had (like gut rot!) and it was weird that people were still aloud to smoke inside bars - apparently that rule hasn't reached STL yet.

On the Saturday morning after a giant American breakfast (where Suzy stole the muffins) we went to the Budweiser factory for the tour. It was really good fun, apart from the horses - not really sure of the significance of the horses, but I'm sure I was there to see and drink beer - not animals!

After the tour we went straight to watch the baseball - The Cardinals - and crumbs was the stadium impressive. (The photo below on the right is what I took from the top of the Arch looking down at the stadium). Very different to Wrigley (cubs) and Cellular (white sox) - absolutely massive, filled with red and white and the atmosphere was electric.

It was a roasting day and we managed to blag our way into the bleachers, so we were in the Sun (our stand was in the shade, so that was not good!) drinking beer and just having a good old crack. We met loads of different fans, including Cubs and LA Dodgers, a couple of lesbians, and everyone was up for the banter.

We did try to start a Mexican wave but the crowd were having none of it! The Cardinals lost - but Crabbers being a Cards fan hid his disappointment well (although perhaps that accounts for him googling everything when he was steamed that evening).

After the game, we went back to the hotel, had some beers and then rocked out to the landings, which was a cool bar area. We ended up going to the best bar in the World ever - called big Daddy's - I'm not sure how they substantiate this claim - but when they gave us tickets for 2-4-1 drinks, we were there with bells on. We had dinner and drinks - and even a rumblemint (yes Cousins, you can get rumblemints in the US) and then danced the night away. The dancing was immense and there was some shapes thrown around by our group that I'm sure STL have not seen before. Even the crunk came out! (And wang had a dance-off to Footloose!)

On the Sunday, we shimmied up the Arch to the viewing area which was lovely and great views of the city. A very impressive bridge and nearly old Eads is up there with our Brunel.

Highlights were:

- The Arch and the river - just so so pretty and unexpected

- The prawn (shrimp) skewers - right good and only 7 bucks

- The best bar in the world ever (apparently) and the shenanigans that went on inside

- Crabbers trying to go to Vegas at 1am

- Wang saying he loved all the girls in STL - way hotter than Chi - apparently!

- RUMBLEMINTS....

....I'm thinking that would make a good wedding present for Cousin Stu....! (as long as Webbo doesn't set the bar alight again!)

And I got my 'Bucks mug from St. Louis - complete with Arch on the front - great success.

Wisteria Lane

This week I've done a bit more travelling with work - only whistle stop tours, but they always give me the appetite to explore the massive country that is the US of A a bit more. San Diego was my first stop and what a beautiful place - Cali is definitely up there in my top destinations so far, so I can't wait to see some more places including SanFran. The weather was lush and the people I met were lovely. I then drove (well my colleague drove and I watched) from San Diego to LA - about 2 hour drive and most of it along the coast. We stayed in a hilarious hotel that was full of uber cool people. The bar had a lady whaling down a microphone, trying to be like our Flo but no where near as good and there were cool chill out areas and carpet on the ceiling (which was bizarre, but maybe I need to improve my interior design knowledge)

I then went to Hollywood to Universal Studios and what a fun day! I got to go around all the park and do the tour of the studios including where Jessica Fletcher used to film murder she wrote (pic to the right), where Jaws was filmed (pic to the left) - which scared me half to death when the robot jaws came crashing out of the water, I nearly dropped my camera. And there were lots of other sets - that I should really remember but I'm terrible at remembering films - The 'your a rotter Mr Grinch' and there was one though that was a massive plane crash - that was cool.

But the highlight though was definitely Wisteria Lane and The Desperate Housewives set - amazing. And the houses were gorgeous with the little picket fences and beautiful gardens. Unfortunately Mr Solius wasn't there...

And I got my Starbucks mug from Cali for the collection....Whoop!

The Cubs' newest fan....

I just had to add this. This is my nephew (for those that haven't heard me wax lyrical about him) and his new Cubs shirt. Just lush. I'm thinking beauty pagents next....

Audra's Birthday....and errrr wigs

On Tuesday it was Audra's birthday. Now Nat told us it was a wig dinner, so Suzy and I donned our wigs and turned up to the restaurant to find the others weren't wearing one - they had forgotten! So we looked like right royal idiots, but it didn't matter one iota.

We had massive steaks and chunky chips and the food was lovely. The restaurant was called Folkhouse in Wicker Park area and was Argentinian....yummy.



Auds (aka Amy Winehouse) got a tattoo for her birthday, so she was loving it - and a squirrel lamp - that was just weird!

Suze even got us a souvenir from the restaurant.

Turtle Racing....

So for the Wang's birthday he decided he wanted to go Turtle Racing....oh yes, there's a pub where you go, drink copious amounts of beer and watch turtles race. Brilliant!

So, me, Suze and the Val got glammed up and went to one of our favourite bars for appetizers and cocktails. Friday night is $5 martini's in Sopo and we love it. 3 martini's later, I was well on my way to bet and maybe even throw a few turtles.

So how does this turtle concept work. All will be revealed (and I'm so bringing this back to Brissle...the Bristolians would love it!) Every time you buy drinks you get given a raffle ticket and if your number gets called up, you are in and racing. You pick a ball with a number and that's your turtle in the race.

Hilariously so, were the names of the turtles. Lucky Dan (which was my sodding turtle) was absolutely pony. But even more funny was Doozy - this is what we call Dusty and Suzy - Doozy. Doozy was also half dead.

Now interestingly enough, turtles don't do a lot - especially the big fat one, so for anyone going again, don't pick the giant one. Lola - number 2 always wins. Well she was a show girl after all and I think she's just bloody hungry.

A highlight of the evening was sticky a sign that was on the door of the loo to Suze's back...it took her about 20 minutes to realise and that was after we made her pose for photos!

So, out of the group I think we had some great success. Everyone was steamed and Virginia and Fire Crotch were in the final and Fire Crotch won. At one stage I thought a turtle had peed on my foot, but I think Bart just spilt his beer (well I bloody hope so!)

And this dude is the turtle keeper (with appropriate turtle hat). He wouldn't have a photo with me until I said I'd travelled all the way from England to come turtle racing....these Yanks will believe anything ;0)