Go Cubs Go...Go Cubs Go

Hey Chicago what do you know....la la la...eat monkey nuts and there you go. Well the song is something like that...

Monday night was Cubbies night. Lisa, Matt, Heather, Jake, Lauryl, Ruuey, Chris, Linds, Alex, Mike, Gina, Tyler and me, went to the game. We sat in the Bleachers which is near the main outfield and the more lively stand. (I was all ready to catch a ball to take home, but unfortunately there wasn't any to catch).


Wrigley Field is a fantastic stadium. Smaller than the White Sox (the actual boundary seems much smaller) but very intimate and the atmosphere was brilliant. The ivy on the outfield looked blooming. It was a full stadium on Monday (35,000 people) and the mighty Cubs played pretty well.




We all drank beer in the last of the evening sun and snacked on monkey nuts. I still don't get the significance of the monkey nuts, but they were right good.

I did try a giant pretzel later on in the evening (to soak up the beer) and it was bloody awful. It tasted like mouldy bread and feet. I'm defo not partaking in one of those again.

Some dude who was battered told me I that I was his favourite British person. He was a complete random and couldn't see - but still - I think we may be friends. His other mate tried to chat about a premiership football team called Knowle....in the end (after a while of thinking) he realised he meant Hull. Well he was steaming george, so maybe 1 point for trying.

Favourite player of the match was 'The Riot' - short stop - quick as a flash and did some ace hits too. All in all a great evening. It's fab being so close to the ground and soaking up the atmosphere. Next on the list is the cubbies roof tops.....that looks brillllliiiiant!

The next update will be on turtle racing. This is what we are doing for the Wang's birthday and I can't decide if it's cruelty to turtles or pure bar genius. Just wish I had a Donatello t-shirt to sport for such an occasion. I definitely had the posters though....hero's in a houseshell (was that the words???)- turtle power!

Conferenece, bowling and The White Sox

This week has been a craazy week. It was our National Airblade sales conference in Chi - so it was a chance to get to know lots of the Airblade sales team - all of whom are characters but were actually a good crack. We went bowling (10 pin) which was fun, although it took me a few goes to realise which hand I bowl with (note to self I bowl left handed in real life, right handed on the wii). I did manage to split my new jeans on the pocket and I think I may have flashed the badger bum to the entire team, but no-one said anything, so I'm hoping they didn't really notice. Stupid new jeans from Anthropology, they so went straight back to the shop. (I'm still hoping it was the ropey jeans and that it's not a reflection of my ass growing...eeeeek).

We also went out for a really nice meal one evening to National 27 - very near to work in the River North area. After finishing 3 presentations that day, I decided to have a couple of rioja's and foolish brought up the subject of England V's US in the World Cup. I now have a bet on with the team and if England lose I have to wear a US footy shirt to the next conference - please Wayne Rooney keep me safe.

Friday I went to see The White Sox play at US Cellur Field - South side of the city (which I think it's fair to say is the area of Chi that you are most likely to get shot in). The match was brilliant!

It was against the Seattle Mariners and it was a really close game, with the White Sox winning in the 10th innings with an amazing home run. I even saw my very first Grand Slam - absolutely

cracking. We had burgers, curly fries and beer - brilliant. The White Sox even have their own Beckham - although disappointingly, he is no way as hot as our Becks. After the game there was a really good display of fireworks to music - the yanks definitely know how to put on a show!

Oh, also got told a great Poo story at work on Friday....It's so good, I believe there is a reenactment on youtube. Link to follow shortly - and yes, it's a true story....unlike the troll story!

Oh, and the low light of the week - my chicago marathon t-shirt arriving and the realisation that I'm actually going to try and get my little legs to run that far. Badger down!

Great America.....6 flags & Wonder Women

Today was an amazing day! My friend Bart's company hired a place called 6 flags (which is like Alton Towers, just outside of Chi). I think it's also called Great America....which is very confusing, as at one point I thought I was going to watch a Cubs match! Anyway, I digress.

6 flags was awesome! There were some immense rides and even Wonder Women was there (furious that she's posing and I'm just like mrrrrr). The worst ride by far was this standing up roller coaster. There's a reason why this hasn't caught on in Europe - it's bloody terrible and you just crack your head on the sides of the seat - joyful. All the others were brilliant though and similar to AT's classics - Air, Nemesis, Oblivion etc.

I thought I'd learnt my lesson from my last theme park trip and remembered not to wear a skirt - so instead I opted for white trousers - what a mistaka to maka - they were positively black after the first ride!

Other highlights were - No queues (what so ever) I felt like I was Ritchie Rich! Mountain Matt playing the wacky hammer thing and winning a giant turtle. And a girl wearing Apple Bottom jeans. Now I've heard of these from the song 'Apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur...' - but I've never seen a pair. So I looked a bit of a weirdo trying to take a photo of this girls ass, but hopefully I captured them.

Great day....We did all the big rides and it was brilliant! Can't wait to hit the water park in the summer. Thanks Bart(man!)

Seek Vintage opening....and a midget - Eeeeek!

Saturday was a lush sunny day. I got up and went to my step class (which is brilliant at the old Globo Gym... as there's lots of clapping and whooping throughout the routines). I then grabbed my favourite bagel (which I nearly managed to order correctly) and skyped C-bass, Franko and little Sen and then I went off to have my hair done. My hair dresser Lucy is brilliant, as mad as a box of frogs but brilliant. So she chopped the old hair off, which was ace. Now, as you know, I'm constantly learning new Yankeedoodle words and Saturday's was 'bangs'. When Lucy asked 'if she could cut my bangs' - I did not know that she meant a fringe. (Thankfully, I did ask before the cutting began).

Now my Bristol friends will appreciate the next tale, as while I sat watching the grey hair disappear, a midget walked into the salon and sat next to me. So what went from a lovely relaxing experience, turned into my worst nightmare. And you can hardly leggit from a salon when you have hair dye all on you. So I strategically managed to move to a different chair, but this resulted in him being in my eye line through the mirror. I don't know why I have a phobia to such little people (when I'm hardly tall) but I do.

After the old barnet being sorted, I went to join Suzy, Lauryl and Gina for a cheeky wine and then we went to the Seek Vintage store opening. Suzy's friends Audra and Chris (aka the Queen mum and Amy Winehouse at the housewarming) have opened an amazing new vintage store, just down the road from work. It's a fab store and Granny Banny would love it. (I think a wedding present may have to be purchased from there).

We sank a few wines to Christen the new store and then went to a great pub afterward for the after-store party. It was a brilliant day.

Roof dinner and mooseknuckle

Tonight was our first proper roof dinner. We had 'Zohny' over (the Zion and Johnny sports) the Val, me and 'Duuzy' (Suzy and Dust).

We started off with wine on the little balcony and then moved up to the roof top for dinner. I cooked Spag Bog, which was pretty good by my standards and I even remembered tomatoes, which is always a good start (unlike the brushetta incident which turned out more like cheese on toast).

For pudding we had easter egg and the English choc went down a treat (thanks Ads) - the yanky choc was not quite so popular...it tasted like feet!

We had some hilarious conversations throughout the night. Suzy and I taught the yanks what 'camp as Christmas' meant. And then some how we moved on to Camel toes, and then we moved on to MooseKnucles. Now I've never heard of such a thing, but when you google it....this is what you get.....(see photo).

I do feel slightly violated at the camels toe / Mooseknuckle.....wroooong.

Lovely evening with lovely people. Can't wait to hear the Zion weave into a conversation about flicking beans....!

The Cubbie Bears....Kevin Lee & Old Flo

Monday was a bloomin brilliant day. A bunch of us took the day for the first Cubs home match of the season at Wrigley Field and it was mint! Clark (which is about 5 mins from my road - Southport) is where all the action is. It's bar, after bar, after bar and then in-between is street vendors and people selling t-shirts, flags...the lot (and monkey nuts...which I still don't get). It's like FA cup final day at Wembley - the atmosphere was electric.

We went to a pub for beers and food and if you ordered a large beer you got given it in a brown paper bag like a wino! I'm not really sure why, but it did seem quite appealing. I'd been revising the team and I tried to start a conversation about Kevin Lee and was met with some very odd / confused.com looks. Thankfully my friend Lauryl informed me that it's Derrek Lee! Doh - from now on, this said player (who is cracking and has the weirdest batting stance) will be known as Kevin!

The mighty Cubs won convincingly and I liked Russell the substitute pitcher for obvious name sake reasons. Defo going to get me and Senney pops a shirt with Russell on :) At the bottom of the 7th innings the Cubs all start singing 'take me out to the ball game'. It was just like being back at Bramhall lane singing greasy chip butty! Although I need to learn the words...I think monkey nuts comes into it too....

After the match (although apparently it's a game not a match) but anyway, after we went for pizza at Dags on my road and it is immense. It's like a friggin quiche but soooooo good.

Then in the evening we went to see the brilliant Florence and the machine at the House of Blues. It was a really small gig for our Flo but she gave it the most energy ever and was bloody brilliant. I actually think it's the best concert I've been to in ages. Surprisingly lots of the yankeedoodles knew the words (including Dust!) The funniest part was when people started doing spirit fingers in the audience to one of her slower songs (maybe Cosmic) - it was very funny. So new age!

So Monday was aces! Work really does get in the way. And Flo is Ameezin.

GNO....Vodka, dancing, injured paw and creepy old men!

Saturday night was GNO....Girls Night Out (or 'only'...I'm not sure!)

So all the girls donned their glad rags and we all went over to Heathers for pre-evening drinks. Now the Val and I managed to get rather steamed on Friday night, with the all you can drink offer at gaslight. I don't even like vodka, so after several I lost sight in both eyes. So the thought of drinking vodka was a peaky one...especially as we had pre-ordered two bottles at the club on our table.

At Heather's we had great fun playing Russian Roulette and truth or dare. And I learnt a lot about the American girls and what they get up to! I also learnt what a Quife was....its a fart out of your front bottom! Hilarious!

After a few more wines and vodkas we went down town to the club and it was the funniest nightclub ever...It honestly made Le Rocca in Bristol look classy. We were ushered to our table and I think our faces said it all, because they next minute they were bringing us over shots for the group! The Val and Linds hit up the dance floor and attracted some rather interesting attention from a man who I can only describe as an old age pensioner. He was about 70 years old and was wearing man jewellery.....errrr say no more. Thankfully we managed to get photographic evidence!

It was a rather eventful evening and some how during the course of the evening (whilst sat on the sofa) I managed to cut my finger and it just wouldn't stop bleeding. So I went up to the bar and the next minute I was being taken to the kitchen and I think they were worried I was going to sue them Lindsay and Lauryl came with me and somehow Lindsay had a little stumble in the kitchen and ended up in the pots and pans! Lauryl managed to wrap the finger up, as the bouncer was absolutely useless. We were then brought champagne, so all was good again!

After we finished our drinks, we rocked to the Kerryman to see some friends and ended up in a grampy pub down town, which was brilliant. And my highlight of the evening was the Val's friend Isabella telling poo stories. They were the best poo stories I've ever heard and I can't wait to tell Jenny Wood and Shivers them - they will love them!

All in all - GNO was eventful to say the least. Next time, we are sticking to the places we know and love! Although remember to get free champers when you have an injured paw.

Photos to follow....courtesty of Lauryl x

Country Night....absolute agony!

Thursday night is Country night in the Chi-town, so I rocked up to Houndstooch on Clark and Roscoe (nr Wrigley Field) to meet the Val and the gang. Well I can honestly say I've never seen anything like it. The bar was rammed with people in hats and little shorts and shirts. It was $5 for a jug of beer and the music was country ALL night. But not your usual Dixie Chicks stuff, that you can roughly sing along to - on no, it was the most obscure music I've ever heard. The highlight was this rather rotund girl in tiny shorts dancing on the bar - it was like watching bubbles divere crotch thrusting random men. Hilarious!

The country experience, should only be undertaken when battered!

Dizzy by name...and now by shoes

Impulse purchase, this totally is...in fact I'm not entirely sure I even like them, but just had to buy them because of the name...they were from the little shop that we live above. It's just dangerous having such nice shops on your doorstep.

And I know one of my friends will laugh in particular...he couldn't believe I made SP wear a head band at softball saying Dizzy! What can I say....it's the best name ever! (and has nothing to do with the ego).

Easter weekend and flip cup...

Saturday was a day of bumbling with Sarah and Fi - we went to the Bongo Rooms in Wicker Park for brunch and it was soooooooooo worth the hour wait. I can categorically say it was the best egg's Benedict I've had and to wash it down with a mimosa was immense. And they did the biggest skinny latte's ever (the fork is for scale).

We then bumbled to MJ (I maybe ordered a wee yellow jumper which is sooooo cute) and then we stumbled on more mimosa's - they are now officially Fi's favourite!

On Saturday evening the Wang was in charge of Easter celebrations and crumbs chief can this chap cook. He did roasted ham, stuffed eggs and home made cheese cake....plus so much more food, it was like a giant Christmas buffet and then some. It was the NCAA semi's with MSU and there were drinking games....bingo bongo!

But I still don't know what flip cup is....