Westbrook's last weekend in Chi...

Last weekend was chicken oriental! It was Sarah (as in Sarah and Fi's) final weekend in Chi before heading to Brissle, so we had to make it super special. Sarah and Fi have been my family out in Chicago - seriously, they feed me, listen to me talk crap, drink wine with me and are just generally bloody brilliant. They moved out to Chi a month after me, so it really was the end of era. Old Gloria (aka Paolo Decannio) flew in from Colorado and it was general debauchery from the outset. There was lots of drinking (I can still taste the tequila....10 years I have been dry of that stuff and there is a reason)....dancing (Kwiec dancing was legendary....and the shirt taking off was errrr Nicky's fault). Lots of eating -a giant pizza at work Friday and Yolk breakfast on the Sunday was lush - smoked salmon eggs Benedict....ummmmmm. And lots and lots of laughter. We met fake barristers, some dude with a sweaty hat and there were lemon drops.... On the Sunday night, it was March madness (big college basket tourny) - so we went to watch U of I play and have a quiet few beers. Unfortunately a quiet few beers turned into a fish bowl that we won in the raffle, so we all got nicely fuzzy and had a fun evening. To finish we had a Skillet Cookie, which was the giant pudding that consisted of anything full of sugar. All in all a brilliant weekend and Chi won't be the same without the wee family. But Bristol will be bingo bongo and we the wedding to look forward to! Friends for life x o x o.

St. Paddy's Weekend Celebrations in Chi

This weekend in Chi was St. Paddy's Day Celebrations. Not quite sure why it was the weekend before real St. Paddy's Day - but saying that the whole city celebrates and not one single person I met was chuffing Irish! Any reason to party in Chicago.

So a big thing for the city is turning the River totally green. The River runs through the city and is beautiful with the sky-line and el (train) surrounding it - so turning it green was pretty special. Me and the pups (Ruwe, Ferrick, Schoolyard, Bobby, Westbrook) headed down to Lizzie's on the river and as per true Chicago tradition had a drink at errrr 9.00am! The black velvets went down a treat.

We had an absolute blast throughout the day...drinking, Irish dancing, a party (the Wagners) and there was beer pong and green beer, more bars and I finally called it a night at 1am! Not bad for a little pup drinking black velvets all night - who would have thought it.

Wooooow we're half way there....

Wednesday this week saw my first Rock concert and crumbs was I not ready for the stone washed jeans! Sarah found some cheeky tickets for 9 bucks to see Bon Jovi at the Uniter Centre (where the Bulls play) so I thought I'd go for a bit of a laugh. Now, for those that know me - I love music, but I'm notorious for never knowing the right words to songs and also never knowing who sings what. So at one stage I thought I was seeing Guns and Roses and also U2.

The concert was loads of fun and we met a serious die-hard fan. Some dude that had seen old Bon Jovi 16 times and he even had the tat to prove it. He loved the old Brits for some reason, although he was disappointed we hadn't seem them in Europe!

Old Jon opened with Living on a prayer (or is it Deliver our prayer...I never know) and the girls went wild. So it was lots of fun and definitelty hits the new list (and all in all a good 9 clams well spent!)

Anyone for a game of Bags....

I’ve got 10 months left in Chicago (mrrrrrr) so the new rule is that each week, I have to do something new. If that something new is ultra Americano – then brilliant. But it just has to be something new.

So, this week there have been a few new things. I tried to mount a giant moose in a beer garden at Mountain’s birthday drinks….that was an interesting experience, particularly as I don’t like heights, nor animals (whether real or not) and the frozen ice really didn’t help with the proceedings. Thankfully, I had Schoolyard one side and Dusty the other to catch me if I fell……what was I thinking.


This week also saw Nicole and I entering a 'bags' tournament. Now for the English among us, bags (or cornhole as it’s sometimes called) is a very Chicago thing. It’s basically two boards with a hole and you’ve got to get your 4 bean bags either ideally in the hole (3 points) or on the board (1 point). Now there’s not a massive amount of skill involved and you don’t need to be a Sri Lanken spin bowler to achieve such a task. So when I saw a chance to play, in a bar, drink beer….and win tickets to the baseball – it seemed like a no-brainer. The ‘Bollockers’ as we had named ourselves were for sure going to win. (brilliant that bollocks isn't used at all in the states).

Oh how I could be so so wrong. There were 6 teams including us (and then maybe another 2 last minute teams…randoms from the bar) and the 5 main teams you could tell play weekly. They were like professionals. They literally made a 3 pointer every shot and it was only when the pressure was closing in at around the 19 mark, did you see these dudes faulter. So Nicole and I reverted to the only tactic we had left. Flirt like hell, get them drunk and hope they take pity on us. It worked (in the short term) and a few times I swear they missed the board on purpose….but in the end the Bollockers came second from last and unfortunately did not win the legendary Cubs tickets (thankfully we weren’t the worst team, who were some dudes from somewhere miles away….and they really did have the touch of a …..)

So my career as a bags shark was short lived...if lived at all. But it was a bubble and we did gain a few new fans thanks to Nicky (or is it Niki?) Val you know what I mean.

This weekend has also seen one other new first….that I’m not really sure is bloggable. I can’t wait for gno and talking about this one….Shreadles will hate it!