Miguel's Visit

After being our drinking buddy in Munich, Miguel flew over to join us in England for a few days. When we went to pick him up at the airport, there was an overhead message

'would the party picking up Miguel Ricardo please come to the information desk'.


Then I proceeded to speak to an imigration officer on the phone, vouching for Miguel and hoping they'd let this shady looking character into the country, luckily they caved and let him in.
We had an awesome day at Alton Towers, England's major amusement park. It was a wednesday in October, so very few kids and we walked onto every ride! Best Alton Towers day ever!! And the weather was perfect too.

Me, very excited to be there!

We also did a night out in Liverpool to show Miguel our favorite spots.

3345, one of Grant's Favorite bars

A spontaneous brass band playing on Mathew Street

Dancing it up at the 80's Bar - I have Irnbru tongue

Life in Lancashire

A glimpse into where Grant has been living and working for the past 4 years, and where we lived for my first 6 weeks in England. Buckshaw Village is an isolated purpose built village that until recently had nothing, but now at least has a tiny store, a pharmacy and, of course, a pub. It's in Lancashire, a large north western county of England, south of Preston and in between Leyland and Chorley (check out the map)

The front entrance to the flat (it's the top three windows, above 3 garages)

Grant's trusty little Honda Civic

This is the weird statue at the entrance to buckshaw village, it used to be white and it was a huge eye-sore, and it was meant to have vines grow up it's legs and cover the whole thing. Needless to say, that never happened, so they painted it green to try and make it blend in...Grant named him St. Buckshaw

Trying to show how very isolated this place is with NOTHING around

The Bobbin Mill, a new pub that opened up 10 minutes down the road around 6 months ago

The kennels and cattery, a few minutes down the road

Overlooking the M6 - the main north to south motorway

Took a picture of myself on my little walk...

Grant BBQing in the Garage

Back in Motion Chiropractic Clinic - where Grant has been working for 4 years

Munich - DAY 5

Last day in Munchen!

It was a beautiful and sunny day. We had lunch at Englisher Garten again, and then headed to the BMW museum/showroom. (Didn't spend the 12 euros to go in though.) Then we walked around the olympic park and went up the tower for the beautiful view. We spent the rest of the day wandering around Marienplatz and Karlsplatz until it was time to get back to the airport and take a flight back to England with some annoying drunk Brits.

BMW Buildings

Looking out at the Olympic park from the tower

Hofbrauhaus

Waiting for the train out to the airport, bye Munchen!

Munich - DAY 4

Major Oktoberfest Day!

It was the last Saturday of Oktoberfest, so we had to get down to the grounds by 8:30 am to join the masses of people waiting outside to get in. We chose the Lowenbrau tent (the Lion one) and when the Lion roared at 9am the doors opened and we got crushed through the doors. Seriously, I thought my ribs were going to snap and punture my lungs! All that and all the tables were taken already! So, I went to ask if we could sit with some people and the bar maid stopped me and asked what I was doing, I said I was going to ask if I could sit at that table, she looked me up and down and then said, ok, you sit there and then made the people shift around to fit us, sooooo lucky! It pays to dress like a Bavarian.

It was an AWESOME day of drinking delicious beer and eating weisswurst and pretzles and singing songs and dancing on the benches with the Germans at our table. Then we left the tent at 4pm to meet Jayanti at the Hofbrau tent to get us in the back door again and continued the eating and drinking until about 9pm to make it a full 12 hours! So much fun.

A glimps of the mass of people waiting to get in. (See the lion, he roars and drinks his beer every hour!!!)

The awesome band, played a mix of German oom papa music and other German songs, and English songs

Miguel and the German guy doing a strange double hand clapping dance

'Ein prosit, ein prosit der Germutlich-keit! Ein prosit, ein pro-o-osit, der Germut-lich-keit!!'

Miguel with German Denny

Trying to show how my glass chiped after too many prosts!

Back at Hofbrau with Jayanti

Not sure if Grant is happy or sad...

Oooh, ahhh...Oktoberfest!