Bumbag Motel

Off to Chiswick on the Saturday to see our flatmate Morri play Roundball! He’s doing the goosestep in the centre.

He was pretty happy as his team won 4 – 1 AND he scored a penalty goal – much excitement!

Scott and Cam were also happy about the bar at the football grounds and the continuation on the train

Another 3 course meal the next night, this time Mille (above) and Dan (below) cooking up a storm for 16 of us before their London departure!

Dan taking up speech duties pre eating with Cheape in the background.

Simba, Emma and Charlotte in the window bay.

To celebrate her 30th Smaill cooked 10 of us a 3 course dinner! Aparagus cigars and bruschette, then mushroom pie for Cam and I, chicken for the rest, fabulous salads, and a creme brulee raspberry cheesecake (below) – made with the help of a mini blowtorch!

So great to wake up and be able to stroll along a beach! Fairly brisk but nice to be out of the concrete jungle for a bit.

Liz kindly let us stay at her flat in Brighton where we had some hangtime with young Cynthia here – she was like this pretty much the whole time.

Great recommendation by my workmate to go to ‘Chocky wocky doo dah’! These hot chocolates were so immense that I actually couldn’t finish it.

Cam got some winching done on the seafront before we trained on back to London – easy!

In January this year I found out about the ‘golden’ birthday and today was Cam’s as he turned 29 on the 29th of September!! In celebration, I made a birthday brunch with cheese muffins, mushrooms, roast tomates and this bogey looking chocolate avacado cake. Cake part was good – avacado icing bit too adventurous methinks! Also enjoyed beers and NZ vs England 20/20 match before getting on the train to Brighton!

Golden candles going out, with flatties looking on.

Perfect day for wearing my golden shirt! Met up with Liz and her sister Jen and had delicious vegie dinns at ‘Prince George’ pub that serves only vegetarian food!! Brighton is so excellent!!

Was great to have Monday morning so could meet up with Harriet who lives in Munich and kindly leant me her Dirndl (the traditional German dress) for the weekend. Got to enjoy this delicious feast of cheeses, bircher muesli and bread selection – and no that’s not beer there too, just old mate Apfelshorle (apple juice and sparkling water). Thanks for great catch up times Germany!

Day 2 of the Oktoberfest had us in the Lowenbrau beer hall at 9.30am for first rounds! The place where Cam found he could carry beers like the best of them.

Also where Morri and I realised that we had very different sized heads.

On the other side of the stage from us were some very lovely dressed and civilised Germans enjoying the beer festivities.

More Mass joy in Lowenbrau with flatmate Millie.

Out of the tents there is an amazing array of rides and entertainment – Cam and I got on the rollercoaster the first night while the others tried out many more. Here we have our rendez-vous with the lovely Charlottes!

So we went to Munich for Oktoberfest, and found out that there is something about having a huge glass of bier (Mass) in your hand that makes everyone very happy – with a whole lot of traditional dress ups and merry making. Was also very stoked to speak some German again with Cam and I getting around the tents and the festival grounds to test out the German words.

Johannes was our beer deliverer on the first day in  the ‘Hacker tent’ – which is a huge wooden construction that can fit up to 10,000 people!

Pretty sure the beers are the same size as my head.

First trip back to Germany since leaving Berlin was a very merry return – back to barrier free public transport and delicious beers everywhere!!

Blue sky entry into Germany.

Favourite beer back in hand.