Green Beer and Other Stuff

St Patrick’s day came and the place turned green. I tried explaining to people that it’s not actually something we celebrate that widely in England, but out here it went crazy. At work, the Reception area was decorated with green beads and shamrock and everybody was wearing at least one piece of green clothing. Downtown, the canal is even dyed green for the day. I found this video on YouTube …

It’s not me narrating!

After work a group from work went, fittingly, to Mo’s Irish Pub. The pub had extended out into the parking lot car park with several marquees housing stages for bands set to perform later … and there was green beer everywhere.

St Patrick’s Day was also the start of a strange period of weather that is continuing through this week too. We’ve gone from T shirt weather with bright sunshine and warm evenings, to heavy rain and tornado warnings, and then to this weekend where snow was forecast. When I first got here, people warned me about the weather and it’s unpredictability: If you don’t like the weather today, wait until tomorrow (it will change). It definitely seems to be true!

I realised tonight that I haven’t actually blogged for a while, so I’m going to try and catch up this week and get back to more regular updates. A lot has happened recently so I should have some material to fill these pages!

Have a nice day!

Sunshine!

The majority of this weekend has seen clear blue skies and glorious sunshine; the sort of day where you wish you were near a beach to go for a walk… except there is no beach!

In other news it took me until around the middle of the week to recover from the meat overload on Sunday … but I’m feeling back to normal now. Just.

This week I went to my 2nd “soccer” session, it’s good fun and there are a couple of guys there who are originally from England. I’ve never been the fittest person, but after 6 months of not playing and only doing gym work, I’ve been huffing and puffing a bit. Obviously donuts etc have nothing to do with this …

Too much meat …

Went to a Brazilian Steak house this evening for dinner, and way too much meat was consumed. It was all amazing food, with the servers coming round with fresh cuts of meat (lamb, beef, pork, chicken – there may have been a veggie option …) almost constantly for the full hour we were all eating, but now I feel like I’m heavily pregnant.  This is not a good feeling. I still found room for a crème brulee for dessert though. A guide for the restaurant, and a menu, can be found on the link below …

http://www.fogodechao.com/menu/dining-experience/

The fillet mignon was incredible, I forget how many servings of that cut that I had but it made my face look a bit like this …

I’m now off to look for some comfortable clothes for work tomorrow.

The MANE attraction …

This week has been all about the mullet. Often in the UK you see people sporting what they claim to be a mullet but, until you’ve been here, you’ve seen nothing. Flowing locks peeking out from baseball caps recreate images of 1980’s mullet legends Chris Waddle, Pat Sharpe etc. This observation came about whilst I was walking around a custom car exhibition at the Indiana State Fairground. You can see some photo’s* that I took at the show by clicking the image below.

*images are of cars … no mullets were harmed during the taking of photographs.

This week the weather has really changed and what has been an icy landscape for the last month or so now looks rather like home. Virtually all of the snow and ice has melted away; the danger on the roads now being the crater sized pot holes that have been left behind by the ice. This change in weather has came at a good time, as all clothing stores now seem to be stocked full of shorts, T-shirts and flip flops. After the amusement that winter clothing brought with all the different names (pants/trousers, jumpers/sweaters), it will be interesting to see what summer clothing throws up.

Also this week I’ve been to a pub quiz US stylee … formed a team with some friends from work and although we did abysmally in terms of actually scoring points, we did get the biggest laugh for the team name: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” … in reference to a past President.

This week I’ve also surprised myself at my dessert eating abilities … after finishing a huge rib-eye steak I had the Mile High Mud Pie. Basically an Oreo cookie base piled high with mocha/choc chip ice cream and covered in cream on one side and then, for the final nail in a calorie influenced coffin, hot fudge sauce dripped all over. Before and after pictures below; pint glass for a sense of perspective in height…

Final point of this week is my soldiering on in spite of the epic man flu that had taken over my body. Due to my coughing and lack of voice I think some people may have preferred me to have not continued going into work, but I’m feeling back to normal now. My recovery may have been aided by the Arsenal’s win over Barca, but after the draw in the FA Cup today I’m hoping that I don’t suffer a relapse of Arsenal proportions…

Drive Through Fail

This is why a drive through ATM doesn’t always work …

… kind of defeats the purpose. It’s also a pain if the passenger needs to get money but not the driver!