Rhi's Arrival and Grove Weekend

Finished work on Thursday 20th and got an early night before jumping on off the long tube ride down to Heathrow to pick up Rhiannon. Hugs all round and then we made our way up to the rural North West corner of London to Watford and grabbed a taxi to the 5 star Grove. Its safe to say i may never stay at such a nice place again in my life. Friday afternoon we explored the perfect grounds and caught up on some sleep. Then we headed for the international buffet that blew our minds and almost our stomachs. Seriously most things you could imagine eating were on offer. So after curry's, tapas, roasts, peking ducks, fondue, stick date and much more we headed for the pool/spa and bed.
The 2nd day we spent bike riding around the world class golf course, local canals and woodlands. I hit 50 balls of the driving range whilst Rhi made friends with my camera. We then got an hour massage each and I explored all the other spa facilities whilst Rhi got a facial. Another great dinner at the stables restaurant then room service desert. The final day at the lovely Grove was spent reading books in the greenhouse and then watching the Manchester derby before making our way back into the metro and up to lovely Highate.

Dusting off the 440 weber

One of the best Sundays yet at the 440. The day started slow with no solid plans in place. We had been meaning to get the fairly unused Weber fired up and we reminded ourselves of this in time to go for a mid-day shop. I took charge of a leg of lamb and Anneliese planned a char grilled chicken.

slicing and dicing the yummy sheep

Benny ears pricking up at the thought "ANNARIESE IS THAT CHICKEN I SMELL?"

Life is good in London when its 25 degrees plus, not a cloud in the sky, beer in hand, North London soccer derby on TV and the Weber excreting some seriously good smells. The whole 440 crew crowded around and feasted on an super spread.

NUM NUM NUM

Twiggy doing the lamb lap

Gals grabbing best movie posi's

Lick it!! (house joke)

As per usual we all assumed our Sunday night movie watching positions throughout the lounge and watched Aussie made 'Snowtown'.

A great farewell to London's summer. MAH

Oktoberfest

A group of 10 of us flew in to Munich at various times on the Friday. Myself and 3 of the lads got in early and headed straight to a pub to join a strong Victorian contingent watching the Pies v Hawks prelim final. After lunch, beers and a bloody good game of AFL we headed for the fest via the impressive Munich underground tube. We walked out into the biggest party Ive ever seen! Its like the royal show for beer. World class roller coasters and rides surround the warehouse sized beer tents. The event fills up with up to 60,000 people per day.

dee-bag stealing much needed sunnies in the bright German sun

We were extremely lucky with the weather (as the first weekend was wet) and enjoyed an outdoor beer garden for our first steins. It is very easy to get lost from each other in the walkways at the fest and we all spent the first night meeting up and loosing each other but all made it to bed eventually and passed out on our pillows. The girls had arrived Friday evening so our whole gang headed straight back into the fest in the Saturday AM. The rest of the day and night were spent in another beer garden drinking lots, eating the odd pork knuckle (an amazing crackle surrounded piece of Oinky loveliness) and dancing into the night on tables. Sunday was much of the same fun except thanks to the wonderful roommate Dee-bag, we got a table in the impressive Hofbrau tent. 16 hours of sing along songs, more beer & pork and some characters to remember throughout the day and night.

Hofbrau tent

Very fun coaster

the 440 festers - Jamie, Ben, Dee, me.

Top 5 votes have got to be:

5) Nikki for going from sitting quietly all day to suddenly dominating the table dancing

4) Benny eating a juicy German pickle

3) Jamie for getting so drunk that he fell out of a bumper car whilst driving it. According to him he has "never know fear until he stood in the middle of an active bumper car session"

2) Dee-bag for skulling a pint and putting up with the resulting Italian attention

1) Willow for destroying 3 steins in single gulps. Fastest in the whole tent by a margin.

WELL DONE LUMBERJACK!

All in all a great party on a massive scale! Monday travels back to North London pretty much finished us and our melting brains off.

Great FEST! - MAH