Mardi Gras
This weekend was Mardi Gras weekend in St Louis. On the Friday night I was out on another JAG happy hour we were in a part of town called Soulard. It was quite a night as one of our work collegues invited us to a pub where the drink was free between 9:00pm and 11:00pm so we had a few beers as it would have been rude not too. After surfacing on the Saturday morning I headed to the parade unfortunately with almost 500,000 people at Mardi Gras it was difficult to see any of the parade we did try the Mardi Gras drink called a 'Hurricane' which is a bit like an alcoholic fruit drink. We finished the evening off by going for some mexican back in downtown ST Louis. I have attached some photos which were taken of me and some of the work gang during the the Mardi Gras festivities.
Meramec Caverns
George Straight took care of Friday night. Saturday involved a JAG (work social group) night out to the College Basketball followed by a trip to the Scottish Arms pub which came highly recomended by both Phil and myself. Our team SLU took care of Temple at the Basketball which put us all in good spirits for our trip to the Arms. I was looking forward to a nice pint of Tennants when the bar man informed me that they had sold out. No problem I said I will have a McEwans he again informed me that they had sold out. I was shocked it is not like a Scottish Pub to sell that much beer that they run out. I had to settle for that famous Scottish drink Fosters instead. Believe it or not we had also hired a car this weekend and took a trip to the Meramec Caverns on the Sunday. These are underground caves where the American outlaw Jesse James is rumoured to have hidded some of his loot. It was also used to film an episode of Lassie once, another piece of useless trivia I thought you should read about. I have stole a photo of the internet as I forgot my camera AGAIN.
George Straight (Who?)
The recurring theme of us getting free tickets to events at the Savis Centre continued on Friday 17th Feb 2006. This time it was for a fellow called George Straight. Who I hear you ask. George Straight is the number one country music star in the states. He has had over 50 number one hits and I think I endured most of them on Friday night. Actually the concert was pretty good. The first support act was an extremly fit woman called Miranda Lambert so when they announced the second support act as being Tracey Lawrence you could say I was looking forward to it. I was gutted when out stepped a bloke called Tracey what is that all about. Never mind the night was not a total loss as the food and beer was free compliaments of the work. After the Nickelback fiasco I decided to leave my camera at home so I have no photos of this event.
House Warming Party
Friday 9th February 2006 will forever go down in ST Louis history. It was Phil and my house warming party. We had a good turnout with thirty people turning up at various times during the day and night. I am pleased to report that after four months in the country we have finally turned all our work colleagues into party animal alcoholics. The one bonus of hosting a party is that our fridge is still full of beer that everyone brought. The photos for this night were again provided by Mark as he was the only one sober enough to work a camera. The photos are of the drunking game of Jenga that was played sometime in the evening.
Nickelback
Managed to get some more free tickets from the work for the Nickelback Concert on 7th February 2006 which was held at my now favourite venue the Savvis Centre. We initially got turned away from the door for being in possesion of a dangerous weapon, my digital camera. Twenty minutes later after a trip back to the apartment to drop it off we finally made it in. Luckly big Mark managed to sneak his camera in so the photos I have posted of this event are courtasy of the big man. Cheers Mark
Visit to Florida
A weekend in the sun, so I thought. The first weekend in February involved a trip to Clearwater Florida to visit my aunt and uncle and also my mum who had flown over from the UK. I also thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get in a spot of sunbathing. So I was surprised when my first day in the sunshine state turned out to be the 4th wettest day since records began. However things were not all bad as the weekend progressed the weather improved and by Sunday I even got a spot of sunburn when I visited the beach. Look out for more trips to Florida in the near future.
