Corinna

- or "how do I collect 8.5 points":

First of all, congratulations to Mona and Andreas who reaffirmed their last year's wedding with a great ceremony in Wichcombe, England at the Sudeley Castle. It was one of the best weddings I have ever been to: a romantic setting at a beautiful castle, great people, great food, nice cottages…but first things first:

Friday night, Pennywern Street 52, W2 London. It is dark and raining and that is London. Thanks to our mobiles it is not a problem for Ungie to call me and find the street. After a "hairy" hello (how much hair grows in 11 months!!!), we are on our way to Sudeley, where the wedding took place. We made it without any problems to Winchester, then we got lost. When asking the locals for directions, Ungie wasn't sure if they really spoke English, but learned later that weekend to interpret English directions which all include a roundabout, a pub, a hill, and all the way.

In Sudeley, we joined rehearsal party where everyone was dressed up…except us. (Thanks Ungie) Almost everybody knew Ungie - and one of the persons he did not know, but he thought about a lot (real - fake - real- fake). Mona gathered an amazing group of people who roasted her in the nicest way possible. Andreas was better off, only having a small group of well educated friends around him. An after-hour party continued back at the cottages where we all stayed.

On Saturday, we missed the early morning hike and joined the rest of the group for lunch at Broadway Tower. We drove for 20 minutes until we discovered, that the map we were using to get to Broadway only featured Broadway. Somehow we thought we were looking at Wichcombe. But helpful instructions on the way (up the hill, pass the pub and around a roundabout) made it easy for us to find the venue.

For the rest of the afternoon, Ungie turned into a cab driver. We picked up Eva (Mona's friend from Spain) in the next bigger city near Wichcombe and Ungie, forgetting a tie used the opportunity to buy a new one (it was not that ugly). Our naptime was killed when we finally came back to Sudeley and realized that we do not have a key to the cottage. So we ran to Mona's residence, saw her 45 minutes before her wedding in jeans, got a key from Girlyn, ran back to the cottage, ran up and down the stairs, shouted and dropped razors and dryers and put on our evening garments. All of this did not wake up our flatmate, who was asleep in his room until 15 minutes before the wedding. But we all made it in time for Pims and Champagne in the garden of the castle. On the drive over, Ungie picked up two women, who turned out to also be guests of the wedding. (one knew Mona from Spain and the other works for Ungie's current client)

Everybody cleaned up nicely for this "lovely summer evening". Accompanied by a quartette, Mona and Andreas exchanged rings as the sunset in front of Sudeley Castle. The scenery and the ceremony were impressive and so was the dinner and the after party. We thought the speeches that praised Mona and Andreas would never end but finally the dancing started. Ungie tried, but none of the tables were strong enough to allow Mona to table dance with Hanson - too bad.

On Sunday some people were suffering from the wedding or was it the after party? Ungie, Girlyn, her boyfriend and I were busy answering the question of how we would get all the wedding flowers back to London. In London, we had to face the next question: what to do with all these flowers, since none of us actually live there. Ungie figured out that it would be a nice present for his friend Amy who he was staying with during the week.

On High Street Kensington, we met one of the wedding guests again, Ungie almost killed us by stopping in the middle of the street, backing up and parking the car very illegally, but we made it and had a little chitchat. Bad pub service made me ALMOST miss my plane back to Germany.

It was a great weekend!!!! Thanks Mona and Andreas for having such a great wedding.

On the following Weekend, like a deja vue, Ungie appears again. Flying in from Manchester, England after spending a few days at his client and I'm sure making them pay for his entire trip. We had drinks with my co-workers, more drinks at my apartment and more in a bar in Soho(Freedom). The highlight of the evening was listening to Ungie's "Litte Jonnie jokes" . Btw, who stole the menus from Freedom? 

We spent a nice and warm Saturday on Portobello Rd. at the Portobello market in Notting Hill looking for Amy and her booth. We were both impressed by her work and Ungie could not resist and bought a bag. A women's handbag. With the bag in a plastic bag, we went to buy Cuban Cigars for Ungie to give to a friend that saved him in Cannes this year when all of his stuff got stolen. We entered Dunhill's and solved the riddle of "Do they sell only full boxes? - at two hundred pounds per box." ($300 USD). We put the cigars, nicely rapped in three bags in the bag in the bag and left Dunhill's. As we passed a man drinking and smoking, the only customer in the shop, I thought "Do I really want to drink my Whisky here???" And some we had a drink at Covent Garden. The day ended with a sausage and mash party at Amy's. We had great plans of Amy's then my friends at a pub then Amy's then a club. We made it from the kitchen to the living room after Amy stuffed us and we listened to stories from her many friends.

Sunday at 9:15 am sunshine - Ungie takes a shower, back to bed. Sunday at 12pm rain (just to remind you that you are still in England). We finally got up, and met Amy at Spital Field markets (where she has another booth), had a crappy burger in a pub and went back to my place. Then it was time to say good-bye for Ungie. But all the cabs were full, so the good old tube was the means of transportation. A big hug and two very nice weekends were over.

Oh wait - not yet. An hour later, Ungie calls with the important news that he missed his plane (Did the stupid point game, where you get a point if the other person does or says something stupid and that we started at some point, really make me think that you are kidding?). So he came back to the apartment typing text messages on his cell phone the entire way (Ungie, thanks for the updates). We went to a pub at Bayswater. Later on, we met two PhD freak friends of mine from home in Stuttgart and finally home. The next morning at 6, Ungie made his second attempt to the airport and made the plane. 

Some facts to keep in mind when traveling in England:

• Even in an English speaking country, you are a foreigner.
• Service is slow, food sucks and it rains all the time.
• Umbrellas are dangerous and some people have castrated themselves with one (Ungie loses a point).
• PhD intelligence does not have anything to do with clothing taste.
• The tube stops at 12:30 and cabs take forever to show up when you call them.
• 40 minutes CAN be important. (Ungie loses another point)
• Car parks (parking on Scenic routes) are dirt roads along the way.
• Ungie only sleeps 5 hours because he thinks 9:15 looks like 12:15 (please can anybody teach Ungie how to read one of his million dollar watches so maybe he'll sleep later - collect one point)
• Cuban cigars are easy to smuggle, the best way is to hide them in coffee.
• A stupid point game can make you sleep at the airport if you can't convince the other person you're not trying to get a point.

Corinna

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