cheep, cheep, cheep, peck a little, talk a lot

Oh what a weekend. Saturday I went to a hen do (basically a bachelorette party) -ALL day Saturday. It was fun, but exhausting. We started out at 2 pm by meeting up at the Geneve Plage (the Geneva Beach), which was very cool since I had never been there before. I was, of course, running late and by the time I got to the plage there was a HUGE line waiting to get in. You have to pay 7 swiss francs entrance fee for the day. Naturally, I chose the line that didn't move. I waited and waited and waited and when I was about 4 people from the cashier a fight broke out in front of me. Apparently, 2 guys tried to jump in line and another guy said no way, jose. Go to the end of the line. They started pushing each other and one of the guys trying to jump ahead took his motorcycle helmet and "CRACK" bashed the other guy in the head. Oh my god, it was crazy. The sound of helmet hitting head echoed throughout the place. Finally, someone who worked there came out and told the guys to go to the end of the line. Did they? Not at first. They tried to jump into line behind me. The woman next to me, I would guess she was in her early sixties, wasn't going to have any of that. She got right up in that dudes face and stuck her finger in his chest telling him to get his hiney to the back of the line - ALL the way back. They didn't argue with her.

I finally made it into the beach, found my little group (there were 5 of us) and commenced an afternoon of sun bathing, splashing in lake Geneva, and drinking wine. Once we got our fill of the sun (3 out of 5 of us had a lovely red glow -thank god I was not one) we departed to shower and get ourselves "dollied" up for a nice dinner and some late night partying. Little did I know how late it night it would be....

We headed to the other side of the lake to a lovely restaurant in Tannay, near our offices, called Buvette de la Plage. There we had a lovely table on the terrace, right next to the lake. Unfortunately, we were plagued by bugs! Those nasty little midges were swarming all around. One of the women was a smoker and we encouraged her to indulge just to keep the bugs away. As the sun went down it got a bit better...till they turned on the overhead lights and the nasty little buggers kept dive bombing our deserts. They were literally swimming in the cream poured over my meringue! Eeeeew. it was disgusting. Carlos, our waiter, gave me another one even though I was so stuffed at that point I didn't really want it. It was a nice gesture. Carlos also had a fancy for the bride-to-be. She often came to this restaurant so new him from previous occasions. He decided this was the perfect opportunity to try and suck the bride-to-be's face off! It was pretty funny. She was rather stunned. I think there are pictures somewhere, but my camera ran out of batteries so I don't have one! At around midnight we called a taxi, piled in and headed back into Geneva for some more celebrating.

We went to a club called, Shakers. We arrived about 12:30 am I thought this would be the prime time to be there. Oh boy, was I wrong. As a couple of the women in our group had said, "12:30 is WAAAY too early. No one will be there. " It was dead. But, at least we could sit down have a drink and not contend with the crow. By about 2 am it was packed. Before the downstairs "club" section had opened there was no where to dance, so the bride-to-be triple dog dared me to dance on the low bench we were sitting on. Naturally, I jumped up and did it. I looked up and saw the bartender looking at me. I smiled, gave a little wave, and sat back down. He grinned gave me the thumbs up and motioned for me to go ahead and dance if I wanted too. hee, hee. After my first drink called a Black Rain - it was super sweet and came in a glass "shaker" with a lid and a straw - super dangerous stuff, I switched to water. I just couldn't take another sweet drink, besides they cost 32 swiss francs a piece! I don't know how people afford to go out every weekend. C'mon someone had to keep a straight head and no one else in our party seemed inclined to do so and let's face it, I don't need alcohol in me to dance or act silly and crazy I do that naturally anyways. One time when I was begging water from Philip, the bartender, he asked me if I would dance on the bar? I said, "right now? Bien sur, pourquoi pas?" (of course, why not?) So I jumped up onto a stretch of the bar that was not occupied by drinkers and shook my groove thang. I had to hold onto a nearby post, not because I was drunk, but because I had on high heels and the bar was a bit slippery. Many photos were taken. i tried to get the bride to join me and she almost did then backed out. Ah well. It seems as though my photo will soon grace the walls of Shakers (in their rotating display gallery) ah well. At least I have all my clothes on and I'm not doing anything too crazy! Besides, who knows when I'll ever get back there. It's not as though DH and I are party animals.

By 4:00 am everyone in our party wanted to leave, except the bride -to-be. So, since I was going to crash at her place I said I'd stay with her. I think I was the only one who wasn't completely trashed at that point. The bar closes at 5:00 am and when the bouncer asked us to leave the bride became quite belligerent. She did not want to leave and she was not going to leave. She knew the owner (which she does) and therefore she did not have to leave. I couldn't get her to leave until nearly 6:00 am! When we walked outdoors she said, "Oh shit, the suns coming up!" By this time I had asked one of the bartenders to call us a cab only to find out they were no longer running. The bride insisted it was fine. We'd find a cab outside. I couldn't get it through to her there were none. The public transportation had not started running yet and neither had the cabs. It was Sunday, the day of rest I had no idea when things would be up and running again. She insisted we could walk to her place. My feet were in no shape for walking. I'm not used to wearing heels and I had been dancing all night in them. I decided to call the hubby. Poor, wonderful man. I woke him up and he came and got us.
We took the bride home (the groom was in Ireland on his Stag weekend) we got some water down her, told her to go to bed and headed home ourselves. I finally got to bed about 7:30 am and slept on and off all day Sunday. It wasn't so much that I was hung over, yes I admit some of it was the alcohol - I'd been drinking alcohol interspersed with water from about 2 pm till 1 am of course it effected me - but mostly it was the exhaustion of being up all night. I haven't stayed up all night in ages. It was fun, but I don't think I'll make a habit of it.

Can't wait till work tomorrow when I see some of my partners in crime and see what exactly they remember from the evening. Should be amusing!

*no names were used in order to protect the innocent...and the not so innocent* hee, hee, hee

the FanZone, Baby

Woohoo, the FanZone in the Plainpalais in downtown Geneva. Big stuff here folks. Actually, it was quite fun. They have a section all blocked off, you have to enter through a gate with security who check your bags and make you throw out any food or drink. There was a stage with lots of lights, a HUGE screen for watching the games, and vendors with good food at exorbitant prices for their captive hungry and thirsty audience. Seriously, it was actually cheaper to buy food and drinks (including Jungle juice) at the fete de la musique! Crazy. But those guys new what they were doing. Once you entered the FanZone you didn't want to leave until the match was over. They got you good with their beer prices and you know EVERYONE was gulping that down on a hot day while watching a football match (that's soccer for all you Americans - see I am becoming more European).

Here's a picture of the bizarre Swiss mascot. I'm not really sure what it's supposed to be. sorry, I didn't get a picture from the front. The face is painted white, there's that crazy corkscrew black hat, and the donut around the waste. If anyone has any idea what this Swiss mascot is supposed to be, I'd love to know! Oh, and you gotta love the black and white diamond tights. Where can I get me some o' those?

There's the DH and our friends all sporting orange in support of Holland. It was cool to be watching the match surrounded by a sea of Orange and Red (the Russians) shouting, cheering, and cursing passionate fans. It was an exciting match too. The Dutch were out played, but they hung in there. Their defense was phenomenal. Especially Van der Sar, their goalie - can you say amazing? He's a 6'5" tall, lanky package of awesomeness. The Russians ended up winning in overtime, but Van der Sar did all he could to stop them...which, is more than I can say for the Dutch defense. Look, I like Holland, I was rooting for them. But, they did seem to run out of steam at the end. I don't know if it was because they were just exhausted from playing 90 minutes plus 30 minutes of over time or if they just gave up because the Russians were relentless.
There's me in my lovely orange straw hat. Provided for me by Martjne (I think that's how you spell it). He had it on hand in case I didn't have an orange shirt -which I didn't. He's Dutch and wanted to make sure we were all visibly supporting his team. Janice, his wife, is American. She's from North Dakota, I believe, and probably wouldn't thank me if she knew I'd posted this picture on the internet. hmmm....let's hope she never stumbles across this! Well, folks. I'm sure you've had a blast (yeah right) reading about the FanZone but I spent a long day scrubbing the house and gardening in the hot sun so I'm tired and ready to go chill out before I hit the sack.
later gator.