Beers and blues!

Saturday's antics didn't stop after an all night drinking session; me and my new buddy from Manchester, Michael, headed out for noodles and then did a load of bars in the area we're staying at. It's very hipster (so very Adam McCulloch) and one live band we saw were so tight live. This might be hard to believe but the local bands here are better than those at home (bombshell right there).

We then headed over to the Lincoln Park area, which was cooler than the band. Met a lot of really nice people and despite being caught in the rain we had a lot of fun. We then headed back to the Damen area and partied till about six a.m. I then woke up at about eight o'clock on a sofa surrounded by the older residents of this hostel making breakfast. There's a Japanese woman who looks about a hundred and keeps giving me dirty looks, so I assume that drunken Englishmen aren't too popular over there. She must be so ronery (racism alert).

Today - well Sunday really because it's about two in the morning on Monday - I headed downtown, met a girl from Hawaii and ate a deep dish pizza, which is a fantastic hangover cure by the way. Then I had a mooch around the lake, which really is pretty. I could totally get into this city life, all drinking ice tea in the day and going out all night. I'm dreading drinking horlicks back in Chesterfield, believe me.

I met Michael again for some more noodles and then we bumped into a few Brits we'd already met at the hostel. We ended up having some drinks and heading to the Memphis Kings blues bar. Incredible musicianship; heard probably the best harmonica solo ever and also an awesome bassist. They also had a "booty call" competition where all the best girls in the club had to shake their arse (saying "ass" is still wrong) to the music. Wow is all I can say. Who can complain at a city where you can go out on a Sunday night and decide whether Ukrainian or Brazilian arses are best, over a blues soundtrack and complete with beers out of an ice bucket? God bless you America and presume for now that I will probably not return home.