TcV His Life In Pieces

After my first trip to the states; I would tell people back home that I had ben to La Crosse Wisconsin, and an awful lot of them would bring up the bit of the film Love Actually where Kris from My Family went to Wisconsin. I hadn't seen the film then.

Now, however, the film seems to be on constant rotation on ITV2 so I have seen quite a lot of the film more than once, but just the other day I finally caught the bit that my friends had spoken about.

Summary courtesy of wikipedia:

"Colin, Tony, and the Wisconsin girls

Colin Frissell (Kris Marshall) informs his friend Tony (Abdul Salis) he plans to go to the US and find love there because, in his estimation, that country is full to the brim with gorgeous women who will fall head over heels for him because of his 'cute British accent'. ('Stateside I'm Prince William without the weird family.') The first place he goes after landing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is an 'average' US bar where he meets three stunningly attractive women (Ivana Milicevic, January Jones, Elisha Cuthbert) who after falling for his Basildon accent invite him to stay at their home, specifically in their bed, with them and their housemate Harriet (Shannon Elizabeth) ('the sexy one'). They warn him that because they are poor they can't even afford pajamas, so everyone will be naked. In the finale Colin returns to England with Harriet for himself and her sister Carla (Denise Richards) for Tony. Carla hugs and kisses a startled Tony at the airport, telling him 'I heard you were gorgeous'."

Well that didn't happen to me in Milwaukee, I spent a dull night in a huge room in the fabulous (stay there if you can) Ambassador hotel, which was undergoing renovation so the bar wasn't open nor the restaurant.

American women did find my accent cute, One girl did ask to see my passport prove I was British because loads of amercans put on a fake English accent to pull; Apparently Austin Powers is to blame for that.

The closest I came to the scene described above was in Chicago, on 13th October 2004; I was staying in a Hostel and my room mates and I hit some bars on Printers Row.

I was sharing a room with Jeff a phys. ed. teacher from Pheonix, AZ. and Mark from Basingstoke, Hants. Jeff was in town to see Notre Dame play American Football. Dave was on the last leg of his around the world trip aiming to be home in England for Christmas.

We had been in this bar long enough to find the local Goose Island lager disgusting and had begun drinking a close approximation of Diesel (Snakebite and Black) a rough concoction comprising Goose Island lager, a nice cider (probably too nice to make Snakebite) and because they had no blackcurrant - grenadine.

The three of us were sharing a table with an Italian American bloke and his girlfriend. and we were in full flow talking about the world, where we'd been and the like. when five lovely barmaids from a nearby bar came in for an after work drinks. We chatted to them until closing time; one of the ladies, Alyson wasn't sure she was working the next day or not but the rest were going onto the South Loop club. Mark went on ahead whilst Jeff and I went with Alyson to her apartment so she could check her messages and find out if she was working or not. It was a fair walk and I remember joking about how trusting she was taking two strange men back to her apartment. She did have to work so she gave us directions to the club and we parted company. Years later I woke up one night and thought maybe she fancied me and I hadn't done anything about it.

Jeff and I caught up with everyone else in the club where we stayed for a few drinks and a dance. but we all went home alone.