I was a total tease in my last blog entry, promising Oktoberfest gossip and then leaving you hanging. Well, here's how the second week panned out:

I had one of those "oh, we'll only go for one" evenings that turns into an all-night bender. Naughty Julia! Leading me astray from the office (well, we WERE working the bank holiday, so we deserved an early finish) and saying she had to catch a train so she wouldn't stay long.

Well, of COURSE we ended up spending almost the whole evening in the Oide Wiesn - and I kept bumping into friends of mine there! Notably in the Augustiner Zelt, where we even got up for a couple of dances and I ran into Matthias & Christian and Kay & Tom. Which was a blessed relief from the freakazoids we ended up sharing a table with!

To round things off, I did a final Wiesn day on the last Saturday, with Jo, Mark & all his mates. When our reservation came to an end pitifully early (in my view), Jo & I slipped away to a Weißbierzelt - always a dangerous move, but one that seems to make SO MUCH sense at the time!

Ach, when you're at the Wiesn, you simply HAVE to end up deep in conversation with random strangers. So we did, before heading back to Mark's for a slap-up roast dinner - yay! - which was very well irrigated, as the French say... I truly had a skinful, in a 98%-blackout-can't-remember-getting-home-but-managed-to-fall-asleep-in-the-armchair kind of way.

The Sunday was a welcome antidote for my once-again destroyed liver: I met up with Michaela for lunch at "Oh! Julia", the new Italian behind A&F, and a leisurely wander first through an exhibition of Nordic Masters paintings and then through a few Munich watering holes. (Hair of the dog, and all that...)

The following weekend I joined Michaela, Russ, Ryan & Lydia for dinner at my favourite Ethiopian place with Rosanne, Maria & Mike, who were over for the Munich marathon. The food was fab, but I had to leave them because I'd arranged to meet up with Felix & Daniel for a few drinks. Lovely. And anyway, I saw all the Brits again the next night at the Forschungsbrauerei for another delicious meal.

That Sunday, 13th October, was a truly gorgeous day, so I jumped on my bike and went for a giant ride along the Isar. I treated myself to a Leberknödelsuppe in the Harlachinger Einkehr on the way home, because it was getting a tad chilly in the dusk. And then I had a few drinks with Dio & Sven that evening, bumping into Mo and a mate of his from Egypt.

Midweek in the week after, I had Béné, Corinne & Bezi over to mine for dinner -at last! The quiche lorraine I made was pretty bloody amazing. Thanks for forwarding me that recipe, Béné!

Then I had a cheeky weekend in Dublin. Well, I say "in" Dublin, but for the most part I was in Lisa & Clare's house drinking and eating! Lisa & I spent a lovely couple of hours on the Sunday afternoon at Dublin bay, or more specifically the south wall of Dublin port, taking loads of photos. But apart from that it was eating & drinking all the way. The big dinner on Saturday night (build your own burgers, washed down with gallons of red wine) was my opportunity to meet Karen & Enrique, as well as Clare's bloke Mark at long last. What a night!

I flew back in on a Monday and promptly took the opportunity to have lunch with Michaela at Loretta - it was still super sunny, so it was a pleasure to grab one of their outdoor tables on the Müllerstraße and chow down on a delicious grilled goat's cheese & walnut sandwich. And then I cycled over to Béné's that evening for moules frites. Yum!

The last weekend of October started early for me, because Johannes from Sydney came up from Salzburg on the Thursday night to have dinner with me. I took him to L'Amar, where I had a delicious steak (but the meal, or rather the ambience, wasn't quite as good as it had been a few weeks ago when I went there with Toni...), and then we went for a few drinks, as you do.

Then, on the Friday night, I was at Anton's for his birthday bash. Wow! So much delicious food! On teh Saturday it was time to enjoy more gorgeous sunshine by cycling out to the Aumeister Biergarten at the northern end of the English Garden to join Béné & her colleague Susanne for a few beers & some Brezn. Then I had dinner that evening with Harry & Dieter, who were in town.

And there you have it. October. It was a good one!

Happy New Year, peeps!

Right, that's quite enough of 2014 for a while. Let's return to where I left off: September of last year.

So I baked scones! And Ivo & Rüdiger enjoyed them greatly.

The weather was still fab, so there was no reason not to go for a barbecue at the riverside with Franz, Marko & Toni - in my lunch break! - and then again at the weekend, with Franz, Marko, Andreas & Klaus. Followed by a lovely evening in the Flaucher Biergarten with above barbie fans plus Stephen (who was back over from the UK for a bit ) and his brother-in-law Jason.

Béné was once again generous to me in her dinner-party invitations, and I met her friends Anne & Ian and Aurélie & Ben. Christoph, too, was a fabulous dinner-party host, cooking for me as a belated birthday gift with Dio & Sven as assistant gourmands. Indeed, the dinner-party cycle continued the next night at Dio & Sven's place - it was toasted sandwich extravaganza!

Michaela, Russ & I just time to catch up with Alex (Chris & Kate's friend in Guildford) and her Uncle Fred, who were on their way to Austria, before Michaela & I drove down to Austria ourselves. We were all going for a sad reason: funerals.

Our Uncle Poidl had sadly passed away the previous week. The funeral was incredibly emotional. I found all the Hail Marys strangely hypnotic, and the farewell honk of the fire engine's horn echoing across the cemetery and to the hills beyond to honour his many years of voluntary service was much, MUCH more moving than it seems here on the page.

The following week was much more cheerful: it was Oktoberfest time! I met Dietmar & Dirk off their train and the party started that Thursday evening, as we went to pick up our tickets and had a few drinks with Micha, Hans and Norbert. We were out dancing till 3am on Friday, spent all of Saturday at the fest - in particular the Oide Wiesn, the historic bit - with Peter, Franz & Norbert (with the added benefit of meeting a random family of Kiwis in the Augustiner Tent), and then did the whole Bräurosl thing on the Sunday.

I tell you, that first beer on Sunday morning was REALLY hard work. I think I was sipping on it for about two hours. But the booze started slipping down more easily after that - especially after I snuck out at around four o'clock for a wander and a bit of fresh air... Yes indeed, that oxygen break seemed to revive my thirst, and the rest of the evening flew by, as I flitted from friend to friend and from beer to beer!

But the highlight of the evening (or at least of the close of the evening) was me & Dietmar having to literally drag Dirk along the street, each with an arm slung over our shoulders, to the bus, then shovel him into a seat (generously vacated by a lady who still had the ability to stand unaided), and then drag him to my house, and THEN - this was the interesting bit - somehow lever him up my three flights of stairs. With Dirk all the while professing that "I'm NOT drunk!"

No sooner had I seen Dietmar & Dirk off back to Leipzig than my next guests arrived: Hamish & Duncan from Scotland.  Even though I was working every day they were here, we still managed to do lunch every day and meet most evenings. Memorably for steak & whisky at Kapitales vom Rind. And in between times I was at the Wiesn with the Oxford University Society (and Jo).

Another weekend, another social engagement: this time with Bernd and Franz to the buffet at Hirschgarten. We ate much fish and drank much schnaps. But this was me winding down after a liver-shrivelling week, "only" having beers in normal bars, rather than at the Oktoberfest.

There was - of course - more Wiesn in the second week. But THAT, my lovelies, was in October, so you'll just have to wait!