Still tired, it seems

Last night I planned to post in bed but my internet wasn't working. Rather than fix (alas this is a frequent problem with my laptop. Happily nearly always fixed by rebooting) I decided to go to sleep and write in the morning. That was 11pm. I finally woke up at 12.30pm – 13.5 hours sleep – I suppose I must have been tired. So today you will get 2 mini-posts

Monday, 29^th November

Woke up well before the lark at 5.30, at 6.30 decided no more sleep would come and got up, had a bath, washed my hair, got dressed, had breakfast, unloaded the dishwasher, cleaned the fireplace, lit the fire (first of the season), got the papers, got milk, read most of the Irish examiner, paid my road tax. ALL BEFORE 9AM.

The rest of the day was not quite as busy but there was still quite a bit done – checked car (fixed, but still quite damp inside from its time exposed to the elements), bought flowers with my mother, delivered the flowers with my mother (difficult as we didn't know the address), went grocery shopping, cooked dinner (roast pork), washed up.

Monday was also supposed to be the day I started my job hunt but apart from one phone, there was very little done.

Tuesday 30^th November

The day started late even by my lax standards. It was almost 3 by the time I was up, dressed, fed and ready to face the day. It had snowed in Cork during the morning and the snow was still on the ground. Since the rest of the country has been under snow for days it was nice to join in. Also the temperature didn't seem as low as it had the previous days.

After making dinner (beef stew) I drove to see a friend. It was my first time driving my car since my return. It took quite a bit of time to start as I had to wait for the ice inside the car to thaw before driving. However the actual driving was fine. My gear has been sticking for a while but it didn't seem as bad as I remember.

Also quite some work done on the "secure gainful employment" front. I applied for some jobs and bookmarked some others. I'm still hoping the lottery works out for me, though J

Tired

I slept less than 3 hours last night – nasty, light, frequently interrupted sleep. The 3 hours is split between 4 separate occasions on 2 different flights. Now I'm back in Cork in my nice warm bed and I'm going to sleep horizontally – very exciting

Leaving Chicago ORD-->LHR-->ORK

I'm writing this from the gate area of terminal 5 of O'Hare airport in Chicago. On the whole US airports have disappointing international gates. In this terminal, the food and duty free is before security and as security may take a very long time, this does not encourage one to linger in and browse the Duty Free area. I would often look to see if there were an offer on brandy at O'Hare but I doubt any duty free I buy will make it through stringent security at Heathrow. It's probably just as well as I have already done a lot of shopping during this trip to the states. I had to spend $60 to book in an extra bag. I had tried 4 times to do this online and over the phone but failed to do so even when using the link provided by BA. Paying the $60 was one of the longest procedures I have ever seen. I would say it took approximately 15 minutes as the entire receipt had to be hand written. I also have a number of carbon copies one or more of which may be required by Aer Lingus in London. Let's see if the bags make it.

I called my parents earlier today. My dad said the weather was bad in Cork. Looking at BBC weather it seems cold but with good visibility. There might be snow in Heathrow!

Flight has begun pre-boarding, so I will sign off. If all goes well, the next post will be from the old country

018 – Thanksgiving, part 2

Today was Black Friday but apart from an updo-enabling clip for $6.99 and a Starbucks caramel apple spice I bought nothing. I met EG for lunch. He has recently moved to San Francisco for a new job. He seems to be doing well but perhaps its not entirely true to say he has moved to San Francisco. He has an apartment there and some clothes but he does seem to have spent most of his first 3 months travelling around the US. Fortunately for me, our schedules coincided and we were able to catch up.

After lunch with EG, I went to TI's apartment where TI and DS had made a second thanksgiving dinner. They had spent Thanksgiving with DS's parents said they wanted leftovers so were cooking thanksgiving dinner again. Just as well as there were only 3 of us and there was a 17lb turkey and even 3 people with decent appetites cannot eat such a big turkey. DS stuffed the turkey with a truly divine stuffing made with yummy cherries (I will be trying to recreate this dish possibly for Christmas dinner). My mother doesn't allow me to stuff poultry as she is worried about salmonella but I think we will discuss it because the stuffing was much improved by the turkey juices. In addition to the turkey, we had mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, creamed spinach and homemade gravy. Afterwards we had apple pie with a cheddar crust made by TI. I had heard of that dish before but always regarded it sceptically but its good. Who would have thought apple tart with cheese tastes delicious!

Tomorrow I fly back to Ireland. Perhaps its just as well that today was bitterly cold – I will appreciate Ireland's mild climate.

Thanksgiving

I spent Thanksgiving at my friend JJ’s place. It was her first time cooking thanksgiving dinner and she did an extraordinary job. We had 2 types of turkey – normal and smoked, caramelized roasted sweet potatoes, mashed redskin potatoes, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce. Then for dessert (which we had to wait at least 2 hours to consume as we had er, ever so slightly, overindulged) there was a choice of cheesecake and apple pie.
I was seriously impressed by JJ’s commitment to Thanksgiving dinner. She had a carefully planned timetable of what needed to happen when. She had laid the table the night before and was up until midnight chopping vegetables. By contrast my Christmas dinner cooking seems very ill planned, but I doubt I will even try to change this year.

Also participating in this feast were JJ’s parents and friends of JJ who had recently become parents. Their very cute and surprisingly silent son was also there but he’s not on solid food yet.

Afterwards we played Rummikub. Its like a cross between gin rummy and Mah Jong. JJ’s mother was by far the best winning 4 games. I won 2 games but badly lost some others.
Tomorrow I will not be going shopping, I will be sleeping late and meeting people for lunch and dinner.

Thanks JJ for a lovely thanksgiving

Black Friday preparation

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the last Thursday in November. The day after is commonly known as Black Friday. It is the day when Christmas shopping begins. Possibly because most Americans have the Friday off and time to go shopping. When I lived in the US, I never really paid much attention to Black Fridays but this year I cannot avoid it – TV ads, newspapers, news, signs in shops.

It seems every shop is open early. Many open at 5am, some at 3am but strangest of all are the outlets in Aurora which open from midnight to 10pm. Who is going shopping in the middle of the suburbs at 2am in the morning? Once I did enable a clothes shopping trip in Cork at 2am but it was after a night out so one of the girls could get new black trousers to wear to work the next morning – somehow I doubt such customers are the target market. (BTW black trousers 2 am on a Sunday morning in Cork – Tesco is your only option)
I find the obsession with sales on Friday disturbing. I always liked Thanksgiving as it wasn’t about gifts like Christmas but really about spending time with family and loved ones. But now it seems that the next day’s shopping has taken over.

I have already spent a lot of money of this trip so will be spending Black Friday meeting my friend EG for lunch and TI for dinner.

Brandon Flowers: same man, different experiences

For those of you who are not cool, hip and happening, Brandon Flowers is the lead singer with the Killers. If you don’t know who the Killers are, then there is a lot of work to be done that probably can’t be done merely via a blog.

Very luckily Brandon Flowers was playing in Chicago on only 1 of 2 days on which I have tentative evening plans. So I confirmed my friend for Friday and booked myself a ticket for BF.

Location & comfort
The first time I saw Brandon Flowers live was at Oxegen 09 with the Killers in a very cold and wet Irish field. Today I saw him perform solo at the nice, warm and dry Riveria Theatre in Chicago. Even though I was quite near the front of Oxegen (my secret – drink as little as possible so you don’t have to give up your space near the front) and I was right at the back at Riveria I think I was closer at Rivera plus the added comfort of not having to stand. What tips it for Riveria though is glorious lack of mud.
Winner – Riveria

Price
Oxegen – Almost €200 for 3 days and multiple acts
Riveria – less than $40
Winner – Oxegen (can’t believe I am calling Oxegen good value)

Transport
Oxegen – truly ghastly. Hour drive from Dublin, park in field, shuttle bus to concert. Return the same but I um, forgot where I parked my car so wandered around dark field with amused teenagers (parking staff members) for about half an hour before finding it (shocking number of dark Volkswagens at Oxegen). Then drive abck to Dublin
Riveria -3 stops on red line from my friends house. 4 stops on way back as I wanted to get the truly divine Caramel Apple Spice from Starbucks. For non-Americans its hot apple juice with cinnamon topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce (I know it sounds stage but you should try it)
Winner Riveria

Artist Entrance
Oxegen – live video link of Killers arriving by helicopter. Seriously cool. They were LATE!
Riveria – don’t know because I missed it. My logic was good concert starts at 7.30 so support should start at 8, be done at 8.35, Brandon Flowers starts at 9 right. I arrive at about 8.30, thinking I am in break between support and main act. Alas no, BF is well into his act. Still had a lovely afternoon meeting friend for lunch and shoppinmg so can't complain
Winner - Oxegen

Set List
Oxegen – all the hits. Many sung louder by 80,000 fans than BF
Riveria – fair dues to BF, he played quite a few Killers songs. His stuff is good but The Killers are Great
Winner – Oxegen

Sound
Oxegen – considering inclement weather and limited infrastructure (after all its in the middle of a field), the sound is great
Riveria – smaller venue. BF sounds great. His version of jilted lovers and broken hearts better than the album for my money
Winner – strangely enough too close to call

Atmosphere
Oxegen – 80,000 screaming fans, culmination of a great day’s music, 2 more days of music to come and blissful ignorance that the next day would be miserably rainy.
Riveria – attentive audience but not at capacity (2500). Its great to see BF in a smaller venue but Mr Brightside needs tens of thousands
Winner – Oxegen

Timing
Oxegen – 11pm or something
Riveria – emmm, don’t know ticket said 7.30pm
Winner – Oxegen (getting to see all the show wins)

Degree to which I messed up the demographics
Oxegen – I was ancient. It seemed everybody was still a teenager especially all those girls with short, shorts, fake tan and willies
Riveria – One guy looked about 16 but he either had fake ID or was over 21 because he had a wristband allowing him to buy alcohol
Winner – Riveria (I don’t like feeling old)

Overall
I’ll be buying both Brandon Flowers and Killers albums but let’s hope he doesn’t go entirely solo. Riveria was good but doesn’t come close to the show at Oxegen
Winner - Oxegen

Other random things

Brandon is a devout Mormon – not sure if this will encourage him to keep to the team/community/band or push him away from potential bad influences

BF looked much taller tonight that at Oxegen. Could be that he is now even more super skinny. The global information superhighway (AKA the internet) says he is 5,9 or 5,11 (is this too much information – there are whole pages of people discussing his height)

Every time I hear the name Brandon, I think of the Kerry Mountain and Tralee hotel.