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

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.

Toronto to Chicago

Another lovely leisurely morning spent mostly in bed. However I also packed my suitcase, called my parents (car window still not fixed – umpteen phone calls, 10 days and counting) and my sister, bought lottery tickets online (may be a very important task) and did some more social planning. Then I met my friend LO for lunch and took a taxi to the airport.

The flight was very civilized. I know I’ve mentioned it before but its so nice to be treated like an actual customer rather than an staff inconvenience, that I want to blog about it

1. Check-in was quick
2. No bag charges
3. There was free drinks, snacks and wireless in the waiting area (I chose Diet Coke and Walkers stem ginger biscuits)
4. Leg-room on flight
5. Food and drink on flight

On the negative side, there was terrible turbulence and I thought we wouldn’t land, but happily we did.

Then I arrived at Midway and wonder of wonders I didn’t have to wait to go through immigration and I only barely had to wait for bags. Then I got on a very empty train to my friends’ house. From Toronto to Chicago, door-to-door in less than 5 hours. Not too bad.

It was lashing rain in Chicago – I rarely remember such heavy rain when I lived here. I was only out in it for a few minutes but my socks were damp and cold. Despite the inclement weather I went to meet my friend IG for dinner. We went to Grand Lux Café where the food is good and the portion sizes really quite ridiculous. I am sure my pot roast could feed a family of four. Possibly not when I was done.

My car window might be replaced tomorrow. But I’m not very optimistic – at least there is no rain forecast for Cork.

This and that

Just a short post today because its late and I must get up early tomorrow to go to the airport. I am flying to Toronto to see my friend LO. I am really looking forward to seeing her. Not looking forward to security and emigration.

Today I met my friend TC for lunch. I arrived 25 minutes late and extremely flustered as I wandered around an aging industrial area desperately trying to gentrify itself into a high-end business district (my friends, it still has a long way to go). I had a good time and lunch and afterwards I had my first (I hope of many) hot spiced caramel apple cider from Starbucks – yummy!

Then we walked back to his office where I met random former colleagues returning from a special company Thanksgiving lunch. It was nice to see them. They were all jealous of my extended holiday. I can understand why :)

I had dinner with JT and KO. Food was great and JT paid which was very kind – she has moved up my list of people to be nice to when I win the lottery (any day now, people, watch this space)

I went shopping and I bought

My friend TC called me this morning to postpone our lunch appointment (something about having to work - this work lark seems to interfere with a lot of things). So I took the opportunity to go to the outlets. There are located 45 miles west of Chicago. I would go there occasionally when I lived in Chicago usually with my friend R. However poor R also had to work so I went alone. M&R bought my old car from me when I was leaving Chicago. It was strange to drive it again after more than 3 years. I had forgotten how incredibly easy it is to drive automatic cars and felt sorry for poor Americans struggling with rental cars in Europe

I know it sounds ridiculous to drive more than an hour to go shopping and really I am not the type of person to do that but the outlets are worth it. Everything is so much cheaper there. I took my mother there once. She was raised in more frugal times and she still talks about how good the value was. I remember another time when I bought 8 pairs of shoes in one trip. Today was not that day – I could only find one pair shoes that fit me. Indeed the day was going pretty badly until I found myself in Ann Taylor. I don’t think I have spent so long in a changing room. One of the sales assistants decided I needed help and she made it her mission to help me. She was wonderful, fetching sizes, suggesting styles and colors. At about 5.30 I thought I had about 10-15 minutes left before finishing. I was wrong I didn’t leave until almost 7pm. But there was such value – 40% all discounted styles and I had a coupon for 15% off entire purchase. In the end I only paid more than half price for 6 of the 22 (yes 22) items I bought. No more shopping required.

Packing for the return journey has just become a lot more challenging!

Morning Glory, 3 stars

I am very proud of myself. This is my 8th daily post. Another lovely day in Chicago. I met my friend JB for lunch. We went to an Indian restaurant and ordered the lunch special. Dozens of dishes came and even though we were both hungry and ate heartily, at the end it looked like an anorexic had barely touched the meal.

Afterwards I went to the cinema. Usually I go to the cinema once or twice a week but with my recent travel plans that has not been possible (cue the violins – I didn’t go to the cinema for 3 weeks while I was in Spain). I went to see Morning Glory. I really wanted to like the film – the last film I really liked was Departures a Japanese movie from 2008 but only playing in Cork recently. Morning Glory stars Rachel McAdams as a morning TV show producer who after being fired from her job, gets a new job where Diane Keaton and later Harrison Ford are anchors. It was supposed to be funny and entertaining. I really like Rachel McAdams and have been eagerly watching out for her since her double whammy of The Family Stone and Red Eye – very different movies in which she was really good. She was good as was the rest of the cast. The script was OK but somehow the whole was less than the sum of the parts.

Rachel McAdam’s wardrobe seriously annoyed me – far too often they had her in short tight skirts but this was not as bad as the strapless peach dress she wore to the interview to her dream job. Really, even in the entertainment business nobody is wearing a strappy dress with a cardigan to a job interview.

For the first time since going to see the opera in the cinema, I was the youngest in the cinema by a mile. The cinema was full of pensioners taking advantage of discounted tickets.

I’m giving the move 3 stars out of 5 – not hideous but not brilliant either.

Monday in Chicago

Most of my Mondays in Chicago have involved getting up early and going to work so it’s always nice to have a Monday that has a different structure. I woke up about 10 am and called my mother about my broken car window. Then I called the insurance company who had done nothing (even if the premium is cheaper I am going with a different insurer next year). They informed me probably the cost of repair would exceed the value of the car. I was gloomy.

I finally wrestled myself out of bed at about 11.15 to meet my friend and former colleague MM for lunch. We had a lovely long lunch catching up on what was going on in each of our lives. Then I went back to M&R house and played on the internet. I was tempted to buy a Kindle but resisted opting instead for some books and cereal bars (Amazon certainly have diversified their offerings since they started)

Very soon (strange how time flies during holidays) it was time for my dinner appointment with R and JO. We ended up in Banderas overlooking the Magnificent Mile. As I sat with two old friends eating dinner and having fun I realized why I like coming back to Chicago – I get all the best parts of my Chicago life with very little of the drudgery. Roll on tomorrow for more of the same.

Sunday in Chicago

Sunday morning started off ominously. I called my parents to find out more about my car being vandalized. It seems some people were “having fun” running on cars and had fallen through my rear windscreen. I called my insurance company and got through to their call centre. Tomorrow the insurance company is supposed to call my parents and arrange for my window to be fixed. Let’s see how it goes but I would suspect a fair few more phone calls will be required.

After breakfast R and I went shopping. I didn’t buy much but I couldn’t resist an item of clothing that I had begun to believe didn’t actually exist – skinny jeans that fit me!!!

After shopping, we met our friend and former colleague JT. She was in good form and had loads of gossip including a secret engagement, nudity in the office gym changing rooms, an affair and several organizational changes. Tomorrow I am meeting another colleague from the same department so I will find out if there is more gossip/information.

hanging around Chicago

The day started late – often a sign of a good day. I woke just before noon after nearly 10 hours of delightful sleep. I met my friend JJ for lunch. We went to Shaw’s Crab House which much to my surprise rarely had an empty table even when we left at 3.30. JJ had a funny story – she was at a friend’s birthday party in London and met a person from Chicago who lo and behold turned out to be my good friend CG. JJ said she was not at all surprised since I know people everywhere.

After Shaw’s we ventured to Nordstrom where I helped the US economic recovery by buying more than I intended. In the elevator to shopping I met a former work colleague – more evidence for JJs theory that I know people everywhere. There was a free Clinique gift with $25 spend which is so much less than one has to spend in Ireland to get a free gift, that it seemed like a sin to leave it behind me. Then we went to Ann Taylor which is my favourite clothes shop and I bought 4 jumpers – I know it sounds excessive but there were all on sale and some were half-price.

Then we went to Macy’s on State Street where the half-Italian, half-Greek Estee Lauder woman promised me a free secret gift if I bought something so of course I stocked up on Beautiful. After so much activity we retired to the Walnut Room for restorative drinks and cake. There we played a game which is a lot more fun than it sounds. We went through all the free gifts and looked at the colours and tried to guess what the marketing people would call a particular product. JJ was much better than me but next time I think I will guess that all lipsticks have the word berry in them.

Then I dashed from Macy’s to Merkat – a trendy tapas bar to meet I & J for dinner. We had a plethora of dishes – all good but the chorizo was my favourite. My friends had good news – they will become parents for the first time next April. I warned them to get loads of sleep now because there would be little next year.
Finally I arrived back to M&R where we caught up on each other’s day – M had been very active running a 10K race that morning. We chatted and somehow it was midnight. A very very nice day indeed. I probably should have gone to bed then but I read my sister’s blog and discovered my car in Ireland had been broken into. Well I suppose there’s not much I can do now, so I will head off to sleep.

HNL to ORD

Today started on a flight from Honolulu to Chicago. It’s a direct flight (good) but long (8 hours) and travels overnight (bad). We arrived at 5.19 am in Chicago – I with barely an hours sleep (not a good look or mood for me) and E with about 5. Fortunately E’s kind mother is collecting us, so we do not need to negotiate taxis and trains. At this point I am unsure how much of anything I can manage – lack of sleep certainly makes things more difficult to handle (I can see why some of the symptoms of sleep deprivation are undistinguishable from those of depression)

On the way from the airport we stopped for breakfast in a family-run restaurant. This type of restaurant seems only to exist in the US. There is a choice between booths and tables. The waitress, often offering coffee refills, is wearing an uniform of white apron over a dress though it is obviously all one piece. The menu has short stacks and regular pancakes. Opposite us sits an old couple in silence eating breakfast slowly. It is incredibly early (only 6.30) but there are still a reasonable number of tables occupied. As E’s mother pays for our breakfast and old woman informs us she just turned 82. She is looking well on it but seems lonely as she chats at length to us. She attends the same church as E’s family and is telling us repeatedly that she thought E’s brother was E’s husband. It’s a type of intimate exchange I expect to see in a rural area rather than a large city like Chicago.

After breakfast we go to E’s house. At this stage dawn has its grip on the day and I fear in the battle between daylight and exhaustion, daylight will win. This happens to me with distressing frequency. Today is not an occasion and I sleep on a flat bed, glorious compared with the economy airline seat. My alarm set for 11.30 wakes me. I feel so much more able to face the day but know I am still tired enough to sleep soundly tonight.

Then I take the L (Chicago’s underground/elevated train system) to meet my friends M&R to get the key to their place where I will be staying the next 2 weeks. R joked a few days ago that she will get “the B&B ready for me”. Its lovely to see them again. We order take-in (so much more choice in the US than in Ireland) and catch up.