OMG I cant believe how much I ate!

Well were back home now, but I cannot believe how much I ATE!

For the first two days I wasnt even getting hungry but was merely topping myself up with each meal. Finally on Thursday I told James (between mouthfuls of cornflake coated crunchy french toast), that if I was having the "all you can eat buffet breakfast" then I wouldnt be eating any lunch.

I wont be boring you all stupid with all the food I ate (like I did last year), besides I have taken loads of photos (which I am still uploading btw). Instead I will just tell you about the highlights ;o).

What surprised me the most was the tolerance that Americans have for people wandering in and out of the queue they are standing in. For instance Sowsha (yes this was her name - which I have spelt phonetically for you), was wandering in and out of the queue in the USPS she was looking at the packaging for sale and I was really surprised that the person behind her was keeping her place in the queue!

So consequently when I was queueing in the Starbucks near our hotel (Im not quite sure what drew me to this hotel ;o)), and the mad woman in front of me (she gave me a really dirty look when I dared to join the queue behind her), was wandering in and out of the queue (at one point she was complaining about the music volume) I kept her place for her (as was the done thing). Do you know when they asked her what she wanted to order she said that she wasnt ordering anything yet!

Back to the post office...

...I was in the post office as I had to buy stamps for the postcards and a package I was sending, the lady in front of me (her name was Cathy I think) asked one of the women workers if they had any boxes (and showed her one in her hand) and she went and got a load to replenish the stock. Anyhow the lady came back and Cathy put a load of the boxes in her bag! I was quite astonished by the balls this woman must have as there was one of Chicagos finest standing two people behind me (the one behind Sowsha if you like) I know he was on duty as he had his radio on! So I asked her if the boxes were free and she said that the Priority Mail boxes were, and you just had to pay for the shipping (how cool is that?), looking up at the poster you can send up to 70 lbs to any state for $14.99. If you were wondering what Cathy was sending - it was invites for her Halloween party - yes she was on the phone to her mates asking for their zip codes as she was sending her invites out.

Now onto Sowsha...

...she was sending a money order, and is taking a teaching course! And behind Sowsha was the cop who was complaining about how long the queue was.

Having hearing my accent Sowsha and the cop were chatting to me asking about the differences between Chicago and the UK, I then said about how brilliant the Priority Mail boxes were and that it would cost loads to send an 70 lb package in the UK ;o).

Incidentally State Street has a parade on Halloween (I will have to make sure that one year we holiday around Halloween in the US).

Our hotel was bang in the middle of The Magnificent Mile, and we had a myriad of restaurants to chose from ;o). We found a good hotdog place Portillos we knew it was good in there as on our first visit we found two lots of Chicago Cops eating there ;o).

James was well pleased as we found a food by the pound place Whole Foods Market where we could have our lunch.

When we were choosing where to eat our dinners my only preference was that they did nice desserts ;o).

I even got to try Red Velvet Cake I had seen it mentioned on Bridezillas and wanted to try it ;o)

Needless to say I havent dared weigh myself, as I just know I put on tons :o(

testing my willpower

Yesterday James interview on the Money box program on Radio 4 was broadcast...

...I laughed my head off when he said "I'll have to scan that" ;o)

On Thursday my boss went for a breakfast meeting and it was devoid of breakfast (so essentially just an early morning meeting) he came back saying "all we were after was a bacon sandwich and we didnt even get that". He then said I (as in he) will buy as all a bacon sandwich to make up for it...

...I was thinking what a great idea this was (as I had been thinking about bacon sandwiches) and he turned to me and asked if I minded getting them, it got me out of the office for 10 minutes so didnt mind ;o)

here is the bacon sandwich in all its loveliness ;o)

On Friday I ended up doing one of those tasks where you really need something nice to nibble on to get you through, I would normally have gone for something like this, and to be honest I almost went out and got them. But I thought to myself NO NO NO! I was quite proud of my willpower.

We have been watching Britains Best Dish and all the nice food on there made James fancy a Fish Terrine so we were looking in Marks & Spencer at their fish range...

The first thing we looked at was a White Orkney crab layered "thing" that was £5.49 that was way too expensive, then we looked at a similar crab thing but made with the dark meat and that was still too expensive at £3.49, and I said in a huff just get the fish sticks as they were 86 pence as he'll never know the difference once hes cut them up into his rice ;o).

Whilst in Marks & Spencers yesterday I was looking at their desserts and came across this lovely looking one...

Ive had a quarter of it so far and it was blooming gorgeous...

I decided to weigh myself today, just to see how I was going, I was hoping for a slight loss but was half expecting to have put on some as I have tried to be relaxed about things now and was well chuffed that I had only put on 100 grammes ;o)