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(
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Sunday, 4 October 2009
testing my willpower
...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)
Sunday, 27 September 2009
I prefer my soup chunky
Last week was good as I was only in work for two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) as I was off sick on Monday and I had already booked Thursday and Friday off.
When I first tried New Covent Garden Food Company soups I thought they were chunky, then I tried the Main Course soups from Pret a Manger and I realised just how chunky chunky can be ;o).
Talking of chunky soups I tried another new one when I was off on Thursday Chorizo & Butterbean (chorizo, butterbean, onion, garlic, celery, tomato, organic vegetable bouillon, smoked Spanish paprika, cracked black pepper, thyme, rosemary & sage). It was really nice and filled a soup shaped hole in my tummy ;o).
I decided to make use of one of my days off by going to look at the Christmas shop at Harrods (yes Christmas starts in August for people like me ;o)). I love looking at their Christmas decorations and went for this handbag (or purse for those of you across the pond ;o)) one.
click on the photos for all sizes ;o)
They also had shoe ones too but Ive never really been into shoes, so didnt worry about those!
I then went around to Piccadilly to buy some posh biscuits these and these from Fortnum & Mason sorry James Im not sharing any of them ;o).
On my way to Fortnum & Mason I passed Minamoto Kitchoan (a Japanese cake shop) and got us some goodies (they all have red bean in them) from in there, we still havent tried them yet, Im sure they will be scrummy ;o)).
I came across a really cool art project in the courtyard of Burlington House its a structure of mirror balls, it wasnt sign posted or anything it was just through an archway off Piccadilly.
Also Chelmsford Farmers market wasnt on yesterday because of the damn Street Diversions, so I couldnt buy any fresh sausages, so I will be dipping into my "reserves" the problem is I havent marked up any of the bags in the freezer, so I will be enjoying or enduring a pot luck ;o).
When I first tried New Covent Garden Food Company soups I thought they were chunky, then I tried the Main Course soups from Pret a Manger and I realised just how chunky chunky can be ;o).
Talking of chunky soups I tried another new one when I was off on Thursday Chorizo & Butterbean (chorizo, butterbean, onion, garlic, celery, tomato, organic vegetable bouillon, smoked Spanish paprika, cracked black pepper, thyme, rosemary & sage). It was really nice and filled a soup shaped hole in my tummy ;o).
I decided to make use of one of my days off by going to look at the Christmas shop at Harrods (yes Christmas starts in August for people like me ;o)). I love looking at their Christmas decorations and went for this handbag (or purse for those of you across the pond ;o)) one.
click on the photos for all sizes ;o)
They also had shoe ones too but Ive never really been into shoes, so didnt worry about those!
I then went around to Piccadilly to buy some posh biscuits these and these from Fortnum & Mason sorry James Im not sharing any of them ;o).
On my way to Fortnum & Mason I passed Minamoto Kitchoan (a Japanese cake shop) and got us some goodies (they all have red bean in them) from in there, we still havent tried them yet, Im sure they will be scrummy ;o)).
I came across a really cool art project in the courtyard of Burlington House its a structure of mirror balls, it wasnt sign posted or anything it was just through an archway off Piccadilly.
Also Chelmsford Farmers market wasnt on yesterday because of the damn Street Diversions, so I couldnt buy any fresh sausages, so I will be dipping into my "reserves" the problem is I havent marked up any of the bags in the freezer, so I will be enjoying or enduring a pot luck ;o).
Sunday, 20 September 2009
James has been sharing again...
James has been his usual caring sharing self by giving me his cold, I started to feel horrible yesterday, why couldnt my cold have started in the week, so I could feel grotty in work time?
Please imagine me typing this with a husky voice and add a few coughs too for a bit of authenticity ;o)
Oh well, I will pass on the favour by sharing with my train carriage tomorrow ;o).
Talking of trains, Wednesday was a nightmare!
I got to Liverpool Street Station on Wednesday evening and the concourse was teeming with people, so I fought my way through to where my train home normally goes from. About 10 minutes later there is a tannoy announcement that that a tree has come down and damaged overhead lines in the Chelmsford area! The trains were running on all the other routes except for mine aaaarrrgggghhhhh!
At about 20 to 6 there is another announcement that there will be no mainline trains (yes my line) out of Liverpool Street for at least the next hour *sigh* so I rang James and told him that he might as well start his dinner because I wasnt going to be home for ages. The announcers kept reiterating that we are better off staying in London until the line opens (and I agreed with that).
There was a train in the platform where I was standing just saying "Not in Service" on the front of the train, I had seen a few people get on the train, and as it was one of the trains that normally goes to Chelmsford and my legs were aching I decided to sit on the train and wait and wait and wait!
At 6.30 (an hour and 15 minutes after arriving at the station) there was another announcement that the tree had been removed and that the line would be opening imminently! And sure enough a few minutes later there is an announcement that the train on platform 12 (I was on platform 10) would be departing soon and was stopping at Chelmsford. I thought to myself (while working on the philosophy that a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush) well this train (that I have seat on) is bound to be leaving shortly and hopefully it will stop at Chelmsford.
There is then another announcement that the train at platform 13 would be stopping at Chelmsford (it was like they were taking the pee out of me and it was frustrating!). Then as if by magic people started streaming onto my train, we were asking the people if the train stopped at Chelmsford etc (and luckily it did). The train eventually departed at 7pm packed to the rafters and luckily I had a seat ;o).
I eventually got into Chelmsford at 8pm, and I was blooming tired and hungry.
On a completely different subject one of my colleagues was asking if my camera did black and white photographs (I had read in the manual that it did but hadnt had a play with those settings yet). So I downloaded the manual (while at work) and had a play with the different colour settings ;o)
see my flickr pictures here
Please imagine me typing this with a husky voice and add a few coughs too for a bit of authenticity ;o)
Oh well, I will pass on the favour by sharing with my train carriage tomorrow ;o).
Talking of trains, Wednesday was a nightmare!
I got to Liverpool Street Station on Wednesday evening and the concourse was teeming with people, so I fought my way through to where my train home normally goes from. About 10 minutes later there is a tannoy announcement that that a tree has come down and damaged overhead lines in the Chelmsford area! The trains were running on all the other routes except for mine aaaarrrgggghhhhh!
At about 20 to 6 there is another announcement that there will be no mainline trains (yes my line) out of Liverpool Street for at least the next hour *sigh* so I rang James and told him that he might as well start his dinner because I wasnt going to be home for ages. The announcers kept reiterating that we are better off staying in London until the line opens (and I agreed with that).
There was a train in the platform where I was standing just saying "Not in Service" on the front of the train, I had seen a few people get on the train, and as it was one of the trains that normally goes to Chelmsford and my legs were aching I decided to sit on the train and wait and wait and wait!
At 6.30 (an hour and 15 minutes after arriving at the station) there was another announcement that the tree had been removed and that the line would be opening imminently! And sure enough a few minutes later there is an announcement that the train on platform 12 (I was on platform 10) would be departing soon and was stopping at Chelmsford. I thought to myself (while working on the philosophy that a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush) well this train (that I have seat on) is bound to be leaving shortly and hopefully it will stop at Chelmsford.
There is then another announcement that the train at platform 13 would be stopping at Chelmsford (it was like they were taking the pee out of me and it was frustrating!). Then as if by magic people started streaming onto my train, we were asking the people if the train stopped at Chelmsford etc (and luckily it did). The train eventually departed at 7pm packed to the rafters and luckily I had a seat ;o).
I eventually got into Chelmsford at 8pm, and I was blooming tired and hungry.
On a completely different subject one of my colleagues was asking if my camera did black and white photographs (I had read in the manual that it did but hadnt had a play with those settings yet). So I downloaded the manual (while at work) and had a play with the different colour settings ;o)
see my flickr pictures here
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Christmas is a coming and its only September!
I cant believe that the supermarkets have started selling mince pies already...
I really got into them last Christmas and am aiming to have a mince pie every day throughout December!
I have to admit that since deciding last week to not weigh myself so regularly, I havent been so preoccupied with it all... ;o)
Theres a shop near where I work called Konditor & Cook and outside they have an A-board advertising their wares, on Friday morning I finally went in there and bought myself a slice of orange and lavender slabcake.
It wasnt overly nice, and I much preferred the maple pecan yumyum I got on Saturday, it was far nicer ;o)
you can see my other flickr pictures here...
When coming home from Chelmsford this morning (or rather afternoon as it was in the PM) we were in The Meadows carpark heading back to the car and James suddenly darted off (faster than an old lady who has just heard that there are free Parma Violets for the first 50 customers) having seen a folded up £10.00 note just laying there...
...what a result (that payed for our drinks and eats) ;o).
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Dont show me in HD
Post two of two
Last night we watched our first High Definition programme...
Wowzers the programme was so much clearer and sharper ;o)
Paul Sr looked about 10 years older as you could really see all of his wrinkles. You could also see each individual facial hair (even the ones that were jutting out to the side).
And you could see how pockmarked Jim Quinns face was...
...yikes ;o)
They also went to Finland , where they are looking to branch out into Europe, one of the scenes showed it snowing and you could really see the snow clearly too.
One of the people Paul Sr was speaking to had a massive beard and you could see each individual hair really clearly too (luckily there was no food caught up in it) I was looking intently for a piece of reindeer stew caught up like a fly in a spiders web ;o).
I dont know if I would have upgraded had our sky+ box not have broken, but I am glad we did, I just hope that there are enough HD programmes to watch.
Last night we watched our first High Definition programme...
Wowzers the programme was so much clearer and sharper ;o)
Paul Sr looked about 10 years older as you could really see all of his wrinkles. You could also see each individual facial hair (even the ones that were jutting out to the side).
And you could see how pockmarked Jim Quinns face was...
...yikes ;o)
They also went to Finland , where they are looking to branch out into Europe, one of the scenes showed it snowing and you could really see the snow clearly too.
One of the people Paul Sr was speaking to had a massive beard and you could see each individual hair really clearly too (luckily there was no food caught up in it) I was looking intently for a piece of reindeer stew caught up like a fly in a spiders web ;o).
I dont know if I would have upgraded had our sky+ box not have broken, but I am glad we did, I just hope that there are enough HD programmes to watch.
HeaDache
Post one of two
On Monday morning I had a phone call just before 9am from the Sky engineer saying that he would arrive between 9 and 10 am (at least Im their first job of the day). At just after 10 am I hear the sound of a van outside and look out of the front door and see two sky vans and two engineers. My first thought was ok so Sky doesnt care much about their carbon footprint.
Anyhow the two engineers come in carrying a box containing the shiny new Sky+ HD box, they start disconnecting the defunct Sky+ box and connect up the HD one. They then switch our (supposedly HD) television to HDMI mode, and there is vision but no sound :o(. So one of the engineers goes out to the van to get another HDMI scart lead whilst the other is on the phone to Sky finding out why we "aint got no sound". I asked him if this sort of problem occurs regularly and he just said "it aint a problem its just a setting".
So the new lead is fitted and there still isnt any sound, so they then went out to the van to get a new HD box in case that was faulty, and there was still no sound *sigh*.
They then call the TV manufacturer to see if they can suggest as to why there is no sound (they were worse than useless) the bloke was just reading off a card saying to disconnect the tv and reconnect everything and to re tune it etc, the Sky engineer was starting to lose his patience and told him that he knew this wouldnt work. The sound worked ok through the normal Scart lead (but not much help if you want to watch HD).
He then asked me if the tv was still in warranty as that must be where the fault lies. I remembered that we bought the tv from Argos in November, so was sure it was still in warranty. I found the receipt and yes we bought it in November , November 2007, my (cleaned up) thought was blimey we are out of warranty.
I sent James a text to tell him about the problems and he suggested calling Argos to complain. So I called Argos and explained what happened. I was then put through to a supervisor and explained the situation to her, she then spoke to the store manager on my behalf and they agreed to give us a full refund in gift vouchers to be used towards a new HD television. What a result ;o).
So last night I sent James out to Argos to do the exchange, and we now have a brand new television for £50.00, and yes the HDMI socket has both sound and vision...
See my next post for the review of the first truly HD programme that we watched last night...
On Monday morning I had a phone call just before 9am from the Sky engineer saying that he would arrive between 9 and 10 am (at least Im their first job of the day). At just after 10 am I hear the sound of a van outside and look out of the front door and see two sky vans and two engineers. My first thought was ok so Sky doesnt care much about their carbon footprint.
Anyhow the two engineers come in carrying a box containing the shiny new Sky+ HD box, they start disconnecting the defunct Sky+ box and connect up the HD one. They then switch our (supposedly HD) television to HDMI mode, and there is vision but no sound :o(. So one of the engineers goes out to the van to get another HDMI scart lead whilst the other is on the phone to Sky finding out why we "aint got no sound". I asked him if this sort of problem occurs regularly and he just said "it aint a problem its just a setting".
So the new lead is fitted and there still isnt any sound, so they then went out to the van to get a new HD box in case that was faulty, and there was still no sound *sigh*.
They then call the TV manufacturer to see if they can suggest as to why there is no sound (they were worse than useless) the bloke was just reading off a card saying to disconnect the tv and reconnect everything and to re tune it etc, the Sky engineer was starting to lose his patience and told him that he knew this wouldnt work. The sound worked ok through the normal Scart lead (but not much help if you want to watch HD).
He then asked me if the tv was still in warranty as that must be where the fault lies. I remembered that we bought the tv from Argos in November, so was sure it was still in warranty. I found the receipt and yes we bought it in November , November 2007, my (cleaned up) thought was blimey we are out of warranty.
I sent James a text to tell him about the problems and he suggested calling Argos to complain. So I called Argos and explained what happened. I was then put through to a supervisor and explained the situation to her, she then spoke to the store manager on my behalf and they agreed to give us a full refund in gift vouchers to be used towards a new HD television. What a result ;o).
So last night I sent James out to Argos to do the exchange, and we now have a brand new television for £50.00, and yes the HDMI socket has both sound and vision...
See my next post for the review of the first truly HD programme that we watched last night...
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