On Saturday we had a lunch time meal at my home to celebrate the exportation of my brother (Peter), wife (Nic), children (Bethany and Katie) to New Zealand. A good time was had by all.
The Oval
Took Friday off work to see a Cricket match. All started on Wednesday when I went to the Plough and Anchor for a pint. Paul Ring the landlord ended up selling me his ticket to the second day of the England against India test match at the Oval.
A bit of a rush on Friday, went to Cross, the butcher and bought the beef joint for Saturday, then went to two Tesco shops to try and buy a whole Salmon. Found one in the Aylesbury Tesco. Bought that and put it into the refrigerator at work. I was still able to catch the train to London in time for the start of the match.
There were ten of us from the nearby villages watching the match from the Glover stand. The rain held off with the sun shining most of the day. It was an interesting experience, with me drinking several pints of Fosters. The game seems to play on in the background while you drink and chat with the others around you.
The Bank Holiday Weekend
This weekend and Bank holiday we basically stayed at home.
The Sunday was the return of the Welsh, (St Brides Major) clay shoot. They arrived at 11.30 and shot the 80 bird layout. After the shoot, there was lunch and much beer and wine. The result, we beat them on the day, but they won the whole overall shoot by six shots. When you think each of us need only have scored half a shot more to win, then you can see how close it was.
The Monday we ran a shoot for the Grendon Underwood football team. There was a lot of set-up and clearing up at the end. I had to show most of the shooters how to handle and shoot with a shotgun. They, never having shot before.
Canal trip
No rest at all, up early to do the final touches the chicken dish for the Saturday picnic. At Pitstone by 9.00 a.m for the canal trip kindly arranged by Carol and John Curd. There were twelve of us on board.
The boat was on the Grand Union canal. We took it South going through 6 locks stopped for the picnic and then took it back to its berth.
The day was excellent, the sun shone, a breeze kept the temperature down to a comfortable temperature. The company was good, the different foods provided on the picnic were excellent, as was the wine. The entertainment of opening and closing the locks kept us amused and fit.
Only bad point was I seemed to miss a hand rail on the boat and fell into the canal. Oh well, can’t be helped, it did seem to provide amusement to all those around.
Back to old blighty
I was in bed by 2.30 after the blues night and trip back on the El. Now the alarm clock, and phone were ringing to make sure I was awake by 5.30 in the morning. A quick shower and a cup of coffee, and I was at the Blue line El by 6.00. Soaked in sweat from the very high humidity. It was hot and a little rain was falling.
Made the plane in plenty of time, take off was an hour late, we spent much of that time moving from one side of the airport and then back again. Something to do with storms in some direction or other. Chatted with an American on the way back, her first time in England, and a little frightened of flying from some past experiences of turbulence.
Arrived in Heathrow at 11.00 p.m., place was deserted. Took a while to get the car out of the car park, because I could not find the phone to ring the Pink Elephant park. This was not a BT phone, but an internal extension phone. Eventually left Heathrow 12.00, getting home at 1.00 am, before the daughter who arrived in later at 2.00
Thursday in Chicago and more blues
Today was just finishing up in work. Set up the backups, and added the creation of the SQL to the install scripts.
Supper was at the hotel, in the Trader Vics restaurant. Had some Mae Tae cocktails and BBQed fish for supper. Afterwards headed out on the EL to the Blues club on 2500 North Halstead. Arrived just as the band was starting to play at 9.30. They played three sets of one hour each, and so I left at around 1.30 Friday morning. It was a pretty good evening. Consumed a few glasses of beer, and bought a couple of tee shirts from the club.
Liz and Mike recognised me from the previous evening. Had a few words with them.
Wednesday in Chicago and the Blues
My time here is coming to an end, just one more day and I will be out of here.
Work wise, just adding the final touches to the release mechanism, though more work must be done to add all the other products later.
For lunch went out for an Indian buffet with Tom and Vikram. It was quite good, spicy but not hot. Because it was a buffet could try all kinds of dishes.
After work did a bit of shopping, bought my self some jeans. I went to Virgin MegaStore to take a look at the DVDs, they were priced at the full US price so I did not buy anything. The selection was large, they had box sets of all kinds of UK shows, Monty Python, Black Adder, Jeeves and Worster (sic), etc. They also had the Collectors Edition of Die Hard, (6 DVDs) at 79.99 + tax. I was looking to buy the DC version of Blade Runner, I might get it from Tower Records next to the hotel, it is a bit cheaper there.
I had supper in the Down Town bar of the hotel again. Meal wise I had, beer and a burger. Tonight was blues night and the band was excellent. It must be hard for them to perform in that type of environment where they do not get a great attention from the audience. They had just got back from Germany, and had spent a night in England. Apparently getting a lecture from the cabby as to why we will never have the Euro in England.
I am afraid I bought two CDs, one by the singer Liz Mandville Greeson, and the other by the guitarist Mike Gibb. Hope they sound as good as they do live. I might go out and see them play tonight at a Blues club on Halstead road.
Chicago Tuesday – The Chicago Art Institute
Today was cloudy, and I believe it rained at some stage. Temperature rose to 26 degrees.
Left work early, (17.30) and visited the Chicago Art Institute. It was open free until 20.00 on a Tuesday. It had many old masters on show lent from collections around the US. There must have been 20 Monets, several Manats, Picassos, Van Gogh, Pissaro, a couple of Constables, Salvador Dali, to name a few well know artists.
The Institute also had a modern section with the usual exhibits, one of which I almost sat on. It was only when I passed by a little later did I see the small notice on the floor telling one not to touch the exhibit. Previously I had wondered where the bronze sculpture was, a notice on the wall seemed to be referring to some non existent sculpture. Yes it was a bronze chair, not out of place for sitting on.
There were sections of Greek, and Italian pottery, German armour and Chinese stuff. I did not have time to see these. I thought these items were more in keeping with a museum.
Afterwards had a meal in a different restaurant in the hotel. When I have eaten in the hotel, I have always eaten in the ‘Big Downtown’, a mixture of bar and restaurant. Very lively. Today I thought I should try a different place, so I eat in the ‘French Quarter’. Well decorated, but very quiet. Had an excellent soup, chicken soup, with chilli, but it was also filled with fresh tacos, and topped with guacamole. For the mains I had a small steak, and half a bottle of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
Chicago Monday
Rather hot and sticky day in Chicago with threatened thunder storms. They never materialised though.
Worked through to about 8.00 pm and got a long way with the deployment side of the portlets, so should be finished in time for the flight home on Friday.
Had an excellent pork chop back in the hotel. I was worried it was going to be very fatty, American pig can be that way, but it was well trimmed and came with a lovely gravy and mashed potatoes. I know not everyone’s cup of tea.
I did not get asked if I was attending the Hardware show today. This must be a first. I also did not get to speak to any nuke-em now Americans at the bar. On Friday I had to listen to a large Texan who had lived in Mildenhall UK, and his views of the world.
Chicago weekend
Friday was uneventful.
Saturday I started out by walking to the Halstead region. I managed the only route that took me through the projects. I was getting a little worried at one stage. Here they were having a street party with some bands and Market stalls. It was called Halstead Market Day, and was held every year to raise money for the community.
I watched a couple of bands, (Clip, ManPlanet). Clip were pretty good and it was such a pity no one thought likewise. After watching the bands I went for a walk round Halstead and stopped in a bar to cool off with a Guinness. I had had enough of drinking Miller, and it was really very hot out in the sun.
Went back to the Street Market and watched an R&B band. Looked at the stalls, 25% were Gay and Lesbian stalls. I later found out that this area of town was the Gay area. Stopped at one stall and asked why I should want to go to Manchester. It was a Manchester tourist board stall. They were advertising the Gay community of Manchester.
Went back to the hotel by the Brown Line train to pick up my messages. Fred had said he would ring about dinner. Messages left said that he was or was about to be at Barbara’s and that to ring. I rang, got her address and found that she lived in the Halstead area and had been at the Street Party. So back on the Brown Line train to Halstead. At Barbara’s there was Fred and family, and Marianne Parkhill. After a couple of beers we went out for a Thai curry, and then back home.
On Sunday I did the museums in the area. But first I visited the John Hancock Observatory. This used to be the highest building in Chicago, until the Sears tower was build. First was the Shed Aquarium, were they had some good exhibits, some a bit like the sea shore at the Plymouth aquarium. There example was the yearly rise and fall of the river in the Amazon forest. They also fed some of the fish in another aquarium by hand with a diver swimming amongst them. Not sharks.
In the Ocean pool they had Dolphins and Whales. These performed for us.
Next on to the Adler Planetarium. I watched one show of the night skies over Africa. The rest of the exhibits were educational, but geared at the child or person who knows nothing of physics. One good exhibit though was the Atwood Sphere. This was a large metal sphere in which you sat. The sphere was rotated around you, and light entered through holes in the sphere configured as the night sky. Eight of you could sit in the Sphere at one time. This Sphere had been build eighty years ago and was the way the night sky would be shown to people. It was superseded by the Zeiss projection system a few years later. The Sphere then was used by the Navy to teach navigation during the war, then it was donated to the Adler and was a curiosity. It was very good and we were shown the constellations of stars.
The final museum I did was the Field museum. I specially looked at the exhibits relating to the Native Americans, and then looked at the mineral exhibits. They had a very good collection of meteorites, including the one which fell in the 1930s, through a car garage roof, the car roof, the seat floor pan, and stopping at the exhaust pipe. The museum had all the bits of the car and garage roof, which had been hit by the meteorite.
Back to the hotel for supper and a shower. Very sore feet after all the walking I had done.