A new life; same as the old life?

Appetizer : Where do you plan to go on vacation this year, or where would you want to go? No plans this year so far, as we have only just arrived and it still feels like one big vacation. I would like to use the opportunity of being in the US to take a cross country trip in a camper van! Soup : What color is your bedroom? If you could redecorate it, what would you change? Our bedroom is currently that magnolia colour I see in so many US apartments and homes. I don't really have a colour in mind, but blue is my favourite so something around blues and greens always work well in my book. Salad : Do you have a bumper sticker on your vehicle? What does it say? Sorry no, nothing on my car. I saw a really funny one the other day, but I will be damned if I can remember it. Main Course : What's the worst pain you've ever been in? I don't really remember it, but I am guessing when I was bitten by my pet dog as a kid. We were play wrestling, he got over excited and snapped, cat...

It's been a long time coming and I know that a bunch of people will feel that their civil liberties have been impacted. Scotland have announced their intention to follow NYC and Ireland in banning smoking in public places. As a non smoker, you would expect me to support this move and of course I do, but I think it probably goes too far. I support the move insofar as forcing some venues to be completely non smoking, because since coming to the US, when I go to a bar or restaurant, the change I have noticed is incredible. I don't come home stinking of someone else's cigarettes. In the UK, it is almost impossible to find a bar or restaurant that does not allow smoking in some capacity; and so my choice was always to endure it or don't go out. Personally, because I support the individual right to a completely free choice, I would rather see some bars as completely smoking and some as completely non-smoking, giving both groups the right to choose. I suspect however, that wo...

Calling all petrol heads..does anyone know why the oil change interval in the US is so low. In the UK, the oil change interval is usually the same as the full service interval, unless you are driving something saucy like a Ferrari. Here in the US, I don't know the service interval, but typically the oil change interval is around 3-5k, for the same car, eg the Volvo I owned in the UK, versus owning the same car here. So let me ask you this.. Q. Is it all a huge conspiracy or fantastic marketing plan by Jiffy Lube to make money? Q. Is motor oil sold in the US just really crappy? Q. If, as some people suggest, it is climate based, then why don't cars in California differ from those in Illinois? Q. Does any know or care, or are you happy changing your oil 5 or 6 times a year? I want answers! PS, it seems like Michelin are doing the decent thing and offering refunds for this year's race ticket and free tickets for next year, but don't actually go into saying how that will ...

This post should probably have been one of my earliest, but with Lorraine's mother and sister coming to town this week, I thought it was about time that I learned a bit more about this new place in which we live, although in doing so I felt a bit like a kid researching a school project! Illinois is known as the Land Of Lincoln or The Prairie State. The population is just under 12.5 million, approximately a fifth of the entire UK at 60.6 million. The capital, surprisingly, is Springfield not Chicago, although Chicago is the biggest city. There is a bunch more stuff here , if you are interested. In the US, each state has it's own nickname , motto , state flag , tourist slogan and even song .

Bottom line on top..It rained! I am sure many of my UK friends will know about this already, but for the benefits of those in the US who may be slightly less aware of UK events. Glastonbury festival was, until this year, and annual music festival in a very small village called Pilton in Somerset. Next year there will be no festival, not sure why, but they do say it will return in 2007. I attended the festival in 2003 with some friends from the Lake District and had a fantastic time. The weather was sunny, the acts were great and everything was perfect. In 2004 I persuaded Lorraine, against her better judgment, to go with me. My friends from the year before wanted to come too, but could not get tickets. Needless to say it rained, and whilst not hating it, Lorraine decided that it was an experience she did not intend to repeat. Having since moved to the States, it was a discussion we never needed to have. This year promised to be bigger than ever, with Coldplay headlining and everyone ...

Apparently according to a fortune cookie I got at lunchtime when Steve and I went for chinese food; I am a person of culture. Discuss!

This one is especially for Craig, although I am sure some others will appreciate it. I am assuming they are real pictures and not some trick of the "photoshop" lab; either way they are impressive, and thanks go to Todd for passing them along to me. I have a full set of seven shots here for your visual pleasure.

..and yet so far. 18 year old Andrew Murray, a wild card and complete unknown from Scotland of all places, almost makes the 4th round. Now I am not much of a tennis fan, that's Lorraine's bag really. Motorsport is really more my game, although after my recent posting , maybe I need to find a new sport! He came out and stormed through the first two sets, but unfortunately fell apart in the last three (maybe he is related to Henman). Anyways, at only 18, hopefully he will come back again and again and do Scotland proud. I hear tell that Henman Hill will shortly be Murray's Mountain. Originally uploaded by gordy_sk .

An American friend of mine pointed me to this today. Now don't listen to it unless you are very broad minded, there is a lot of swearing, but it is very funny, particularly if you are a recreational golfer! Robin Williams on the Scots and when they invented golf. I have put two links below, because they don't always seem to work.. Try this one first , it should come up pretty quickly on a broadband connection. Try this one second , it takes a little while to load, but it goes straight there. Try this one last , scroll down to or search for Robin Williams and then click on it. Hopefully you can get to it.. but remember it involves swearing!

Appetizer : What time do you usually wake up each day? If you could choose your wake-up time, when would it be? Usually 5 minutes before my alarm clock goes off, whatever time it is set for. I seem to have some sort of internal alarm clock. My alarm is usually set for 6:30am weekdays and not at all weekends. Although I am not really a morning person, I generally prefer to get up early and go do stuff. I have been known to be on the golf course by 6:30am. Soup : When was the last time you bought groceries? What store did you go to? Name 3 things you purchased. I went grocery shopping on Tuesday night at Jewel Osco. We bought a bunch of stuff for my girlfriends mother and sister coming into town. Mostly just regular groceries, but we also bought two packs of my new favourite treat mint Oreos. This fortnight is the Wimbledon tennis tournament back home so I bought 8lb of strawberries and 2 quarts of cream for the office to introduce them to this British tradition. Salad : How many book...

As most of my friends will know, I am a huge Grand Prix fan. When I came to the US, I saw it as a great opportunity to go and see a real live race in the flesh, as tickets for the British Grand Prix are as rare as rocking horse sh#t. I duly bought my tickets for last weekends Indy GP, and promptly got all excited about it. Two months of waiting, and much talking about the forthcoming excitement saw me fall foul of the GOS (God Of Smug for the uninitiated) in the most bizarre way imaginable. In a series of events, the blame for which I personally lay completely at the door of the Michelin tyre company, we only saw 6 of the 20 runners on the circuit, all wearing Bridgestone tyres. There will be I am sure, many rumblings over the coming days as to who was to blame, and undoubtedly a lot of it will be deflected to the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone in a further attempt to split F1 into separate championships and to cover Michelin's rear end! When it comes right down to it, the Michelin sho...

Appetizer : What's one word or phrase that you use a lot? Golf anyone? Soup : Name something you always seem to put off until the last minute. Cleaning the car, specially now I have a big ass truck that I cannot reach the roof! Salad : What was the last great bumper sticker you saw? I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as quick as I could. On a car in Illinois! Main Course : If you could be invisible for one day, how would you spend your time? In Terri Hatchers dressing room on the set of Desperate Housewives. Dessert : Describe your hair. Mostly non existent. Served up by Friday's Feast

Not as earth shattering as MLK Jr, I'll admit, but I liked it. I dreamt about the impending release of the long awaited War Of The Worlds Movie. From the book written by HG Wells in the late 19th century, Orson wells produced a radio broadcast in 1938, which quite literally scared the people so much they thought it was real! Transporting, in the typical later Hollywood style, the story from Victorian England to the US, and broadcasting it in such a way as to sound like a news broadcast, many people were convinced.. read the full story here . Anyway back to my dream..as is always the case in dreams, several parts of my life gelled together to form the main story line. I was in the UK, but driving my US truck. Martians had just landed and poisoned the waterways in the South of England only, because, of course, why would they want to land in Scotland or Northern England? Everyone was evacuating, although there did not seem to be anyone actually moving around. Driving northward, tryi...

I was sent this in email from my sister today, and it certainly made me think! Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience! One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!" "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today." Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinkin...

Science fiction shows have a lot to answer for. Saw this last night on Andromeda. In some ways it is completely ridiculous, but in others it kinda sums up the daily quandry most of us find in our lives. "The following statement is False; The previous statement is True. Welcome to our corner of the universe!" Anonymous Seefra Denizen CY10210

Well what a great weekend. It started out on Friday night with Lorraine and I out on the golf course, she has only been out 3 or 4 times, after her 5th lesson, but she really is doing very well; the money invested in those lessons is obviously paying off . We are playing a lot at the Countryside Golf Club which is only about 15 minutes away and very cheap, $19 for twilight, and $38 at the weekend (including cart!). It has two courses, although Lorraine has only ever played on the Prairie course. Set in the heart of the forest preserve, it has some fantastic views over rolling fields and a particularly interesting marsh/swamp area, which I really must get a picture of one of these days. Saturday saw us at the LaSalle Bank Open , we followed round behind Brendon De Jonge, Matthew Goggin (who has won it before), and a rather colourful American from Vegas, Charley Hoffman. Towards the end we also had the opportunity to see Chris Couch (the winner) play some holes and he was on awesome fo...

There is a blog that I have hooked up with, who provide those kind of weekly surveys. You know the sort of thing, what made you sad this week, what made you happy, etc. I am posting this one retrospectively as I only heard about it on Monday..but I will check them out over the next few weeks to see if they are any good. Appetizer : Name one thing that made you sad this week. The whole Michael Jackson situation. Of course there are many people with opinions of guilt vs innocence, truth & justice vs money, etc. I don't presume to know the facts or truth, only what I read about in the newspapers. So I won't comment, other than to say, the whole process has left me with a "what's the point" kinda feeling. Soup : What was the last object (not person) you took a picture of? Some sort of bizarre glass brick picture fountain on Michigan Avenue whilst on Lorraine's birthday day out. Salad : Who do you talk to when you need help in making a decision? Anyone who...

Thanks to Elims again for finding these things. I really like this one..always fancied myself as Darth! Star Wars Horoscope for Aquarius You can be cruel and torment people who disagree with you. Deep down, there is a peace-loving, friendly side to you. You have a knack for inflicting pain on people and use your intellect during battle. You are most like Darth Vader. What is Your Star Wars Horoscope?

Living in an apartment isn't like it is in "Friends", at least not so far. As most of you will know we have plenty of very good friends here, all through people we know or have met through my work. Lorraine would like to meet people in the apartment complex, but so far that is proving tricky. Everyone is friendly enough to say hello to in the street, but so far getting beyond the Hi, nice day, nice dog, etc is just not happening. The longest conversation we have had so far was with a woman who lives upstairs, with three dogs. She in herself seems quite nice, but she seems incapable of stopping her dogs from barking at all hours of the day, as early as 6:15am and as late as 11:30pm. They would appear to live on the balcony, and bark at their own shadow, so you can imagine how few quiet times there are. Hopefully a few words in the right place will encourage her to revisit her dog management skills, but only time will tell. We have also had to resort to taking storage space...

What's the weather like? Let's hear from Roosevelt E. Roosevelt . It certainly is something we are not used to in the UK. It is pretty nice at the moment, so hopefully it won't get too much hotter. Lorraine and I have taken to playing golf after work, when it is starting to get cooler, starting at 4:45 we can almost get the whole round in. Fore!

Just like Hazel I too have recently become a fully fledged Illinois driver, and at last I have my "Picture ID" which in itself is almost more valuable than it's proper purpose. You need a picture ID for everything from picking up your tickets at the will call (ticket office for the Brits) of any sporting or theatrical venue; you need when renting a car, drinking in a bar or buying liquor in the supermarket, because apparently I look younger than 21 (not) but then so did the 80 year old guy in the grocery store (supermarket for the Brits) queue next to me! The test itself was pretty straight forward, although, given that I have not taken a driving test in 20 years, I was a little apprehensive. I had already cancelled it at least once for taking delivery of our furniture . Not that you have to actually book it, you just show up at the test centre with your documents, old licence, insurance, brain, etc. Taking advice from Hazel, I turned up 20 minutes early and there was in...