A new life; same as the old life?

...well you wanna go South on Milwaukee, East on Lake Cook, and the Walmart is gonna be on your North side. This is a typical set of directions from a resident of Chicagoland. Now those who know me well, know that when it comes to directions, my attention span is about 5 seconds, and my sense of direction struggles with left and right, never mind trying to navigate by compass directions. To help, I bought one of those little stick on compasses but it's bust and continually points to North being the front of the truck irrespective of which direction I face! Add to this the confusion of night driving when there are virtually no street lights or for that matter road markings (I think the snow ploughs scrape them all away), and you usually end up with a recipe for disaster and lots of U turns. Fortunately Lorraine is very adept at reading maps, except that when she is not in the car, that's not much help! Taxi for Gordy.....

For the last four weeks, that is about how I felt. Nothing to do with the double barrelled surname, but everything to do with only having arrived in the country four weeks ago. It seems I was genuinely born yesterday, although some people have been saying that about me for years. None of my history is transferable, be it credit history or driving history (although maybe that's a good thing). So I am being treated like a teenager again, just out of school, although, even they can get credit cards! My car insurance is sky high, at $900 for 6 months, largely because I don't have an Illinois drivers licence or any allowable driver history. I do, now, at least have a social security number, having gone through a fairly painless process. However it seems that even that does not mean that much, as when I tried to use it at the Nextel store at the weekend to get a phone for Lorraine, I was told I did not exist on their systems, and so therefore still could not have a phone! We moved ye...

We went out house hunting this weekend, well apartment hunting really, although we did look at a townhouse. We stuck to our original areas that we scoped out back when we came over in February. It was a fabulous day for it, with the temperature at around the mid 70s. The first place we looked at on Saturday was very cheap, a studio flat, in the middle of nowhere in Kenosha, Wisconsin. At only $600 pcm and zero deposit it was an attractive option to allow us to save probably another $600 each month towards a deposit for our own mortgage eventually. However, the journey would have been about an hour, and literally it was in the middle of a field! We moved on to our favourite little town, Libertyville, and saw a couple of gorgeous places. A townhouse which was a kinda tri-level place, with three bedrooms, a nice lounge, 1.5 bathrooms, a big, if slightly dated, kitchen/diner and a nice little yard. At $1200 it was right at the top of our budget. The guy from that place pointed us in the d...

Well, I set my heart on it, and gosh darn it, I only went and did it. OK it's 2nd hand (97 model year) and it's done 120,000 miles, but it's in great nick, and a bargain at only $8800. I went out today to have a look around at various trucks, cars, etc. Finance is going to be an issue, because I have no credit history, and also I don't have my drivers licence or social security number yet. So it had to be something cheap that I could afford to buy for cash. I fell in love with the blue truck in the pictures, but it was only two wheel drive and also was a bit beat up. The red truck I bought is double cab, has all the toys, is much newer and a very loud straight through exhaust. I have placed a deposit today, and collect it on the 16th, when I get paid. I will try to get a sound file posted, in the meantime you will just have to imagine.

..it doesn't rain in Chicago, apparently no-one. It seems I may have made that up..I can say this much, it does rain in Chicago, and then some! When we arrived at Heathrow, we checked the luggage against the allowances, and had to rejig various cases to get them under the limits. Even going as far as leaving some stuff with Jan and Madeleine, to make sure the hand luggage was under the limit. The flight was uneventful, and the movies were pretty crappy. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon, picked up our rental car, and checked into our new home for at least the next month. It's a nice apartment, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, lounge/diner/kitchen arrangement, and a nice balcony. Unfortunately it's a little close to the train line, where the Metra runs by day and Lorraine tells me, freight trains, a gazillion miles long, pass at 3am. I of course, never hear them. The apartment complex is next door to a golf course and has several tennis courts, and my clubs and our rackets are st...

Old Frankie just keeps popping up, although he was a bit of a tart for major American cities I think. He sang songs about New York, San Francisco, and of course Chicago, amongst many others. I have returned now from skiing, it was great fun, and it is now my last week of work in the UK, and only 8 days till I get on the plane. I came back to a new tenant, my very nice South African lady teacher. Unfortunately I also came back to a hefty repair bill, courtesy of a failed gas inspection. So my very nice lady is having to use fan heaters and the immersion heater for hot water. I had a boiler company out yesterday, and have a nasty feeling it is going to cost the best part of £2K ($3600, bet I could get a new furnace cheaper than that!). Lorraine and I spent Sunday getting her place ready for the removal men yesterday. It already feels like we have never been away. We did have a great time skiing though, and the weather was fantastic, if a little on the warm side..hotter than Tenerife don...

It's A Hard Life!

Ziggy & Caroline

The Gang

Lorraine's Favourite Snow Pastime

Lorraine Actually Enjoys Skiing!

Lessons From The Master!

It's Not Even 7pm Yet

Come And Get Me Ladies

Caroline & Tim