Nostalgia

Wow. I'm looking at the Blogger version of this and getting all nostalgic and stuff all of a sudden. It seems like forever ago. That's so weird...

Blog moved to Wordpress

Hi all,

I'm in the process of moving this blog over to Wordpress. The reason for this is that they have a much better dashboard (ie it's easier to manage) and they have a better way of keeping stats so you can know whether people are actually reading the blog or not. Also, they make a fascinating distinction between "categories" and "tags" which Blogger hasnt cottoned onto yet.

The new blog will be located here. Please change your bookmarks accordingly.

For those who like to type their URLs directly in, it's at a new easy to remember location, namely faranaaz.wordpress.com

Yes, Wordpress hasn't caught on as much as Blogger has just yet so although I couldn't get the faranaaz domain here at Blogger (too many Faranaaz's in the world I guess), I actually managed to get it over at Wordpress. Yay me. Alas, Team Parker was also already taken there as well.

So anyway, hope to see all you guys over there in future.

Idols and CSI

After an uninspiring episode of American Idol (Ironically, this week's theme was "inspirational songs". The contestants were all terrible.) and half of the 80s teen flick Lucas, I watched You Tube videos about how Gareth Gates sought treatment for his terrible stutter, and now I'm watching - you guessed it - CSI. It never fails with the ew factor.

Anyway, since the weekend we've had a busy day followed by a not so busy day. On Monday we went to Chicago Premium Outlets, an outlet mall in the town of Aurora (where we later found out Johnny Depp and Christian Bale are filming a movie). An outlet mall is a a mall that is situated out in the boondocks - it took us over an hour by train to get to the town and then it was another half hour by bus to the mall. They have stores where big name brands sell good direct to the public at discounted rates. Just to tantalise you, some of the stores there were Armani, Calvin Klein, Banana Republic, Ferragamo, Gap, Guess, Calvin Klein, Lacoste, Polo, Puma and so forth and so forth. Everything was cheaper than what you would find in a regular store and loads of things were 20 - 50% off that. Unfortunately, some things are just so expensive we couldn't even afford it at 50% off. *cough* $500 Armani pants *cough* But we did come away with some nice shoes. I think the buy of the day for us was from Puma which had a buy one, get one half off sale. Sameer also got a nice pair of pants, a shirt, and a golf shirt from Banana Republic. Also, a really spiffy Guess jacket that was reduced, reduced again, and then reduced a further 25%. Unfortunately, after all the Wolfson food and the Garrett's popcorn, I couldn't find anything to flatter my spare tire. *sigh* You can't have it all. I wouldn't say we shopped til we dropped but we did work our way through a lot of what I earned during my stint at Elecheck. ;) Here's Sameer feeling giddy at the end of the day after buying his first pair of uber spiffy All Stars, which I am totally jealous of.



Anyway, that took up pretty much our entire day yesterday and we spent the evening laying out all our stuff on the floor, grinning and removing pricetags, then tallying all the bills, having an attack of conscience and then trying to shake the feeling by lacing up our new shoes.

Today we got up early and caught the bus to campus. Sameer had a meeting and I just wanted to wander around the area. Alas there's not an awful lot going on in Hyde Park (thank goodness we opted not to stay in that area!) and I quickly grew bored. There was this one secondhand bookshop which was quite nifty simply because it was just books, books, and more books.



I was browsing the really large sci-fi/fantasy section when I looked up, and there before my eyes, was a copy of The White Dragon. *cue Holy Grail music* Now I like Anne McCaffrey as much as the next telepathic-spatial-travelling-warrior-dragon loving fantasy buff and I have read loads of the Pern books but for some reason, I could never get my hands on the White Dragon. And it was such a tease when Ruth was born and impressed Jaxom and I thought "I have to know what happens to these two!" and for years on end it never happened! I could never get it in bookshops or at the library. And now, all of a sudden, I look up and there it is! What luck! Of course, I had to buy it, and so I did.

I also picked up a book called The Vanishing Point by someone called Mary Sharratt. I was just browsing - and by that I mean wandering aimlessly with my eyes running along the level of the third shelf - when I spotted this one. I read the blurb and a few random pages and thought "Hmmm. Sounds interesting." Well, so far its alright. I'm already about a hundred pages through so it's definitely a page turner, which is more than I can say for Wizard's First Rule, which I am labouring through.

Sorry, but between Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind I think there is a clear winner and that is definitely Robert Jordan. I mean I burned through The Eye of the World in pretty much one sitting (one very long sitting) and had heart palpatations during the chase scenes for that one, so Wizard's First Rule is definitely paling in comparison. Richard Cypher is a bit too doe eyed and Kahlan (Do you say Kaa-lun or Kay-lin or Ca'lan?) is just dull. And the dialog is soooo stilted. Oi! Litmus test - When I read a fantasy book, I want at least one character to be so cool that I want to be them. To date, there's no-one in Wizard's First Rule that I want to be.

Anyway, moving on swiftly. Well, this Vanishing Point novel is alright so far. A bit on the porno side (the main character's sister is a bit of a ho') but it looks like there's adventure in store for the young heroine. My only complaint is that it tells soooo little about the time in which it is set. I mean, I have a vague idea of what 17th century America was like but I sometimes find myself struggling to fill in details about clothing, buildings, accents and home decor! A bit more detail would be appreciated. But still, it's a page turner, which is always good.

After Sameer's meetings we had lunch in the common room. We bought tea from the most awesome cafeteria I have ever been in. Oh my god. There was a cooked foods section, a cold foods section, a soup section (with croutons and a dozen types of bread and rolls, some even drenched in garlic butter!), a pizza section, a sandwich section, and a salads section (greens and fruits), soda fountains, tea dispensers and coffee dispensers. The list goes ever on and on! I almost died from the food smells. But they were all so expensive and in a preemptive strike against frivolous money spending I'd already packed sandwiches for lunch, so we had those. *sigh* I would have killed for those fried sweet potatoes chips with dip though. Ah well.

Then we decided to rush off to catch the next train home. We missed it my seconds, literally, and that really infuriated us because the next train was only an hour later. So we went back and wandered around the building and stopped at the labs to check mail and bus routes. Then we tried to catch the next train, which again, we missed by seconds. It wasn't a good day for us as far as public transport was concerned. Fortunately, this time there was another one due in a few minutes so we waited at the station. I read my book so it didn't seem like such a wait. But once we got back into town, we had to walk all the way home. I am soooo tired of walking everywhere. My kingdom for a bike!

Anyway, here I am in bed with the laptop blogging. And outside there is one big thunderstorm on. It's not raining as far as I can see and the thunder seems to be a long way off (apparently out in the Skokie area) but I can see flashes of lightning every few minutes and it's really cool they way it lights up the Chicago Skyline. Lovely.

Finally, here's a picture I haven't managed to fit in anywhere. Before we left for Aurora, on the walk to the train station, we saw this - authorities raising the Monroe Street bridge (not sure why - we didn't stick around to see if there was a boat coming or anything). The bridge is four lanes wide so it was really impressive to see. I didn't even know those things could be lifted.

Adventures with Augurs

Or not.

Ugh... The less said the better. Let's just say, these American toilets are finicky and Sameer was never cut out to be a plumber. But kudos to him, he did a fantastic job. Unfortunately, after doing most of the dirty work, wifey got left with the remaining dirty work ie the cleanup.

*shudder*

Moving on swiftly.

We found an informal market on the other end of Clinton Street and it was the weirdest thing. Like being at the fleamarket at Muizenberg on a Sunday except with everyone speaking Spanish and eating burritos instead of gatsbies. We want to go back next week so hopefully I'll get to take some pictures to show you guys.

We entered the Wicked draw at Borders again today but we didn't win. Again, both partners in three different pairs got drawn, only this time, they took both sets of tickets. We resolved to keep entering at both at the Borders draw and the theatre draw for the next few weeks.

And on the way home we spotted this - pigeons warming themselves around the eternal flame at an armed services memorial in town. It was like a fireside gathering for birds I tell you.

Getting out at last

So, if you've been keeping up with the blog the last week or so you've probably noticed that I haven't been doing much except surfing the internet while laying in bed. And you know, okay it's a bit of a waste of life considering that I'm actually in a different city and what but coming off my forced bedrest of yay ten days and then Sameer disappearing of to campus (loneliness is me) and the depressingly overcast weather, there was really nothing pushing me to move. Seriously, the one day I just got up to brush my teeth. And then I just sat here with my laptop in front of me, remote control nearby and a handy supply of Garrett's popcorn to snack on. Fortunately I'd also gotten a bottle of water for myself the previous night and that was right next to the bed so I really didn't have to move at all for a good ten hours. :P Pathetic - I know! But imagine how cool and futuristic it would sound if I was telling this story fifty years ago. You have this little electronic book on your lap and from there you can play games, watch movies, read books, the paper, magazines, write your journal, send "telegrams" to your friends, and even have a telephone conversation with your parents. Do you really ever need to move? I think there's a horror story in this somewhere or at least a very creepy revisionist version of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window.

At last, yesterday I actually dragged my sorry ass out of bed but only as far as the Citi Bank one street over to collect our bank cards and then four blocks the other direction to go to the supermarket for supplies. It was during this walk that I realized we live only a few blocks from Harpo Studios. I started to wonder if I shouldn't spend a few mornings hovering around in the hope of catching sight of some celebrity or Oprah herself.

Today we woke up late and decided to go to Navy Pier to have a look around. We caught the bus one street over and it was on the way there that we realized this pier probably had a very kiddy orientation. The bus was filled with parents and children, most of who were whining and screaming. Sameer and I started having second thoughts about that baby issue. :P

Anyway, we got there and started to wander around. The building itself looks like the Waterfront. Lots of munchies, bits and bobs being sold from barrows in an atrium, loads of food shops and an Imax cinema. Outside it's similar to Kalk Bay or Simonstown area with a sort of Sea Point vibe. Lots of people walking along the pier, kids in buggies, people rollerblading or biking. And we noticed loads of young girls dressed as cheerleaders. It turns out that a cheerleading competition had been held at the convention center by the pier. I didn't really want to whip out my camera and take pics of the scantily clad little girls (how creepy!) but this group were all posing for their entourage of mums, dads and grans so I took the liberty of sneaking a pic.

Then, because there wasn't much else to do, we decided to ride the ferris wheel ourselves. Here's a picture taken from the top.



After that we collected fliers for bike and boat tours and decided to come back another day. And then we headed back up to Michigan Avenue and found ourselves once again at Borders. We checked out a lot of travel books for the USA because we're hoping to take a few side trips along the way. We also got coffee but it was so disgusting, we've sworn off it.

After that, we started walking back in the direction of home. Along the way we stopped at a place called Wow Bao, which looks awesome and tastes great! The decor was sort of a split between Simply Asia and Vida and the food was Asian fusion - slightly Chinese, slightly Thai. They had these little buns called "bao" which are made of a sweet dough and stuffed with your choice of fillings, then steamed in a pot. They are yummy! You can also get Thai style soup with Chinese style dumplings in them. The dumplings are similar to the boa, just shaped differently and with different flavoured fillings inside. And the other great thing they had there was the iced ginger ale, which is made with freshly grated ginger. Fabulously refreshing and a great change from gassy, over-sweet cooldrinks. For me, it's even better than Panda Express and is now on the top of my list of favourite fast food places in Chicago.

After that we stopped at another Borders where they were having a draw for Wicked tickets and we tried our luck but failed. Incidentally, they drew about ten names and three times people turned down the tickets because their partners had just won the previous round. It was so strange. Anyway, we've decided to go back for tomorrow's draw. You never know, we might get lucky.