The trip out to Chicago wasn’t too bad. I was tired after the St Patrick’s evening, then packing and being late to bed. So once the flight had taken off and we had been fed I slept /dozed for a few hours on the plane which seemed to refresh me. It meant that once we had arrived at Chicago and got to the hotel I was ok in spite of the 5 hour difference. My work colleague Peter and I went for a walk and found a sports bar where we had an evening meal. I went to bed at 10pm Chicago time, and whilst I woke a few times as if the body clock insisted I should get up, I slept through to 7am, and so adjusted to US time almost straight away. In fact on Monday morning I went to the gym… and used a slightly different cross trainer. I used it on Tuesday morning as well, and then I almost couldn’t walk for a while as my calf muscles were so sore – the different foot position catching me out. Some shots of the view from the room, and the hotel room.

The room was very comfortable. Monday was spent in the Data Centre, which was adjacent to the hotel, a few minutes walk, and the weather has been lovely. In fact nearly reaching 30c. In the evening we went for a meal – about 8 of us, BP and HP colleagues, in the old Chicago Firehouse. Tuesday started with breakfast on a sidewalk – the weather was so nice you could sit outside, before we went out to see a company called Iron Mountain… a car was ordered to take us. We got a tank! Phoning home Tricia kept me up with the news, which included Ellie having her top brace fitted.

Wednesday was the highlight so far though. After we had finished in the office, we went to see the Chicago Hawks at the the Ice Hockey stadium… great atmosphere, from 21,000 fans, and the Hawks won 2-1 in overtime. It’s a fast exciting game when in play… but, the game started at 7, the actual playing time was 64 minutes (including the 4 minutes overtime) but the evening didn’t finish till 10pm. Lots of time outs and stops, I suppose it is what the audiences over here are used to, but I couldn’t see people in England being quite so patient. It was great fun though, with all the typical American razzamatazz.

So, I am now a ‘Hawks’ fan Thursday late in the afternoon the opportunity came to walk around downtown Chicago, which I was keen to do. The area I work when out here is away from the main city….so it was great to get to see the great buildings, new and old, and an interesting statue of Marilyn Monroe. Lots of early 20th century buildings, mingled with more modern ones. I can advise all readers that Marilyn is wearing white knickers. 

The evening was spent back in the bar we visited when we first arrived. It’s off to Houston on Friday. Thursday evening gave some bad news from my brother Mark, who called to say Mum had been taken unwell and gone into hospital. You just want to give her a hug, but its difficult to do from all these miles.