Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!!

Today was the first day back to work after the first public Holiday of the year; Memorial Day. It wasn’t so easy going back in after the three day weekend, especially considering the weather that we had. Ignoring some torrential rain on the Saturday night, the rest of the weekend was as far removed from anything I’ve experienced out here so far. 30+°c everyday and I have the Rudolph-esque nose to show for it. For once, just once, I was pining for the rain, damp and wind that the UK can be sure to offer. The fact that my neighbourhood pool opened did help to raise my spirits though, so don’t worry about me too much.

This weekend was also the Indy 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It has some significance as the 100th anniversary of the first race was being celebrated. Oddly, it wasn’t the 100th race (World Wars ensured a couple of breaks) but there were celebrations at the track none-the-less.

After having some tasty breakfast provided (thanks Amy), we headed to the track around 07:30 and, even after surviving a $1-shuttle-ride-in-the-back-of-a-pick-up-truck-driven-by-a-redneck-looking-guy, we were claiming our spot in the infield around 09:00. The track/arena was absolutely huge; seating for over 257,000 spectators with a total capacity of around 400,000 including the infield areas. We managed to find a spot on Turn 3 in the infield (with a track view) and made camp with our large tarpaulin and single blanket. This turned out to be great later as when everyone else was jammed in like sardines we still had plenty of room to ourselves. And it got PACKED.

Before the race even started there was plenty of entertainment going on around the track. There was a giant Hot Wheels ramp that had been erected for a world record attempt jump, and with my basic camera I managed to get a snap just before it landed and set a new world record. The car that is; not my camera.

We played some games that probably meant I drank too much beer in a short space of time in the heat, but in all the morning seemed to fly by before you knew it the actual race was about to begin. As with all American sporting activities, it was very patriotic. There was a rendition of “America the Beautiful”, which was followed by plenty of fist pumping and chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A” … I should have joined in “Eng-er-land, Eng-er-land” but I guess our reserved nature overrides. Next up we had the national anthem performed by a trio of Seal, Kelly Clarkson, and someone else (couldn’t hear over the school disco style PA system). This was COOL, as towards the finale of the song there was a flyover by a (not so stealthy) B-2 bomber … that is a good looking aeroplane. Sure enough this ensured more chanting from the locals. I recorded the video below on my phone, that’s why it’s crap.

I can’t really tell you too much about the race as there wasn’t too much to see. The noise (my favourite part of motorsport) was amazing and is up there with my encounters with F1 cars at the Goodwood FoS. The heat also made it pretty unbearable to be too still for too long. I can tell you though that a Brit won (nice one, mate) although in slightly controversial circumstances. Not Dick Dastardly style controversy, just some issue of rule interpretation. I heard all this from the radio, as we decided to leave and beat all traffic/3rd degree sun burn by leaving with about 40 laps to go. As we started to pack up all our coolers and bags, a group of guys who had been sitting near us for the duration of the day offered to buy any leftover beers we had; the girls in the group did a great job of getting $20 for a few leftover ones. As we made our way out of the infield we sold some more; this time $20 was exchanged for a couple less beers but included a partially eaten box of Krispy Kreme donuts. I know what I would be doing next year if I had a spare cooler …

All in all it was a great day with some new and (relatively) old friends. After a quick shower and an after sun session it was rounded off with a meal sitting on the outside decking of a Mexican restaurant in what was still incredibly warm temperatures. We also played some word games but I think was only so others could have a giggle at my pronunciation/accent …

I’m now off to rub some more after sun into my skin. Bye bye.

p.s. below here are some more photo’s that show the crowds and some of the, err, characters seen on the day. I can’t wait for the Indiana State Fair; I’m told it’s good …

Has It Been That Long?!

It’s almost a month since I last updated this blog!!

Quite a bit has happened in that time; obviously there was the Royal Wedding, I made a trip home to see friends and family, and the world was going to end (but it didn’t).

Unlike everyone back home in the UK, I didn’t get the bonus of a day off for the wedding. The fuss over it, here, was incredible; especially to me as I wasn't bothered with it all. We did however have a bit of a Royal theme in the office and so I bought some crowns from a party shop. I hung a huge Union Jack on the wall (some conditioning for the Americans for when I hang it on Independence Day …), and I had plenty of visitors throughout the day asking me questions about William & Kate; although I didn’t have any of the answers. I didn’t wake up at 4am to catch the coverage of the wedding, although plenty of others did. When I woke up, I looked back through my Facebook timeline and realised the attention had quickly turned to Kate’s sister Pippa and her arse. It’s pretty much the same here in the States too! My manager here in the US wanted us to have a departmental photo taken as a memento of the day (in other words, something that can be used as blackmail!) so, for your amusement on a Sunday night/Monday morning, below is a cropped version of the photo (saving the others in it from the shame!) …

A week later I made a trip back home to a very sunny England! Was great to see everyone, but it was a very manic trip home trying to squeeze so much into a week and a half. Managed to catch up with everybody, ate all the foods I’ve missed (mum’s Sunday lunch, fish & chips, proper bacon sandwiches!), and got to only my 2nd Arsenal game of the season (terrible game, result, atmosphere, and travel; but as always a great day out with dad). Before I knew it, it was time to head back to Heathrow to board my flight to Chicago. This turned out to be one of the worst flights I’ve ever been on; sandwiched between a guy who virtually had his name on my arm rest, and a woman who was, err, of the larger variety.

The first five days of my time back in the States have been pretty dismal weather; until this weekend. It’s 11pm here and still 24 deg C, today has been so humid. The temperature in the apartment also hasn’t been helped by the fact that I didn’t realise the a/c had been set to heat! A quick slide of the lever and I’m now sitting in conditions that would make a polar bear feel at home.

This week should be a good one. It’s the build up to the Indy 500 and next weekend I’m off to the race with a group of friends!

Just a quick one

An incredibly busy week at work has meant that there, other than the usual up and down weather, isn’t much to report this week.

On Monday evening I had my first training session with the u10 football/soccer team I am helping out with coaching. I need to get myself a Coach James name badge though. It’s good fun, but I’m glad that I’m only there to help and not the main coach; with many years having passed since my younger sisters were that age, I’d forgotten how uncontrollable kids are that vintage.

Throughout the week, the sunshine that has been blessing the UK was nowhere to be seen. Instead we have had heavy rains, what feels like continuous thunderstorms, and even tornado warnings.

It’s actually a pretty cool system they have, providing that you’re not watching one of your favourite TV shows at the time of a warning!

Geeky Stuff

I keep meaning to update this more regularly, especially as I’m in competition with myself in the amount of people I can get reading the blog. Google have some pretty good tools that enable you to: track your most popular posts, where your audience is in the big wide world, where the source came from (if you clicked link through Facebook etc), what operating system you use and even what the reader was wearing at the time of reading (the two of you wearing PVC bodysuits at 9am really need to have a think about that). OK, I jest with the last point.

For instance, over the past month I have had 345 pageviews of which 235 have been from the UK, 108 from the States, 1 from South Korea (work colleague I think) and, oddly, 1 from Colombia. They haven’t came back so there’s clearly disappointment at the lack of Queens in my posts; please ignore the blog title.

The above chart shows my pageviews over the past month, with each spike happening on the Sunday/Monday of me posting the update. It’s good to see that people are actually reading it; just imagine how many I’d have if it was actually interesting!! Haha. I’m also approaching my 4,000th (FOUR THOUSANDTH) view!

Back in the real world and the price of fuel is beginning to be a hot topic here … I don’t know why as it’s still 50% of the price that is currently being forked out in the UK. Still, the rise to a $4 gallon of fuel did happen very quickly so if I was an American I think I would complain too, but when compared to what is paid in Europe it’s really not that bad. Perhaps it will become even more of an incentive for the US to ditch the big trucks and V8’s.

The weather continues to throw surprises, a day of glorious sunshine is all too often followed by a day or two stormy weather. Still, there haven’t been any tornado warnings for a while even though there was a storm that was recently swept across to the East coast.

Tomorrow I have to take a trip to the Post Office to get my tax returns in the mail, both of which contain some meaty little cheques checks. Who even uses them anymore? I’ve had to pay taxes to both the State of Indiana and also the Federal Government on the money that I have earnt whilst working here. Luckily, I will also be getting some kind of rebate from the Inland Revenue in the UK to equalise the payments through some agreement the governments have. I don’t think it was set up specifically for me, so I don’t have all the details I’m afraid…

In other news I’ve booked flights for a trip home in May! It’s only a short one, but I can’t wait to see everybody. I also managed to get me and Dad some tickets for the Arsenal vs Villa game; hopefully this one won’t be called off like the one on my last trip home.

This weekend has been a very busy one. The Saturday was spent on a charity trip to a casino; was great fun although I expected there to be quite a few more little old grannies wearing their visors, sitting around the slot machines. Instead there were mullets everywhere, which is much better. I started off with $40 in my pocket and at one point had $90, but then the sweet old lady on the blackjack table turned evil and kept picking herself aces and picture cards. That’s code for “I LEFT WITH NOTHING”. There was an amazing buffet though, with endless options of food and desserts …

Sunday was cool too as I went kayaking with friends down the White River. It was all going so well, floating in the current with the occasional bit of required effort, bathing in the sun. Until we got to the end of the stretch we were doing and there was a mini rapid to go over. Trying to straighten the kayak, I over corrected too much and so took the honour of being the only one out of a group of six to go overboard. The water was COLD. Still managed to keep hold of everything though inc. sunglasses. Afterwards we stopped for ice cream where I had a huge double scoop (cookies and cream with a biscuit crunch) in a waffle cone. Sitting outside on a park bench eating it was brilliant.

So, that was my weekend, and THIS is the end of the post!

American Sports Part III: Soccer

I know, I know … football. But when in Rome etc etc.

A couple of weeks ago I saw that the New York Red Bulls were travelling to nearby Ohio to play the Columbus Crew. Well, I say nearby, I had to drive for around 3 hours to get there from here in Indianapolis. It was a really boring drive too; straight line East and stayed on the same road for around 160 miles! At one point I went past a sign for London, wasn’t sure if I was hallucinating …

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was actually only going to the game as I thought it would be a chance to watch Thierry Henry, who used to play for Arsenal and is one of my favourite players of all time; he now plays for New York. That didn’t happen however as I found out through Twitter, the day before the game, that he wouldn’t be playing due to a hamstring injury. Thierry! I was gutted but still made the drive.

When I arrived at the ground I was impressed at how smart it looked, and also surprised at the amount of people in the car park having barbecues! They smelt so good. Later I would realise why everybody was wrapped up in coats, scarves, and some stupid ear protector things…

Around the outside of the ground there was plenty of activities for kids to keep them occupied and I was even given a free match day program … certainly different from a trip to any ground in the UK.

Once inside, I took my seat. A very good seat actually. Right behind the team benches and almost smack on the halfway line. Then the Americanisms started. There were cheerleaders, foam hands, fireworks, marching bands, an old guy singing the Star Spangled Banner and then, finally, the game started!

I actually wish the pre-match entertainment had just continued, because it was a terrible game. As bad as the game was, the atmosphere was good. There was a group of fans in the far corner making a lot of noise and banging drums, but unfortunately for me there was a young girl a couple of rows behind me with a vuvuzela. I bought one online during the World Cup and was crap with it; luckily she was too. The game must have been the longest one I’ve ever watched, it seemed to go on forever. I don’t think I was helped by the weather … and soon realised why everyone was wrapped up so warm. I was frozen. I started to wish that I had some of the daft looking ear muffs. Kind of.

Finally the full time whistle went and, although it was a terrible game, it was a good day out and an experience. The ticket was $50 plus a booking fee, so it wasn’t cheap. But then again I was in the ‘posh’ seats.

So that’s soccer, basketball, and American football down … baseball and ice hockey to go.