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Post script: final addition to the apartment - a vintage
double decker (trolley) bus sign from Merry
Olde England, circa 1960's |
Day 1 in the Big Brother House….
Finally! She's here! Seems to be quite the week for deliveries! Yep, courtesy of an 12hr Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul, followed by a terrible driver from the airport, Mumsie finally arrived safe and sound at my place last night around 7pm. Other than the crap, rude driver, Mum's journey had been good (though a bit bumpy in places), if long, as her connection involved an overnight sojourn in the Turkish Airlines lounge at Istanbul. Fortunately there is a little quiet spot in the lounge with full recliners where you can stretch out and take a snooze, so she managed to get a couple hours rest overnight.
So I extended my vacation by one more day, so that I could spend the first full day with Mum and not have to go to work. First up on the list of things to do was to get Mum a new pair of trainers so that she could join me in the gym tomorrow morning for Day 1 of our joint 10 day detox. I've fallen off the detox wagon over the last week (though I'm citing special circumstances of my apartment move and house-warming party), so its high time to get back on the straight and narrow. Fortunately, Mumsie is down for doing it too, so no deep dish for her for at least 10 days!! We headed off to the Temple of Shoes, DSW, in Skokie and found her a very snazzy blue and hot pink pair of Nikes. Alarmingly, it matched exactly what she was already wearing…
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| Pastries galore!! Mumsie is in sugar heaven... |
With the 10 day detox deadline looming closer, our lunch place of choice had to be none other than Panera Bread - purveyors of all that is Not Good for You and chockfull of GMOs and bad things. I could feel my blood sugar trembling in horror just walking through the front door. But, it had to be done - so Mumsie picked a bear claw with almonds and a strawberry and rhubarb cake from the dazzling array of confections. Lunch itself was a chicken wrap thing and a panini sandwich - they were OK, but not as good as Cosi's. That will definitely be a future lunch stop….
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| Cat wee-scented geraniums |
After lunch, we headed back to the Swank Pad for a bit for Mumsie to go have a quick snooze to stave off the jet lag. As it happened, I was the one who fell asleep whilst Mum just lay and read - but hey, I love me a mid-afternoon nap, so I wasn't complaining! After rousing ourselves from our decadent slothiness, our afternoon excursion was to Home Depot to go and pick out some herbage and foliage for my new window planters. Unlike in San Francisco, the growing season here is painfully short and you know anything you plant is pretty much going to be toast, come the winter. So, we confined ourselves to the rather impressive Annuals section where there was an anxiety-evoking amount of choice but, after much um-ming and ah-ing, I think we did good. Returning home, there was just time to get a couple of the planters done before I had my training session with Christopher - still got me begonias to pot! I'll get them done tomorrow, but its already looking lovely, I think!
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| Checking out the herby pots |
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| Under construction…. floral oasis in progress... |
What a lovely day of pootling its been. The weather was absolutely perfect - low 70's with clear blue sky and sunshine and Mumsie and I spent the day wandering around Evanston and getting to know my new(ish) home town better. After our regular morning stint at the gym (Mumsie is doing the 10-day detox diet - more to come on how she's doing in a few days!…) and our regular yummy smoothie breakfast, we caught the train into town at around 10am and happily rattled along the couple of stops until our station. We could have walked really, but its always fun to take the train - especially after watching (and hearing!) it coming and going all day from the prime view from my balcony.
We hopped off the train at the Foster stop and then had a very pleasant walk to the market. Evanston is known as a town of a thousand trees (or something - I haven't counted them all!) and I'm still amazed at the radical difference from when I first moved here in February and everything was coated under a thick thick layer of ice and snow. The trees are still in full blossom and some of the gardens we walked past were absolutely beautiful - vibrant tulips, delicate violets and intoxicatingly perfumed jasmine. A treat for the eyes and a feast for the nose. After about 15mins, we found ourselves at the local market - it was OK - lots of stalls selling plants and flowers, and also lots of stalls selling very yummy, non 10-day detox compliant food! Local cheeses, artisanal breads, tasty snacks and sweet treats - nom nom nom! Feeling the need to avoid temptation (some of the smells were very enticing), we hightailed it out of the market and wandered along the high street, checking out the shops and stores. We came to one particular store, World Market - which I hadn't been into before - that looked interesting, so we decided to check it out.
We had inadvertently stumbled into a veritable Temple of Brit Food, the Church of Cadbury's, a Pantheon of Picnics. It was incredible. The store was one of those fascinating places that sold pretty much everything you could think of (my shopping basket at the end included a stainless steel ornamental plane along with maple candies, metal skewers and old-fashioned kids toys) and that you could spend hours browsing in. The foodie bit was towards the back of the store, so we only discovered it after about a half hour - first just spotting some biscuits "ooh - look! Cadbury's Fingers!" before realizing the comprehensive array of old favorites that was on offer! It was very exciting - each new aisle brought a new revelation "Spotted Dick!" "Ambrosia Devon Custard!" "SALAD CREAM!!!", not least of which was Mumsie realizing that she would never have to bring me over Brit food from Northern Cyprus ever again!! And - probably not surprisingly - all the brit food (exported directly from the UK) was MUCH cheaper than you can buy in Cyprus too! Loopy - at this rate, I'll be bringing stuff over for you!!
