Last Lunch.. Real Pizza

Today is my last day here, going back tomorrow on United Airlines flight 895, and for lunch, thought to taste the real american pizza!

Went to the neigbourhood pizza place.. The Giovanni's Pizza, next to the Little China place, near Amanda's Applebee. We left and eat it in the office. (we initially wanted to order the Veggie pizza, but the boy said it will take about 25mins!.. so change to cheese pizza.. about 10.. but at the end.. I think we've waited about more than 20min for it.) hiissh!

Good? Sumeet said, the best pizza he ever tasted!Not bad, I've tasted better. We left 3 pieces only for Balaji.

That will last for few hours in our tummy.

Flowers.. Balaji.. America.. Flowers..

This 2nd trip here, the weather has been drastically change. Previously (3-4 weeks back), it was so cold, you need jackets on stand-by, the weather can be really unforgiving. Now, it has been very warm... too warm, some of the days, it just feels like back home. Luckily I didn't bring a single sweather or jacket (so, more space for shopping! ;).

Anyways... during the weekend, a new member joined us.. Introducing...Balaji, Cecilia's padawan. Looking after the Financial tracks. This picture shows Balaji infront of the SLA office, notice the flowers are just blooming so nice.. you can actually smells flowers while passing in/out of the door!
A little bit about Balaji, he's from Chennai, India. Eats chicken, mutton, eggs, but no meat or pork. Can't drive. Stays in #308. (OK people, now stop asking anymore). oh..btw, he's single.. and looking! interested? email me pls (balaji, i charge you a fee later..)

Here's Balaji again!
Taking a break with the French Vanilla coffee. The 1st day he was here, he asked me.. with a genuine innocent look.. "Sher, what's so great about America?..."
I was stunned with the question, and I've given him the mission to look for this answer himself!

So Balaji.. the search is on...

Bismillah Market... Asia Mart..

This weekend, we've found these 2 stores - Bismillah Market (an Indian.. Muslim) and Asia Mart (Thai.. Chinese.. Filipino). Forget about Trader's Joe. These 2 stores has those stuff that we need to spice up our taste.... and then some.

In Bismillah Market, you can find all sorts of Indian raw food. All kinds of beans.. spices.. rice.. flour.. parathas.. nan.., maggi mee, even HALAL meat.. chickens.. etc. etc. etc.. this is the place. No need to go Devon Street anymore. You can even rent Shahrukh Khan movies!

While in Asia Mart, all sorts of Thai's.. Chinese.. all is there.. even that special sauce we've been looking.. it's all there.. and more! ... and Johnny.. yes.. all sorts of chinese tea is also there!

Look at all these pictures I took with my mediocre phone-cam.

So..where the hell is this place? I tell you. It's just near our neighbourhood.. we've been to Cheddar's right? Portillo's? We've been shopping at Marshals, Target, and Kohl's right?

Well, it's right there in Boughton Road in Bolingbrook!!! and the stores are 2 doors away of each other!

You can take via Weber Road (take right) at Boughton Rd, or via the Illinois 53 route (take left). While on Boughton Rd., look out for the Water Tower like in this picture.. that's the place.
So now you know. I was alone today driving around looking for these places... and I've bought some veggie samosa, chapatis, and soan papdi for my roomie.

wish i've found this place sooner... now.. bit too late for me.. going back home next weekend.

have fun!

Trader Joe's

Here in the Romeoville, to some of us.. the food are quite 'tasteless' - we missed our sambal belacan, or many other hot sauces that we found back home... oh.. like my favorite Lingam's sauses. The closest we've found is the Thai's brand sauce that we've found in some Japanese/Chinese food places.
They told us.. you can find these 'imported' stuff at Trader Joe's.

Quick look at Google Maps, the nearest Trader Joe's is at Naperville - well that's about 15mins drive. So after work, Johnny and myself drove to look for it.
Quite an interesting grocery store - about as big as a typical Walgreen's - it's basically a specialised grocery store. Specialised? I said specialised because it has stuff that you can't find anywhere else.. at least not at the normal groceries stores like Dominick's or Jewel Oslo that we have around Romeoville.
Stuff like what you ask.. stuff like indian delicacies.. briyanis, thai sauces, japanese sauces, many others. What's interesting about Trader Joe's is.. almost like 80% stuff in the stores has their own label - Trader's Joe. They imported stuff and market it here.. I think.

Check out their website for stories about them.

How to get there?
Take Weber Road to North.. turn right at Washington Street (this is the main junction to Naperville town). Then after you've passed the 87th St, and 75th St, slow down and look for Gartner Street, turn left. TJ is at that junction on the left. Search the site for the exact address.

Unfortunately, we can't find the sauce we're looking for. However, Johnny had some exotic oolong chinese tea, while i'm having a nice real tomyam's flavored peanuts! also, I bought a pre-cooked indian dish for my roomate!

Shop till you drop dead ... Part 3 (Gurnee Mills)

Heyyy... I didn't tell you guys that I'm back in Romeoville eh? Yup, reached here Wednesday last week, and back to work immediately.

Today, on saturday, we don't know what to do.. don't feels like doing any work, and thought of going to downtown Chicago to see the famous King Tut exibition (just opened in US after 30 years ago). Real good exibition about King Tut life - big coverage in the local TV. Go to this site to see what I mean.

Unfortunately, we checked the website, the tickets is already fully booked!! that's like 11am, it's already sold out. Then we (Robert and myself), thought of doing some shopping! We searched all over google, and found this place called GURNEE MILLS north of chicago.
Got excited looking what the site tells us, and off we go (Johnny, Tasneem, Robert, and myself).
This is Johnny (SATO IT).. haaa... now i put his pic, so people know him. This is the south entrance to the mall. You can see Robert and Tasneem behind there.

The place is like an hour drive from Romeoville, it was a pretty easy ride. Follow this link for a full map there.

Gurnee Mills is a HUGE shopping place. It's really huge man. I bought so much this time, I even got a good Florshiem shoes! so nice.. my size 11 1/2 and cheap.. with that price, I can only get a lousy Hush Puppies in KL.. at max of size 10.
My wife will kill me for shopping too much.. (but this time I've bought something special for her.. guess that will tone it down a bit.. ;) (honey.. if you read this.. you'll see it when I got back ok! ;)

Let me show you how big is this place. Sorry this pic is from my lousy phone cam (hey cecilia, i forced taking it still.. else you wud say all bogus..). Links below.
the mall is mix with normal retails and factory outlets too! Liz.. too bad you missed this one! (but i remember you sed you're coming back here later right??? i'll put info on this page so you know how to get there.. it's a must for you!! )


Also, interesting bit, the SIX FLAGS is just right next to it! the great american six flags!! roller-coaster ride anyone?!





Some details:

Gurnee Mills
6170 West Grand Avenue
Gurnee, IL 60031
847-263-7500
Hours: Monday - Friday from 10am to 9pm
Saturday 10:00 am to 9pm
Sunday 10 am to 7pm
LOCATION: Gurnee Mills is located at the intersection of Interstate 94 and Grand Avenue (IL132) in Lake County, Illinois. The mall is strategically positioned midway between the major markets of Chicago, IL and Milwaukee, WI.

Gurnee Mills is the Midwest's largest value retail and entertainment mall with over 200 manufacturer and retail outlet stores including Abercrombie & Fitch, Bass Pro Shop Outdoor World, Cyber Arena, OFF 5th Saks Fifth Avenue Outlet, Fossil, Gap Outlet, JCPenney Outlet, Levi's Outlet by Designs, Nautica Outlet Store, Polo Jeans Outlet, Rink Side Sports, Serpent Safari and VF Factory Outlet.

Official site - Gurnee Mills

Welcome to Heidelberg!

yesterday we took a leisurely pre-dinner stroll to the riverfront. eat ur hearts out man! wish u guys in US were here ...


and oh yes ... there's actually a shopping place just around the corner from where we stay (i saw H&M) ... thanks to sri, who took us around for the tour of the surrounding area yesterday. anyone got plans for the weekend ;)

Honey I Shrunk the Toilet!

Just reached Frankfurt Monday afternoon and moved into the boarding house. And immediately the first thing I noticed was how small the room was, and more importantly how small the most important place in the apartment - the bathroom was.

2 unique features of this bathroom (actually it doesn't even qualify as a room ...) - (1) it is just next to the kitchen and (2) there is no door to the bathroom!

if you see the pic below, you'll notice that the shower area is just next to the kitchen sink.
















(Yes, that's my towel hanging at the railing 'entrance' to the toilet ;)



and boy, was I in for another surprise when attempting my first shower ... in the 2 feet x 2 feet triangular shower area, the shower curtain was literally sticking to my b**kside when I turned on the shower tap! I will just leave it as that ...

Padma, how did you manage when you stayed in this room??? Now i understand what u meant when u said this place was small ...

Oh man! I guess this is another one of those 'soft skills' we consultants have to learn ;)

not to worry, the 3 other guys here do not have to wrestle with the shower curtain like me. Sridhar is staying in a one-room apartment, and Jauhari and Vagesan have different room layouts from mine. And Jauhari would probably like to tell you more about his full-size, fully-equipped top floor apt in the attic, with 2 skylight windows. (Who wants to sleep next to the kitchen stove and sit on the toilet bowl staring at the stars anyway!)

everything here seems to have been miniature-ized, esp coming from US to here ... the apartments, the cars (ala 2-seater SMART cars) ... will upload some pics of the mini-cars later.

the best thing so far is the scenic drive from heidelberg (where we stay) to SLE office (at hirshhorn) - mountains and rivers, lotsa greenary surrounding the SLE office. and we had a good dinner at a chinese restaurant on tue :)

North Pole !

I wanted to tell you guys about my trip back home last week.

For the first time in my life, I'm actually passing through the NORTH POLE. I took the flight off Chicago's O'Hare Airport, on United Airlines, and before taking off, the Captain actually said we'd going through Canada, North Pole, Russia, China, and Hong Kong. I was like, north pole??!! didn't really put any attention.

In flight, I actually saw the plane going up towards Canada (instead of normally to the left (via LA, Japan) or right (via UK, Frankfurt). At about 4-6 hours later, we actually going into the North Pole!!! the map on screen tilted overlooking from the top of the world. I was really really really excited man. coooool!

Look at this below picture, as you can see, the bottom of the globe is the United States, and Chicago is like just next to the Lake Michigan, from there.. just follow the route towards the top, passed the north pole, and to russia and asia at the very top.


During that time, our window's shade had to be closed because the movie show is on. I was sitting at window side, and I can feel the heat on the shades.. it's really hot.. feels like it's burning from the outside. I peaked, and my eyes couldn't take the bright light (from almost dark in cabin, to such a bright sun light) - it was really really bright. Took at least 5-8 mins for my eyes to adjust to the dark again.. I thought I've spoilt my eyes!!!


This above picture is not mine, but something I found on the net - just to show you what I've experienced. This pic shows probably at about sun down, and mine was I think noon time.

The plane was flying quite low though, if I remembered my geography correctly, at north pole, the air is very thin, the plane can't go up as high as usual.. something to do with the ozone layer thing.. right??!! not sure. But ya, the plane was flying quite low. I opened the shades a couple of times to experience the view. I was actually looking for the penguins or the polar bear! (nahhh.. not from my pic either, this is from the net again).

Here's another spectacular pic, I think this is how it looked like of the UA896 that day (again, this is from the net, a B52 bomber flying on north pole).

A fabulous week spent at Daytona Beach (Florida)

Don't get cheated by the title.. you will soon discover, why !! I was in Daytona Beach this week, to conduct CRP sessions for Manufacturing. Its a small town, down south of Florida, where SATO's horticulture labeling division is located.

I arrived there on Sunday. My hotel (Bahama House) was located right there at the beach side. The view of the beach was awesome.. Had I known good poetry, you would have definitely seen one here..

I got reminded of India's famous beach city Goa.. though I have not been there ;) It was a weekend and the beach was full of half-naked men & women flocking around. I felt like going there but the frightful thought of sessions, starting monday onwards, stopped my advancing feet.. I thought "Beta, sessions ke liye prepare kar le... nahi toh.. " You see, poor me :( I could satisfy my eyes only, that too from far-off. Beach was closed during weekdays, anyhow peeping from the balcony wasn't restricted.. PJ no?? But during night time the sight was far more pleasing.. what to talk about the soft sound of the sea-waves, striking gently against the shore.

The full week then passed in complete Working Mode. Start for office at 8am, conduct sessions and get back to hotel around 6-6.30pm. After that, have some snack, listen to music (Rang de Basanti topped the charts here) while relaxing on the bed.. and of course think what to do next.. during night time chat with online friends, if could catch one.. I really wished there was somebody else too along with me !! I am not going to talk about what I found to eat there, otherwise all my colleagues will say "Hey this guy has got nothing else to talk about apart from his food" :) In short, I'll just say, I was badly missing all my food lying unattended in my fridge back home.

Friday evening, when the beach was again open for the public, I got a chance to fulfill my long awaited desire.. the experience was quite satisfying !! I strolled on the beach almost for an hour. When I was back in my room, I don't know when I fell asleep.. luckily I had set the alarm !! Saturday morning, time to catch flight back to Chicago. After arriving here, the first thing that I did was to make a full cup of tea and drink it :)

Sher, where are you man... come back buddy.. its very painful writing all this stuff here !!

Shop Till You Drop Dead ... Part 2

And the champion is ...

Directions to our fav shops

Eliz has been pressing me to upload the directions to the factory outlet, so here it is ...

(i have a feeling she'll try to squeeze in another trip there next week ;) esp since she bought a new suitcase today! )

Btw we again violated the toll today (again it was unintentional!) Threw in 50 one-cent coins plus a dime. Red light did not turn green for us and car behind us gave Jauhari the dirty look :) Got one more chance left ...

Taxi ! Taxi ! Taxi !

This week, we've been taking the taxi going back and forth to SATO office. It costed about US16-18 one way. The money is not a hindrance, but the waiting time and not flexible is what pissin the team off.
The taxi is not punctual. If you call now, they will say it will come like 20-40 mins! and most times, it never comes on time (there's a couple of incidents that we had to call back the Taxi company because the taxi never there.. hissssh).

I'm impressed with Singapore taxi service... far advanced than this people!

Anyway, today, at about 2pm, I went with Geoff and Jim to pickup the rental car... FINALLY!! They rent the car for 6 months period.. and Jim had to put in his driving license, and pay with the credit card. I'm not sure who's in the 'ok' driving list, and who's covered for insurance.
It's a nice car man.. sporty. Pontiac Grand Prix. very sporty - will take pictures soon.

In the meantime, safe driving!

Sumeet the Chef !

Last nite Sumeet cooked us dinner!

Well.. mostly from the pre-cooked frozen stuff. It was good anyways.. we had bunch of parathas, nan, and whatever more of indian veggies stuff..

The rest of the girls brought in their plates and cutlery because not enough for everyone. All was happy, and full at the end. The girls helped us to do the washing later.. thank god!

Tasneem, Jauhari, Cecilia, Elizabeth, myself and Sumeet (camera man).. sleep with our tummy full of parathas!

3rd Tallest Tower in the World

Sears Tower
This pictures has been too long overdue.. we went to downtown Chicago about 2 weeks back, just before Padma leave to Europe on that Saturday evening. We rushed to downtown to catch the glimpse of the 3rd tallest building in the world - the SEARS TOWER.

Three of us (Padma, Sumeet, and myself) left about 12 noon from the Country Inn hotel, and went straight via I55 into town. I've assigned Sumeet as our official navigator - and you know what, my navigator says.. I just don't know how to read maps.. we can ask people, and since we're going to the tallest tower, can't we just look at the Tower and drive towards it??

That's exactly what we did. I drove the car towards to Tower. Everytime we're not heading towards it, we make sure we take the street turns going nearer it.
Interestingly, in town, there's some really nice sight, and whenever we past some really nice garden, Padma would say.. STOP here.. i want to take pictures of that nice tulips!

Anyway, we found the Tower, park our car just about 5 mins down the road, and took lotsa pictures of the streets.

We decided to go up the tower to view the entire Chicago city.

Here's me with Padma up on the Skydeck. Nice big picture of the Tower.
The lines was quite long up the deck, overall it was nice. Costed us US11.95 each.
The Petronas Twin Tower should charge people going up the bridge.




Below pic, yet again is Sumeet, standing as tall as the Tower.


I wanted to put Padma's pic here, but he had deleted it from his laptop. So Padma, you can upload yours yourself I guess.

Time was really short, Padma need to catch a flight to Germany later in the evening, and we've planned to leave the city by 4pm. I remembered looking at the watch, we left about 4:05pm from the roadside, but we got lost in town trying to get into the I55 highway (we finally got on it at 4:50pm - Padma was furious at us!). Straight zoom back to Country Inn.

Bye-bye to Padma.

Devon Avenue.. Chicago's Little India !

Today, we had to send our rental car back due to some circumstances (details can ask later..) I drove to the rental office closeby the O'Hare International Airport, it was raining quite heavily, and lucky we didn't get lost, arrived at the rental office just about 45mins or so.

From there, Tasneem went back with SATO taxi, while Sumeet and myself took the car-rental shuttle to the airport, and took a taxi straight to Devon Ave. Sumeet has been longing for his vegetarian indian food too much.. and today's mission is to get his indian groceries. A friend told him that we can find those stuff in Devon Ave. To our surprise, Devon Ave. is like 22 blocks long, from East to West of Chicago. The taxi fella ask, where in Devon? none of us know.. told the driver to just go to Devon Ave, and we'll tell where to stop.

After about half an hour, we reached Devon Ave... and it doesn't look like what we've expected in the beginning.. getting worried.. we let the driver just drive through the street... until.. we saw many shops signages saying indian this.. indian that.. pakistani..this.. that.. halal meat.. halal chicken.. halal lamb.. INTERESTING!!

Quickly asked the driver to stop there, and it costed us US40 !!! fug. Sumeet tried to nego, but the black driver was saying that's the rate.. we paid immediately, and get the hell out (yup, we took the receipt of course!).


On the street, well.. it's like Serangoon Road back in Singapore. As you can imagine, Sumeet was extremely excited.. he was looking left..right..left.. right.. don't know where to go.. actually it's more like.. not sure which one to go first!
While walking down the street, he said.. 'Sher.. here you can really smells indians man!, smells the food man!' with such a big smile in his face - never seen him so happy since. I guess, he does feels at home that time. Well, as long as he's happy.. I'm happy.

We can't resist to stop for a snack, had Samosa and Gulab Jamun.. and I wanted some Ras Malai too.. but.. saving that for later ;)

This is me, didn't know I own a restaurant here?.. err.. commission?

We went to shop at the place in the 1st picture - called Patel Brothers - quite popular, a lot of people coming in and out. Raw stuff - spices, canned, bottle, frozen, name it.. you'll get it there (indian stuff that is..). Sumeet took more than an hour there.. a trolley full of food. BTW, stuff from Malaysia is also there.. the 'Kawan' Brand frozen Paratha.. Roti Canai is there too! hhmm Malaysian indian also know how to market things here... not bad.. I wish there's nasi lemak :(

I'll continue our Devon's adventure.. sleepy now. Been a long day, tomorrow gotta work. In the meantime.. our fridge now is full of frozen parathas!

Eat at Joe's

Joe's Crab Shack

Another eatery that we've been passing by too often, but didn't get the chance to stop-by just because the rest of the people in the car doesn't feel like going, and grass-eater like Sumeet objected it big-time!

Anyway, I finally managed to force him to go there, with Cecilia and Elizabeth. And to make sure Sumeet is happy, we had a lovely lady sit next to him!!
As you can see, that makes his day! While me, at another corner... having a hearty meal of SNOW CRAB!! :)


here is all of us, that's Cecilia and Elizabeth

Nicely decorated seafood restaurant. Meals a bit pricey though. Typical meal is around US10-14, but it's HUGE.. 3 of us shared a meal (a platter of shrimp, crab, calamari, with rice, potato for US18), and Sumeet, with his garlic bread and alfredo pasta.

The restaurant is in Bolingbrook, about 5-10 mins drive, near the Best Buy, Lowe, Target shopping place.

I would come back with other seafood lovers!

moved to the apartment

Last nite, all 6 off us (Jauhari, Sumeet, Elizabeth, Cecilia, Tasneem, and myself) moved from the CountryInn hotel to the apartment. It's about 10mins away from the CountryInn, and about 15-20mins away to the client office. SATO has rented 3 apartments with 2 bedrooms each.
Hmm.. apartment, so.. no more exclusive hotel housekeeping service... and no more free breakfast every morning!.. I'm missing my favorite waffle already.. :(

Anyway, we had to do grocery shopping then, we had to shop for most things we normally do at home.. stuff from soap, tissues, garbage bag, sponge for washing dishes, washing liquid etc etc.. the list goes on.. oh oh... not to mention.. Jauhari even get onions, salt, sugar, pepper, cooking oil, eggs, etc.. the whole works!

Romeoville... smallville?

hiya..

Since the blog was up, I've been getting lotsa queries from colleagues or family members on the exact location of Romeoville.

Romeoville is a town south west of Chicago. About 35 miles away, and if you take the I55 highway, will take you about 30min to 45min depending on traffic - can be quite heavy during peak times.

The Red Star in the picture is our little town.

The bigger town is Joliet to the south, and Naperville to the north. All about 10-15 min drive only. Many shopping places around there. The ladies seems to be doing lotsa that, oh.. not to mention our only hero.. sumeet.

Click here for straight link to yahoo for Romeoville map zoom in/out.

Padma was here

Back in Romeoville, I had quite a hectic week with the real CRP2.0 for SATO Labelling Solutions America and SATO America Inc. organisations, to define their business processes. Although I've only 2 users, but as Padma put it.. these people are good, better than her earlier trip to Europe. The session was pack with Padma leading the entire show. I had to jump in once in a while to cover the easy ones.. right padma? Took this with Padma's brand new Canon IXUS 60.


Anyway, we had yet another our favorite neighbourhood diner.. a real american diner at the Applebee's.

here's all of us.

Padma and Sumeet shared their Brocolli Pasta Alfredo, and me.. as you can see.. having a garden of salads! Always envy Robert's meal..

Oh.. Amanda.. serve us well that nite.. the best service we've all had since... gave big tips!

Maid in the Mist

btw, if you think the view from the above of the falls is spectacular.. wait till you get into the Maid in the Mist.

The view and experience is just... magnificient.

Tasneem... Sumeet.. Robert.. all of us.. was wet!

Maid in the Mist.. is a must ride if you're in Niagara Falls.

Falls Illumination

More pictures in Niagara.

You can just feels the thunder of the tons of water from the lake Ontario into the lake Erie.


We all stayed in a lodge, 10 minutes walk to the American Falls.. I shared a room with Sumeet, and Robert with his wife lah! The room so so.. just enough for bed and breakfast.

The main reason we stayed nearby the Falls was because we want to make sure we won't missed the night illumination of the Falls.

See.. how beautiful!

Worth the freezing temperature.. was at about 40 degress fahrenheit that nite. Superb!

I had MEAT!

I just got to tell you this. I had my first meat on my first weekend here in the US. A really nice juicy beef kebab! Look at this picture, the moment I saw this mobile cart, I was literally dreaming of having it. Ask Sumeet.

I even thought of ordering more for dinner later... but Sumeet talked me out of it... to take yet again another veggie Indian food.... not complaining.. but I need meat!