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.