Snowing again!

It has just started snowing again. “Remember indicate when changing lanes!... there are lanes?”

Tomorrow I get to pick up the car from the garage… and now it is snowing again! Great! The only thing is that it was the bloody snow that got me in this mess in the first place. I'll drive more careful this time… in fact I’ll stay on the pavement, it is safer there!

A Pizza Pie!

Today I found a taste sensation pizza pie from Georgio's pizza Indianapolis. This is amazing. It is not pizza as you and I would know it but rather pizza with a bread type lid. Very nice!

A couple of guys from work and I went there for lunch. It is a kind of buffet type thing where you point at what you want and then the plate it up (and toast it if needed) and you pay at the end of the line. You buy it by the slice. When I actually ordered it none of it was cut up so it came as a bit of a shock to how much you get… the answer is LOADS.

I have to say I regret ordering two pieces, but I just had at least have a go at finishing them. No one said anything, but I could tell they were thinking “Fat Bloater” (or an American equivalent).

When I sat down I told them that there must have been some sort of prescription screen between me and the food to make it seem smaller! Not quite sure they bought that one!

After work I met up with my darling Wife and Kids at Red Robin, which I guess it like TGI Fridays. Expats Sian, David and Meg had treated us to a meal there and I was late out of work. By the time I got there they had finished but after pizza-gate I think it was probably a good thing that I wasn’t eating again… it didn’t stop me from having a beer though :0)

Freezing Rain - I have never known anything like it!

I woke up this morning at 5:40am by an automated phone call from the school. You may not know this but because there are school buses here that pick up this kids. If, for whatever reason, there is a delay, an automated phone call rings every household (with a kid at that school) to say the bus will be delayed by so many hours.

Last night we got freezing rain. Being a Brit that has familiarity both the north and south of the UK, I thought I had my fair share of experience with crap weather. When I heard that there would be a delay because of freezing rain, I thought to myself “well that’s we call sleet… that’s no big deal”… and off I go to walk the garage to pick up my car to take it to the second garage.

How wrong could I have been! Freezing rain is the weirdest thing. It coats everything in the finest layer of ice, but it not the kind of ice you get back home that looks like frost. It just looks like, well, puddles…normal puddles. As soon as I stepped outside the door, I slipped and fell on my arse! I held got up (eventually) and held onto the door handle desperately trying not to fall over again.

(2 minute & 52 seconds in is what was going through my head when it happened)

I made it to the end of the street, before falling on my bum a second time. My lovely new phone went sailing down the street. Luckily it missed the storm drain.

I did a penguin type walk all the way to the garage at the end of our road. It turns out walking on the squishy/crunchy ice grass is safer than the paths. I finally made it to the garage to pick up the car.

I drove it to the second garage. The difference between this garage and the other one is that instead of hydraulic lifts, they had an inspection pit... Instead of a shiny white teeth smile he was chewing tobacco… Instead of smart overalls with their names hand stitched on them, they had jeans (complete with oil stains and hairy bum cleavage). I left him the keys and my mobile number.

I got a call from him later in the day. “we have looked at it, and we will needs some parts so sorry if this sounds a bit steep but with labor and tax it comes to $425” he says. Or course I pretended to be shocked and disgusted with the price he had quoted me, but I was literally half the price of the first place. Needless to say it is booked in for next week.

The downside is that this weekend we are without car.

How Much!

How Much!

After the steaming car breaking down in Carmel earlier in the month I have been keeping a close eye on the temperature gauge, so it doesn’t overheat again. Last night when I got back from work, it was back in the red after about 15minutes. I won’t be driving that then!

After getting some advice about the best service centers, I decided to go to the garage or “take it to the shop” as it were. There is a little place in the centre of Carmel that I took it to with a very nice clean garage. The guy there was very helpful and said that they would take a look at it and see how much it is likely to cost to fix. At work later on he rang me back saying that the radiator is cracked, it will need a new thermostat connection hoses and coolant. With labor and tax charges you are looking at a grand total of $845. WHAT THE ____________________________ flat line.

I said thank you, but we both agreed that at that cost it might be worth getting another car! I said I would talk to my wife and let you know what we want to do and drove my car a very short distance back to our apartment. After looking at the internet to get an idea of what we could buy or lease I think it would be worth getting a second opinion on the repair.

I got it covered!

On the way to work I was chatting to Dan about his weekend and asked if he had a chance to visit his sister in hospital after giving birth to a little baby boy called Benjamin (nice name).

"yes. He is a cutie" says Dan.

"is he a good sleeper or does he cry a lot" says I

"no, he is a good lad. He only really cried when he was circumcised"

"circumcised? Why was that? I know you are not Jewish"

"all baby boys are when they are born"

"WHAT?"

"yeah, it's pretty standard, you know, for health reasons"

It turns out that this is very common place here. You are born and then you lose the end of your dinkle. I read up on it on my lunch break and it turns out that this has been happening for generations to “reduce infection”. As long as you keep it clean what is the problem? Dan is surprised that they let me in the country with my foreskin, but I am not giving it up!

On the plus hand I hear they have an excess of rubber bands here!

If asked to do something, I have spent most of the day replying “I’ve got it covered”. (I think it has fallen on deaf ears though).

What a state to be in!

It’s Saturday! Treat time! Both the kids have been working really well at doing their jobs on their responsibility chart. If they do them all we go out and do something nice as a family. This works well for three reasons. 1) I want them to understand the rewards hard work can achieve. 2) It gets them to help with the upkeep of the house. 3) We are not stuck indoors all day, climbing the walls. We moved a long way to get here so the last thing I want to do is spend all day indoors and not see anything.

Last weekend I mentioned that we could go to Lincoln Zoo in Chicago. I have only been to Chicago on plane transfers and was keen to see some of the sights of the windy city. The bad news is that earlier in the week the car engine overheated again. I was not going to risk breaking down at the side of the road especially on such a long journey so I decided to rent a car. This was a full size beast of a car with all the gadgets and gismos like, wheels, brakes and everything!

Off we went with pack lunches, a change of clothes and a snow shovel in the back. The thing was that there wasn’t much to see. At this point I wouldn’t say it was foggy but it was mistier in the distance, so there wasn’t much to see. We carried on following the directions of the SatNav until we go to the outskirts of the city. The freeway was closed and there was a diversion taking us another way. We followed this road until we got to a set or train tracks that crossed the road. A train with about 40 fright carriages was right stood completely still in front of us. Kama is telling us we are not going this way!



We knew our destination was on the shore of Lake Michigan so we kept on heading north. At this point I was really glad we were not in our old Kia as this was defiantly not the place to break down. The only way I can describe this place is the dark side of Gotham city. It was very industrial looking with oil refineries and power stations either side of us. Chimneys with steam and smoke coming out of them as far as the eye can see.

We eventually got back on the “skyway” freeway that goes pretty much directly to the Zoo. Once we park up the Zoo was great! It was an open “free” zoo that was more like a park that had joggers running through it.

(When I say “free” I mean you didn’t have to pay to get in. The animals were still in cages you understand). There were very interesting exhibits and you can get very close to the animals.

Before we knew it, the sun had gone down and it was time to start our long journey home. The SatNav ran out of batteries on the way up the Chicago so all we had were the maps on our mobile phones.

Before making our way home I thought it would be nice to have a leisurely cruise around the city to see some of the sights, such as sears tower and… ok that is all I could think of, but there were tall buildings and twinkly lights and I was in a big American city… Just go with will you!

So on we went… “look at the tall buildings kids”… Beep! “hang on, let me let this taxi get past…. Right… on we go, look at the twinkly lights kids with the …” Beep! … “sorry kids it’s another taxi trying to get past.. right then… over that side there is a…” beep beep” oh for goodness sake!” Sod this, let’s get out of here. I carry on down a stretch of road past trump towers and see some horse drawn carriages. I slow down to get past them. BBBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPP! Comes the sound of the taxi driver behind me. He then comes around me, cutting both me and 3 horses up! These guys are crazy!

We find the skyway again and go on our merry way when I hear a little voice from the back seat “I need a wee wee”. The timing on this couldn’t be better. On one hand I had just spent an hour telling Zack the importance of letting us know when you need to go so we can do something about it, and on the other, I am steaming along a very fast road that I can only describe as spaghetti junction on drugs. If you make a wrong turn here and miss your exit it could take you an additional 30 miles to correct your mistake!

Its dark, I’m going with the fast flow of traffic…. My boy needs to pee…I see a slip road to McDonalds… I see my chance… I take it! The only problem is the slip road went straight past the golden arches of McDonalds and kept on going. We finally got off and pulled into a gas station that had a little shop type thing next to it. Yes, you had guessed it, I had made a wrong turning into the hood.

I suddenly became very aware that I was driving a very new car in a very poor neighborhood. I didn’t know whether to worry about Zack’s wet pants or mine! I asked Sarah and Katie to stay in the car… and keep the doors locked. Zack and I go looking for the toilet… that turns out didn’t exist. Nothing a pee behind the dumpsters didn’t cure.

Needles we were happy to finally get back on the interstate highway back to Indiana. Happy until the fog crept in. Driving 140miles in 10 meter visibility fog is exhausting!

The car goes back tomorrow!

my accent is affecting my noodle

Before I start telling you this, and you don’t know me, My name is Ben German.

So there is this place in the centre of the Indianapolis called noodles and company. They do a menu where there are four price ranges to choose from depending on size. There is Asian, American or Italian to choose from. When you order, you line up, say what you want, pay for it and then say if you want to eat in or take out. Pretty straight for forward right?

I went there with four of my co-workers, Eric, Dan, Anne and Greg. Anne and Eric wanted to eat at the office so the plan was that Dan, Greg and I eat in the restaurant.

Dan orders first, “I’ll eat in” he says to the lady taking the order.

“Here is your number… put this on your table so the server can bring you the order” says the girl at the cash register.

Then it is may turn. I give her my order.

“eat in or take out?” she says

“in please” I say.

“Here is your cup, and what is your name?” she asks

“German” I say.

“John” she says.

“German” I repeat.

“Jim? ” she asks again.

“shewer” (translation: “sure”) I say, throwing in the towel with this line of questioning. I obviously have an accent when I talk and it is lunchtime in a very busy restaurant with an ever increasing line behind me.

I sit back at the table and notice that Dan has a glass drink container rather than the paper take out one I have. A little concerned, I go back to the lady and say. “I’m good to eat in, right?”

“Oh, you want to eat in?.. er OK, I can change your order. It’s Jim right?” she says.

“Er yeah...Jim” I say looking down and kicking my feet.

I then sit down realizing that both Greg and Dan have numbers and I don’t. There server than comes over to drop the food off at our table and says “You changed you order to eat in right?” “Yes” I said with a sigh of relief. “So this is yours then Eric” the server says to me.

“No Eric is stood over there to take, I’m er Jim.”

Even now I don’t know I ate Eric’s food, but I do know that my name is not Jim and I wasn’t going to ask for a beer. If I got asked for ID and I showed then one that said Ben German, it would only make matters worse!

My accent is changing… and I’m starting to correct myself.

So I was on the way home today and a got stopped at one red light after another. With Dan, my co-worker in the car, I raised my voice at the 7th traffic light and found myself saying “come on”, except I pronounced it “Cam ouwn”.

I also noticed that my Ts are turning into Ds. “Shall I spread some peanut budder on it”. My Rs are becoming really pronounced… especially when I say “sure”… I tend now to say “Shwer”. Strange really, I always thought my Rs was nice!

Going around in circles

I went to the drop Sarah off at Castleton Mall to do some shopping and I took the kids swimming. Using the HTC Android phone, I did a search for swimming pool. It found three! The kids were gutted that the places it found were outdoor swimming pools that were covered in snow. I threw in the towel and said, fair enough we will go to the one at the Monon center that is inside. (Generous I know!)

The kids love the Monon swimming pool mainly because of the C current. That is what I am calling it by the way. It looks like the letter C in another letter C. As you go around in circles, the current of the water soon picks up and before you know it you find yourself drifting along. Zack loved it but Katie can only handle it in short bursts before she gets a little freaked out. I usually stick with Katie in the pool if she wonders off as Zack is a stronger swimmer, but from the other side of the pool you just see the top of Zack’s head going around in circles and there is a lifeguard standing right over the C. I once told the kids it was like a big toilet. This is something that I regret as Zack shouted from the other side of the pool “Dad look, I am a poo that has just been flushed”.

“My boy everyone!” – I’m so proud!

Steamy

We were just on our way back from sledging and Sarah said is the engine meant to steam like that? I look down and see that the temperature gauge is pointing at the red.

I quickly pull over to a petrol station that we luckily happen to be next to at the time. I lift the bonnet (hood) of the car and as soon as I manage to prop it up, a couple in a car pull over. A guy “Terrence” opens the passenger side window and asks if I need any help. “erm, yes please” I say knowing that I have only looked at the engine twice before, and one of those was to look at it in an all knowing “stroky beard” type way to show Sarah that the car had an engine when I first bought it. Truthfully I didn’t know where to begin.

Terrence (my guardian angel) got out of the passengers side holding two containers of engine coolant saying “Looks like you need some radiator coolant”.

I couldn’t help but think, how many people travel around with engine coolant containers (yes plural… “Containers”) in the passenger foot well, looking for steaming engines.

“Yep, it looks like the engine has run dry. Pour this in there and a little more in here, until it gets to the max line.”

Glug Glug Glug…

After emptying the two containers he had into the engine he said, “We needs some more, do you know what kind to get?”

“Erm”

“Let me go ahead and show you… This is 50/50 and will freeze in this kind of weather, but this one is a little money but its good for this time of year… Have you got some money? Here let me pay for this…” says Terrence putting his hand in his pocket.

“No Terrence, I will pay for this, you are being generous enough” I say firmly.

“OK, you enter your PIN and I’ll go ahead and put this in the engine.”

Cut to 10 minutes later and I have bought another bottle of coolant (so I have spare) and a bottle of oils that Terrence has checked and suggested I top up. He wouldn’t let me buy him replacements for the ones of his he used.

“OK, I think you are good to go. Drive safe now!” he says with a firm handshake.

“You sir are a gentleman and a saint. Thank you so much” I say in a truly grateful tone.

“Not at all, I’m just glad I could be of help”

And with that, he was gone. It really makes me question the type of person I am and the way I would go about helping someone out. I am sure if someone was in a spot and asked me for help, I would help them, but here it seems people are actively looking for good deeds to do.

As I write this I can’t help but think back to the homeless people under the bridge on the way to work and the men I have seen standing at the traffic light on freeways holding signs saying “I want to get back on my feet, looking for work, any help will be appreciated, god bless”.

I would love to help them and I would certainly pay them for any work they would do for me. The truth is, what work could I give them? I certainly don’t want to be just giving them cash, but this guy has been out here, standing on that spot, holding that sign in -4C for the last 3 hours.

It plays on my conscience.

Snow

It is really snowing. The weather man said there was 6 inches, (his wife said there was just 4). It is really good that the roads were pretty much clear (snow ploughed and gritted) by the time I left for work. They just deal with it here. The snow is very weird though. It is so light and powdery, you can’t make snowman or throw snowballs because it just doesn’t stick together!

VERY Long Day

Quick blog entry… Working hard… Long Hours. Left for work at 8, started work at 9, finished at 8:45 got home at 9:30. Its good work, but when the pressure is on to hit a deadline, it all hands on deck… working all hours.

Tropical Toilet

One difference that I have notice that is a little odd is the way that the heating works here. In the UK we have radiators and fires to warm everything up, whereas here they tend to have what they call “furnaces” and “heating ducts”. When the heating does come on it is more like switching on the car blowers than say the “tap tap tap” of water filled radiator warming up. The most frustrating thing about this is that you will be watching TV and it will kick in. It is so load that you have to turn the volume of the TV up a bit to hear over it. When it switched off the TV is blaring out whatever commercial happens to be on at the time… “HEFTY HEFTY HEFTY” shhhhhhhh be quiet!

I guess the reason why they make them like this is that these double up as air conditioning in the summer. Let’s face it, most of the UK don’t really need this as it never really gets massively hot for long periods of time.

At work there is a similar system, but for whatever reason the heating in the men’s toilets is broken. You can go in there sometimes and it can be like what is termed as a “meat locker” but sometimes it can be like a sauna.

“Are you putting more water on the hot stones?... no, I’m just peeing on the urinal mints.”

Out to the Movies

I have just got back from watching Avatar. My god this is a good film. I hate really long films and my attention span lasts about…. What were we talking about again? This film is 3 hours long but every second of it was good. That’s all I will say about it as I hate over hyped movies. I went with Dan (my work mate) and two of his buddies (Steve and Rob). I offered to drive as he picked up the tickets.

I am not used to Indiana cold. Sure I know that back in the UK it is cold and rainy and miserable weather, well, most of the time. I also know that I love moaning about it. When we came out of the movie theater I have literally never been in that temperature. My car said it was 2 degrees. No biggie right? Don’t forget this is Fahrenheit not Celsius. It work out about -16C. We all ran to the car to get the heaters on full blast (not that it made much difference).

We then went on to an “Irish Pub”. I was the closest thing to being Irish there, but it was a nice atmosphere. Dan referred to as a smokers’ pub. If you like to smoke then this is the place for you.

We sat down at a table and a cute girl came over to me and said, “Can I get you a drink”. Oh Yeah… I’ve still got it! I may be losing my hair but with this smile and these dimples I am truly irresistible. “I’ll have a bottle of Stella, please”

“And you sir” she says talking to Dan.

“I’ll have a Stella too please” says Dan.

“and for you guys…” she says to Steve and Rob.

I’m starting to think she will crack on to anyone… either that or she is serving us drinks. It turns out she was serving us drinks. I have never been to a bar were you have had a server before. A tab wasn’t opened, everyone has ordered… a round hasn’t been bought… It’s all very confusing. What happens if one of the guy’s drinks like a fish and one of the others (me) is a lightweight?

As I sat pondering this, two more of Dan’s friends Leslie and Zack joined us.

I have had one, Dan’s had two, Steve is on water, Rob has had two, Zack’s ordered food, but was that more than… or did I have the… so how many did…

At the beginning I offered to buy a round but now I have no idea of how much I need to pay, but I do know that it is likely to be more than the $30 I have in my pocket.

Crunch time… what’s the damage?

“Here is you bill sir” giving me the bill for just my drink… “and here is yours” giving Dan his. Before I had worked out what was going on, Dan had already paid his. Technically I got out of buying a round, but I think Dan could see I was kind of flustered with the whole experience. I will buy you a pint next time we are out Dan… promise!

After paying up, it was time for a run back to the car… My god its cold!

More like a home by the week!

We finally got a TV cabinet. No big deal right, but hey an few months ago there was NOTHING in the front room (that includes wife and kids)