DQ Fun

So today I thought I would give myself a little treat. I have been working on two projects that went live this week. The Tropicana mobile site (seen by going to Tropicana.com using an iPhone, or similar) and the rice-a-roni.com website.

There is a Dairy queen just at the top of the street where we live. I guess you would describe dairy queen a bit like McDonalds, but instead of a large selection of burgers, there is a selection of ice cream. They have savory stuff too but it is mainly ice cream.

As I came home today I could see it was busy, and thought to myself I might pop in there and have an ice cream…. But I’ll do this after dinner. Doing it that way I will only go if I am not full. I love the idea of going out for ice-cream. It is not something you generally do in there UK, but it is quite a common occurrence here. My rule of thumb is this: If you are willing to walk (not drive) the ice cream place you can have it. If you’re not you don’t. At the very least, doing it this way you force yourself to do some exercise to get it.

When I got in the there it was heaving! There was a line of about 10 people in front of me, as well as the people who had ordered and where waiting for the food to be prepared to take it away… Not to mention the line of car circling the building waiting at the drive thru window to get served. The way it generally works is that one person takes the order and the cash and somebody else preps the food.

It was really loud in there and the lady taking my order could hardly hear was I was saying.

“I really sorry, I don’t hear so well. I’m Sikh so it is difficult to understand” she says.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m British and nobody understands what I say either. It sounds like we have a common problem” I say as she is taking my order.

“I much prefer your voice to the yap yap of….”

“CAN I HAVE THE ONE WITH THE ORIO TOPPING” I say, interrupting her before she gets a chance to finish her sentence since we were stood in a full restaurant.

The next thing I do is pay. Let me introduce you to a very childish game I like to play in take away restaurants. When you pay the cashier asks you your name. The first time this happened to me I though the girl was being a bit forward, but then I realized that it was to call it out when my food was ready. OK, so here are the rules of the game:

1. Pay cash. If you have a credit card they can read your name right off it, and it can cause problems (trust me on this, I learnt the hard way)

2. Make sure the restaurant is busy

3. Say it quickly, but spell it slowly.

When you food is ready they call out your name. So far I have got away with the posh English double barreled name of “Harry bool-larks” but bollocks doesn’t mean much here (made me laugh though) and “Paul Mikeoc” that a few people looked up at.

I’m going to up my game and give a Russian name of “Oliver Clothsof”.

Louisville Kentucky Trip.

I want to take advantage of seeing as much of the states as I can. So far we have been to Illinois, Ohio and of course Indiana. Today I wanted to head south to Kentucky! Home of the… well… colonel sanders and KFC (although technically he was from Indiana, but they don’t shout about that much).

We went to a place called Louisville which is right on the other side of the Indiana/Kentucky border. Once we got there we headed for the Louisville Science Center where they had a robots exhibit. Zack loved it.

It was a nice sunny day with an experience at a place called white castle that left me thinking we really were the other side of the tracks.

Gradually and gradually we are going further out to experience the different parts of America. We have booked for a holiday in North Carolina, so I think it will be a real challenge entertaining the kids for more than 10 hours of sitting in the back seat of the car.

Dora The Explorer... Bullets... Dora the Explorer... Bullets

This is what happened in WalMart yesterday.