Sunday, the girls went shopping (Nicky, Sinead and Noelle).  I didn’t fancy it to be honest, I was ‘shopped out’ and thought the plan was to stay in the hotel.  However, it changed and I was cool with staying behind, I was knackered after the previous couple of days.  (I can’t say I wasn’t tempted by the shopping thing though!)

After my 3 hours of sleep, I woke up totally buzzin’ for some reason (throwbacks to Corinne from Big Brother anyone? ”Are ya buzzin?”) so I decided to put my excess energy to good use and hit up the gym.

No, I’m not sick! 😛

I spent almost an hour there, until the foot I’d hurt out and about in Chicago, started to play up again.  It also didn’t hurt that the Grand Prix was on and there was only me and a guy interested in the cooking channel working out, so I got to watch the first half of the race while hitting up the treadmill.  (As it turned out the Grand Prix was as interesting as watching paint dry, but, can’t have it all, every race, eh?)

I’d intended on going to the pool after, but I got caught up in conversation with Neil instead and we made plans for lunch – with Brendan and Sinead – the other girls weren’t hungry as they’d had breakfast not too long before.

The day was spent lounging, catching up on blogging, chatting to people on FB chat, catching up on emails, enjoying the sunshine – and almost getting in the pool, but, given my current physical ‘issues’ (more in a separate weight-update post), I didn’t wanna strip to my swim suit in front of so many people.

After a dinner in TGI’s, Nicky, Sinead, Brendan and I decided to go to the cinema to see Super 8.  It wasn’t a bad film, not OMGWOW, but not bad.  Pretty interesting.  The main characters are kids, yet the movie is for adults which gives the film additional layers.  It was a sci-fi film, so, in parts largely unbelievable, but it was a fun evening…

…until we got lost!

En route back to the hotel, we got lost (on the toll road – which wasn’t overly fun) for a while, ended up by the airport (we joked that I should have brought my luggage with me and just stayed the 8 hours til check-in! haha!).  Thankfully, Brendan (our DD) was a seemingly unflappable driver (aside from his refusal to stop at Stop Signs like any normal driver in the US! LOL!) and got us back to the hotel in one piece, albeit after midnight so we were all knackered and went straight to bed! (After I ordered a taxi from the hotel to the airport for the next morning.)

A few minutes after my head hit the pillow, the guy at the desk (who had sorted my taxi) called me and asked if I’d rather get the hotel shuttle to the airport for half the price of a taxi – I snapped that up with both hands and konked out!

6.30am came around pretty quickly and I shared a shuttle, to the airport, in the rain, with a nice lady from Vancouver.  Being a silver elite (oooooooh!) I got to go through the ‘fast queue’ at airport security, which made my travelling a heck of a lot easier!

The flight was delayed, at least a couple hours (but the pilot managed to make up a lot of time in the air) and it was, without a doubt, the most entertaining flight I’ve ever been on.

I sat next to a Latina business woman and an African American air hostess – all we did, for the entire flight, was giggle – and draw dirty looks from other passengers.  It was a riot! (Not literally!)  The air hostess said she was determined to start a ‘Truth about being an air hostess’ blog – she really should, she was hilarious!

The entire conversation was politically incorrect, we covered politics, social issues, our own personal histories – it really was a great flight.  They were two fab travel-buddies, even if the rest of the passengers didn’t agree!

I couldn’t wait to get off the plane, I love getting home to my boy.  I was in great form and, although the trials and tribble-ations of his work made him somewhat grouchy, it was still good to be home – especially since we had Chinese for dinner!

All in all my wee jaunt to Chicago was great fun, though I did come away from ‘The Windy City’ with questions about my own character and a few actual bruises (that Col wasn’t particularly impressed by) to nurse.

I keep telling Col that he should come with me to Chi-town some day, maybe then I’d get to see Wrigley Field!