4. Ohio

Month: January 2015

Location: Mayfield Heights

“You dog twisted in the wet mud of lust!!”

But more on that later.  For my January ‘State’ I was visiting Ohio, more specifically my friends YP and Kay in Mayfield Heights.  I had been planning to visit them for ages and it just so happened to be a new month and a new State.  Two things are certain when we get together – We eat a lot of good food and we watch ‘Harry Potter’ movies, and then play trivia regarding the same.  Yeah, we are regular party animals!

Mayfield Heights is town just 20 minutes from Cleveland and last year when I was visiting them, we had stopped over there to visit the ‘Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame’.  Cleveland may not be as glamorous as some of the other cities, what with its miserable winters and a general perception of being a “blue collar” town.  Plus, let’s not get started on the sports teams.  But it does have this museum and that makes up for a lot.  As I walked through the museum that day it was fantastic to see all of my favorite bands and musicians, as well as some of the memorabilia, such as the original hand written lyrics of “In My Life” by John Lennon.  It is place that requires multiple visits and while it would not be possible on this visit, I definitely intend to return.

There was plenty of amazing food

My friends picked me up at the airport and my first question was “What’s for dinner”.  We arrived home and that commenced a feast which started with mushroom tarts, included an outstanding homemade pizza and concluded with homemade "molten chocolate lava cake" and ice cream.  We followed that with – what else – a ‘Harry Potter’ movie, though we had decided not to do the 8 film marathon like last time.  This was interspersed with ‘Harry Potter’ trivia – because that’s what we do – and in the end it had been a good start to the visit.  The next day dawned with more good food, including homemade pancakes.  What followed then was probably the most fun I have had over all of my travels.

And drinks of course

Growing up I wanted a lot of ‘Bollywood’ films – most of them because I had no choice.  Most of the films – especially the ones of my youth - often trend towards being pantomimes and caricatures of themselves.  But audiences love then and there is a certain charm associated with the accompanying fanfare.  When I was in California last month I was introduced to something called “Honest Trailers”, which are hilarious parodies of ‘Hollywood’ films.  We discovered something similar for ‘Bollywood’, knows as “Pretentious Movie Reviews” and for the rest of the day, we rolled in laughter – interspersed with eating of course.  There was a short trip to the Mall and Grocery store, but my time was more or less spent laughing my tail off.  One of the movies made such an “impression” on us that we decided to see the film in its entirety.  With rich dialogues such as the one with which I start this blog, a lot of alcohol was consumed – along with more cake and ice cream. 

The next day was my last and we spent the morning chatting and laughing – and eating of course.  Before I left, YP and Kay gave me my Christmas present, a bar shaped box containing multiple types of liqueur filled chocolates; which was perhaps appropriate after a weekend like this.  Yeah, it had not been a typical “51/51” visit with touristy attractions and restaurants.  But it had been one of the very best and I wouldn’t have traded this for anything else.