Catching up. Part 2.

I still have so much more to write about. So more bullet points! I know I wont get the whole of the time between 22nd December and now in this entry either!

• 22nd December I met up with the two ladies who moved over here around the same time as us. We met at Champagne for a coffee (well hot chocolate for me!) and cake and swapped presents. Well actually they were just decorations for the tree- we all had decided to try and find each other tacky Christmas decorations for the tree and we had to hang them on the tree.
• The rest of 22nd was spent in preparation for my family arriving- housework and cooking a delicious slow cooked chili with jacket (baked) potatoes. My mum, dad and brother arrived around half 8 and the evening was spent eating said meal, chatting and a few drinks.
• Mum and I headed out on 23rd to Costco, Walmart, Cupcake shop, Michaels, Ralphs, Trader Joes and Bishers Butchers to pick up all the bits for Christmas whilst my brother dad and hubby headed out to look at a mall and go to a few other places. We had a relaxing evening with Pizza. My brother and I also put together a Gingerbread house- which promptly fell apart.

• Christmas eve we headed out to Coronado, had a wander around the parts we had been to before but also discovered a completely different part which was near the ferry landing, I have posted pictures before of Coronado but here are a few of the bits which we found which we hadnt seen before.

•  On the way back from Coronado we headed to the San Diego Chargers Stadium, known as the Qualcomm stadium. This is were the American football team play. The reason for the visit was my brother needed to get some bits for his friend who supports them. My brother however is a Detroit fan and Detroit had beaten them just a couple of days before. Oops! 

•  The evening of the 24th my mum and I were baking sausage rolls (using the pork mince we had picked up from the butchers), Cheese and onion rolls, Cheese straws and cookies.
• Christmas day we had a lovely breakfast and then packed up the car with the BBQ and foods to cook. We first had a wander along Mission beach, then walked back up Mission Bay before having a BBQ right next to the beach.

• On the way home from Mission Beach we headed to La Jolla where we saw Seals, Sealions, squirrels and hummingbirds.

•  As Christmas day fell on a Sunday everyone had the Monday off in lieu- in the UK this would have been a bank holiday anyway. Most people were out at the sales, we however decied to head to Ramona and Julian.
• The following day was our mall day, we went out to Fashion Valley Mall and to Mission Valley, I cant recall whether I purchased anything though!
• My brother and dad went to Flying Leathernecks Aviation Museum whilst my mum and I went to Costco on 28th- or should I say we tried to go to the Costco that the sat nav was telling us to go to but this didnt exist so it was then looking for another one instead! Once we were finished we picked up my brother and dad and headed to North County Mall.
• 29th we headed to the Plaza Camino Real Mall then drove through Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana and Del Mar. That evening we all went for a meal (including hubby of course) to On the Border, the food was pretty good! We saw our first black widow spider outside! EEK!
• We headed to Balboa Park on the 30th, my mum and I went round the zoo whilst my brother and dad had a wander round the park! It was so busy in there though that by about 3 we headed out, we had seen all of the more endangered animals during that time.

• New Years eve we all headed down to Downtown. We managed to find parking at $1 an hour which was much cheaper than the car parking we normally use- I believe that one is about $10 or $15 a day, we had a wander around the Gaslamp district, headed to Horton Plaza Mall, and walked down to Seaport village where they were setting up for the evening where some guys were jumping across from the North to South parts of the harbour, or it may have been the other way! It was getting a bit chilly- whilst it is warm during the day we find that the evenings are cooler so we headed back to the apartment and chilled for the evening with nice food and some alcohol!

OK, I think I will end here as I have concluded December, another entry will follow soon!

Catching up- Part 1.

It seems I have not written in here in close to two months. Oops indeed.

Sometimes life just gets in the way and then the more you think about what you need to write about the less inclined you are to do so.

There is NO physical way I can write all the posts I need to do to fill in for the huge gap in writing so a bullet point type entry seems to be the way forward.

• I had my flu jab around the end of November, it could be a complete coincidence, however, the weekend that I wrote last also happened to be the week where I got ill. Ok. So not ill as in really ill but flu like symptoms and no energy which of course put me behind on lots of stuff.
• We went to Balboa Park on 3rd December, the plan had been to go and see the lights however, by mid afternoon I was feeling terrible so we just called it quits and headed back to our friends' home to pick up the car and go get food.

Balboa Park photos from during the day:

• We discovered the most amazing burger place that same day. I wanted comfort food, ended up with a HUGE burger at Slater's 50/50, it was delicious. So many choices and they had a ton of choices for beer as well as about 20 different tv screens to watch the football on. American football that is. I would be slightly concerned if they were showing UK football (or soccer as its known here) in an American burger joint.

• On the way back from said burger joint we took the wrong exit and found ourselves at  what is known as Fairway village where there were literally about 40 different houses covered in lights.

• 10th December we had a party, we invited all of the people we had met through Brit Meets, people from Yelp, friends we already knew through hubby's work and then a lot of other people from his work. Obviously we didnt have every single person we invited come but there was 24 people in the apartment. We worked out there were 5 Brits, 2 Australians, 2 New Zealanders, 1 Finnish, 1 Canadian, 1 Mexican, 1 Italian, 1 Cuban, 1 Japanese and 9 Americans. United Nations much? The party was a great success, it was extremely loud in the apartment and I am sure I consumed too much wine. But it was a lot of fun.
Our Christmas tree.
Christmas tree with food for party.
Party food
Morning after..
 Again from morning after.
More of same..
Oh and more
Oh dear
The fridge in the morning!
• Following the party we went for meals with two different couples. First one was at Takhrai Thai, a fantastic restaurant with authentic flavours, good food, good company. What else can you ask for? The other one was at Love Boat Sushi, I was not brave enough to try sushi but plan to eventually. I had a noodle dish which was delicious. We have promised the couple that we went with that when they get back from their trip away we will take them to Shakespeare Pub & grill as they were a lovely couple too.
• I was contacted on the day of the party on the British Expat Forum by a lovely lady who had just moved over here from Scotland with her husband. However, I didnt discover the message until 15th December. I met up with her on 21st December and we had a good wander around Fashion Valley Mall. I was extremely happy as they had just opened a Lush store there. I had NOT been really excited at the prospect of going to Anaheim store to buy Lush! Ha!

Obviously there is MUCH more to say, however... that will have to wait til next entry! This one is HUGE as it is and very photo heavy!