Moving along.

I need to step it up with the posts, things are starting to happen quickly this end now! Woo hoo!

A friend of mine who lives in the UK commented on how proactive I have been when it came to the move and how I didnt expect people to come knocking on the door. In some ways I would be inclined to agree. In others ways I could have been more proactive.

For example I could have taken part in some meets on Meetup quicker, I could have looked into Yelp quicker. In fact I could have got my learners permit, signed up for courses and the gym quicker.

However, anyone who knows me knows that I have to do things in a specific order. This order was as follows:

-Get out here.
-Find my way around the area.
-Find my feet.
-Find an apartment.
-Get the apartment paperwork sorted.
-Move in and get unpacked.
-Help M find a car.
-Submit work permit paperwork.
-Work towards meeting some people.
-DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) to get learner permit.
-Join Gym.
-Join some adult education classes.
-Learn to drive.
-Once work permit obtained (if accepted) get a job.

As it stands I am in the process of working towards meeting some people, have made an appointment for Tuesday for obtaining the learner permit, will be joining the gym and signing up for adult education classes over this weekend. I am getting somewhere.

Some weeks are more proactive than others. This week for example has had days of nothing and days of full on activity. As well as moving forward with my life I have been trying to keep up with everyone I am currently in contact with.

So. This week, what have I done?

No, I havent just sat on my bottom despite feeling a real urge to at times.

I have been Yelping, have joined Reddit too. Have been on both of those sites networking to meet other people. It is getting somewhere. I did think on Thursday I was getting nowhere. But its all looking up now.

I have been doing letters and writing Christmas cards to go with them. Sending from now onwards will mean that I wont have to spend a fortune in one hit.

Monday M got his car. I didnt actually get to see it, he didnt get home until gone 8 and then it was put in the car. I didnt get to see it on Tuesday either.

On Tuesday I posted off work permit forms in the morning, in the afternoon it was the library with a friend. In the evening I was stood on our balcony. It wasnt warm but I felt like taking in some fresh air. You can imagine how surprised I was when two Coyotes walked past. About as surprised as I had been in fact at seeing a Skunk on a porch in University Heights on Saturday! Wow at the wildlife in San Diego.

A friend and I went to the zoo on Wednesday afternoon. M and I have a year membership to the zoo which allows us into the zoo and the wildlife park as many times as we want. The zoo is enormous so when I went with the friend we only got to see about half of the animals. It is great that we can go back again.

M and I went for a meal at TGI Friday's with a work colleague. Today was off for a drink with a friend. We said we would go for coffee but as neither of us drink coffee it was juice for us both.

I feel I am slowly getting somewhere. All the hours on the internet is paying off. The scary thing is that if I get my learner permit next week then learning to drive will be the next point! EEK.

Our social life is coming together. We have a meetup we may go to tomorrow evening, another next Friday, a housewarming next Saturday then we are going for our first ever thanksgiving meal at the house of another new friend! WOW.

I need to get photos on here of the zoo. Well, the animals we have seen so far together with pictures of the Mustang. But that will have to wait.

There are up days and down days. BUT I am getting there slowly. Rome was not built in a day. A new life cant be built in a day. In fact, given that we have been here only two months we arent doing too badly at all!

Time goes by...

We have been here two months, how has time gone by so quickly.

So what has been occurring since 30th October?

We had a Halloween party/housewarming party. Though considering there was only 6 of us I would be inclined to call it a gathering. Halloween was a slight disappointment. Many of the kids are taken out to the strip malls as they get free sweets (candy) from all of the stores there. Also to get into the community in which we have our apartment you have to have a key. I am guessing the children which live in this complex went to the strip malls instead!

Friday it rained and rained and rained. Quite a change in temperature too. It seems that November to March there is more rain but there are still warm days in between. Went out with the ladies during the day on Friday. We went to a mall which is not far from here, about 7 miles in fact and is all indoors. We all decided that actually we are not a fan of that mall.

We had heard there had been an accident on the I15 so we took another route to get back. This route was long, avoided all freeways and took us around the mountains past Ramona. It was certainly scenic.

We ran into Home Goods and also ran into Walmart and Home Depot. It was one of those days though where nothing quite went to plan!

Friday evening M and I went to a meet up at the Shakespeare Bar which is downtown in the Mission Hills area of San Diego. This was via the website Meetup.com and was for British people living in San Diego. We of course want to meet up with people who have always lived in San Diego or at least in USA but this was the first meet up we had both been interested in attending.

There was about 12 people at this meet up, some had been here a year, some as long as 10 years. It was good to hear about everyone elses experiences and get some tips. We will certainly be attending future meet ups with the group.

On arriving back at the apartment we found a wet spot in front of the fridge. At first I was panicking that the fridge/freezer had broken which would be a bad thing given that we had been shopping and had salmon, beef mince, chicken, pork, Pizza and ice cream in there! However, on closer inspection it seemed the water was coming from the ceiling.

M and I went car shopping on Saturday, the day was bright, warm and sunny, retrospectively thinking we should have done something more exciting and made the most of the weather!

 M had decided he wanted a Mustang so we headed to the Auto Parkway up in Escondido. First stop was a Honda Garage. There was one in there that he test drove while I sat in the customer lounge drinking free Starbucks hot chocolate. Yum. The car was silver grey, was convertible and only a year old. However, it had 30,000 miles on the clock and was an ex hire vehicle from Hawaii. A big no. Hawaii is very wet (it rains a little at each day) so there was some rust and god knows how well it had been treated and serviced given its history as a hire car!

Saw another one which was red and was a 2006 one but didnt test drive that one. That one happened to be in the garage next to the Chevrolet garage. Well, it would be rude NOT to go look at the Camaro's while there. I so want one of those. We sat in the Transformers model. Gorgeous car but over budget by a long way!

Next up was the Ford garage, well given that the car is a Ford we knew there would be some there. There was a number of new Mustangs and four certified used vehicles. M settled on a white 2008 Mustang which has the "pony package". Yes, M is calling it his little pony! Hahah!

The process of buying the car was not simple. We dont have a cheque book. Basically when the bank account was set up it was set up to our UK address, we couldnt change the address until we were in our permanent address out here (this took 7 working days) and then we ordered the cheque books. It takes up to 3 weeks for them to arrive.

The garage couldnt take the payment by debit card, it needed to be a cheque. The bank we are with has 3 branches in San Diego county, the main one in downtown is only open Monday to Friday and the two in Chula Vista are only open til 2 on a Saturday. It was half 1. It takes 45 minutes to drive to Chula Vista from Escondido. There was NO way of us getting there in time.

On top of this we needed to have the insurance in place before we could buy the vehicle. So M was on the phone to an insurance company while we were trying to work out a way to get a cheque. We couldnt put a deposit down by card, they advised the vehicle could only be held with a cheque.

The sales person took us back to our apartment in the Mustang where we had some blank cheques (nothing printed on them at all) so that we could pick them up and have a cheque to hold the vehicle. However, this was to just hold it over the weekend, the printed one was still required.

I stayed here at the apartment when M went back which was a good thing as he was there for three hours filling in paperwork and in the end they didnt even take the blank cheque, instead they got him to sign something saying he would be back Monday. Such an ODD procedure.

We had been due to be at another meet up with the British group of people at 5pm. However, we didnt end up there til half 6 due to the delays with the car! This meet was in University Heights at the British food shop called Rosie Lees. There was a lot of the same people as the night before but they were all lovely and we got to meet a few others too.

Around 9pm we all went round the corner to a bar called Cheers which was a gay bar which they would descrive as a dive bar but I really liked it in there. There is normally only one meet up with this group a month but they had this second one to celebrate Guy Fawkes. You cant have private fireworks out here so it was just an informal gathering.

Sunday started off pretty dry. We had to take the hire car back then go and pick up another hire car (it needed to be one that could be returned up in Escondido) then headed back home. It started raining again. So Sunday was just food shopping and chores!

M tried (and failed) to start a fire in our fireplace. The apartments do not have any insulation out here so whilst they are very good at staying cool when its hot they are very chilly on an overcast or wet day.

Yesterday the maintenance guys came to the apartment, fixed the water issue (the recirculation pump was not working so there was no hot water in the en suite bathroom or in the kitchen unless you ran it for ages), replaced the two light fixtures on the balcony which were not working and also sorted the leakage issue- there was a ton of leaves blocking something which was causing the rainwater to go down a vent and drip into our apartment. Well, actually it was more of a bulge into the ceiling and then some dripping through the light fixture. They are still getting the roofing guys to come take a look. JUST in case.

If this has been our apartment in the UK we would be panicking about the cost of all the repairs and replacements. Thank goodness its rented. Takes a huge pressure off us.

Monday lunchtime it was down to get a cheque. I managed to direct M around the downtown without the use of the sat nav.  This is not an easy task believe me. M then dropped me back, took the hire car back and got the Mustang! I am yet to have sat in the car (since he has owned it) but I am sure its only a matter of time. Photos to follow (once I can take them in daylight).

Today (Tuesday) was a trip to the Post Office then to the Library with one of the ladies. It was also the first day where I have felt relaxed, no surprise given how much we have been doing!

Zoo tomorrow with the other lady! Road trip at the weekend!

Other stuff we need to do... get my flu jab, apply for my gym membership, apply for a learner's permit (for me to learn to drive) and when that arrives find me a driving instructor. Not sure I will be wanting to drive the Mustang though! Also need to try and attend more Meet ups and possibly visit the bar down the road (this could be an entry in itself!).

The work permit forms have gone off today. Couldnt be sent before as we needed two months payslips.

Little by little it's coming together. So much paperwork when starting out!

Enough rambling. This is long enough. I shall return MUCH sooner with a post about fun stuff. The past three weeks fun stuff has not been happening!

25 Things which have occurred recently & apartment photos

Time has literally been zooming by the past couple of weeks. Its unbelievable that Wednesday I will have been here 8 weeks and that next monday is two months.

Things have been crazy busy. I feel happy when hectic as most people will know!

In a nutshell since writing we have:

1.  Moved from the temporary apartment to our permanent apartment (well for at least a year). 
2.  Been to a thing at his work where me and the other girls dressed up
3. Have bought a ton of items for the new place most of which we had in the UK but couldnt bring to the USA because of voltage differences. On a completely different note, why is it that when I see the word Voltage I think of that song "Danger, danger... High Voltage"?
4. Joined Costco where we bought a pack of 30 toilet rolls, a pack of 12 kitchen rolls, a pack of 110 dishwasher tablets oh and other items which were not bulk buys. Just how long 30 toilet rolls will last I am yet to discover! A few months I am guessing.
5. He passed his driving test.
6. Had an unsuccessful trip looking for cars.
7. The container with all our belongings from the UK arrived. It came in a big red Hamburg Sud Container. I always wondered when we were in the UK what was in those containers. Now I know. It could be someone elses stuff.
8. Realised that actually we wish we hadnt kept at least HALF of what we had.
9. Wondered what happened to some things which we had thought we had packed. Though soon after realised we had probably thrown out my woollen dress thinking it would be too hot here.
10.  Had a wonderful day out with the ladies in which we shopped in Walmart and Home Goods and ate Ice cream from Coldstone.
11. Carved a pumpkin.
12. Did some of the cleaning of the temporary apartment. I shall return Wednesday to complete the rest.
13. Discovered that treacle out here is Molasses. May return to the shop to buy some tomorrow to make gingerbread another day. Need to perfect it out here before serving.
14. Sent off forms for work permit. Had to wait because needed a couple of his payslips.
15. Cleaned this apartment. A lot. It wasnt dirty to start with.
16. Got cable television. Still cant find anything to watch other than Hoarders and Storage wars. Panicked slightly that I may be a slight hoarder. Nothing in comparison with these people however. Vowed when/if we move back (more likely when than if but who knows) we will take back very little stuff. We do not need possessions to be happy.
17. Drank wine. At 6 dollars for 1.75 litres it would be illegal NOT to. Well. It is Californian wine so we are buying local.
18. Despaired at the taste of some of the chocolate. Milk Duds and Whoppers do not have a chocolatey taste. Cant quite figure out WHAT the taste is. BUT... it is not pleasant.
19. Had dinner at a Sizzler. It was in a rather ghetto like area of San Diego. Though nowhere near as ghetto as some of the areas we accidently found ourselves in when in Miami or the area my mum and I ended up in when in Chicago.
20. Discovered that I have indeed lost weight. Let's hope the weight continues to go that way.
21. Got woken up by the smoke alarm both Thursday and Friday. The maintenance guys came and changed the batteries on Friday. We were not interrupted at all this weekend. Hopefully it should be quiet tomorrow too.
22. Finally started getting mail delivered to this address from people. Mail times vary greatly.
23. Got the surround sound set up.
24. Discovered that the garage which is literally 3 minutes walk away has an amazing selection of items.
25. Failed to get to X Factor USA. But instead explored Laguna beach. Shame we didnt have a camera on us or phone capable of taking pictures as had we managed to get to the X Factor show we would not have been allowed to take them in.

I think that's enough of a list. I should be getting to bed as tomorrow I will bedoing stuff for the moving in party/halloween party we are having in the evening. Though I am not sure 6 people constitutes a party. More a gathering.

Anyway. Here are apartment photos. I know that 90% of people will scroll right down and ignore the above text :)

Part of our closet

more of the closet

our teeny little bathroom. The sink is in the passageway.

The sink

The second bathroom

one side of our bedroom

The other side of the bedroom

part of the kitchen

more of the kitchen

larder/closet

utility closet

Lounge part of our lounge/diner

Diner part of lounge/diner

2nd Bedroom

2nd bedroom closet

Part of the balcony

More of the balcony

That's all for now. Time to sleep!

9th October- 5th Avenue Auto Showcase and Downtown photos

When we got back from New Mexico we had thought about going back and chilling. Lucky we didnt really because if we had we would have missed the 5th Avenue Auto Showcase and not enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Photos from 1st October and 2nd October

I had planned to put photos from the past three weekends in one blogpost. However, it soon became very clear indeed that this would be a very picture heavy entry. So instead I shall split between three posts. These are just some of the favourite pictures. The rest are on facebook.

Ocean Beach

Point Loma

Liberty Station

Old Town

British Car Event at Liberty Station