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!

Update

Oops. It would seem I have not written a blogpost since 27th September.

I admit, I have been busy.

Mainly we have been exploring. We visited Ocean Beach, Point Loma, Liberty Station and Old Town on 30th September then on 1st October we went to a British Car event at Liberty Station.

My birthday was 6th October so the birthday celebrations started on the 5th October and carried on until the 9th October. The 5th was spent with friends then the 6th Marcus took me to malls and we had cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory!

The weekend was spent in New Mexico visiting Santa Fe and going to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. The fiesta was amazing. I am a geek and had always wanted to go and see the fiesta. I think I first wanted to go about 10-15 years ago when I saw a framed picture in Athena of all the balloons going up. The temperature in New Mexico was much colder than here in California so if I was to go again I would need much warmer clothes.

We returned on the morning of the 9th and had planned to go and chill for the day. However, the weather was so beautiful that we headed off to the Gaslamp district of downtown San Diego to see the 5th Avenue Auto Showcase and also visited the Horton Plaza mall.

We get the keys to our more permanent apartment this Saturday. So, this weekend just gone should have been about looking for furniture and accessories. Yes we have some furniture but we still need a bed (our place is 2 bedroom), a chest of drawers and a beside cabinet. That didnt happen!

Saturday we went down to a check cashing place. Basically as we are not in the system yet due to being new for us to have a gas and electricity account we had to go show our ID, we also have to pay a deposit on our account when we get the first bill. So many new things we are learning here. I feel like I am starting life from scratch.

We had then gone to Time Warner Cable but their office was closed. We have scheduled our install of telephone, cable and internet for the afternoon of 24th but completely forgotten that we had something else going on.

We also went to a couple of malls. Looking for ideas for the home basically. One thing I do know is that we wont be buying our stuff from Crate & Barrel. While the stuff in there is fantastic the prices are quite high. Afterwards we visited Lake Poway and the shops in Poway.

Yesterday we had a daytrip out to Ramona, Julian and Borrego Springs. I know I really need to do a photo entry. But first I need to sort out a couple of photos from each of the places we went and upload them to a photo hosting site and then upload them to here. Its quite a long process and well, things are pretty hectic right now.

My work permit form has been submitted to the lawyers, I now need to complete another form and send some photos in to them. Once that has been submitted I need to wait to hear about an appointment to give my fingerprints. It can take up to 3 months for me to get a work permit should it be granted. Yes, there is a possibility it can be denied. Thank god I have a few projects I need to get into over the coming weeks.

We get the keys to the apartment on Saturday, our new home for the next 12 months. Though our container of furniture will not arrive until midweek! I find it quite odd in a way that on 2nd September all of our stuff was put in a container and almost two months later it will be delivered to us. I have forgotten half of what is in there. I am pretty sure there will be stuff that I will question our reasons for keeping!

We have a party at his work, the installation of the cable services and all the unpacking. Plenty to keep me occupied. I look forward to being in a more permanent home with all our belongings around us. I feel that things will then feel more settled once we are in there.

He has his theory test this week, next we will need to organise his driving test and find a car. It is all go. But slowly but surely through the baby steps we are getting somewhere.

I will try and update again soon, perhaps a photo entry in the next week or so.