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!

Air Freight, Apartments, Ball games and exploring!

So. Another week has gone by. Three weeks already.

I am finding it easier and easier to fill the days. This concerns me as when I do get a job I will have a constant huge to do list of things I havent got the time to do because I am working. Bit like I used to have then?

Friday our air freight came. They said between half 8 and half 10 they would arrive... they arrived at quarter past 8. How is that for service?

There was 9 boxes. I wasnt entirely sure what had arrived and this was both exciting and nerve wracking! As it turned out there was most of our clothes and our shoes. My dresses and our coats were not in with the air freight. The coat thing is not such an issue but the dresses? Well.. I wont be off out anywhere until they arrive. Cant wear my sparkly heels with jeans and a t-shirt!

It would seem that he has more clothes than me. His take up 2 shelves. Mine take up 1 and a half. I do however have more shoes but that is a given.

There are 4 boxes we have left packed. All of the board games, bedding, towels and cuddly toys. None of which is required at this time. Oh and they packed our globe. Very useful. Not.

All of the air freight.

The stuff we have left packed.

The wardrobe after

Friday I saw rain. Yes, this was the first time I had seen rain out here since we arrived. It didnt last very long but I went out and watched it on the balcony. I love the smell of rain when it hasn't rained for a while.

Saturday we went out apartment hunting. Went round all 4 apartment communities near us. We were trying to decided between this community that we are currently in or another apartment community. We ended up deciding on the other apartment community for a number of reasons. Firstly the person we were speaking to was much more helpful but additionally the actual apartment which was in a nicer location and had a better layout.

The apartment has two bedrooms, two bathrooms (one of which can be accessed without walking through a bedroom), two big closets, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, oven, microwave, garage and a parking space. Oh and the balcony is accessible from the lounge/diner and both the bedrooms. The gym is not as big as this community that we are on now.

Have to say that we were put off with the community we are currently in after the woman was in a rush to tell us stuff, the apartment which was available was right up by the golf course which would have been nice had there been a view however, the apartment was on the ground floor so it was a hill view and you had the noisy air conditioning units next to the balcony. Additionally the apartment next door had eviction notices posted all over it. Not a good sign!

As we do not have a credit record in the USA it all had to be referred to the manager (as to whether we could rent the place) and we found out yesterday that yes it had been accepted. Its really odd moving to another country. It's like starting your life again. We are off to sign leases and hopefully arrange a time when I can go back in and do some measurements!

Rest of Saturday was spent doing bits and pieces. Went to Michael's (craft store) where I dreamt of all the craft activities I could do, Barnes& Noble where I wanted to take home all of the books and he had his hair cut finally!

Sunday was a lazy lie in. We then headed out for the day to Balboa Park, Mission Beach and La Jolla. I shall let the pictures do the talking...

Botanical Gardens In Balboa Park

One of the buildings in Balboa Park

Another building in Balboa Park

Sculpture in the park

Mission Beach- the Mission Bay end.

Mission Beach

Belmont Park at Mission Beach

La Jolla

Seals at La Jolla

Caves at La Jolla

Yesterday evening we went to a baseball game! San Diego Padres Vs Chicago Cubs. A very American experience! The Padres won! It was not a huge win. Padres had 2 homeruns... Cubs none. The baseball tickets were free from his work! Very nice indeed. We figured out that had we paid for the tickets and for parking and food it would easily have been 200$ for the experience!

Outside of Petco Park

Our view

After the first home run.

scoreboard... and no the score didnt change at all..

At the end!

It has been a busy week. Our certificates arrived last night as he had left them back in the UK! So we will be going to get our social security numbers this week!

Things are now moving along. Things feel less scary and much more settled!

I know that once we move into the new place (22nd October) things will feel much more settled. Still before that it is my birthday. How is it possible that I am turning 31 next week?