February 1st-9th.

So, its already the 9th January. I mean February- though I have to admit that I am really confused about what month it is so excuse me if I suddenly turnaround and call it August. It could be any month what with this constant same weather! hah!

I thought I was getting somewhere with getting caught up, but of course that is up to the end of January! Time is still ticking onwards and we are still doing other stuff to talk about.

So first off beginning of February (1st in fact) I went to the San Diego Safari park with a friend. The Safari park is up in Escondido which is closer than the main zoo but we had never been for some reason. I know me and hubby didnt go when we came away on holiday in 2009 and 2010 because it seemed expensive and we only had limited time each time.

Well, the safari park has a parking fee- $7 or $10 if you arent an annual member, a bit steep really and unusual given that the main zoo which is in the park in Downtown is free parking. The Safari park is much smaller than the main zoo, however I really liked that the animals were free to roam. There are many options for the safari, only one of which is included on the annual membership so we went with that one and it was fine.

Really enjoyed it there so need to drag hubby back at some point in the near future.

Friday 3rd we picked up our Scottish friends and headed down to the Shakespeare pub, those who have been reading previously will remember that there is a Brit Meet up group there once a month and we had not been since November so decided it was time. We got to see quite a few of the same people that were there before and met some new people too, including someone who was born in the same hospital as me- yes it was around 3 years later, but still? Dont expect to move thousands of miles away from home only to meet people who lived pretty close.

Saturday hubby and I decided to have a bit of a staycation. First stop was the Flying Leatherneck Aviation museum, a place where my brother and dad had been when they were over, this is based in a military base in San Diego. The museum is not huge but it is free and worth giving a go. We did of course give them a donation.

Next up we headed to Little Italy for a wander- hubby had never been but I went with my Scottish friend so he was wanting to see it for himself. We had a wander around and then headed to Landini's for pizza. I had wanted to try somewhere else but as I had been there before hubby wanted to go!

We decided after that to wander around Seaport Village, Embarcadero park, along the harbour past the USS Midway and the Maritime Museum and then back to Seaport Village. We need to at some point go to both the USS Midway and the Maritime Museum. There is seriously so much to do in San Diego and the area!

 We still had a couple of hours til we had to meet our friends for dinner, so decided to check out Shelter and Harbor Island. Not many pictures taken there.

Lastly we headed to Mission Bay park and Mission beach to watch the sunset.

We headed onto Hillcrest after that for dinner with our friends- the place we ate at was Hash House a go go we have been informed that this place is mega busy for breakfast but at dinner time it was relaxed. The food was good. Some of the portions were huge where as what we shared was a reasonable size!

After dinner it was a quick walk around Hillcrest before an early night.

Sunday was a quiet day which consisted of food shopping, driving practice, girl scout cookies and SuperBowl. To be fair it was needed after the hectic weekend and the busy Monday which was planned.

I had two interviews on Monday- one I got offered the job (but have declined because the hours are just crazy) the other I was not offered because I wasnt prepared to work weekend evenings.

Tuesday I had a phone interview- same problem as the second interview in that I wouldnt work weekend evenings- well, I want to spend time with hubby at some point you know?

I have another phone interview today, after having applied for 24 companies up to next week this week has been time off from applications. The forms are dull.

Thats all for now.... back with another update soon...

Catching up. Part 3.

So where was I?

• 2nd January was my brother's birthday, we ended up going right down to the border of Mexico to Las Americas Premium Outlets but didnt go over the border to Mexico, we have been told it is not safe at this time. Also the hire car my parents had wouldnt have covered travel within Mexico. We then headed onto the Plaza Bonita Mall for a bit where we ate and shopped. There was a really good deal on in Bath and Bodyworks where if you purchased one of the small Christmas/winter scented candles you got a free glass for burning it in so of course I got some of those!
• 3rd January we had a day out in which we explored Point Loma, Ocean Beach and Old Town. In Ocean Beach we went to a place called Hodad's where we had the most enormous burgers! Here is a selection of pictures from the day which were stolen borrowed from my mum and brother.

• I didnt head out on 4th January with them as I decided to have a quiet day around the house getting caught up with laundry etc so that they could go back and not need to do any laundry. They went home on 5th January, we had such a lovely but busy time while there were here! I wonder when we will have our next visitors here.
• 6th January hubby and I met up with our friends- it was a belated new years celebration. We headed to a place called Urban Solace which is in the North Park area of San Diego. The building was absolutely beautiful as was the decor. The prices however were quite high. Additionally we found the food to be a bit of a disappointment. Everything we ate tasted sweet! Still the evening was great, good conversations with friends is what we had gone for. It does seem however that everytime we all meet up and go out for dinner it is a slight disappointment.
• It was another friend of our's birthday on 13th January so quite a few of us headed with a BBQ to Mission Bay Park on 14th January. It was lovely to catch up with everyone. I still cant quite get used to the being able to BBQ in January! Hubby and I are used to being layered up and staying in!
• I had received my work permit on Christmas Eve so the job search started on 15th January, many of the jobs require a driving license so at present the job search is limited to retail and other places which I can get to by bus. As of today- 2nd February I have applied for 16 different retail places, not one has come back to me. The unemployment figures here are as high as in the UK so I am not going to panic, additionally there is the fact that my retail experience may be too old, that they may not recognise my experience and qualifications so far and that in some cases whilst you can apply for jobs there isnt actually anything available at that time. Will keep on plodding along.
• I met with my friend from Scotland on 18th January, we met at the Fashion Valley Transit center which is right next to the mall then got a bus down to Downtown. After a walk around the Gaslamp district we walked down to Seaport village, around the Embarcadero park, along the harbour past USS Midway and the Maritime Museum before taking a walk down to Little Italy, a place with many different Italian restaurants. We ended up having Pizza at Landini's Pizzeria where they had a fantastic deal of 2 slices of pizza and a drink for $6, the pizza was really good too. The day out made me realise the following: 1) I need to take my camera out more. 2) there is still a lot of San Diego that we need to explore!

I had hoped to finish off my update on this blog entry but there is still so much more to write, so another will follow shortly.