Oops

Wow, I didn't quite realise it had been so long since I had wrote. 14th February in fact... when I was looking for a job! So much has happened, yet not big enough excitements to write lots of little entries. So a bulletpoint type of post I think!

• I finally got a job and started on 2nd March- it's part time in a shop, the colleagues I work with a great, I know however it will be temporary as they won't be able to keep my job open when I go back to the Uk for 5 weeks later in the year.
• I have booked a trip back to the UK, I am looking forward to seeing all my family and friends in both Worthing and Eastleigh/Southampton areas as well as some penpals and other friends around the country. I also get to go to two weddings while there and have my birthday in the UK for the first time since 2009 (last year I was here in San Diego and in 2010 I was in Australia in a camper van).
• We went to Hawaii from 21st-26th September, I may possibly post some pictures in a separate entry at some point. We got to visit Maui and spend time in Waikiki. Also went to the wedding of two friends with three other friends. Perhaps I will also do a whole entry about Hawaii separately.
• We went to the Brit meet at the beginning of March and the one at the beginning of April. We also intend to go to the one this Friday.
• We have met another couple through the hubby's work and a couple through the British Expat Forum, both of which happened during April. I am now in the process of introducing all friends to each other so that it's a big group of people we see regularly or at least regularish.
• Had a meal on Easter Sunday in Hillcrest, it was at our friends' house and a few other friends were there. They cooked a lovely Greek meal which included roast lamb. Delicious! Lamb is much harder to find here and when you do find it, it is quite pricey (in comparison to the UK).
• We had two couples round the 2nd week in April for drinks, food, conversation and board games. The plan had been to have a BBQ but it was pouring with rain all day and evening.
• 20th it was drinks with the couple that we most recently met through hubby's work. We met them at a place called Union in Encinitas, which it seems is a cougar bar. Oh and prior to meeting them we had dinner at Five Guys.
• On 23rd I was contacted by the lady from the couple we met through the British Expat forum so on the Friday 27th we went for a lovely Indian meal at a new place called Bawarchi Express. Hubby had made reservations thinking it was a proper restaurant (I admit I told him to) but it was actually a cafe style place! No alcohol... but we did manage to go for a beer afterwards at TGI Fridays.
• We went to a party on Saturday, it was a surprise party so hubby and I arrived early and hubby took the man of the couple out for drinks so he would not be aware of people arriving. They didnt get back til about half 8- an hour after most people had turned up. I had also invited some people along (3 couples) to start the introduction process between friends. Didn't get home to bed til 1am, and had to be up at 6am for work in the morning. It was a good night.
• I had a meeting at work on Sunday from 7am-10am followed by a shift til 3pm, I was exhausted by the evening!
• I feel much more settled here, working 20-30 hours a week does mean that I take more time to get to reply to emails and inbox messages I receive and has also meant that I have less to blog about and less time to blog. In fact, it's not just blogging that I haven't done since Mid Feb... Yelp has taken a back burner too. It takes a while to get used to the change in routine. I wouldn't say it feels like home yet, but I feel like I have a routine lifestyle and yearn less for home. Also I feel like I know the processes.
• I dont feel entirely comfortable with mentioning people by names or showing pictures of people given that this is a public blog! So seeing as most things we do now revolves around seeing people it makes it difficult to write blogs. But now that I have written this entry and broken the writer's block I now have ideas for two more entries and perhaps will even get back to doing differences.

That is all for now... I shall return (much sooner) with another entry...

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!