Yet another Brit in USA: Work Permit

Wednesday, 1 February 2012

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.

Sunday, 30 October 2011

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:

Moved from the temporary apartment to our permanent apartment (well for at least a year).
Been to a thing at his work where me and the other girls dressed up
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"?
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.
He passed his driving test.
Had an unsuccessful trip looking for cars.
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.
Realised that actually we wish we hadnt kept at least HALF of what we had.
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.
Had a wonderful day out with the ladies in which we shopped in Walmart and Home Goods and ate Ice cream from Coldstone.
Carved a pumpkin.
Did some of the cleaning of the temporary apartment. I shall return Wednesday to complete the rest.
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.
Sent off forms for work permit. Had to wait because needed a couple of his payslips.
Cleaned this apartment. A lot. It wasnt dirty to start with.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Discovered that I have indeed lost weight. Let's hope the weight continues to go that way.
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.
Finally started getting mail delivered to this address from people. Mail times vary greatly.
Got the surround sound set up.
Discovered that the garage which is literally 3 minutes walk away has an amazing selection of items.
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 :)