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!

Moving along.

I need to step it up with the posts, things are starting to happen quickly this end now! Woo hoo!

A friend of mine who lives in the UK commented on how proactive I have been when it came to the move and how I didnt expect people to come knocking on the door. In some ways I would be inclined to agree. In others ways I could have been more proactive.

For example I could have taken part in some meets on Meetup quicker, I could have looked into Yelp quicker. In fact I could have got my learners permit, signed up for courses and the gym quicker.

However, anyone who knows me knows that I have to do things in a specific order. This order was as follows:

-Get out here.
-Find my way around the area.
-Find my feet.
-Find an apartment.
-Get the apartment paperwork sorted.
-Move in and get unpacked.
-Help M find a car.
-Submit work permit paperwork.
-Work towards meeting some people.
-DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) to get learner permit.
-Join Gym.
-Join some adult education classes.
-Learn to drive.
-Once work permit obtained (if accepted) get a job.

As it stands I am in the process of working towards meeting some people, have made an appointment for Tuesday for obtaining the learner permit, will be joining the gym and signing up for adult education classes over this weekend. I am getting somewhere.

Some weeks are more proactive than others. This week for example has had days of nothing and days of full on activity. As well as moving forward with my life I have been trying to keep up with everyone I am currently in contact with.

So. This week, what have I done?

No, I havent just sat on my bottom despite feeling a real urge to at times.

I have been Yelping, have joined Reddit too. Have been on both of those sites networking to meet other people. It is getting somewhere. I did think on Thursday I was getting nowhere. But its all looking up now.

I have been doing letters and writing Christmas cards to go with them. Sending from now onwards will mean that I wont have to spend a fortune in one hit.

Monday M got his car. I didnt actually get to see it, he didnt get home until gone 8 and then it was put in the car. I didnt get to see it on Tuesday either.

On Tuesday I posted off work permit forms in the morning, in the afternoon it was the library with a friend. In the evening I was stood on our balcony. It wasnt warm but I felt like taking in some fresh air. You can imagine how surprised I was when two Coyotes walked past. About as surprised as I had been in fact at seeing a Skunk on a porch in University Heights on Saturday! Wow at the wildlife in San Diego.

A friend and I went to the zoo on Wednesday afternoon. M and I have a year membership to the zoo which allows us into the zoo and the wildlife park as many times as we want. The zoo is enormous so when I went with the friend we only got to see about half of the animals. It is great that we can go back again.

M and I went for a meal at TGI Friday's with a work colleague. Today was off for a drink with a friend. We said we would go for coffee but as neither of us drink coffee it was juice for us both.

I feel I am slowly getting somewhere. All the hours on the internet is paying off. The scary thing is that if I get my learner permit next week then learning to drive will be the next point! EEK.

Our social life is coming together. We have a meetup we may go to tomorrow evening, another next Friday, a housewarming next Saturday then we are going for our first ever thanksgiving meal at the house of another new friend! WOW.

I need to get photos on here of the zoo. Well, the animals we have seen so far together with pictures of the Mustang. But that will have to wait.

There are up days and down days. BUT I am getting there slowly. Rome was not built in a day. A new life cant be built in a day. In fact, given that we have been here only two months we arent doing too badly at all!

Two weeks in

So it has been two weeks now since we arrived. Three weeks since my last day at work. Well, two weeks TOMORROW evening.... and three weeks tomorrow lunchtime since I left work.

The first week of being on my own was certainly challenging. There is only so much housework you can do and even laundry is not never ending. When I was working I had a never ending to do list of things I had to do. Yet now? Well. I seem to have a very short to do list and some of it is out of my control right now.

Most people would love being able to bask in the sunshine without the need to work. I however am weird and proud of it. I find that I can do just sitting around. I like to be doing stuff and seeing people.

My emails are responded to within 48 hours, all my internet stuff is up to date, my photos uploaded quickly and all the other things which I dont normally have time for is in order!

I have met two lovely ladies, who are the wives of colleagues that he works with. One of which has been out here for 6 weeks already. I did ask how she kept sane and she explained it was the wine. The wine is indeed very cheap in comparison to the United Kingdom. My favourite brand works out at 3.19$ a bottle. It is approximately 1 dollar 60 cents to the pound. I dont know anywhere in the UK where I could get a bottle of wine which does not resemble paint stripper for 2 quid!

The weekend arriving was just what I needed. I was in desparate need to see more than just the immediate area. Not that there is anything wrong with the area of course! It's more than adequate and is clean and feels safe. Despite the occasional beggar finding their way there... or some random man saying you look good. Whole different story.

We went for a meal at Applebee's on the Friday night. I had been to an Applebee's a couple of times before and had always been pretty satisfied with the food. This time? Well while the appetizer was nice, I was not so impressed with the main meal.

Saturday we had to seek out a bank to pay in our cheque. The bank in question is popular in the United Kingdom. However, in the San Diego area there are only 2 or 3 branches and the one in the Downtown area was not open on a Saturday. So to Chula Vista we headed.

While down there we decided to take a look at the malls. The first one was really not that great (Chula Vista Center for anyone who is interested) so we were not there long before heading to the Las Americas Premium Outlets.

We pulled up in the car park and this is what the Sat Nav showed:

The blue arrow was us. Yes, we were right next to the border between United State and Mexico.

As was demonstrated when we got out of the car and saw this:

Yes, that wall is the border, the other side you can see the Mexican flag flying.

We didnt get to Mexico this time. But I think being that close has convinced him that we do indeed need to get there some point given that it is so close. Of course, we cant do that in a hire car!

We had a successful shop there and then headed to another mall called Plaza Bonita to finish the spree off. Three malls in one day is really my limit and even then I skip 90% of the shops.

I was actually quite spoilt all in all. None of the items were even that expensive.

Sunday we decided on a road trip, our original plan had been to just go to Palm Springs. But road trips are always subject to change. I had seen a sign for Temecula. He had been there before, but I hadnt... so we headed there, and discovered the old town which he had not seen before.

It was a lot hotter there than in San Diego, which was actually quite odd given that it was not far away at all. It was a really nice place which you COULD spend a whole day in, but as our plan had been to just go to Palm Springs we decided after an hour to head onwards.

Except. I saw a sign for a place called Idyllwild which he had been to previously. So we headed there.

Idyllwild:

It was another beautiful village but we didnt stay long. It was gone 1... and it was still an hour or so to drive before we reached Palm Springs.

En route to Palm Springs:

We soon arrived in Palm Springs, It was a lot hotter there than in San Diego. San Diego has temperatures of around 73-75 degrees (don't ask me what that is in celcius I think the approximate calculation is to minus 30 and then divide by 2 that would make it about 21.5 degrees).

Palm Springs however:

In Palm Springs we had a wander around and had some food. There didnt seem to be a whole lot to do there, but it was a nice atmosphere and the heat was very nice. I think it would be a lovely place to kick back and relax for a couple of days by a pool with some very inexpensive alcohol.

Palm Springs:

We took the quick route back.... and by 6pm when we were back at the apartment we were completely exhausted.

It was a fun... but very busy weekend. A mini holiday/vacation of sorts.

This week. Well, we are TRYING to start to get organised more... and move forward. This has not been without issues. Details to follow next time.... Once we have got somewhere!