Elsja Down Under

American Food Makes me Happy March 21, 2009

Almost exactly one year ago, I was looking forward to going home to visit family and friends and I was also looking forward to trying this place out -The Counter. I even wrote about my excitement in this post. So we did go once while I was there… and it was good. I wouldn’t say it was the best place I had ever been in my life, but definitely good and I loved the concept that you can pick whatever the heck you want to make your burgers. They even had sweet potato fries. YUM.

So imagine my excitement last night when my friend Val told me that The Counter opened up in Australia. And not only did it open up here… it’s located about 10 minutes away from me!

What a glorious day!

Not only did they open one close to me, they also have *almost* the same menu! Of course they did change some things to cater to the Aussie customers, but they have American cheese!!! I don’t even want American cheese on my burger- but it’s still cool that they have it!! Sad they don’t offer the pepperjack though Oh well, can’t win them all. But they DO serve the sweet potato fries (“chips”) and chicken burgers and turkey burgers and milkshakes!! and while it is a bit more expensive than in CA… it’s not TOTALLY ridiculous like a lot of restaurants here.

Who’s hungry?

Happy Birthday Tootse! March 19, 2009

I want to say a special happy birthday to my precious little 6 year old niece, Emma. I miss her beautiful little face, her amazing intelligence and her spunky attitude! I can’t believe she is so old

A Few More Hours February 28, 2009

Until my parents get here!! They arrive tomorrow morning around 11:45am (that’s 4:45pm for you in California). Captain Hancock… hehe… is picking them up from the airport since he’ll be there already finishing work. Convenient, right? Since they connect in Brisbaine, they will have already gone through customs and all that cruddy stuff, AND since you can still go to the gates without a boarding pass in this country Andrew will get to meet them right when they get off the plane. Woohoo. I’m looking forward to showing them around Sydney and getting to spend some time with them here on our turf.

I really hope the birdies come visit while they are here. Birdies haven’t been back in a couple of days. Maybe they found better food somewhere else. Who knows? I still never named them. I decided to just call them boy birdy and girl birdy (or just “birdies”) for short. I can hear them out there in the trees… or maybe it is their friends- but I wish they would come back. Even though they have pretty much ruined our table by peeing their birdy pee onto it.

So what all will we be doing while mom and dad are here? I’ll start a list… anyone else have any suggestions?

• Visit the Rocks
• Tour of the Opera House
• Walk around Darling Harbour
• Go to Wildlife world
• BBQ @ Andrew’s mum’s house
• Dinner with Andrew’s dad in the city
• Go to Manly
• Centrepoint tower
• Maybe Taronga Zoo??
• Breakfast at Balmoral Beach

It’s Been Too Long January 20, 2009

So a long time ago, Jen created a blog called “Love/Don’t Love.” So, some of us have followed suit with our own editions of that particular theme at various times in our nerdy blogging pasts. For some of my historical posts… see here:

1. All Grown Up

2. Loves/Don’t Loves for the Week

3. About That Time

4. Yes I’m Copying Jen

So now it’s time for my latest edition since it has just been way too long!

1. I love the Twilight book series. In fact, I don’t just love it… I’m completely and pathetically obsessed with it. Nicole suggested that I join the facebook group entitled “Because I read Twilight, I have unrealistic expectations in men.” I might just have to join. Although I love my wonderful boyfriend dearly…sometimes I think it would be nice if he were a super romantic vampire. I also love that I got my sister obsessed with the books as well… and that even my mom is reading them…I really want to post an entire blog dedicated to my new obsession, but I think I’ll leave that until I finish the whole series.

In the meantime… 

2. I LOVE the Twilight movie. Ok, so they left some stuff  out, but nothing too crucial. Besides, Edward made up for anything they might have left out- he could have just walked back and forth across the screen for 2 hours and I would have been happy. I saw it last night and it just made my gay obsession even stronger and more pathetic.

3. I love that it has been beautiful and sunny the entire time I have been in California.

4. I (don’t) love that I packed the WRONG clothes for beautiful and sunny weather.

5. I love Andrew… I miss him.

6. I (don’t) love saying goodbye to my family and friends.

7. I love my new Sangria/lemonade/other refreshing beverage pitcher that Shannon got me for Christmas.

8. I love that I get really cheap flights.

9. I (don’t) love being on standby and never knowing if I’ll actually GET ON my flights. We shall see tomorrow… but I may be stuck here a bit longer!

10. I (don’t) love that I need about 5 suitcases to get everything home.

11. Did I mention I love the Twilight book series? So far Eclipse (the 3rd book) is my fave… but I’m on to the 4th so we shall see.

12. I (don’t) love that the books are going to end… it will be a sad, sad day in my life.

13. I (don’t) love 14 hour flights… but I don’t mind them so much when I have a 500+ page book to read, 4 episodes of grey’s anatomy and gossip girl to watch and a box full of Ambien.

14. I love French Line “Ruban Bleu” tea. It is the most tasty delish tea ever! So glad I discovered it when my best friends from high school and I went to tea on Sunday (which I also loved).

15. I (don’t) love that I still can’t walk properly and my foot still hurts I really never anticipated this much trouble when I tried to catch that stupid bouquet!

16. Lastly, I love that my parents are coming to visit next month, so even though it will be hard to say goodbye, I’ll get to see them again very soon!

Merry Christmas from Down Under December 23, 2008

To all my friends, family and random visitors…I wish you and your families a safe and wonderful Christmas with your loved ones, yummy food and fun treats from Santa! For all of my Jewish friends, I wish you a very Happy Hanukkah

May2009 bring good health, happiness (and better economic situations) for all!!

Happy Thanksgiving November 27, 2008

 

 

 

Things I am thankful for at this moment in time:

1. My family and friends. I miss them tons but I am so lucky to have them all healthy and well.

2. Andrew and I both have jobs. Many people are not so fortunate right now.

3. Thai food. My yummy dinner tonight.

4. Thanksgiving dinner. I’m missing out on the big one in the US, but I’m attempting to make a mini feast tomorrow night. It will be my first attempt ever at making a pumpkin pie all by myself, I’m even using real mashed pumpkin.

5. Andrew. He’s my favorite

6. Yoga. I went for the first time in a LONG time on Monday and I could tell I really needed it. I plan on going once a week from now on. I’d go more if it weren’t so expensive!

7. Online shopping. It’s great for my family and friends back home but oh I WISH they would start offering better online shopping in this country. Seriously… get with the times people!

8. Wine. It’s good.

9. A strong US dollar. Its one of the only perks (for me) of this horrible economy.

10. Organizing and cleaning skills. I’m SO glad I’m not a messy, dirty person. I love my clean house!

Happy Turkey day to all my loved ones (and even those people I just kinda like) back in the US! For all the Aussies who wonder what Thanksgiving is all about… read THIS.

Moving Forward November 5, 2008

So obviously, Obama won. I guess that’s old news now and everyone and their mother will be blogging about it- so I will just say this…

CONGRATS OBAMA! I really hope things can now turn around and the rest of the world can start to look at the US in a more positive light.

I thought I’d point out to all the aussies, some of the benefits of voting for the US public. While Australians HAVE to vote by law (or put up with a fine if they don’t) there are MANY benefits of voting in the US. In addition to selecting the new president, you can also receive the following:

Free Chicken Sandwich: Most Chick-fil-a locations

Free Coffee: Any Books A Million store today

Free Coffee: Any Starbucks location

Free Donut: Any Krispy Kreme store (and it’s a red, white, and blue donut, too!)

Free Ice Cream: Any Ben and Jerry’s between 5 and 8 p.m.

Free Song Downloads: A handful of free MP3 downloads are available at MTV’s Rock The Vote right now for anyone pledging to vote

Free Taco: Any California Tortilla store (in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia)

Free Sex Toy: Snag a free Silver Bullet or Maverick device at any Babeland store in New York, LA, or Seattle. Limited locations, but we figured this one was unique enough to warrant a mention!

 

And that’s just a small list… too bad I couldn’t receive all these freebies here in Australia!

**

So in other more personal news, Andrew and I went to Perth this weekend. We went to visit his nana as well as his aunt and uncle who live just outside the city. Andrew lived in Perth until he was almost 7 so we were able to see 2 of the houses that he grew up in. It was a really quick trip- we arrived Saturday night and left Monday afternoon. Sunday we rode our bikes an hour to the main city of Perth and watched the awesome Red Bull air race. We didn’t plan our trip around the race, but it was kind of convenient that it was taking place the weekend we were around. Since my old version of wordpress is retarded and it no longer lets me upload videos to my blog… you will have to click here to see one of the cool videos we took:

CRAZY PILOTS FLYING PLANES REALLY LOW AND FAST

Then on the way back, we saw a random fire on the side of the freeway and had to call 000 (911) for the “fire brigade” to come out. It was small, but spreading quickly and heading towards a bunch of dry brush. That was pretty exciting.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

PERTH PICS

And here is the BEST picture from the bunch… this is a lovely photo of me flying in business class. Oh it was so wonderful. I got to fly across the country twice in a big comfy seat with loads of free wine (although I didn’t have as much as I could have) and I enjoyed pretty good food, a plate of cheese and crackers and chocolate covered macadamias while I watched movies on my own personal TV in our private business class area. You know that little curtain that separates business class from economy? Well, it was REALLY nice to be on the other side of that curtain for once  And, I even get to cross another item off my 101 list… #56. Fly Business Class. I really can’t wait until I get to fly business class on all my flights to and from LA. One day!

Applying for Residency October 20, 2008

**See Update at bottom of post**

I’m applying for Australian temporary residency today! Woohoo. Temporary residency means I can stay here for 2 years, work and get medicare. Then after 2 years is up, they reassess my case, make sure Andrew and I are still in a relationship and then hopefully I’ll be here legally for good. I’ve spent the last 3 months preparing for this appointment. Scanning documents, printing documents, filling out a million forms, getting fingerprinted, getting medicals and x-rays. getting things certified. Now it all comes down to this day… oh, and to $2000 bucks… ugh! So expensive.

I really hope I didn’t forget anything… but looking at this stack of paperwork that I have to bring- I’m sure I didnt!! Wish us luck

**UPDATE**

My visa was granted!! Right there… on the spot… sticker in passport… GRANTED! She didn’t even want to look at half the stuff in that stack of paper up there… but hey, it said they required it so better safe than sorry right? She said it was good I already did my medical and got FBI clearance because that’s usually what holds things up. She asked us a few questions, asked for a few pieces of information and documents and then told us to give her 30 minutes to review our statements and photos.

30 minutes later she told us that we should break out the champagne because it was granted, right then and there! Now I am legally here for at least 2 years, at that time they will reassess to make sure Andrew and I are still in a relationship and then I will be granted permanent residency. Happy happy day!

AND… I get to cross one more thing off my list-

#90 Become a resident in Australia (get a visa)

Get Ready OC… June 20, 2008

For some Qantas pilots to invade your cities. Qantas just announced that for the next 3 years, the official hotel of all their pilots will no longer be the Sheraton in downtown LA… it will now be the Newport Marriott. Quite a long trek from LAX… but who cares?? Do you know how excited this makes me?? Well… this means that when Andrew starts flying internationally (and if he flies to LA), he will now have a free shuttle that will take him within 15 minutes of my friends and family! Really it won’t impact me much- but it’s still exciting.

AND… this also means I can hop on a flight with him and we can go lounge in the Marriott pool during the summer!Â

I hope the slutty fake boobie barbies in Newport are ready for some Aussie pilots to take over their bars. Seriously… if all the OC hobags knew what was about to be coming to them on a regular basis, they might just wet themselves ! They just better not think about messing with my pilot!! I’d have to kick some fake blonde, fake tanned ass!

Leaving on a Jet Plane May 9, 2008

Well, this post tackles two topics, both regarding flying.
First of all, we’ll be flying to Maui later this evening!! YAY! This will be the first trip andrew and I are taking together on a plane in the entire 2 1/2 years we’ve been together.

Airports are usually full of sadness. I’m always saying goodbye to someone. It used to be Andrew all the time and those days were HARD. Now when I travel I’m saying bye to Andrew or my family and friends. It will be SO nice to go to an airport for the first time in years and NOT have to say goodbye. Instead we’ll be saying ALOOOOOOHA!

We’ll be staying with my sister and the kids so it will be great to see everyone… Andrew hasn’t seen them all in a year and a half!
We’ll be flying Qantas… which is ironic because soon, someone I love will be actually FLYING Qantas… yes… actually flying the plane (or at least hanging out in the cockpit!)

That’s right! Andrew got accepted into Qantas! He’s been flying for Qantaslink (Eastern) for the last 9 months but his goal his whole life has always been to fly for Qantas on the big jets. Well a few days ago he found out that he’s been accepted for a Second Officer postition. It’s actually way less work and responsibilities than he has now (which isn’t necessarily a good thing) but it’s a lot more money and holds a much better future.

He probably won’t start until December or so but at least he’s in line! He had his interview and Sim test 5 weeks ago and he wanted to keep it a secret from everyone. He was supposed to find out within 3 weeks and this week was #5, so you can imagine how agonizing and stressful the last few weeks have been.

Who knows… maybe one day Andrew will be the one flying the plane to Hawaii!!

Hello Friend April 9, 2008

Andrew and I had a couple of visitors today. Their names are Percy and Petunia. They just stopped by this afternoon to say hello. Percy came first, and then Petunia showed up. They just wanted to grab a quick bite to eat and say hello before they took off. Let me introduce you all to our new friends:

This was the first shot I took from inside looking out the blinds. I didn’t want to scare dear Percy away so I didn’t want him to see me… but look, you can just see the cute birdie smile on his face. He wasn’t shy at all, he loved us.

 

I hope they come back soon for more snacks. But this time I hope Petunia doesnt crap on our patio… and maybe they can eat up some of the damn caterpillars that are infesting my Basil. That would be great!

 

 

 

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5 Years Ago Today March 19, 2008

Yes, I am aware that 5 years ago today, the “War on Terror” started. But more importantly, (to me at least) it is also the day that my beautiful niece was born. Her birth is much happier than war, and she is much prettier and sweeter than war… so that’s why I’m blogging about her and not my thoughts on the war. I’d like to say Happy Birthday to my favorite (and only) niece Emma Linnea!

5 is so old. 5 is halfway to 10! She’s growing up too quickly!!

 

More Weddings March 9, 2008

  Will the weddings ever end? We’ve been to 3 in the last 3 months, not to mention one we had to miss, plus Jen and James’ coming up later this month!! We had a really fun time at Rob and Monica’s wedding on Friday night! Good fun, good food, good dancing! Annnnd… I caught the bouquet! First time I’ve caught one since I was about 11. Obviously it didn’t do much for me back then (that’s a good thing), so I don’t really have any hopes this time… but it was a great way to get all of Andrew’s friends to give him a hard time for 2 minutes. Fun Fun! And the champagne and guava was flowing… Not sure what’s up in this country but the C&G is the wedding drink of choice and DEFINITELY my drink of choice. It is way too easy to drink and just looks so pretty. I love champagne and I love it even more with guava juice. Weddings are pretty different in Australia than in the US. Here are a few differences: 1. They sign the wedding license as part of the ceremony, in the US this is typically done separately. 2. The whole part before dancing starts is WAY longer. Appetizers/Entrees are served first, then mains, then speeches, then about 3 hours into the night the dancing finally starts. 3. I haven’t seen one father/daughter dance at any wedding here. Guess that’s just popular in the US. 4. Every wedding so far has only had 2 bridesmaids/groomsmen (as opposed to the 4-7 I see at most US weddings). 5. When they cut the cake, they don’t actually feed each other the pieces. They literally just cut it and that’s it. Hmmm… there are many others that I’ve noticed but those are the main ones in my brain at the moment. It’s going to be interesting to go back to a US wedding after seeing 3 in Australia recently.

SOUP! (and love) January 24, 2008

What did I do today? I ATE! I actually ate real food for the first time in almost 11 days. My cleanse ended last night and technically I was only really supposed to have orange juice today, but I had OJ and soup. I couldn’t resist. I made the biggest tastiest pot of wonderful soup and I had some for dinner. It’s probably bland and tasteless, but to me (the person who hasnt eaten ANY food in 10 days) it tastes like Heaven. Tomorrow I will have some for lunch and then I may just have some tomato/cucumber/avocado salad for dinner. It is the most wonderful feeling to eat again.

You know what else is wonderful? Jen and James got engaged!! My best friend is getting married… ooo heheh… it’ll be like “My Best Friend’s Wedding”… except my best friend isn’t a guy I want to date. Jen is so happy and I am so happy for her and James! Since miss speedy Garcia has to have her wedding in 2 months I’ll be home again in CA in March. My family is excited, you should be too!

As I said, I am so happy for Jen and James… but (and I feel guilty for saying this) I think I am more happy to finally eat. I’m sure in a few days, once I’ve gotten back to regular eating habits, then my excitement will shift back to Jen and James.

My Christmas December 27, 2007

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Mine was great! I am thankful that I was able to spend it with my family, although I did miss Andrew. I just really enjoy watching my niece and nephew get so excited! They are so sweet and although they are spoiled, they are not greedy like some kids. They are thankful for each gift they get and frequently say Santa is SO nice and when they open presents from their family they exclaim “you are the BEST!” They are patient as we all take turns opening our gifts in a circle as we’ve done since I was a kid.

 

My 7 year old nephew Preston got us all presents from his school boutique. My sister gave him money and they create a list for who he can spend the money on. He bought each of us a gift, he even got one for Andrew and he picked them out all by himself without any help. He put so much thought into his gifts that he chose- picking something that made him think of each of us. For my mom, he got her a set of these chocolate/candy covered spoons that you stir in your coffee/tea. My mom always makes him tea or hot chocolate, it’s their special little thing that they do together. He got my dad a toy antique car, knowing that my dad has a collection of these small cars in our living room and even has 2 real “antique” cars in our garage. He got his sister a cute stuffed bear that she quickly named Bob.  Bob was an interesting choice considering she normally names all of her animals things like “beary, sparkles, lamby” and other cutesy names. My gift was a small candle. The candle is the clear kind with the shells and little blue coloring to make it look like the ocean. His reasoning for picking thit out is that it would help me remember Huntington Beach when I am in Australia. He is such a sweet precious boy. I am looking forward to seeing what he picked out for Andrew. I didn’t want to open it yet- although maybe I should have since I’ll be taking whatever it is through customs. Sweet little Emma was so cute talking about her “pressies” all day. I told her awhile back that Australians call presents pressies and now she insists on calling them pressies as well. She’s also started using the word “bum.”

Christmas wasn’t just fun for the kids- I got lots of nice goodies as well! Here are a few of my favorite things I received:

1. The kitchenaid Mixer- yay! Now I can bake, although I probably wont do that for awhile since I need to lose the 7-8 lbs I gained when I moved to Australia

2. The cute apron that I asked for. I never really REALLY understood why people NEEDED aprons. I thought they were just for looks- however after baking for a few weeks and cooking a lot more, I realize that cooking is actually very messy. So- I actually DO need an apron to avoid the flour and sauce from getting all over my clothes. And yes, I chose a cute one that I probably wont want to get dirty anyways- but a dirty apron is better than dirty clothes.

3. My Rabbit corkscrew. I love wine- and this will just be great for Andrew and I. Yippee

 

We also had a really nice family Christmas “dinner” although the kids kept getting annoyed that we were calling it dinner since we ate around lunch time. I missed out on Thanksgiving so the turkey and stuffing and potatoes, etc. were VERY tasty! I am very thankful for having such a great family and friends and I’m happy to have had such a nice Christmas. I just wish Andrew could have been here. The only thing that was a bit sad about the holiday was knowing that my poor boy had to work on Christmas eve, Christmas and boxing day I wonder when we’ll actually be able to spend our first Christmas together. Maybe next year