Elsja Down Under

Spring… Summer…What’s the Deal? September 30, 2009

I wish the weather would make up its mind. Should I pack away the sweaters or not? Should I put  the heater back up in the closet?I just don’t know. Saturday at the races it was COLD! Sunny, but super chilly with the wind. Sunday was colder. REALLY cold in fact. We went to dinner and I ended up with a tank top, sweater, wintery type jacket and scarf and I was still a little chilly. I left my jacket on the whole time we ate.

So today I was sitting on my couch and I decided to go for a walk. I see the wind blowing and the birds are chirping. I assumed it must be a nice breezy Spring day. I debated in my mind… should I wear pants or shorts on my walk? Eh… it looked breezy but I figured I’d get hot once I started walking.

Then I went outside. Holy blazing hell it was hot. 33c/91f to be precise. Where did the heat come from? Two nights ago I was sleeping with an extra blanket on the bed.

I decided to suck it up and go for my walk even though I was already sweating the second I walked out the door. 40 minutes into it (and with 20 minutes to go) I was really regretting my choice to take the long route. I’ve been home an hour now and I think my face is still red. But after taking a quick shower, I feel great! Summer is my absolute favorite season and the warm sun followed by a cool shower makes me very happy. I’m really looking forward to the BBQs, beach days and picnics we’ll get to have in the heat. I’ve got iced tea practically on tap in my fridge at all times and I’m gearing up for some sangria recipe experimentation.  

I know Spring just started… but BRING ON SUMMER! (but please don’t get too hot in our apartment).

Two Years September 26, 2009

Two years ago today I arrived in Australia for good. I packed up, shed a few tears and got on that plane so I could head over the ocean to be with the boy that I love so dearly. TWO WHOLE YEARS! It really has flown by.

So what better way to celebrate my 2 year anniversary than to partake in a popular Aussie tradition… I headed to the races. I’ve always wanted to go to the races but in 2 years, I still had never been. I must say a BIG BIG THANK YOU to Audra who was fabulous enough to make it possible for me to attend. What girl doesn’t love getting dressed up and spending the day in the sun drinking champagne? Ok, I’m sure plenty of girls don’t- but I do! I even put one of those fancy schmancy fascinators in my hair- although it took me awhile to figure out how I was even supposed to put it on.

Yeah… so anyways… I’ve never gambled on horses. And guess what happend today when I did?

I WON!

AHHHH I WON SO MUCH MONEY!

I bet $3 and won $960!! Yes, that’s nearly A THOUSAND dollars from a $3 buck bet!! WOOHHOO

HAHAHAHAH YAYAYAYAY

Today was the best day EVER! 

Happy 2 year anniversary to me! YAY!

Love September 25, 2009

Andrew and I won’t be taking engagement photos (unless some lovely photographer in Sydney would like to take some for us for free) – but we were fortunate to take some awesome shots back in June when we went to California- so let’s just pretend these are engagement photos, shall we?

 My BFF is an aspiring photographer who wanted to practice out her developing photo snapping skills so she asked if she could take some shots of us in the park. I was happy to oblige (and so was Andrew which is highly surprising since he HATES photos). They turned out great! I just thoguht I’d share a few of my favorites with the world. I just love my dearest fiance SO much and these pictures of us make me happy! Oh and Jen- if this post sounds a lot like yours, I must tell you that I wrote this last night- I just hadn’t published it yet.

Red Sky in the Morning, Sailors Take Warning September 23, 2009

When Andrew and I went to bed last night, we had a conversation about how early the sun has been rising lately. We both discussed how bright it was at 6:30 am yesterday and how it felt like the sun had been up for hours by that point.

So when I woke today at 6:30am to pee and the bathroom was glowing a dark orange, I knew something wasn’t right- but I was too tired to really care too much. After my half-asleep, dazed bathroom break I started to walk back into the bedroom. When I saw how orange the bedroom was- I decided maybe this was strange enough for me to investigate. I headed to the living room and walked towards the balcony. I’ve never seen anything like it! The sky was bright orange! I ALMOST took a picture and I ALMOST woke Andrew up to check it out… but at 6:30 I just couldn’t bring myself to do anything other than to think “huh… weird” and go back to bed.

By 7:30- when I woke up for real, it had faded to a nasty, dirty yellow color so unfortunately I don’t have any of my own cool pictures to share. So here are some from www.smh.com.au. And remember- the sun rose at 5:43 am- so by the time these pictures were taken- it should have been very light out.

Previously and now… how the Sydney Harbour usually looks like (left) and during the dust storm (right). Photo: Luke Johnston- smh.com.au reader

 

(Top) A shot of Neutral Bay on a normal day, and (bottom) during the dust storm. Photo: Lauren Jarrott, smh.com.au reader

 

So what was all this caused from?  A massive sand and dust storm from over 900 miles away, that’s what!. Here’s what www.smh.com.au had to say:

 

 

Oh… and I take it back- I do have one photo to share with you. Here is the cloth I used to dust our apartment today. I dusted on Monday… that’s less than 48 hours ago… and here’s what I picked up today. No wonder I have a headache!

P.S. did I mention that my retardo fiance decided to play tennis today? Highest polution level ON RECORD and he decides to go play outdoor sports. Smart guy.

FINALLY! September 21, 2009

Itunes FINALLY created a “wishlist” feature. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. For YEARS I’ve been saying they needed this option. I couldn’t even begin to count the the number of times I’ve been browsing and have come across a song or album I might want to buy- just not right at that moment- and I just wish I could add it to a wishlist. Well now I can! I am so happy. I had been putting off downloading the new version of itunes because it just takes forever to install. So today I went to download the first episode of Gossip Girl and it told me I HAD to install the new version. FIIIINE! But when I did, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Right there in front of me was the very thing I had been wanting for sooo long! It really made my day!

I’ve already added numerous albums to this wonderful new list and as soon as I actually have some spare money, I am going to buy them.  Sometimes it’s the little things in life that make me oh so happy.

No Cartoons Please! September 14, 2009

One day we will probably have children and when wedo, please oh please do not buy our child gobbs of clothing with annoying cartoon characters all over them. Seriously- I don’t understandwhy people think this stuff is cute! While attempting to find a birthday present for Andrew’s cousin’s 2 year old, I was faced with the challenging task of finding something cute and reasonably priced. We had a gift idea originally but then I changed our plans and startedspecifically looking for a cute little bathing suit to go with a little bucket andshovel/spade that I found. I love doing theme gifts and I thought that would be a cute one since summer is coming. So we went searching for the suit.

Over an hour later, we settled on buying one of those horse on a stick things. You know, the ones that kids “ride” around on that make the galloping noises? Yeah, one of those. Why? you ask…What happened to your beachy theme gift? you ask…

I’ll tell you what happened… the crappy Australian children’s clothing selection is what happened! And now I will share my experience with you all.

1. First we went to Big W. This is where I had the inspiration for the gift when I found the little bucket and spade. I thought it was a great idea and should be fairly simple! So we headed to the children’s clothing section to look for a suit and after searching for ages we found 1… count that…  ONE bathing suit for a child under 5 years old. ONE! It was hideous.

2. Next we stopped at Pumpkin Patch and found the cutest bathing suite for a 2 year old. SWEET! I thought we had scored in the 2nd shop. This was too easy! But then I had a look at the price tag- nearly $40! No thanks.

3. Next was some other kid store- another CRAP selection of swim suits. We had to hunt and search and finally ask someone where we could find the suits. There were about 2 choices (literally), both heinous! In the U.S. there are whole bathing suit sections in kid stores. OH GOD how I miss Old Navy and U.S. quality Target!

4. Finally we headed to Target – SURELY Target has something right? I thought I had hit the jackpot when I spotted a bathing suit section in the distance. YAY a whole section! This is what I’ve been looking for. I see 3 suits from afar that look decent. I get excited. Oooh a cute little red suit with white polka dots! Woohoo it would even match the red bucket I bought. I grabbed it off the rack with excitement, turned it around and sighed and groaned audibly. Dorthy the freaking dinosaur! WHY oh WHY must people ruin perfectly good children’s clothing by slapping on a big giant ugly cartoon character??? Turns out all the other ones I saw from a distance also were tainted. Dora the Explorer and the Wiggles had to go and ruin them all.

So there we were…Andrew was sick of shopping and I was feeling very homesick… that’s how we ended up buying the horse on a stick (which was the gift idea we had from the beginning anyways)…

When we have kids one day in the far and distant future- please don’t buy anything with Winne the Pooh, The Wiggles, Dora, Elmo, or any of that other crap. I don’t want to have to pretend to like it all and then hide it in the back of the closet only to  pull it out and put it on our child for an hour when you come to visit. Kids have a right to be stylish too!

Happy Birthday to Me! September 10, 2009

I really wasn’t looking forward to turning 29! I think this is the first birthday I did not care about AT ALL. It just kinda creeped up on me and then bam! there it was, I was 29. I knew Andrew had to work on my birthday as well, so that was even more the reason to not care. BUT… little did I know that Andrew had changed his flight so he could take me to a REALLY nice lunch. He planned it all on his own and it was wonderful. We went down to Wolfie’s in the Rocks. We had a great view of the bridge and the Opera House!  We enjoyed some delicious bread and I had spinach ravioli while Andrew had crab gnocchi. A birthday lunch just wouldn’t be a birthday lunch without a couple of glasses of champagne. It was perfect

Since Andrew had to work that night, our friends Kris, Tess and Alex took me out to dinner at Soprano’s in Mosman. I had yummy pizza, good wine, great company and even had chocolate cake with a sparkler. It was a really nice dinner!

AND THEN… if that wasn’t enough, Andrew’s brother Paul and his girlfriend Veronica stopped by with more wine, a cupcake and some chocolates.

My blah birthday that I wasn’t looking forward to ended up being GREAT! I’m glad to have such good friends here who didn’t want me to spend my birthday night alone.

Wedding Update September 7, 2009

Ok so I try not to make this blog all about wedding stuff. People would probably just get really bored reading about that all the time; however, by attempting to avoid the wedding talk, all I’m doing is avoiding blogging all together- and that’s no fun!

So screw it… I’m going to update everyone on our wedding plans! Here’s what we’ve (i.e. I’ve) done to date…

1. Set the date- Aug 28th, 2010!!

2. Picked the venue (a.k.a. our awesome family friends’ home)

3. Created the guest list

4. Picked the color scheme

5. Found bridesmaid dresses that I love

6. Booked the DJ

7. Booked the photographers (I’m so excited that these guys will be our photographers. I LOVE their artsy style)

8. Got some catering quotes

9. Planned ideas for flowers and talked to a florist

10. Gathered up all my crafty, creative and artsy friends to help design invitations, centerpieces and other decor

11. Pretty much have the favors all sorted out

Wow… I’m going to run out of stuff to do. Does anyone else need my help with planning their wedding? Evidently I’m really good at it!

Internet Issues September 2, 2009

So we have these stupid Internet download/upload limits. If you go over your limit- the company either starts to charge you OR it slows down SOOOO much. Ours slows down. We have 12G of usage per month and we’ve only gone over our limit a few times. I think twice we went over about a day before the end of our billing cycle because I downloaded too many TV shows. Once we went over about 4 days before the end of a cycle… that sucked.

Well yesterday our internet slowed down  A LOT! We had no idea what was going on. I knew we couldn’t have gone over our limits because we had 11 days left in the cycle AND I hadn’t downloaded ANY TV shows this month. So surely we couldn’t have exceeded the cap.

Or could we?

Turns out we did go over the limit… 11 days before the end of the cycle…7 days earlier than we have in the past…

Can you really go over your download limits from looking at too many wedding websites? This could be a problem!