I feel the Earth.... move.... under my feet....

But hopefully no sky tumbling down!! Yes,we had yet another earthquake the other day. This one was only a 3.5, "only," but enough to scare the beejeesus out of an Aussie!

Just wanted to give a couple of shout-outs to some buddies of mine who have had their birthdays since my last posting. Happy birthday to my awesome buddy Ailie on August 7th (well, nearly after my last posting); Niki, who is currently living in England but came to visit us in LA earlier in the year, has her birthday on Aug 12th; my brother Patrick who also came to visit us a few weeks ago had a birthday on August 14th, and my buddy Catherine who has her birthday today on August 18th. Happy birthday you guys!!! Hope you day was as spectacular and fabulous as you all are!!

Jimmy and I have been having a bit of a sticky beak around the housing markets here during our past few weekends. We're looking into buying a house, exactly where or when yet we don't know. We're in the best situation for the moment where we don't have to buy, we want to buy. We're in a great apartment paying very reasonable rent and are saving up nicely. However, a turning point came last week when we came across a car that had run into a fire hydrant, creating this:



And here's the artistic, shot, naturally:



So we had to make a detour. While we were weaving through uncharted streets, Jimmy thought he'd show me a couple of his favourite type of houses, absolutely gorgeous works of art called Craftsman Style houses. They're found here and there around LA, particularly in the older historical parts and were built mostly prior to 1925. Anyway, Jimmy was about to show me one of his favourite craftsmans when he suddenly saw a "For Sale" sign out the front of it!! Wow!!! Imagine one of your favourite houses up for sale just when you're thinking about buying!! It said there was going to be an open house on Sunday, we were soooo going to check it out!! Unable to stop thinking about it, we went home and looked up the details on the net and saw that it was somewhat out of our price range. Disheartened, but not without hope, we went to check it out on Saturday and then again at the open house on Sunday. WOW again. This house is nothing short of incredible. It was built in Hollywood in 1913 and transported to Van Nuys in 1920 where it has remained virtually untouched for 87 years. We were drooling all over each other and cringed at the thought of what we'd have to sacrifice in order to be able to afford this magnificent dream home. Here's the website link, go check it out: http://www.hamlinstreet.com/ Stay on the main page and let the photos scroll around by themselves. The outside is not my favourite, but the interior is phenominal. It even has a basement!!! In order to buy it though we'd have to give up trivial things, like food, clothing, petrol, etc. While it took us a while, we've kinda come to the decision that it's a little out of our reach (Jimmy thinks eating and filling the car with petrol is important, like, sheesh!!) and we might have to pass. There were a lot of things that needed fixing and updating, a lot of TLC would be needed, and we wouldn't have any dosh left to mess with if we made that house our home. Alas!! I hope no one buys it and it's still on the market in a year's time... wishful thinking... We're very protective of that house now. It should be ours. Bahh humbug.



I am sad to report that our little Max Biallystock passed away last week. He was a very cute birdie but was not quite right from the beginning. Whether whatever ailment he had caught up with him, or he was exhausted from all the unwanted attention and shagging he was receiving, we separated him from his buddies for a few days. He was very sick at the beginning but seemed to perk up after 3 days in isolation. The other birds were always calling to him and he would call to them, he missed them so, so we decided to reunite them. He seemed to be doing alright until one morning he was gone. The others are missing him, but at least the shag fests have substantially subsided since his passing. Here are some photos of the boy quartet... That's Max with his head under his wing, surrounded by his ever-vigilant body guards; pigging out on some yummy seeds and that's the four of them snuggled up together.

You have to forgive me if there are any mistakes in this posting, I'm competing for keyboard space with Harriet, our new(ish) cute little yellow cockatiel. She's awfully friendly and loves to play with whatever we're doing, especially the keyboard. Why do birds always go for keyboards??

And I'll leave you with that thought for the evening. Goodnight all, love & hugs xxx Laura

I hate earthquakes!!!

We were just in an earthquake!!! IKKKK!!!! Roxy the dog and I are a little freaked out. Jimmy is cool as a cucumber and thinks it's kinda fun. He's nuts. Just checked the stats out and it was a 4.5, Jimmy says the biggest one he's been in since the 1994 mega 6.6 earthquake which devastated the San Fernando Valley 13 years ago. The huge ones normally happen every 20-ish years or so, so I ain't seen nothin' yet. I experienced another earthquake here earlier this year, in about March or so, and it was scary enough, a 3.2.

We'd been out at a movie screening ("Stardust" - pretty good movie, wicked special effects!!) and are having a late night, getting ready for bed, I'd just finished brushing my teeth and was rinsing my mouth out when the bathroom started to wobble. I use the word wobble because it was moving like a rocking wave. The ground and buildings move here all the time though, so I thought it was either something small and seismic or a big truck driving past, but then it got more intense and started rocking more and then a massive JOLT! It pushed me into the sink and towards the side wall. My first thought was that I'm glad it jolted in the direction it did because our china cabinet should be okay, ha!! The windows were still rocking in the loungeroom when we went to check, and the lamp over our dining room table was swaying away. I'm an Aussie, I'm not used to this, ha!! I came in to check the birds and the cockatiels were fine but the budgies were all hanging on the sides of their cage. Oh well, we were hoping it wasn't a prelude to something even bigger and nastier, but all looks okay now. Apparently the epicenter was about 5 miles from here in Chatsworth. Time to try and get some sleep now. Goodnacht!
P.S. If you'd like to keep track of earthquakes in LA, try this website on for size. See how many small ones we have every day!! Eeeek! http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/quakes0.htm

This 'N' That

As I mentioned before, being away at work for 12 hours a day has certainly cut into my social time!!! I’m finally making time to write in my blog and say g’day to all my family and friends who have been so kind to check in. Life has been exciting here, between getting our wickedly groovy china cabinet, extending our bird family by adding a sweet little yellow Harriet II; exploring antique shops looking for the perfect materials to make my parents’ 60th birthday presents since I won’t be able to be there in person to help them celebrate; visiting new places like San Pedro and Solvang aka “Little Denmark”; hosting visitors; dealing with a lack of hot water for 4 days and having to make an emergency hot water shower trip to Jim and Helen’s place (Jimmy’s parents), we’ve been kept pretty busy. Patrick just finished visiting, such the ultimate guest, arrives and gets himself set up with a rental car and awayyyy he goes! So glad he got to see and do as much as he did in his 2 weeks here, including breaking a few hearts here and there, charmer that he is. I’m bummed that I couldn't spend as much time with him as I’d have liked to, dern work. Oh well, the money is certainly nice after months of not working!

I’m really enjoying this new job, pretty interesting, always learning new things, and it can be challenging trying to master the art of not raising an eyebrow when some of your fav stars walk past you. Inside I’m like OHHH Victor Garber!! Lookin’ even better in person! You were so cool in Titanic! And in that Judy Garland thing! Yeahhhhh! But on the outside I’m like ohh hey Victor G, man… yeah… like… whaddup?

Something I noticed this morning was that my bus stop was surrounded by police when I got there, but I didn’t notice it immediately. How could I not notice them??? Because they didn’t look like the police I’m used to! Their uniforms are a brown-ish colour, I think they could be sheriffs, I might have mistaken them as civilians going to work until I noticed all the black police cars everywhere. Then I put two and two together. So be aware just in case you ever need to be on the lookout for police/sheriffs in LA! They blend too easily!

My Aussie cravings shall soon be fulfilled!! Temporarily anyway. I got a call from 97.3FM radio in Brisbane last week asking for a phone interview with me. Odd! I got such a surprise when they rang up, to hear an Aussie voice on the other end... "G'day, 'owzzz it gawwwin'??" Ahh, heaven! So I chatted with them on the air for 10 mins or so about life in LA away from Brissie, what was different, what I was missing, etc. They were particularly interested in the studios and the fact that I was standing right outside the “Lost” TV show writers’ office, ha. Jimmy and Patrick were listening online from home while a whole bunch of the production crew were listening at my desk… I was outside. ‘Cuz I was missing Brissie, ‘cuz I wanted to keep up-to-date with happening in Oz and ‘cuz I was sick of LA radio’s adverts every 5 mins for plastic surgery, I’d been listening to some Brissie stations at Disney, and some of the other production people had commented that they liked 97.3FM in particular. So I emailed 97.3 and told ‘em they were being enjoyed outside of Oz. As a “cheers” for the interview, they’re sending me an Aussie care pack, woohoo!! Full of Twisties, Cadbury, chicken salt, too funny!! But YUM! Oh, and after they interviewed me, they had an interview with Sandra Bullock. But, hey, let it be known that I was first, ya hear?!?! Bwahahahaa.

Anyway, that's all for now, Jimmy and I are going off to a screening of the new Bourne movie... I barely remember the first one and haven't seen the second, but hey, should be fun. Byeee!

Checking in...

Just wanted to give a shout out to anyone who may be out there checking in with me!! My new job has been keeping me busy busy busy... this 12 hours a day working thing is totally cutting in to my social life!!! Haha. Will write more later but just wanted to say that yes, I am alive and well, am enjoying the new job, learning a lot of interesting things, but missing everyone in Oz terribly!!!!

Something that I'm sure evvvvvvvvveryone will be happy to know is that Laura is finally learning to drive!!!!! Again!!!!!! WHOAAAAAAAAAA!!! I started when I was 15 & 16, then decided I'd wait a while. Got my learners at 19 and started to learn again then, but decided to wait a while longer. Now I feel it is a necessity as the buses here are soooo unreliable!!! I sometimes find myself waiting an hour or more for them after work. Highly uncool. And drivers here are whacked. Oh well, if I'm gonna drive, might as well throw myself in the deep end!!

And I'll leave you with this: We have added four cute little budgies to our family about a month ago. We opted for two at first, a boy and girl pair, then decided to get another pair to make 'em a happy foursome. Well, our two boys and two girls didn't work out as planned, as we now find we have four little boy budgies. That's right, FOUR boys. All very cute, but all in need of girls. We always catch 'em trying to shag each other. There is one budgie in particular that is very cuddly and likes to snuggle up and be preened and fed by the others. They all try to shag him. We named him Max Bialystock, after the character in "The Producers" who seduces the old ladies for their monetary sponsorship of his shows. His favourite friend, who we thought was his mate, we named Ulla, Max's long-legged Scandinavian temptress. She turned out to be a boy, too. I don't dare throw a little girl budgie in that cage full of randy boys now!!
And that's all for today. xxx Laura
P.S. Yank tanks... ohhh.... my.... gosh.
P.P.S. "Fluke" is not a common word in the US. Be prepared to translate if you catch yourself using it whilst in Amerikeee.

Woohoo!!

Just wanted to write a quickie to say that I'm now a proud employee of motion picture production at Walt Disney Studios!! I applied for a job there last week, went for an interview and was asked if I'd like to start on Monday as a production accounting assistant. Woohoo!! It's an entry level job, pretty hard to get in to, but once you're in you're in and it's a great foot in the door. I can't believe I applied for just one job and went for one interview and got it. I wasn't planning to start looking for jobs until next week, but when I saw this position advertised I had to give it a go. Soo lucky am I, and kinda proud to say I did it all by my lil ole self, not sure what they saw in me above the others but I'm thrilled. Movie & Television Production, here I come!! xxx Laura

4th of July & more

Why is it that Australia Day and US Independence Day fall on the hottest days of the year?? Just so everyone can have the day off and attempt to have a BBQ in the stinkin' heat of summer?? We had a lovely July 4th the other day, my first one in the US, topped off with a barbie where most people cleverly stayed indoors to escape the scorching heat. Americans are very proud of their country. Even though most here do not seem to agree with the local, state and national governments of late, they'll have no reservations in displaying their flag with pride. How many Aussies have a flag and flag pole handy around the house? As with the Norwegians, if your family doesn't have a flag of some description you'd be out of place. Celebrations and fireworks everywhere, parties, open houses, beach fests, carnivals, stacks of fun no matter what you enjoy.

The barbie was fun, I got to see a lot of my Californian buddies I hadn't seen in a while, some in quite a few years. We each brought part of the meal to share, and Jimmy & I were on coleslaw and dessert patrol. Which leads me to my next thing... be careful when you bring an Aussie cook book to America! Not only are the measurements hard to translate, but ingredients and other food items go by different names here!! I'm like... honey... we need some icing sugar... ICING sugar... ICING... huh?? POWDERED sugar?? Well I'll be... My lemon tart and tropical chocolate truffles didn't turn out quite as expected, perhaps they melted in the heat, but I managed to fix 'em up nicely and they tasted beauty mate!

More news to come!!

Comments

I didn't realise that I'd enabled comments to be written only by blog users, sorry!!! I've now changed it so that anyone can leave a comment. Ooopsies. Have a nice day. :-) xxx L

Life in LA

My observations of the day of life in LA, or life away from Brissie...
- I'm enjoying having 2 showers a day again!! And... gulp... often more than 4 mins each
- Taco vans have replaced Mr Whippy Ice Cream trucks.
- It's 30 C on a cool day!
- You bump into people from LA Law, Days Of Our Lives and Will & Grace in the local hardware shop.
- It's 3am on a Tuesday morning & I have the munchies... which of the dozens of restaurants around me shall I visit??
- The airport has direct flights to every continent in the world (...maybe not Antarctica)
- If you're not part of the arts, you're not truly living.
- You can be at a Sound of Music Singalong with 12,000 people, quote every single line and lyric from the movie and still be one of the saner people in attendance.
- Wacky is IN...
- Places you've never been to before seem awwwwfully familiar...
- People here have actually heard of Ginger Rogers, Ann Miller, Cary Grant, The Andrews Sisters.
- Clark Gable owned the property across the road from you and Liberace used to live down the street
- A ham sandwich is just that, stacks and stacks of ham in a sandwich (salad?? HA!).
- Refills are freeeee.
- My cosmetics are half the price! Woooot!
- Electronics are wicked cheap.
- Cars are a fashion statement... like a very large Gold Coast.
- Plastic surgery stores are found in shopping centres. Go have a burger, then go next door and get it sucked out!
- Baseball is... special.
- Flights to Norway are cheaper.
- Budgies have been bred down to half their original Aussie size, pint-sized budgies!!
- International calls are NOT 0.2 cents a minute
- Traders expect you to bargain.
- Want something? Betcha the Rose Bowl Swap Meet has it!!
- Cadbury chocolate, snack, flakes, twirls, etc are not readily available.
- Hershey's is NOT a substitute
- Peppermint cream-filled chocolate is hard to come by.
- I miss twisties!!

And they're my observations of the day.

Wedding photos

Thanks for the comments and emails we've received about wedding photos! We actually don't have our official ones ourselves yet, so we haven't uploaded any (many...) for all to see. We'll be picking them up today from the postie, Mum & Dad sent them registered mail for us, so stay tuned!! Pics are on the way!! Check back in a couple of days and I should have some up. And here's a couple to tide us over... I've edited some of them a bit. These were taken by Frank, our groomsman; Sara, my cousin and mother of flowergirl Amelia; and my friend Uli. xxxx Laura

Now I can die happy!!

Yesterday I met one of my favourite childhood heroes... Charmian Carr, Liesl from The Sound of Music!!! Jimmy and I went to The Sound of Music Singalong and Charmian was one of the guests. I'd love to tell her that I've had 10 lizards named after her, ha!!

Jimmy knows of my oddness in being able to quote the most random things, especially dialogue and music from old musicals, The Sound of Music being probably the #1 victim of this oddity. While The Sound of Music holds a place of some description in the hearts of so many of us, for me as a young thing it inspired such questions as "Mum, how does the Baroness get her eyebrows like that?" and "Can all nuns sing like that, or do they teach you to sing like that if you become a nun?" So, when Jimmy saw the Singalong advertised a few months ago, he had to snap tickets up for us. Little did we realise what would be awaiting us!! I warned him that I might become rather embarrassing with my quoting, not only of the words, but also of the tones, inflections, and it was just lucky that my brothers weren't there to join me!! Well, even though I don't think a complete sentence went by in the whole 2 hours of the movie without me chiming in, let me just say that I was one of the more sane people in attendance!! Seriously!! Haha. I had the most awesome time, there were 12,000 people there and stacks of people were dressed up as something from the movie. There was a parade and competition for best costume, and Charmian Carr, Liesl from the movie, was there to help host and judge. While heaps came dressed as characters from the movie, some of my favs were the more creative costumes, like a string of cross-dressing nuns with cigars, grog bottles and beer bellies, a tranny Baroness named "Betty Zaman" (bwahahahaa), people dressed as raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens, brown paper packages tied up with string, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes, and all the other favourite things, there was even a lady wearing drapes with children cutouts in them, with her two twin girls dressed in play clothes made from the drapes, two boys portraying the pinecone on the chair, and the winner was a very creative little guy who came as "moonbeam in your hand." Too funny!! Very clever. It was a whole communal experience, people cheering, and booing and hissing whenever the Baroness and the Germans would come in. The crowd were given party poppers, which everyone popped when Maria and Captain Von Trapp kissed, and when Rolf produced the gun towards the end. Some people had laser pointers to strike the Baroness and the Germans when they were on screen. The coolest part was during Edelweiss when everyone started waving the lights of their mobile phones in the air. I mean, try 17,000 mobile phones alight in the dark at the Hollywood Bowl swaying to the tune of Edelweiss. Overall, quite the experience! I don't know if something like that would have worked out quite that way in Brissie! I just loved seeing Charmian Carr though, and especially to hear her sing "Sixteen Going On Seventeen" and "Do Re Mi." She looks fabulous and still has the most beautiful voice. Visit her cute website here.

Almost legal!!!

Just wanted to write and say wooohooooooo!!! My social security card came through today!!! YAYYY!!!! That means I can do all the fun stuff like get insurance, a license, a yankee credit card, work, etc. My work authorisation card had already come through while I was in Oz, but couldn't be used until the social security had been processed. And now it has, happy happy joy joy!!!

Jimmy and I bought a china cabinet the other day. We'd been searching for weeks for just the right thing, hoping to slip it in between two of the doors leading out to our balcony, but those dimentions really limited our choice of what was out there. So we decided instead to put it behind our dining room table against the back wall, where there's more space, it just means the the table has to come forward and it hides our funky blue wall with the wicked Getty Museum poster. Oh well. The cabinet came today and is now set up on that wall and looks fab!!

As some of you know, Jimmy and I are now the proud parents of a couple of birds. We originally had Aussie, a cute little female cockatiel that we got together in February. Aussie was learning to be friendly and whistle and talk, and we decided to get her a companion. We bought a little male cockatiel, and thought he seemed more of a larrakin so named him Aussie and changed the original Aussie's name to Harriet. All was good until last week, when we came home one night after going out for dinner. We walked into the house and saw feathers all over the floor, everywhere, and bits of blood here and there. Soooo sad. We still have no idea what happened, but somehow our little Harriet, formerly known as Aussie, met Jimmy's dog, Roxy.... :'( We don't know if Harriet got out or if Roxy got in, but amidst all the feathers we found her little body lying next to the coffee table. Aussie was okay, he was still in his cage, in shock, missing a few feathers and bleeding a little, but he has healed up quite well. We've never had any trouble with our birds and cats before, but I guess dogs might be different. RIP little Harriet.

To leave on a happier note, we've been invited to Phyllis Diller's 90th birthday party next month on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Oooh la la! Should be fun, if we can go!

100!

Woke up this morning and realised it's June 26, 2007, my grandmother's 100th birthday!! If she were alive, that is. She died when I was 8 years old, but I'm lucky to have very fond memories of her. I don't think my brothers have many memories at all, Patrick may, but definitely not Bernhard, he was only one year old when she passed. While I didn't really have a chance to get to know her too well and while my memories are becoming increasingly hazy, she creeps into my mind from time to time. We recently uncovered some video footage that Dad took in 1984 and 1985 that includes a visit to Grandma's house. Very special, and when we aired it with my aunts, uncles and cousins watching last year, it was just sooo haunting. In a room full of people, you could have heard a pin drop. No one really remembered it existed and it was just amazing to hear and see Grandma, in top form, right before our eyes for the first time in 17 years or longer.

Mum recently found a present Grandma had given me on my 5th birthday. It was a beautiful little china mug, featuring a colour mural of two girls, in their vintage attire, playing a game in a field, the mug was gorgeously decorated in gold trimming and had obviously been used and loved as the trimming had worn thin over a part of the mug. Grandma had been given the mug as a child, which would be well over 100 years old by now. I don't know how she kept it all those years, as for a while she was living in undesirable conditions. I'm one of the youngest of her 32 grandchildren, so it's particularly special that she kept something aside to give to me. She was given it by her aunt, Johanna Elizabeth, Grandma's name was Elizabeth Johanah, I'm Laura Johanne Elizabeth, so she passed it along the lines of Johanna Elizabeths in the family. There was a note included with it that described the mug, where Grandma indicated that she hoped I'd have a Johanna Elizabeth to pass it on to... HA! Quite ironic to uncover that note at such a time in my life... Grandma's little words and wishes from beyond the grave. Happy birthday, Grandma!! We love you and miss you. xxx Laura

P.S. Here's a video I uploaded to YouTube, most likely the only footage that exists of Grandma and I. Kinda cute. :-)

WOWIE!!

Just wanted to write and say that YES I am alive and YES I shall be maintaining this blog!! Thank you so much to anyone who has been checking in, trying to keep up with me. I've hardly been keeping up with myself, between the wedding organisation and getting things ready to move country, then moving and beginning the settling in process while also redecorating our home, things have been slightly on the hectic side!! But, so much has been going on that I'm hoping to fill you in on here, so please stay tuned.

I'm loving it here but missing so much of my friends and family back in Brissie!!! We're about to begin the planning process of our American wedding celebration. It most likely will be quite low-key compared to what we had in Oz, but looking forward to celebrating it with our American family and friends. Wish the two countries (three if you include Norway!!) were more financially accessible to each other so everyone could be together. Love you all heeeeeaps. xxxxxx Laura

A crook chook

Not sure quite what caused it, but I've manged to get a naaaasty cold. Blah! I'm meeting up with my buddy Niki from highschool, and her fiancee, Matt, on Friday, hopefully I'll be fully recovered by then. They've been living in England for the past year and I haven't seen them since they left Oz. Looking forward to catching up and showing them a bit of the LA area!

There have been a few pics of Jimmy, and even some of me, posted around on photo websites covering the awards the other night. Apparently the thing airs on Sunday, April 22, on TV Land in the US. Here's a site with a few pics. It was fun to see and hang out with everyone again.

All the bits and pieces I'd ordered for the wedding were waiting for me when I arrived in LA. I'm using this time to get 'em all organised and make the joint decisions Jimmy and I need to do before the wedding. Thankfully, the breakables I transported with me from Brisbane to Taipei to LA all arrived in one piece!! I wrapped them up in layers of newspapers and clothes and hoped for the best.

Had a wedding dress fitting yesterday!! All went well, but I cringed at shelling out even more dough for little necessities like the veil, shoes, alterations, the undergarments... ikkk!! I'm never getting married again!! haha. The dress will be ready for collecting on May 2nd, all wrapped up and ready to take on board the plane.

Gonna go get some orange juice and try to fight this ugly cold. xxx Laura

Pic from Saturday's award show:

Back in the USA

What a whirlwind the last week has been!!! I'm back in the US now, arrived last Friday after a 28 hour flight via Taiwan!! I decided to double the length of my flight to save $500... weddings are costly little buggers!! They gave me the wrong immigration form to fill in on the plane... apparently Aussies don't use the same one as Taiwanese, so after I'd waited in line for an hour, they sent me to the back again to fill in a different form. Booo! Word to the wise.. if you go to the US via Asia, make sure you get the correct form to fill in!! No way was I gonna join the end of the queue again and wait for another hour, I excused myself and jumped to the front of the line... didn't want to keep Jimmy waiting too long on the other side!!! The next morning, off Wanda and I went to go dress shopping for her Matron Of Honour dress for the wedding. We found a gorgeous dress in the perfect colour. So, now Wanda has blue! Janette has her dress in pink, Suzie in green, Hege in lavender and hopefully Tegan is keeping hers in yellow!! I saw my cousin Louise recently, who got married two years ago. One of her bridesmaids, my cousin Jo, was in England at the time, and they co-ordiated their dresses by Louise giving her bridesmaids a sheet of the fabric she wanted. They had a dress of their own style made in the fabric Louise had given them, and voila, everything was fine and dandy and they all looked fab! What a good idea. Hmmm... next time... :-P

After Wanda and I had finished shopping, it was time to get ready for the event of the evening, the TV Land Awards!! Jimmy had been invited as one of the guests because of his work on The Lucy Show, as this year they were saluting Lucille Ball and her TV work. I found out a lot of my buddies would be going, too, fun. Lucie was there to accept the award on behalf of her mother, and so was her brother, Desi. Stacks of people I knew were going... Wanda, Frank, Rick, Irma & Jim, Carole & Tom, Amy, Michael, Dan, Tom & Richard, Garret & George, some people I had met before but didn't know so well... Shirley Mitchell, Bill Asher, Bob Shiller... some people I had never met but who I had heard of... Doris Singleton, Keith T & his wife, Kathy, Gregg & his wife, Marl Young, Tony from the original Desi Arnaz Orchestra, and a whole bunch of others. Will write more later... gotta dash and do a few things!!

The countdown!

And so this is blogging...

I remember a few years ago when blogging came about, I signed up for one somewhere only to now forget where I had started my blog and what my username was!! Not to worry, seems like blogs have advanced since those days, so I'm happy to re-start it at this. Welcome to my blog. Why did I start a blog? Well, that's a very good question. I figured that since this is quite an exciting and poignant time in my life, leading up to the big event of our wedding, and since I'll be living quite far away from all my beloved family and friends and won't be able to chat and hang out with them every day anymore (SNIFF SNIFFF!!!!!), this might be a half-decent way of attempting to stay in touch and keep everyone up to date with what's happening in my life... if any one is interested!! And if no one is particularly, then sod yas all, it'll be a nice keepsake and record for myself. :-)

Soooo... that being said... I'd like to take you on a quick tour of what's going on wedding-wise. My bridesmaids are currently in FOUR different countries!!!  Tegan just left today from Brisbane to go to Malaysia and Thailand with our buddy Venetia. I was supposed to be going on the trip, too, originally... but... plans have kinda changed!! I think it's fabulous to have such a multicultural ensemble of my number 1 girls, but ohhh boy, the dresses factor sure ain't easy!! Without giving too much away, my original idea of burgundy has been completely 360'd and we're going with something quite different now, to incorporate everyone's different tastes, styles and opinions. No wakkas!!

I went to Student Flights today to book myself on the same flight back to LA that Jimmy and some of our other American friends coming down for the wedding are booked on... the flight from Bris to LA direct leaving on June 10th. But, that's gonna be one pricey flight!!! Flights booked from Oz are so much more expensive than flights booked from the US. We're just wanting a one-way ticket, and it's virtually the same price as the Americans are paying to go return!!! Grrr!! Which brings me to this dilemma... This is a QANTAS flight... I could take a different flight, say, with China Air, and save about $600. What to do?!?!? Should I go on the same flight as my baby, or save us $600 and go on a different flight and arrive a day or so later?? $600 is a nice amout of money, and, as Jimmy says, a pretty decently-sized carrot to dangle in front of our noses, ha! Jimmy wants me to stuff the money and hop on the same flight as everyone. But, me being a slave to the almighty buck, I'm wanting to save the money and take the China Air flight and use the money to make it up to him and I later. Hmmm....

Two weeks today until I leave for LA!! It's been nearly 3 weeks since I've seen my boy and OH BOYYY we are missing each other sooo much!!! We're pathetic!! The phone companies are scoring from us with the 3 hours of international phone calls we seem to be making per day!! Eeeep!! I'm travelling on China Air, so can use that to evaluate whether it's worth it to save the $600 to use them instead of QANTAS. I've been so busy getting everything organised for the wedding that I haven't had time to properly think about getting everything ready for the trip!

Anywyay, let me see if I can post this and let it be known that Laura has made her first blog. Well, first one that she can find anyway... there should be some forgotten one floating around in cyberspace somewhere...!!

xxxx Laura