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.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
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
Saturday, July 7, 2007
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!!
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!!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
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
Monday, July 2, 2007
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.
- 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.
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.
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