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!!
Saturday, July 7, 2007
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.
Friday, June 29, 2007
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!
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!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
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. :-)
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. :-)
Sunday, June 24, 2007
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
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
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
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:
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:
Monday, April 16, 2007
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!!
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!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)