Thanksgiving was a little over a week ago now, and Jeremy and I were invited to Maire's for the day. I have been working with Maire at the Children's Waiting Room since May, and it was an honour to be invited for dinner. Maire is originally from Ireland, so we had the traditional turkey Thanksgiving feast, with a load of extra potatoes!! I just thought I'd add some photos that we took while we were there... I should also mention that we went through too many bottles of wine to count!

Maire, myself and her husband, Dave

Their pet Turtle...

Us looking rather tipsy

How I felt the next day...

All in all, we had a great time. It was relaxed, fun and something we hadn't experienced before. Thanks Maire!! And the countdown til we leave begins... Only 12 sleeps until we leave.

Well, this past weekend we had some visitors from home... Hayley (I've known since High School) and her boyfriend Ryan. It was great to have some familiar faces over here, and it was also fun to have people to show around San Francisco!!

They arrived on Thursday from Las Vegas, and we headed home from the airport and were met with rain in the city. What a great welcome! Having been a HUGE day for everyone, we decided to go out to dinner somewhat local and made it to North Beach for Italian. We had a really lovely meal, and an enjoyable walk home through Chinatown.

On the Friday I had booked Alcatraz for them (it needs to be booked in advance apparently...) and we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf from the apartment and made it in good time for their tour. After the tour was done, we jumped on a tram down the Embarcadero and saw the Ferry Building (among other things) and headed down Market St. I gave them a quick tour of the shops, and I think they were both impressed with the prices of things in general over here. After seeing a few different shops, they made note if the ones they wanted to visit again another day. For dinner that night, we took them to the French Quarter, a short walk from here and incredibly good value. After a hearty steak and a strawberry tart for dessert, I was more than full!! Cafe Bastille has been a restaurant that we've been to a number of times and every time we've gone there, we've been impressed. I think Hayley and Ryan enjoyed their meals too!! Needless to say, it was hard walking up the hill with a full tummy!!

For Saturday, Jeremy and I had booked a rental car with the idea of showing Hayley and Ryan the bay area. We drove through the different areas of the city, and then to a few view points of the Golden Gate Bridge. Took even more photos that we don't need, and headed for a quick visit to Sausalito on the other side of Golden Gate. Made our way quickly through the university town of Berkeley, then on to the Bay Bridge over the other side of the bay back to San Fran. Had a massive Mexican lunch in the Mission and made it home for a quick nap. Had a few drinks that night too, had a relatively early one in the end...

Sunday was the big day. The four of us went to an NFL game at Monster Park. 49ers Vs. Seattle Seahawks. Ended up being something I enjoyed (after dreading it for weeks, truth be told) though it went on a little long. Over 3 hours in total, though it was entertaining. It was sooooo cold in that stadium, the wind had a real chill in it so I'm glad the game wasn't any longer... The 49ers won in the end, something that apparently wasn't expected!! We did a little shopping after the football, and ordered in some pizza to watch new episodes of Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad.

And today we did some more shopping!! After having a lot of time to myself, I have a fair idea of where to go in regards to the shops... Always a handy thing to a visitor :-) Bought a couple of things, and was able to send some things home in a suitcase thanks to Hayley and Ryan. Big, BIG thanks!! Anyway, they're currently on their way home now and I hope they have a safe trip!!

We've got Thanksgiving this Thursday, that should be fun. Turkey for all!! Yum!! And now, it's almost 3 weeks til we leave...

I thought I might add some photos from Halloween down in the Castro District of San Francisco. There were 300,000 people there that night, and most in costumes. Some of you might have seen it in the news for other reasons... 9 people were shot during festivities a few blocks from where we were. We heard nothing, and obviously lived!! :-) And yes, Jeremy was a Proctologist/Gyno called Dr. Mike Hunt... Anyway, here's a little taste of the costumes!! :-)

Rock Star
Missing Head
Anyone for Chinese?
Milk Cartons!!

I heart New York... I think it's such a great city, full of life and SO many different things to see and do.

So, on Wednesday night we left San Francisco again, and headed to the East Coast. I much prefer the vibe over that side... Anyway, we had an all night flight and made it to our apartment (we rented off www.nyhabitat.com) around 9am. It was in between some funky areas. Just north of us was Chelsea, to the west Meatpacking District and a little south was Greenwich Village. Once we'd had a nap and Dave (Jeremy's friend from London) arrived, the three of us headed to Times Square, not wasting any time!! We wandered around, took a heap of photos and headed to a bar for some food and some drinks. Once we were rehydrated, we decided to wander up 5th Avenue and on to Central Park. We had a look at the shops along 5th, then wandered into the Park and stumbled across the Trump Ice-Rink. And BOY, was it cold. The wind cuts right through you, with the wind tunnels!! We took a heap of photos, and ended up getting a horse and carriage ride through the park, after sunset. That night we headed out for a few drinks, and headed toward Greenwich Village. I found a famous bakery that I'd visited on my Sex and the City (SATC) tour in December, Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker. The three of us had some cupcakes, then found a bar across the road. I *think* we got home around 2am or thereabouts.

It was hard to wake up on Friday. Dave wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, and since Jeremy and I had both seen it, we decided it would be a good time to wait in line for Broadway tickets. We grabbed some lunch then started to wait in line, and ended up getting tickets to "Hairspray" after waiting for an hour. We met Dave downtown at Battery Park, walked up Broadway to Wall St, then to the World Trade Centre site to see it all before the sun set. The three of us had a quick shop at Century 21 (a giant outlet department store...) then it was time for us to be up at Times Square for "Hairspray". The musical was fun, I guess it was mainly a comedy with some major themes running through it, but the music was upbeat and the performance was quality. From the theatre to a bar down the road, we moved quickly as it was a cold night. Found an Irish pub and had a few drinks before making the journey home.

It was a struggle to get up Saturday morning... I had a good incentive though. I was going shopping for some shoes, not just any shoes but either Jimmy Choo's, Manolo Blahnik's or Christian Louboutin's... Didn't take me long hehehe. I found some shoes I really liked in my first stop and I bought them :-) After my purchase I walked up 5th to meet Jeremy and Dave at the new Apple store cube thing at Central Park. Stopped in at St. Patrick's Cathedral, got our tickets to the 'Top of the Rock' (a new viewing platform at the top of the Rockefeller Centre.) We walked down to the Empire State to have a quick look, then back up to Rockefeller for the sunset. The view was amazing, from there you could see Central Park really well, and had an awesome view of the Empire State. We didn't stay up there too long, it was freezing and we wanted to go out that night as well. We got home, changed and headed to Little Italy for dinner. After dinner and a few drinks, O'Nieals (the bar Scout from SATC) was just around the corner so I dragged Jeremy and Dave there, but it turned out to be a place they didn't mind. We stayed for while and I remember a lot of cocktails being drunk by me, but the guys wanted a place to dance. We tried to find a place between where we were and home, found a bar type place and drank some more. We got home around 3am or 4am maybe? Anyway, it was a HUGE day and I was wrecked!

Sunday we were all a little seedy... I felt like a good brunch and there was a Diner around the corner that was serving that until 3pm. We refuelled, headed uptown to the Guggenheim (Museum Mile) and saw the New York Marathon in action through Central Park. Cool to see! The Guggenheim was under construction (STILL!!) and they were remodelling inside as well, so we didn't end up going to see the exhibitions. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art instead. Only had about an hour and a half before it closed, so we raced through it to see as much as we could. We had dinner reservations that night for a steak restaurant around the corner, so we went home and changed and booked tickets to see Borat in Chelsea at 9pm. The steak was amazing, I love American beef... Borat, not as funny as I was expecting :-( It was funny, but I think I had my expectations too high! Anyway, after the movie we had a few drinks at a bar on the way home then headed to bed.

Our last day was Monday, a half day really as we needed to leave the apartment for our train and flight around 2pm. Once again we headed uptown to go have a look at Macy's, the largest department store in the world (9 floors high, and an entire block long...). We managed to see Madison Square Gardens and Penn Station on the way. Had Popeyes chicken on the way back, then had to get back to our apartment to get ready to leave. We grabbed our bags and walked to the subway entrance on our street, and before you knew it, we were at JFK airport checking in... I was sad to leave New York, but luckily it's a place that Jeremy and I really enjoy, so it'll be a place that we get back to in the near future :-)

Aloha!! In only a few days I have managed to do 3 tours, get burnt nearly everyday, read an entire book and get seasick...

I left San Francisco on Sunday, a warmish afternoon, and hopped on a plane to Honolulu, a 5 hour flight. I was too excited to sleep on the plane, and it turned out to be a long day. I was met at the airport with hospitality, along with searing heat and humidity. I got to my hostel without any hitches, it's reasonably priced and very close to the beach and bars. Always a bonus! I had a quick wander around Waikiki, found something to eat, then collapsed in bed...

Monday I didn't end up doing too much. I got myself acqauinted with Waikiki and their shops (I needed to get my bearings), and also managed to get down to the beach to do some reading. I fell asleep reading, and I have the sunburn to prove it!! I booked 3 tours to do for the next few days, and just after dinner time here, I was so sleepy from the sun and the fact my body thought it was 3 hours ahead. I slept well!!




Tuesday, during the day was quiet for me. I hung out at the hostel for a bit, had a swim and did some shopping. It was really really humid, almost unbearably so, so I didn't get around to too much. My sunburn probably made me feel hotter than it was too. I went to a Luau that evening, and was the only person on our bus going by themsleves. I made friends with a few people, and after our 3 free Mai Tai's we were old friends. The Luau had some awesome dances, singers, it was just good fun. The buffet was something else though. They cooked a pig (well, we only saw one...) in a pit in the ground, and covered it with volcanic hot rocks to cook it. It was so tasty... And it was all you can eat. They got a heap of us girls up on stage to learn the Hula, that was amusing!! All the guys that had a girl on stage were called up, and stood in a line to the side of the stage. A 'puli-puli' line or something. Basically, we all got to kiss and hug about 40 men before getting back to our tables. Sorry Jeremy!! Needless to say, after all those Mai Tai's (I had some more, they were good) and I slept like a baby.

I got up like a baby too. I really struggled... Sore head, it was hot inside the room, and not feeling the greatest was NOT a good combo for an early start. Don't even get me started on the sea sickness... I chose an "Adventure Fun" cruise, snorkelling on the reef of Waikiki. Made friends with some Aussies (we're everywhere!!) and had a ball. Didn't like the boat too much, but the water was awesome. We went on a guided snorkelling tour, hosted by Biff (I kid you not) and saw a LOAD of fish, a sea snake and 2 turtles. Awesome. Back on the boat, after lunch we also saw a pod of dolphins. Got some pics and some video footage of it too!!

Tomorrow I'm going out with a bang. I have a long day, my flight isn't til 10:15pm and I have an all day island tour lined up. I'm looking forward to it. I'll get to see Hanauma Bay, Turtle Bay, the North Shore (surfing), Diamond Head volcano, sugar cane fields, pineapple plantations... I booked it this way so I can sleep well on the flight (fingers crossed). At least I'll be able to sleep well in San Francisco, back in my bed and knowing that I'm not missing out on sun and surf ;-)

And next week Jeremy and I have New York, AND Halloween. Big week, and one that I'm very excited about too :-) Will keep you posted ;-)

Phew! Yet another weekend out of the city... And what a weekend!!

On Friday we flew down to LAX, Jeremy following me about two hours after. We picked up our car (upgraded from a "compact" to a Jeep Liberty) and started on the long, peak-hour drive from LAX to Anaheim. We made it through the peak-hour, got to our hotel and signed in... I tried to have a decently early night, due to our *HUGE* day at Disneyland on the Saturday.

I could barely sleep that night, excitement and all that. I actually woke up earlier than my alarm, and decided to have an early shower. I dragged Jeremy out of bed, we got ready for our day and made our way to the park. I still can't believe that we got to the park by 8:30. And further still, the park didn't open until 9!! We spent half an hour waiting for the Disneyland people to let us past Main St, and the minutes dragged for me.

At 9, they removed the ropes and the crowds almost ran to the ride that they wanted to get on first. Luckily, we were toward the front of the crowd, and we made our way to Splash Mountain. There were *no* queues for it. We were seemingly one of the first few on the ride for the day. We got a photo taken, just as we were going down the 70ft plunge, but it's not digital. It's funny, trust me... You can almost see the moment that Jeremy crapped himself :-D

We made it to all the major rides and attractions throughout the day, only really missing some of the kiddie rides. Believe it or not, that's where the main queues were and the rides being not all that exciting, we felt that we could skip them and not miss out on too much. Saw the fireworks, 20 minutes of Disney magic, and Jeremy took a few videos of it. I'll get him to add a link!!

So, we lasted about 16 hours at Disneyland. I hate to think how far we walked that day... And on only a few hours sleep too!! Needless to say we both slept like logs that night, and for about 12 hours too!! On the Sunday we decided to go for a drive, and ended up in Newport Beach (home of The OC). Didn't end up taking pics, the weather was lousy that morning... I wanted to have a drive, so I ended up driving from Newport to Hollywood. A pretty decent drive, and mostly Freeways. I drove on LA Freeways!! (and I, no *we*, survived!!)

We met up with Jeremy's ex-bosses from Netspace (In the US for business...) at the hotel they were staying at. The Mondrian... Very nice, very trendy and apparently a fab spot for celeb spotting. We had dinner with them at the hotel restaurant (no celebs), and a few drinks at the hotel bar. Over dinner, we decided that the next day we should head to Universal Studios. Picking Rick and Stewart up at 9:30am meant that we would need to leave Anaheim by 8. I looked at the time, it was 12:30am and we needed to get home.

Universal was a little disappointing. Especially after seeing Disneyland only a few days beforehand. We did the studio tour, that was awesome. They were filming Desperate Housewives, Crossing Jordan and Next. I love that show, funny stuff!! Took a heap of photos, got soaked on a number of the rides and managed yet another day of wandering around a theme park. We left Universal and gave Rick and Stewart a lift back to their hotel, before we headed to LAX for our flight. When we got to the hotel bar, Skybar, I noticed a somewhat familiar face... "Undercover Brother", Eddie Griffin. I remembered him from Deuce Bigalow as the 'Man Pimp' TJ. Tried to get a photo, didn't turn out, but I saw a D-Grade celeb none the less!!

Anyway, we made it home in one piece, utterly exhausted. It's almost taken a few days to get over it all!! Anyway, that's what we got up to over the weekend... Busy busy :-)

In the tradition of spending the weekends out of San Francisco, last weekend we went up to Russian River for a few days of camping. Well, *my* kind of camping...

We rented a car, made a quick pitstop at BevMo (believe it or not, a cheap kind of Dan Murphy's) and picked up $80+ worth of booze for our weekend. Once the car was weighed down with beer, we headed over the Golden Gate Bridge and toward the Napa/Sonoma wine region where the campsite was. It always surprises me how close Napa is to San Francisco, I always imagined it to be further away!!

We picked up dinner on the way, and got to the camping ground around 9:30. Sam and Thuy had arrived a little earlier, and were battling to pitch their tent in the dark. James and Sinead had only arrived minutes before us, and as we were the ones with the beer, we were well recieved!! Before heading to the pub (conveniently located next door...) we had a few pre-drinks and were on our way. It turned out to be a fairly basic pub, but the bartender made up some awesome cocktails for us girls while the guys were playing pinball. I don't remember a whole lot from that night... 5 free pour drinks in close succession will do that to you ;-) If I remember correctly, we left around 1:30am, headed back to the site. We all had another drink or so, then headed for bed. The cabins were pretty basic, no electricity, curtains, but at that time, I didn't care :-)

Waking up the next morning was not easy for me... I felt quite sick!! I didn't end up keeping anything down for quite a while, and James had made these awesome burgers on the grill and all I could think of was how ill they made me feel at that point. I passed on the burger and headed back to bed. Not that I stayed there long!! The river was calling to me, it was a sunny day and the water wasn't far away. We ended up in the water for a few hours (talk about freezing water though!!), and I didn't even get burnt int he sun!! Neither did Sinead (fellow Irish fair skin...)!! Good old spf50 ;-)

I couldn't drink a lot that night, my stomach still wasn't up for it. James once again cooked up a storm on the BBQ, we had a steak each the size of my head. I ate as much as I could, purely because it tasted sooooo good. We all headed back to the bar again, but it turned out to be a quiet night, the night before counting for two!! We were in bed fairly early, and up around 10. Had my yummy breakfast of grilled burgers that I had been hanging for since Saturday, and I was ready for the day ahead. Jeremy and I actually ended up leaving earlier than the others. We wanted to get some shopping in on the way home, and the car needed to be home by 5:30. They sure do love their outlets over here!!

We were welcomed into San Francisco by a swirling mass of fog over the Golden Gate. Got some pictures (just because we haven't taken enough!!) and actually made it home in time...

What's in store for us coming up? This weekend we're off to LA. DISNEYLAND!! We're doing that on the Saturday, and then we have 2 days for Jeremy to catch up with some mates from home. Another weekend out of the city!!

I'm going to *try* and make this one kinda quick... We had yet another big weekend!! We made it to Vegas...

We left on Friday evening, and that day was a total rush from the start. My knee had been playing up a little from personal training, and too much on one machine so I was told to take it a little easy. Easy said, not too easy in practice... There were things around the house I wanted to get done, as well as packing for both Jeremy and myself. I slept in a little late, I had a hair appointment at 1pm and I rushed to it.

Emily cut my hair (at this cute little salon called Jubilee) which was luckily for me, quite close to our house. The appoinment took a little longer than I expected it to, and I didn't manage to get home until after 3:30. We actually made it to the BART (train), and the airport, on time. After getting a cab from the world's longest cab line, we made it to our hotel, Aladdin. It was under extensive renovations (it's changing to 'Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino, allegedly in 2006).

We dumped our bags and headed straight for the Strip. Got as far as the hotel next door, Paris. We played the slot machines for a little while in the hopes of getting free drinks while playing. It took a little while, so the drinks turned out to be expensive, rather than free. We made our way back to Aladdin, Jeremy had a bit of a play at a Black Jack table, and we actually got our free drinks!! I think we made it to bed about 2am, it had been a long day...


We had to be up early-ish on the Saturday morning, mainly to pick up our rental car next door to drive to Hoover Dam. The drive itself wasn't that long, only about an hour or so. It was INSANELY hot (go figure, in the desert...) with a hot wind, and not a chance of a cloud. We took a load of photos, and walked the length of the Dam, before getting back to the air-conditioned comfort of the PT Cruiser. On the drive back we stopped at Las Vegas Outlet Centre. I could'nt believe that Outlet shopping was a first for Jeremy. I took it on as my job, no *responsibility* to introduce him to that world... We bought a few things, and two hours later we were on our way back to the hotel.

By this stage it was late, about 7:30, and time for dinner. After a long wait, we decided on the Aladdin's buffet for tea. Awesome. Lots of yummy food, over all the courses, and as we had only had 'Brunch' all day, it was needed. I found a Fairy Floss machine and had a ball, and the sugar gave me a bit of a perk. Photos of it to boot!!

Got to Paris again, they have these massive drinks that you can buy, the Eiffel Tower, and they filled it with a huge Strawberry Daiquiri. On a hot night, it went down very well :-) We walked up and down the Strip, into Harrah's, Flamingo, Casino Royale, the Venetian, Caeser's Palace and the Bellagio, drinking and gambling along the way. Before we headed back to our room, Jeremy had another go on the Black Jack table at Aladdin, some more drinks, then home. I was rather tipsy, had just finished another drink, so it wasn't the best idea to fall straight asleep. Room service. Perfect for people too drunk/lazy/forgetful to get food before bed. It hit the spot when it came, then I was out like a light. 5am at that stage...

So hard to rise the next morning, a shower, some water and some food made me feel instantly better. Before we knew it, we had to leave for the airport. San Francisco seemed like Antarctica in comparison to the desert. We were welcomed by possibly the thickest fog we've both ever seen. I didn't last too long last night. Made it through new Simpson's, American Dad and Family Guy, then I passed out... What a weekend!!

I can honestly say that I have been busier than usual these last few weeks, and I look back and wonder where all the time went... It's hard to say, day to day things didn't seem all that busy, but there was a continuous feeling that there was always something on. So, let me think what was on...

The first thing that comes to mind is our trip to Oregon last weekend. It was American Labour Day on the Monday, and we thought that we should make the most of it and go on a trip. Ideally, we both wanted somewhere that we both hadn't been to before, but there wasn't going to be any states that we could drive to in time that neither of us had visited before. Jeremy had been to Oregon, a few years ago, and that was during the ski season, so Summer was going to be different.

We started planning maybe two weeks before we were due to leave. We looked on Google maps and found a place just a little north of California. Perfect. A little town called Medford, not even an hour out of Northern California, lots of hotels to choose from, with a website that listed a load of different places to see. Over a few days, we decided to check out a 'caldera' known as Crater Lake. A volcano that had exploded it's top off thousands and thousands of years ago, leaving a caldera. The lake is made from the snow left after the winter, and tops up the lake for summer. Apparently, it keeps the water level relatively steady.

All that was left, was to pick up the car on the Saturday morning. This meant that we both had to be up before 8am to get on the road, and hope to arrive in Medford at a decent hour with stops along the way. Over the Labour Day weekend, the Bay Bridge was closed east bound, the way we needed to head out. This added a half hour to our six hours worth of driving. The drive itself was easy (America sure has a lot of highways) double lanes the whole way, with a steady flow of traffic. We stopped at a truck stop for breakfast, didn't hang around too long in case of lost time.

Our second, and very notable stop, was at the Shasta Lake Dam. A very impressive lake system through massive mountains, and amazing scenery to boot. As soon as we got out of the car, the 100 degree heat made me almost pass out. I was dressed for San Francisco summer weather, not for anywhere else in the state. There was a little wind, but not enough to make a difference. We walked across the top of the dam, only to half way to take some photos, then headed back to the comfort of our air-conditioned car.

Our next, and possibly most amusing stop, was a town called 'Weed'. Yes, 'Weed'. Don't worry, I took a lot of photos from my passenger seat. We were a little bummed that the town didn't quite live up to our expectations, it was rather small, and I'm sure the people were sick of people (mainly out-of-towners) making fun of the name... Never the less, we had lunch there, took some more photos of signs and made our way back to highway. From Weed, it was only about two hours to our destination.

Medford turned out to be bigger than we both had first thought. Our hotel was at the end of the town, and for what we paid per night, I think we got a good deal. We ended up in Medford for dinner, and didn't have enough time to really see anything else. Ended up being an early night, we were both tired from the early start and long day.

On the Sunday, we headed out early for us, and we were on the road by eleven or so. The drive up to Crater Lake and was beautiful. There were thick forests, amazing river views and Crater Lake to forward to. And Crater Lake lived up to both of our expectations. Before we made it all the way up the mountain, we were hungry for lunch and stopped at the base at a restaurant. That turned out later to prove being worthwhile, we had no idea that the trip around the rim of the crater would take over three hours. There were so many tourists at the rim Visitor Centre, we didn't end up staying there for long at all. We jumped back in the car, and started to make our way around the 33mile rim road. There were photo opps every half mile or so, so I think that might be why it took us so long to get around the road. We met some chipmunks along the way, took photos of the crystal clear, deep blue water and saw a controlled fire making its way through the valley. I'll add a link to Jeremy's photo gallery, the photos are truly breathtaking!

The rest of Medford couldn't really compare after that. Don't get me wrong, the place was very scenic, in a valley surrounded by mountains. In winter, it would be a completely different city, I'm sure!

On the Monday, we were up early and out of the hotel by ten thirty, and on the road again. The drive back was a little quicker, we had an idea where to stop for lunch, and had seen most the scenic stops on the way up. We did however, stop in Weed again to get some stickers that said 'I (heart) Weed, CA'. Awesome.

Because of our speedy drive home, we were able to stop at a shopping mall about thirty miles or so out of San Francisco. It was a HUGE mall, on both sides of the freeway, and our main reason for shopping was a shop called 'BevMo'. Very exciting!! I still can't believe that I got a two litre bottle of Bacardi for $16.99. $16.99!! I was very happy with my purchases, not to mention Jeremy and his beers...

Getting back to San Francisco on the Monday evening, only to be leaving again tonight, for Las Vegas. WOW!! Another big weekend away for us both, staying at the Aladdin. Lots of cocktails, food and sightseeing coming my way all over again :-) Will keep you posted on that too!! Very interesting... And next weekend, Bruce arrives!!

To Jeremy's photo gallery of the trip... http://jeremy.burton.id.au/gallery/oregon_weekend

Well the last time I wrote anything was about two weeks ago. And you know what? There's not a whole lot to tell, but I'll give it a shot...

I am now 23. Getting old I know, and a certain someone keeps reminding me I'm getting closer to 30 :'( Having a birthday over here was so so different than having it at home. It wasn't anything tangibly different, just little things like the people I was speaking to on the phone I most certainly would've seen them in person had I been at home. Thanks for the messages, phone calls, emails etc, it was all great!! Thanks!!

I had a big sleep in, headed down to Jeremy's work for lunch, and had lunch with Jeremy, Sam, Dan and Kristie at The Holding Company (a cool pub near the Ferry Building). We had a lovely lunch, they all headed back to work, and I headed out for some shopping. So far so good!! Jeremy had made dinner reservations for 7:30, and I wanted him home a LOT sooner than that to open my presents. I had patiently waited eight whole waking hours for him to get home so I could open them. For those of you who know me very well, I can *sometimes* be tempted to take a peek at presents before the date they're due to be open. To prevent this, my smart boyfriend took it upon himself to put my presents in his suitcase, and change the lock combo to something that I wouldn't be able to guess. RUDE!! I swear, this made me want to see them all the more... Never mind, they were well worth waiting for. I had an extra surprise present that I hadn't a clue about (some awesome towels from Jeremy's parents, very very nice and handy!) And finally I was able to open the others!! A copy of the DaVinci Code (Kath and Kim anyone?) a handpainted martini glass with a recipe for Cosmo's, and a Bose sound dock for my iPod. That was perfect, I never really thought how much I missed listening to music until I realised that I couldn't. So, it's been getting a decent work out since!! (Poor neighbours!!) Dinner at the Fairmont was amazing, although we had a very new waiter and were pretty much the only patrons there that evening. Once again, the steak here in the US proved itself awesome and dessert was just as yummy!!
The next day, Tony Blair thought that the Fairmont was good enough to stay in, so I figure it was good enough for me to have dinner!! We managed to get some pics of the police motorcade as they actually went past our hotel, blocked off streets going off Pine all the way from Powell to VanNess. Traffic buildup was a bitch!! Was cool to watch though ;-)

Saturday brought a BBQ in Burlingame (south of San Francisco) with some people from Jeremy's work. There was the usual Aussie contingent, as well as three of Jeremy's bosses (so to speak) who had just arrived back from Tokyo that day, and a new Aussie couple who usually live in London, here on business. Joseph, the host, had three adorable kids that loved playing soccer with Sam. I had a lovely time, a few beers and a bottle of White Zinfandel will do that to me!! After drinking and eating in the afternoon sun, we were fast asleep very early that night.

We took it easy on Sunday, had lunch at a Mexican joint down the road and headed off to see Clerks 2. Funny funny stuff!! Worth seeing if you have my sense of humour, and/or enjoyed the first one!! That night, as we were walking home, we noticed a bus had come down Mason St, and gotten stuck due to the insanely steep gradient of the hill. It was stuck there for maybe two or three hours, police blocked off the road and a giant tow truck had to back its way down the VERY steep street. Funny to watch, got some photos from our hotel room. I'll get Jeremy to post them on his blog at some point. It was better than TV!!

I started a new volunteer job yesterday, for a group called Breast Cancer Action. It's basically a charity just trying to raise awareness about the 'pink ribbon' type campaigns, and urging consumers to ask questions about how much of their 'pink' product sales are going toward research etc. The girls that I've met there seem really nice, and appreciate the help. So, that's looking good for me at the moment. And I'm still keep the Hall of Justice too, a little diversity!!

One last thing of note; last night we felt our first earthquake!! It was 4.4 on the Richter scale, the epicentre up near Napa and no damage to date. We can now feel like we've been baptised true-blue San Franciscans!! All is ok, don't worry Mum. It just felt like someone had been tapping the couch. Cool huh!!

I think that's me up-to-date for now. On the weekend we're headed to another BBQ, this time north of San Francisco, and probably check out some more places. And try to make the most of the sunny weather we're currently blessed with!!

Hello People!!

This has been a LONG LONG LONG time coming, and sorry I've been so slack about it... This will replace the group emails from now, so I guess if you're interested add this to bookmarks or favourites or whatever you decide to do!!

So, since the last email I sent out there hasn't been a whole lot of news. We are sadly still looking for a sub-lease here in San Francisco, and should be finding out about a few places over the next week. PLEASE keep your fingers crossed for us!! Because of the sub-leasing, we've had to broaden our horizons in terms of where we were looking before. It's led us to sooooo many nice places that we were overlooking before, mainly because we both wanted to be within close proximity to the downtown area. The other couple that was staying in the same hotel as us (Dan and Kristie, from Australia and working with Jeremy) moved out on the weekend to the 'Panhandle, UCSF' area. They love their wacky names of areas here... I'm still giggling at Nob Hill and Tenderloin!!

A little over a week ago Jeremy, Sam, Thuy and I went to a concert downtown to see the San Francisco Symphony playing The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, with artwork by JRR Tolkien and early designs from the movie. Very cool stuff. The only problem for me was the fact that it started at 8pm, I had walked miles and miles that day, and we were way, way, WAY up the very top and it was comfy and warm. So I fell asleep. Not one of my finest moments hahaha. In my defence, it was the kind of music to fall asleep to. Little hobbits running through fields etc, not quite the same as when the mountain of doom was exploding. Anyway, it was a good night in the end...

So basically we've been checking out houses, I'm back at the Hall of Justice, and looking for more volunteer work (some interesting possibilities there...). Sunday we spent on Angel Island, hired some bikes and rode around the perimeter road of the island. Some awesome views, and I can recommend doing that for people coming to San Fran. The city looks so different when you're so far away and can see both the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges. Got some amazing photos. None with me in them, I was cycling, had helmet hair and was getting burnt. Great views of the city though!! :-)

Big week coming up... My 23rd birthday (2nd most important day of the year, the 1st being Christmas!!) And on Wednesday we're going to see RENT before it hits Broadway. Along the way we should be hearing about some of the sub-leases we've applied for.