We are ready for Santa...

Are you?


Tree is up and decorated, just need to get some candy canes to put on it. We even have two presents under it already (thanks to Santa in Wales for those!)

The stocking are hung by the chimney with care.....

I also want to put lights outside the house, but sadly Dave doesn't :(  , however I am working on convincing him to let me :) 

Preparing for Black Friday

For those of you who don't want to fight the crowds tomorrow, here is a great website that tells you all the deals and gives you the codes you need to order online to get all the great special offers. You don't even need to get dressed and leave the house :)

Look what I finally found....

prawn crackers :)

I've been searching for them ever since moving here, but to no avail. I've even asked the locals and they had no idea what I was talking about, they aren't the easiest thing to explain to someone!! I found these in my local Safeway today and they are just like prawn crackers, except slightly pink and they do actually contain shrimp where as the UK ones don't normally contain any shellfish. Next on the to find list 'crispy duck', then we can have a chinese banquet.

Freeze watch

Ohhhhhh....


We have a severe weather warning for tonight and tomorrow morning. Temperatures are going to plummet to below freezing, looks like I maybe needing an ice scraper for my car tomorrow morning if thats the case.
I checked the stats and the last record low was 1 degree celcius in 1947. Its going to feel like England!!

Local and international news

There is currently plans to build a high speed rail link through Burlingame and there are lots of meetings and action groups opposing this at present.
A friend in the UK was reading the newspaper The Bucks Herald which is the local paper for Wendover, Buckinghamshire where I grew up and they also have plans for a high speed rail link there, and the local newspaper article apparently mentioned Burlingame as having the same dilemma.
Unfortunately I cant find the article online, but if anyone has a copy and wants to scan it for me that would be great.
Its a small world!!

One year on...

Today is our 1 year Ameriversary, exactly one year ago to this moment we were on a plane heading for our new life in California.
The last year has gone so quickly, and Im pleased to say we are still loving it here :)
Does feel strange sometimes when we say we live in America, and especially days like today when its the middle of November and really warm, then you realise you are in California. I do occasionally miss the rain and I definitely miss the snow.
We do also have the 'down days' when we miss family and friends at home, and other little things we used to do, but overall we made the right decision to move here. We have had friends and family come visit which is nice, and Ive been home once which was good to catch up with people.
We have a few friends/family who have had babies or got pregnant since we left, and that is a bit weird, especially seeing someone with a baby when the last time you saw them they werent even pregnant!!
An 11 hour flight is a long time, but it is certainly worth it to see friends and family, and Im sure those who have visited will agree too :)


Here's to another year in America :)

Movember

Dave and some of the other guys in the Casual Collective office are growing moustaches for Movember to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG, the Lance Armstrong Foundation.


If you are feeling generous and would like to donate to the cause please click on the following link:


http://us.movember.com/mospace/1208954/


Thanks xxx

Big savings

I've decided Kohls is my favorite store to shop in, so far I have always managed to save more than I spend, surely technically that should mean its free :)
Sign up for a Kohls card* and they send you tons of 30% off coupons, plus you always seem to get Kohls cash, which is $10 for every $50 you spend, which normally results in you going back and spending even more!!
Surely after saving all this money I should be allowed to go and buy more stuff - Im sure I need a new pair of shoes ;)

*maybe they will send me more vouchers now for my good advertising.

Guy Fawkes

Someone sent me this from Friday night, so I thought I would post it so all you non English would understand the reason behind bonfire night :)

Another taco bell moment....

Taco Bell Employee: You dont live around here do you?

Me: Yes I do

TBE: Oh

Me: I haven't lived here long though

TBE: I didn't think so, you sound different, you are from England or Irish aren't you?

Me: Im English from England (just to clarify for him).

TBE: You guys all sound the same I get confused, its a bit like people from Mexico (WTF???!!)

Me: OK

TBE: Mexican people speak spanish like the people from Spain (funny that!), but they have twenty words that are different, and if they use those words people look at them with a blank look.

I then used that blank look on him, luckily my food then arrived and I was able to leave :)

Where do they find their employees? Maybe I should have said Im from Europe, that would really have confused him, maybe Ill try that next time.

On a side not the XXL beef chalupa is very nice :)

Our first bonfire night in the US

Today we celebrated our first bonfire night since moving to the US. The major difference being there is no bonfire night here!! The dogs were very pleased about this as we have had no fireworks going off for nights on end disturbing them, other than Monday night when the Giants won the World Series.
So today at sunset we headed to Ocean Beach in San Francisco.

Here we met with 120 other British Ex Pats and we had our own bonfire party, we all bought along finger food and drinks and had a large bonfire and two small bonfires, as this beach has special fire pits that allow you to have bonfires, although we did need a permit as we had more than 25 people, in true British fashion we even bought along two guys to burn - for those Americans reading this - we are not referring to burning real men!! - we are referring to an effigy.

Sadly San Francisco law means that we are unable to set off fireworks or have sparklers and also we are not allowed alcohol on the beach :( , but someone didn't managed to sneak along some sparklers so we did have a little entertainment, although American sparklers are not like English sparklers, they weren't metal they were all made of paper, which was a bit strange. A good time was had by all, and we managed to stay warm by huddling around the fire, surrounded by British accents it almost felt like we were home, except no fireworks and it wasn't wet and cold!! We will definitely be attending this get together next year.

The guys certainly didn't take long to burn!!!

Running late....

I realised a major advantage to living in California this morning, I was running late to get to my volunteering at the local school, I had 10 minutes to get there.
I came out of my house, got in the car and drove off and got there on time.
You may think there is nothing strange about that.... but based on a lot of people's facebook statuses lately, that is not how it currently is for them.
For those of you who haven't worked it out - I didn't need to spend 10/15 minutes defrosting the car :) Although if Im honest I quite enjoy scraping ice off the car before setting off on a journey, Im sure though I wouldn't be saying that if I had to do it every day.
Certainly makes life sweeter knowing that its very unlikely that it will get cold enough for me to scrape ice again, so I can have that extra 10 minutes in bed - which means my super cool purple ice scraper is now redundant :(


PS: Its currently 28 degrees (82 f) here today, and its November!!!