Our new apartment

We've finally moved into our new apartment!  We can finally unpack everything and start to have some sort of normal routine to our lives again!

The first thing I found when we moved in - the place was totally empty.  Apparently its normal in Canada to take the curtains, the shower curtain, even the oven trays!  So curtains and a shower curtain quickly got a place on the shopping list!

When you first walk in, to the left is a storage "cupboard" which is basically big enough to use as a small bedroom really!  As you can see, we've designated this area as our 'wet' area for jackets and snow boots, plus the girls skating bags.



Next to the storage area, is the bathroom, laundry and linen cupboard.

From the entrance way, it leads directly into the lounge -

As you can see, we're lacking a bit in the furniture!  But we have a rug!!

The girls room is off to the left from the lounge

And my room is off to the right from the lounge

The door is tucked away behind that wall, so its almost like I have a little mini entrance way of my own!

The dining room is directly to your right as you come through the main door

We don't have a table yet - but we do have a handy dandy emily who loves building kitset furniture!

The view of the dining room from the lounge.

Off the dining room is the kitchen area

Excuse all the mess - so many cupboards I don't know what to do with them all!!

My room - complete with a walk in robe with a light and built in shelves!

And the girls have a huge double wardrobe to share between them (they're messy unpackers!)

So thats a small glimpse of our new digs!  Will post some more pics when we get some furniture in here!

We're not in kansas anymore Toto...

Now, first - a disclaimer.  This is in no way meant to offend anyone.  I'm not having a go at Canadians (or anyone else for that matter).  These are simply observations we've noticed since we've been here, the strange and the good.....

First, because I know that everyone wants to know......

YES, the toilet really does flush anti-clockwise!  Likewise, the water going down the drain goes anti-clockwise too. 
Speaking of toilets - this has struck us as really odd.  The toilet bowls are half full with water.  It really freaked us out a bit at first - we're not used to having so much water in the bowl!  And then when it flushes, the fills MORE water into the bowl before it sucks down into the drain.  A few times we've been freaking out thinking it's about to overflow or something!

The coins are really weird - I'm still trying to get used to them.  The 5c coin is about 3 times the size of the 10c coin, which is smaller than the 1c coin.  About the only coins I have no problems with are the $1 and $2 coins. Oh, and the 1c coin of course.  The rest - they'll probably continue to be delegated to the money jar because I'm too lazy to figure it out when I'm in the store trying to pay for something!

The road rules are odd.  And I don't mean just the whole driving on the wrong side of the road thing!  First, it's not only expected, but its LEGAL to turn right on a red light.  If you wait for the light to turn green first, you will most likely get a polite toot behind you!  Then there are the 4-way stop signs.  Now, its taken me a while to get the hang of these. Officially, I believe you're to give way to your right.  However, the polite canadian way to do it - everyone goes in order of arrival.  And if you don't go, everyone else will continue to wait until you do.  They are that polite here!  Likewise - a red flashing light is to be treated in the same fashion.  Unlike *green* flashing lights which mean you have the right of way over everyone else!

Another oddity - traffic will stop for you to cross the road!  All intersections have markings for pedistrians to cross, and cars must stop if there is a pedistrian waiting, even if there is no marking.  Likewise, we have found that even when you're not near an intersection, if you stand by a parked car waiting for a gap in the traffic to run across to the other side - traffic will stop for you and let you cross!

Canadians apologise for their weather - a lot!  In the week we've been here, we've had someone apologise at least on a daily basis for the weather! They're very sorry it's cold, they're sorry for the snow, and they're sorry for the lack of sunshine.  They also think we're very odd for *liking* the cold and the snow.  As well as being odd for *wanting* to move here!  We're constantly being asked "why?" when we say we've moved here!  Should we be worried??  LOL

And lastly - there are maple leaves everywhere.  We love how the McDonalds golden M has a maple leaf in it.  Even subway has a maple leaf on the logo!  We're loving how we see familiar things that now have a maple leaf on it!

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but merely a few observations we've made this past week!

Our first week

We've had a fun week exploring our new surroundings!  After we arrived on Sunday, our first mission was to check out a rental house that I had found on the internet.  It was in the perfect location - only a block away from Emily's school, on the school bus route for Caitlin, and only a few blocks away from the hospital.  Unfortunately, the house was not really that suitable - very very tiny bedrooms, and the stairs leading to the front door were a little bit dodgy too!  Oh well....back to hunting out rentals....

Sunday night we were invited to a 'meet and greet' that the Human Resource manager had arranged for us.  He had invited another nurse who had moved over from Scotland a few years earlier, plus another person from the hospital who had moved from British Colombia only a week ago.  The other nurse had 2 children, both the same age as Emily and Caitlin!  Emily hit it off with the daughter, who took great delight in telling Emily all about the high school and what she could expect etc.  Unfortunately for Caitlin, she didn't really have much in common with their son, most likely because he was a boy, and boy's are ikky  :)

The dinner was lovely, and it was good to meet some people, considering we know noone in this town! One thing we noticed however is that our tongue-in-cheek humour tends to mostly fall on deaf ears.  During the evening, we would often make some witty remark to have it be taken very seriously, or be met with confused blank looks!  After we left, we settled back into the hotel, managing to fall asleep some time around midnight - our bodies still slightly confused what time zone its currently in!

Monday we had planned to get stuck into the house hunting, look at cars, look at furniture, sort out schools, all before we met up with my new manager at 2pm.  Reality - emily kindly woke me up AT 2pm to ask what she could have to eat!  Jet lag had kicked in at last and we had slept the whole morning away!  We frantically rushed to get dressed and out the door, finally getting to the hospital at 2.30pm. How embarrassing - so NOT the first impression I wanted to set when meeting my new boss!!  We toured through the hospital, checked out where I would be working, and had a bit of a chat.  First impression - the hospital is quite old and dated, but the staff are very friendly, and everyone is so keen to help each other.  I even got a welcome pack to prepare me for my first day, and included was a card from the hospital CEO personally thanking me for travelling to the other side of the world to come and work for them!!!  I thought that was pretty nice of them   :)

Tuesday we had another invite for dinner, this time to the scottish nurse's house.  She has a lovely home, just been built. HUGE!!!  She apologised dinner was nothing special - but after living off takeouts for the past week, the meat pie, potatoes and veges were very yummy!  We stayed a while chatting, the kids having fun playing with their dog, and finally managed to get away just as it started to snow!  It was a very careful drive back to the hotel - talk about concentration!  Pitch black in the middle of the night, trying to find my way back into town, remembering to stay on the right side of the road, remember all the odd road rules, AND cope with the snow too!  oh, i should mention....when i say *snow*, a canadian would probably scoff and say it was nothing more than the occassional flurry, but we're new to all this, so we say snow!

Wednesday was back to the house hunting - this time we checked out a 2 bedroom apartment.  I had been finding that 3 bedroom rentals are *very* hard to find, well, the good ones are!  And I was getting concerned that we wouldn't be able to find something soon.  My biggest worry (apart from the hotel bill!) was that I couldn't enrol Caitlin into school unless we knew where we would be living, so I knew what school she would be going to!  Anyway, so we thought we'd check this 2 bedroom apartment out - I almost cancelled, thinking what was the point, the girls are not going to cope sharing a room.  But we went....and wow.  The place was awesome!!  HUGE dining and living room, HUGE kitchen.  The rooms were on either side of the living room and were quite spacious.  The girls loved the place as much as I did.  The people were in a hurry to move out as they had just purchased a home, so were looking for someone to take over their lease.  Perfect - if we didn't like the place, we're not going to be locked into a long lease!  So we went downstairs to meet with the landlord - approved me on the spot - we had a house!  WOOHOO!!!

So the rest of the week was taken up with furniture hunting, buying supplies for the new place, car hunting, enrolling in schools. Before we knew it, it was Saturday and time to move into our new apartment.  Thankfully the hotel manager was very understanding of the situation, and agreed to refund the extra nights i had paid for so we could check out early.  We piled the car with all our belongings and made our way to our apartment!  No more hotel living for us - and finally we can cook our own meals again!!! 

Truro - our final destination!

The plan was to get up at a civilised hour in the morning, say around 8 or 9am, enjoy our yummy hot free breakfast, courtesy of the hotel, then i would make my way back to the airport, collect the rental car, and we could be on our way to Truro by lunch time!

Reality - we were so tired, the girls were still sleeping at 10am.  I only got up because I *had* to go get the car before check out time.  By the time I was ready to go, the next shuttle bus back to the airport was 11.30am.  So I got everything packed, and told the girls if I'm not back by 11.50am, take all the bags downstairs and wait for me - so at least we could look like we were leaving prior to checkout!

I had a lovely trip to the airport on the shuttle with a jovial group of american pilots, who were keeping me talking, just to hear my accent.  Which was a bit of a shame, because I was trying to keep *them* talking, particularly the gorgeous southern pilot with yummy blue eyes, so I could hear HIS accent!  LOL  He gave me lots of tips of driving on the right side of the road, including the gem - rent the biggest truck they possibly have, and then it won't matter which side of the road I'm on, I can be sure noone is going to mess with me! 

I check in with the rental company (no big trucks, what a shame) and ended up being suckered into the upsell of upgrading my car.  The selling point - for me at least - was the prediction of a "big" snow storm coming through on Wednesday, and that I would be better off with a car that was better equiped for the weather conditions.  I had the choice of a 4WD or a car with snow tyres.  The price difference between the two was minimal.  However, the price difference between the 4WD and the car I had originally booked was not so minimal - there blew my budget!  In hindsight - was probably the best idea to go for the 4WD anyway, as the bags took up so much room, i'm not sure we would have fit into the mid-sized car I had booked.  Besides, its lovely to drive!

I was given the instructions on how to get back to the hotel - very easy apparently.  Just follow the road out, when I see Tim Hortons turn left, and follow that road to the hotel.  Easy peasy!  So I made my way tentatively out of the airport, hoping that there would be no other traffic to contend with until I had my bearings!  I was driving along, starting to get the hang of things, hmmm....not so bad this driving on the wrong side business!  I went around the bend and there it was....Tim Hortons!  Crap, I have to turn left, turn left!  I flicked the indicator on, only to find the window wipers going frantically instead. Crap crap crap, I quickly turn left, just as I figure out that the indicator is now on the *other* side of the steering wheel!  After my moment of panic, I calm myself down, thank the lord that there was no traffic in my way and look about me - hmm...this isn't a road.....oh bugger!  In my hast to 'turn left at Tim Hortons', I had actually turned left INTO Tim Hortons.  Ugh!  This is going to be a stressful trip I see.

So I casually drive the car around the car park, because that was the plan all along, right?? :)  I turn back out onto the street, and then turn left at the street just ever so slightly beyond Tim Hortons!  I finally make my way back to the hotel in one piece to find the girls patiently waiting for me to arrive back.  The darlings had managed to bring everything downstairs - yippee - I got out of carrying the bags!  We got the car loaded up, fired up the GPS with the address for Truro, and we were on our way!

The drive was surprisingly easy - one very long straight road, minimal traffic, and the traffic that there was on the road was good enough to pass me by.



 Finally, after a very uneventful 40 minutes, we arrived at our turn off .......

Of course, this now involved having to maneouver off the highway, and deal with traffic!  Eeek!!!!  Thankfully, I managed to negotiate my way through the little town of Truro, and safely find the hotel.  Ok, thats a lie.  I managed to negotiate my way without causing an accident through Truro, and I found the hotel as I was driving past it!  It's very hard trying to concentrate on the road, and look at the GPS AND look at your bearings around you!  Oh, plus have two little voices next to you going SNOW!  SNOW!  SNOW!

So a slight detour around the block, and we made our way back to the hotel, and this time turned in to park!  All checked in and up to our room - our nice warm room!  We have arrived!!!!

Welcome to Canada

After a fun filled few hours in New York (very yummy hot turkey subs for dinner!) it was time to board our very last plane!  YAY!!!!!  We lined up with the other 30 or so passengers ready to hand over our boarding passes.

The attendant took one look at our non-canadian passports and began the questioning.  Why are you going to Canada, do you have a visa, why is your passport not stamped with a visa yet?  Ugh - seriously? I had all my documents saying that the work permit will be approved ON ARRIVAL to canada!  Geez.  But no, it was all too complicated - we had to step aside to get it all sorted out.  There was also another passenger with the same 'problem'.  They started with her first - whoever they were trying to phone wasn't answering their phone (funny that on a Saturday night!) and the attendant ended up calling over another attendant to help.

This attendant was much more helpful.  She took one look at the other woman, looked at her boarding pass, then asked her "where are you flying to tonight?" She replied "Toronto".  "Well, this flight is going to Halifax, you're not on this flight, you need to go to gate XX and wait for your flight to be called".  Problem solved!

Next it was our turn.  "Are you Australians?"  No, only my daughter is Australian, the rest of us are on New Zealand passports.  "Oh well then, theres no problem here" She turns to the original attendant and gives her a quick lesson regarding movement between commonwealth countries!  hahahahaha  So all was good, and we were now allowed on the flight.  Nothing better than being the LAST people to get on board, with everyone staring at you because you've been holding up the flight  <sigh>  We made our way to our seats....silly me.  I thought when we were seated in Row 12 that we were going to be near the front of the plane, not in the very back row!  This plane was most definitely a 'fun-sized' plane!

It was a beautiful clear night, so we had some fantastic views flying out of New York.  I guess one of the benefits (and I can honestly think of no others!) of flying in a teeny tiny little plane, is you get to fly lower to the ground, so you get to see more! Coming into Halifax we could see lights here and there, but we had no idea what we were looking at, but it was enough to get us VERY excited!  We had arrived at last!!  Now, to convince immigration to let us in  :)

We lined up at to wait our turn to go through.  We get to the counter, and I hand over our passports. Then the questions start....
"Do you have a job?" - yes
"Do you have an address?" - no
"Where do you plan to stay?" - hotel
"Do you know anyone in Truro?" - only the people who hired me, does that count?
"Have you ever been to Canada before?" - no
"How long do you intend to stay in Canada?" - I'd like to stay 3 years if you'll let me
"Who is travelling with you" - i look at emily and caitlin standing right next to me - surely thats an obvious answer???  <sigh> just my two children i answer
"Do you have full custody?" - yes, do you need to see the documents?
"No, thats fine, but you'll need to show them to immigration"

Ummmmm.....ok???  I thought *this* was immigration????  "No maam, we're border security"  Ok?  Isn't that the same thing?  Apparently not!  Ok, so i've just sucked up to the wrong person.  Lovely.

She stamps our immigration card and tells us to now proceed to immigration with a smile and a "welcome to canada".  Cool!

So we then make our way over to immigration, and start the whole process again - seriously, it was all the same questions!  I reckon they must have a script.  Again, I was asked how long I wanted to stay for, so I again asked if I could stay 3 years - hey, no harm in trying!  She said thats fine, and approved it!  YESSSS!!!!!!!!  So we are officially allowed to stay until 21st January 2014!  <happy dance>  Then the long process of her printing all the documents, one at a time.  Our only difficulty is that Emily is on a student visa, which means she is only allowed to study in high school for 3 years.  Which is a bit unfortunate when she only has 18 months of high school to do here!  Hmmm....we'll cross that bridge when we get there I guess.  She has to apply for a different kind of student visa to go to University.  We'll see what happens.

Finally, all the documents were in order - we all now have lovely shiny permits fixed into our passports, and we were then handed back the immigration card again, to hand to *another* person on our way out.  So we grab all our bags and make our way to the exit.  I handed over the hard, and he looks at it and says "follow me please maam" and leads us to the little room out the back.

Oh, you have got to be kidding me!!!!  After all this, and NOW you want to check my bags!  I look at the pile of suitcases and think, geez, we're going to be here all night!  Again, a barrage of questions, what are in the bags, what have you brought with you, how much is it all worth?  Hmm...is this a trick question?   I'm trying to remember if there is a limit on what you can bring into the country.  I know you have to declare more than $10,000 cash, but I haven't heard about belongings!  Ummm, umm, what do I say.  I have no idea how much its all worth!  And most of it is sentimental value, how can you put a price on that!  So I pluck a figure out of thin air, he writes it down, radios the information to someone on his little walkie talkie, and then he makes small talk for a bit, asking how insane are we to want to move to Canada in the middle of winter!  LOL  And I'm still standing there thinking, for gods sake hurry up and get this over with, we're tired.  But he made no move to put the bags onto the counter. Finally another guy comes out with a piece of paper, which the immigration guy hands to me and says this is your receipt, hold onto it incase the tax department ever asks for it.  Welcome to Canada!

I have NO idea what *that* was all about!  I'm sure i'll find out soon enough!  LOL

So we are now free to leave the airport!  WOOHOO!!!  i call the hotel to arrange the shuttle bus which is 5 minutes away.  The bus shows up, and we quickly get our jackets on - well, caitlin and I do, emily insists that its not THAT cold and walks outside in her t-shirt. Did I mention that it was MINUS 10 degrees!!!  With SNOW on the ground!!!!  She got about halfway to the shuttle, and starts to slow down, then her shoulders roll in as she tries to huddle to protect herself from the cold, then she changed her mind and ran back to grab her jacket! 

Sorry - a bit blurry, but its very hard to take a photo when you're laughing so hard at how ridiculous your daughter is, plus still push a trolley of bags,  oh, and also try and protect yourself from the cold too!

So here we are - no more planes for a while now, thank god.  We have made it to Canada!!!

Another day flying.....

Finally - the last leg of the trip!  We made it to the airport on time (despite our dragging tired butts not wanting to get out of bed) and prepared to check in.  No curbside check in for me this time - I wanted (needed!) assistance to make sure I knew exactly what we were doing with our connecting flight.

So we go into the airport and look for a check in counter. Hmm....none.  They don't exist anymore!  WHAT????  I get told that we check ourselves in and then wait to be called to check in the luggage. Hmm, ok...this is a bit different!

It was actually kinda fun - I swiped my credit card and a message pops up on the screen "welcome Ms Syme"  Cool - the machine knows who I am!  :)  I then proceed to confirm the flight details to then get another message - a nice flashing yellow screen requesting assistance to have my travel documents checked out.  Oh no, what's the problem *this* time!

An AA representative comes over and looks over our passports.  Then the third degree starts - where are you going, why are you going, why do you not have a visa stamp in your passport yet, do you have documents to support what you're telling me, no i don't need to see them, just need to know you have them.  Finally I must have said enough to pass her scrutiny, she swipes the magic card and we can carry on with the check in!

Now, the one problem we had with this flight - when I booked it and had to choose seating, the ONLY seats left were middle seats, and there were no seats together, so the three of us were all sitting by ourselves.  And worse - I HATE sitting in the middle seat!  Even the aisle seat getting my elbow whacked constantly all flight is better than the middle!  Once the check in was all complete, it had another screen pop up asking if we wanted to review the seating.  What the heck - might as well check if there was anything else 'suddenly' available!  What luck!  Next to Emily's seat, a window seat was available!  So I moved Caitlin to sit next to Emily.  And there was also a window seat available next to my seat, so I moved myself out of that ikky middle seat to the window!  So we ended up with me by the window and emily and caitlin directly behind me.  So not too bad.

Next the bags..... Now I was feeling a bit nervous not knowing how much any of the bags weighed any more.  We'd been very lucky so far not to get hit with any excess luggage fees, and this was the final stretch to get through.  Thankfully all bags were under the limit!  Woohoo!!!  Amazing - because they really felt super heavy!  After being assured that they would magically find their way from the plane to NY onto the plane to Halifax, we said goodbye to the bags and made our way to security.

Now I should mention at this point that all of this process takes a lot of time.  They tell you to be at the airport two hours before the flight leaves for a reason!  Now back home, two hours before the flight leaves means that you are usually checked in and then sitting around for the remaining 1 hour 45 minutes.  So we were expecting the same deal.  With this in mind, we had prepared to go straight to the airport, check in and then have breakfast while we sat around waiting for the remaining hour or so until we boarded the plane.

By the time we got through just the checking in/ditching bags process, it was now almost 7am. Just the checking in alone had taken almost an hour!  So with grumpy hungry kids in tow, we went through the process of security.  We knew what to expect this time, so managed to get everything into the buckets and onto the conveyor belts pretty quickly.  We were also a bit smarter to go between two lines rather than taking up all the space and time in one line.  So we go through and I hear the beep beep beep - great, theres a problem with one of the bags.  again.  I get pulled aside and asked if this is my bag - well, its emily's bag, but i guess i'm stuck being responsible for it  <sigh>

"I'm sorry ma'am, we need to open the bag".   Yeah sure, go for it. They opened the bag, and there, right on top, is a lovely FULL bottle of mountain dew!  Thanks emily.  The security woman was kind enough to ask emily if she wanted to quickly go back out and drink it?  LOL  Nah, just chuck it.  Bl**dy kids.

So, that done, we then proceed to find our gate.  We followed the little arrows, only to find ourselves at the monorail platform.  The airport in Vegas is HUGE!!!!  So huge, we get a high speed monorail to take us to the next terminal!  And then comes the long walk finding the gate from there.  By now it's around 7.15 and we're due to board at 7.30am and we still haven't had breakfast!  But thats ok.....because I can smell CINNAMON!  Fantastic - there, close to the gate is a Cinnabon shop.  I've been told we HAVE to try cinnabon, and we LOVE homemade cinnamon scrolls which are based on the same recipe (or so i am told)  So off we go to get our healthy breakfast of yummy hot gooey cinnamon scrolls.  all i can say is YYYYUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMM!!!!!!  My mouth would have LOVED to eat more, but the tummy wasn't as willing, too filling!!  But if nothing else, it at least would hold us over until we got to New York.

We boarded the plane - another cramped, lets all sit on everyone elses lap plane.  I thanked god for my window seat (after kicking out the guy who decided to help himself to MY seat) and proceeded to fall asleep.  I'm not usually good at sleeping on a plane, but I had been up since 4.30am and my eyes just refused to stay open.  So most of the flight was mixed between napping, reading and 'talking' with emily via our ipods.  It was quite handy sitting right behind and having the seats so close.  Rather than yelling to be heard over the noise, we could just type and pass the ipod over my head, emily would read the message, type back and tap me on the head with it to take it back.  I'm sure the guy next to me thought we were nuts (not to mention possibly getting annoyed with the passing back and forwards!)

We finally began our descent into New York.  We could see snow everywhere!  Very exciting.  We have no idea what direction we were coming in from, so didn't know where to look to see any landmarks or anything.  But what we could see was HUGE!!!  As we are taxing towards the terminals, all I could hear from behind me were the girls looking out the window going "oh look, snow! oh look, more snow! oh look, i see snow over there too"  The guy sitting next to them was laughing and said "anyone would think you've never seen snow before" and emily said, we haven't!  not like this!  And he laughed and said, well, welcome to New York, we have plenty of snow for you here!

We came off the plane, and just that bit going between the plane and the walkway, we could feel the outside temperature - holy crap it is COLD!!!!  I could see my BREATH type cold!  LOL  We now had around 2 hours to hang out waiting for a flight to canada.  First stop - bathroom!  don't get me started on automatic toilets - just plain creepy!  Then it was off to the travelex to change the leftover american money into canadian.  and THEN time to have something halfway decent to eat.  We all got a hot turkey sandwich - and it was YUM!!  So fresh, hot and tasty.  We have decided we like the orange stuff americans call cheese - so tasty and pretty to look at at the same time! :)  And then we had to sit back and wait for the flight to be called to board our LAST PLANE!!!!  Our travelling is almost complete!!  WOOHOO!!

Viva Las Vegas

We had an AWESOME time in Vegas!  Was a much more positive experience than Hollywood.  Our hotel was fantastic - perfect location for everything we wanted to do. 

The first night we went to M & M world - OMG, what an amazing place!  I only wish we had thought to take photos.  But then again, seems a bit silly to take photos of a shop?  LOL  The girls had a ball buying way too much chocolate.  They got personlised M&M's with their names on them, and then went to the next floor where you could fill your own packet of M&M's in any colour you wanted.  So they *had* to buy more chocolate of course!  There were so many things I would have liked to buy - thank god for our overflowing suitcases that prevented me from going nuts buying too many M&M accessories!

Next door was Coca-Cola World - we weren't as impressed, it was just a large shop dedicated to coke!  But that didn't stop emily buying a few more goodies to add to her stash! Oh, ok, and I might have bought a magnet or two to add to my little collection of fridge magnets!

We also managed to get a spot of shopping in at the outlet mall.  We could have probably spent a LOT longer there, but we were pretty short of time.  While we were there, Caitlin spotted a Dairy Queen, so we *had* to stop for an icecream.  I got a marshmellow sundae (yuuuum) and Caitlin got a Banana sundae....

 (emily didn't want icecream and got a burger instead...)

Vegas at night is amazing with all the hotels lit up - lots more photo opportunities!  However it was getting close to midnight and you could see the change in the crowds from the 'normal' touristy types, to the drunken gambling types, so we decided to make our way back to the hotel and call it a night!

The next day we had booked in to do a variety of exhibitions.  First stop though - BREAKFAST!  I've been told about these Vegas breakfast buffets!  YUM YUM YUM  Totally puts all those australian buffets to shame.  The first difference we noticed - proper full sized glasses for the drinks, and proper full sized plates for the food!! (compared to the entree sized plates favoured by many australian buffet restaurants!) After eating our full of eggs, bacon, waffles, croissants, hash browns, and various other goodies, we made our way across to the Luxor to see the exhibitions.  First on our list was the Titanic exhibition. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed at any of the exhibitions, so we weren't able to get any photos to share  :(  Of course, we could have PAID for a few photos that were taken along the way, but I'm a cheapskate and didn't bother with the fake shots.  The exhibition itself was brilliant.  It made you feel like you were walking through various parts of the Titanic, you could see a cabin from 1st class and 3rd class, various artifacts recovered from the wreck, and quotes from various passengers.  We were each given a card at the start that was our boarding pass, and gave us an identity and some information about who we were and why we were on Titanic.  At the end, we had to look through the lists of people who survived or perished to see if we made it or not.  Thankfully we all lived!

Once we finished, we had a quick drink to boost our energy, then it was on to the Bodies exhibition.  Again, a very fascinating display showing various parts of the body, how the ligaments controlled your movements, how muscles worked, blood vessels etc etc. But it felt more like a school lesson than an entertainment, and even the girls were caught between being fascinated and bored.  So we really didn't linger very long.  I think if it had had more interactive displays, it may have held their attention a little longer?  Anyway, we didn't rate it as highly as the Titanic one.

We then walked across to the MGM and made our way to the CSI experience.  Emily had been looking forward to this one - you got to use forensic science to solve a crime!  Our case involved a car that had smashed through a house into the living room and the driver had died, and we had to piece together all the evidence to work out what had happened.  Emily and I basically solved the case within 2 seconds of it starting, it was so obvious.  To make it worse, many pieces of the 'evidence' that was used to solve the case wasn't actually in the crime scene - whether someone had moved it, or it has just worn away over time, who knows.  But anyway, the general concensus was that it was lame and not worth the money.  Oh well.....

Emily was keen to go to Madame Toussards again because the Vegas one had different characters.  So begrudingly we made our way down to the museum.  When we got there, I was looking at the price - mainly to work out how much money I needed.  I had a discount voucher worth $6/ticket from the hotel anyway.  One of the employees came up to me and said 'you want to go?' and i said hmmm, i'm not sure.....  She came back with "i give you discount of $5"  And i laughed, mainly because i was thinking hey, i've got a $6 voucher, thats better than your $5 one!  But she obviously didn't realise that was why I was laughing, and doubled the offer!  So we got $10 off each ticket!  Woohoo!!  It was pretty much the same as the Hollywood one, just a bit smaller.  But emily was happy because she got to get a photo with her favourite.....

Afterwards, I wanted to squeeze one more spot of shopping in.  I had found a walmart close to where we were, so we grabbed a taxi down there.  Turned out to be MILES away from where we were staying!  The distances in Vegas are very deceptive!  But we got there, and wow!  What a fantastic place!  I think i'm going to LOVE walmart!  LOL  Everything was so cheap!  I scored some really decent jackets for the girls for 60% off, emily was in 7th heaven when she discovered CD's for only $10 each, and Caitlin found a nice pair of jeans!  We had a ball - I am so hoping the walmart in Canada is just as aweseome!  After that, we made our way back to the hotel.  Emily and I went to get some dinner, and decided hey, you can't go to Vegas and NOT gamble at least a little bit.  Emily of course is underage, but that didn't stop her giving me $10 to gamble on her behalf!

I gave her a little pep-talk about 'safe' gambling (well, MY version of it at least) and made sure she was clear that this was all she would gamble, and that if she won anything to cash out her original amount and then keep playing on the winnings. And don't get suckered into putting more money into the machine because you have a 'feeling' you're just about to win something!  So in goes her $10.  First roll - she wins $2.  Hmmm...beginners luck.  Then she won $24!  I'm like holy crap!  All in all, she ended up cashing out at $20, so doubled her money.

Next was my turn.  I put $20.  Lost the lot in 5 minutes.  Hmm....this isn't how its meant to go!  So I broke MY OWN RULE!!!!  And decided just $20 more, and thats it.  I ended up going back to the machine that emily had done so well at.  I guess the machine had done all the winning it was going to do for the night, cos I lost that $20 too  :(  I had to force myself to walk away before I got totally suckered into emptying my purse!  LOL

So we got dinner, headed back to the room and got everything packed ready for our early morning departure in the morning. We got everything into the suitcase, and then I got my trusty little travelling scales out to check we were still under the luggage allowance.  The damn thing had gone flat!  So a quick trip downstairs to get some new batteries - nope, noone stocked this particular kind.  UGH!  So I ended up having to pack "blindly" and hope that we weren't going over the limit!!  Very frustrating, particularly with all the shopping we had done!  

One thing I have noticed with the place - you lose track of time very very easily.  I guess it's deliberately set up like that to keep the tourists in the casinos gambling!  All in all, we have had a fantastic time in Vegas.  We'll definitely have to go back again and do all the other things we just didn't have time to do!  Now we're all packed and ready for the last leg of our journey!

Goodbye Hollywood....Hello Vegas!!

We got up early to sneak in a bit of shopping before heading off to the airport.  We walked down to Target - in the right direction this time!  Its amazing - when you go in the right direction, its actually very easy to find, and was very close to the hotel too! 

When we got there, there was a Starbucks.  Now I'm not sure where this obsession has come from, but Emily has been bugging me constantly since we arrived that she wants to try a coffee from Starbucks. We have Starbucks back in Australia, but apparently this is better here.  And this is coming from a girl who doesn't even LIKE coffee!!!!  So anyway, we had to stop there first.  I got her a half strength mocha - thought that might taste a bit better for her.  She loved it!  It was slightly *too* chocolatey for her liking, but she enjoyed it all the same.  I have to admit, it was the best coffee I've ever had either - very "smooth" taste to it!  I have a feeling I have created a coffee loving monster now - she keeps asking for more coffee!

Anyway - we finally made it into Target.  OMG - the place was HUGE!!!  My idea of a "quick" shop went right out the window.  Not only did we have to contend with the vast size of the store, we then had to decipher the sizing on the clothes! What the heck is a size 30 jean??  After much trial and error on sizings, emily found a pair of jeans she liked, and some warm sweaters.  Caitlin couldn't find jeans she liked, but did find some sweaters too.  At least she'll be warm on the top half!  And I walked out empty handed - couldn't find anything appropriate at all. Oh, to make my life more difficult - they're already stocking for spring, so even though the winter stuff is on sale now (bonus!) there is very little to choose from.

So, we've started gathering a few winter items together - and the prices were pretty good too.  We then went next door to Best Buy - my goal - I wanted a Kindle!  They had sold out  :(  My one and only treat I had set aside for myself, and they had sold out!  NNNOOOOOOO!!!!!  Emily got herself a DSi, about $100 cheaper than what we'd pay back in Australia, so she was happy with that.  Then I spotted the GPS units - thought it would be wise to buy one ready to use when we get to Canada.  The sales person recommended a 'good' one to me that was also on sale - it turned out to be the exact same one I had back in Australia!  And at a fraction of the cost that I paid for the Australian one too!  So that was a bonus!

We finished up our shopping, got back to the hotel with minutes to spare to finish packing everything into the bags and checking out on time.  Then we were off to the airport again.....ready to learn my next valuable lesson.....

We arrive at the airport, and the driver is helping unload the suitcases from the car, and a guy (in uniform) comes up and asks if we're checking in.  So I reply yes (like duh...isn't it obvious if someone comes TO the airport with bags, they're probably going somewhere?)  He then grabs our suitcases and brings them over to the curbside check in.  I'm thinking, hey, this is pretty cool, and it saves having to cart everything into the airport!  So we get all checked in, he hands me the tickets, and then drops the bomb - "just so you know, we work for tips".  HUH????  Apparently everyone who works the curbside checkin, they get tipped.  Hmmm, ok, so if I had gone inside, I could have checked my bags in for free, but out here I pay.  great.  Ok I reply, what would be the standard amount for tipping in this occassion?  (yes I know - it was a loaded question - he could have replied with any ridiculous amount, what would I know!)  And he said, oh anything you feel is suitable.  Great, so not helpful.  So I figured the travel book I had said $1/bag for bellhops in hotels, would it be the same here?  5 bags so $5?  but the bags are heavy....$10 seems so much, $5 seems so cheap.....so I gave him $10.  god he must love tourists who are clueless about tipping!

Next we head inside to make our way to the departure lounge.  Wow, security is NOTHING like it is in Australia!  Off come the shoes, the computers out of the bags, the toiletries out of the bags, sunglasses off head, belts off.....we had a lovely long line of stuff to go through the scanner!  Thankfully the body scanner was out of action.  Phew.  Then we get to the other side waiting for the bags to come through....waiting, waiting....oh dear, one of the bags is 'suspicious'.  Oh great...what have the girls done this time....  They show me my handbag and ask 'is this yours?'  Umm..yeah?  "Sorry maam, we have to open it, there is something suspicious in there."  What? You can't be serious! I'm thinking great, someones planted something on me, i'm going to jail, i'll be deported, oh shit, oh shit....  Out comes my half empty water bottle.  "Sorry maam, we can't allow water bottles" and into the bin it goes.  The girls were laughing themselves silly.  Oh crap - had totally forgotten about that!  I'm such a blonde.....

We then held up the line collecting all our stuff and re-dressing etc, only to find as we moved away, there was a separate area for that!  Oops, obviously we were meant to just grab the stuff and move on.  Oh well....  everyone behind us was probably thinking 'bloody tourists'  :)

I went to the shop to replace my water.  $3.50 for the exact same bottle I had just paid $1 for!!!  Yeah, I'd rather dehydrate!

The flight to Las Vegas was pretty uneventful - well, if you ignore the lady infront of us who smelt like boiled cabbage.  Was pretty gross.  Thankfully it was a very short flight!  Near the end of the flight, we found out the awful smell was actually her perfume!  The flight attendant was telling her how beautiful it smelt, and they were chatting about perfume scents, and the girls and I were looking at each other thinking how could someone actually LIKE that smell???  hahahaha

We got into the airport - WOW!  I had been told there were slot machines EVERYWHERE in Vegas, but its still a sight to see it in person!  The first thing you see coming off the plane - slot machines!  Everywhere you turn, its like they've put an airport in the middle of a casino!  LOL  Finding our bags was a mission - we followed the signs, walking, walking, walking.....only to end up at a tram stop to take us to the baggage claim!  We're beginning to wonder where on earth the bags are!  The tram went at lightening speed and we found ourselves walking yet another set of long corridors, to finally find our bags!  They really don't give you much time to collect them - we got there JUST as they turned off the carouselle, and were about to go around collecting the 'unclaimed' bags!  Geez...give us a chance!  I then paid a whooping $4 for trolley hire, and we made our way outside to find a shuttle to the hotel. I paid the fare, go to the shuttle, the driver said he'll take care of the bags and loads them on board, and directs us into the bus.  We're sitting there waiting to go, and I suddenly think - Hey!  The trolley!  What a gimmick - *I* pay for the trolley, and they collect the deposit back for returning it!  Ugh! LOL  You can so tell I'm not a seasoned traveller!

We're finally on our way to the hotel, and OMG.....WOW!  This place is totally unbelievable!  All the pictures you see on the internet, none of them do justice to this place.  The sheer size is incredible. We were just sitting there going WOW.  We came in at a good time - the sun was just setting, so the lights were coming on, and it just all looked so gorgeous! Being on the shuttle was great as we got to see a few of the other hotels too - more photo opps!

We get to our hotel -

the excalibur and made our way through to check in.  Again....wow!!  That was an experience and a half. You have to walk through the casino to get to the registration desk, slot machines everywhere!  We checked in, and made our way back through the casino to get to our rooms.  There is no avoiding the fact you're in the gambling capital of america here! Our room is "so-so" but the view......

......incredible!

Rubbish Day

Ok, technically, I should have posted this a couple of days ago - so this is going to put my 'timeline' as such out of order a bit, but oh well. 

On our last day in the house cleaning and emptying, we managed to accummulate a LOT more rubbish than I realised we actually had left.  So I put it into a garbage bag thinking that way I could tie it off and just leave it in the bin when we go.  Before I knew it - we had THREE such garbage bags and a 4th quickly filling.  And it just felt wrong to leave a clean house behind with a full rubbish bin.  Hmm...what to do, what to do.

Now I should mention - this was all happening on Tuesday, and Tuesday is our rubbish pickup day.  We already had the bin out the front, completely filled to the brim.  Now recently, we had noticed that some of the newer tenants had been putting their bin outside the BACK of the house on the street there, rather than the FRONT of the house where the drivway's are, and the bin-man still picks both lots up....

Hmmm.....BRAINWAVE!!!

We calculated we had about 2 minutes between the time of emptying our bin and making his way around to the street.  Plenty of time - particularly with an empty house in the middle.  We opened up the garage, and cleared a path from the front of the house through to the back gate, and lined up the garbage bags along the way.  The we stood at the ready...waiting...waiting......

The truck picks up the bin, emily is poised to run as soon as it drops back to the ground, as soon as it lands - out she runs, grabs the bin and RUNS! Through the house with us all yelling GO GO GO, out the back door, throwing each bag in as we go, Caitlin running behind with more rubbish she's found...the whole time we're so caught up in it all, we're yelling GO GO - we get the bin to the curb JUST as the truck turns back out onto the street.  We stand back in the backyard high fiving each other on a job well done as we watch him pick up our overflowing bin for a *second* time that morning!  And then grab the bin again to wheel it back around to the front to wait for the bin cleaning man to make his final visit!

Was a great moment in an otherwise boring clean filled day.  The neighbours probably think we're total lunatics with all the yelling over a bin of rubbish!  LOL  We only wish we had thought to capture it all on videa....oh well....

Our day in Hollywood

Ok, keeping in mind we haven't slept in something like 36 hours or so, our views may be a little bit jaded.  However we all agree that Hollywood wasn't really that fantastic.  But it is certainly very good at helping you dispense with all your money in a hurry!  I have learnt that I am too polite and this politeness fault of mine is going to cost me dearly unless I stop making eye contact with *anyone* and do not engage in any conversation, even if it is to say 'no' to whatever they just asked me!

Within an hour of being on Hollywood Blvd - I had offered a 'free' CD of an up and coming artist who assurred me he was the next big thing, then insisted I pay him for his 'free' CD that he just pushed into my hands.  As they say - there's a sucker born every minute, and this one just arrived fresh in LA.  Ok - lesson learnt, don't talk to the street hawkers!

On to lesson number two - Emily saw "Elmo" and just had to go get a photo with him.  That photo cost me $5, or was it $10?  More than I wanted to pay anyway! And it was all a blur, and I'm so tired, the money all looks the same now.  Oh, and the best bit - Elmo HIT ON ME!!!  OMG!!!!  LOL  He said there is no way I could be Emily's mother, I had to be her twin sister at the most, and then whispered in my ear that I was one hot mama, and was there a Mr Hot Mama?  I'm like seriously?  I don't remember Elmo talking like that!  God, what they'll say and do for a buck huh?  Then as we tipped him (grrrr) he kissed me (eewwww) and said we'll hook up later!  Umm, yeah....how does no sound?  Ugh - so lesson number 2, don't take photos, ever.  Especially of creepy childrens characters!

Which moved us right along into lesson number three - thou shalt be more firm with homeless people.  We ended up in McDonalds (again, I blame tiredness - we were hungry and thirsty and everything looked strange and weird, so we stuck with the familiar golden arches).  Anyway, I paid cash, so of course got change - a whole 13cents!  So we were looking at the cool looking coins and this homeless guy comes up and begged for it, and before I knew what I was doing I felt sorry for him and said that was all I had (my own fault for holding the coins in public!)  Ugh!

So from then, I just ignored everyone.  No photos with pretend celebrities, no eye contact with anyone, and a firm NO from anyone asking for anything!  All in all, we had fun doing what we did - but we didn't enjoy Hollywood itself that much.  Hollywood Blvd was just awful, and there must have been at least a dozen people, if not more, all trying to sell tickets to the same tour, so every time we walked past they would pester us again!

Then to top off the perfect day, we thought we would do a very quick shop (wanted to go to Target) and then get dinner before going to bed early.  So I looked up the map, made sure I had the directions right - couldn't go wrong, only 4 blocks away. So away we go, walking walking walking, then the 'major' street became a 'dark' street with minimal lighting.  Hmm, this couldn't be right.  So we tried a different direction.  Still no luck.  But now it was getting dark, we were all tired and cranky, and just wanted dinner.

So we went down a familiar sounding street expecting us to be back at the motel - nope.  We were suddenly on Hollywood Blvd again!  How the heck did *that* happen??  Then I got all confused - I swear its the traffic going in the wrong direction - it is so disorientating!  So we walked back to the motel, stopping at In-N-Out burger - even the taxi driver recommended it!  So we grabbed a cheeseburger each (YUUUUMMMM) and some fries (ho-hum, i've had better) and went back to the motel.

A quick check on google maps - oops!  I had forgotten to cross the street!  What a blonde!  So we had walked two blocks in the wrong direction!  No wonder I couldn't work out where the street was and had gotten all disorientated!  So we'll try that again tomorrow when we're a bit more awake!

Tomorrow we have the morning to shop, then its on the plane again to Vegas!  Thankfully only a short 1.5hour flight this time  :)

Arriving in L.A.

Well, I'd say NEVER AGAIN!!  But we all know "never" is a long time.  But seriously - is it as long as a 14 hour flight???  I've never had to sit still for so long before!  The seats were cramped, the plane was chokka full, only a slight recline (which was also a blessing, because it stopped the person in front of me going onto my lap I guess!) the meals were awful - god, i think the tiredness has turned me into a moaning myrtle!

Ok, the positives - there were a LOT of children and babies on board, and thankfully not a single meltdown!  Well, not within my earshot at least!  And the entertainment console was pretty cool too - had a great choice of movies - watched Keeping the Distance, Boy, Bridget Jones Diary, a few episodes of Mike & Molly, and a few other things, and listened to some decent music, played a few games.  All in between trying to sleep and pretend we were already on LA time to help combat the jet lag!!

However, the sleeping was the biggest problem.  We were all really tired, but it was just so hard to get comfy.  I'm used to sleeping sitting upright in a chair (thank you night shifts!) but I have to have my feet up to do it, i just can't sleep with them dangling.  So most of my problem was simply that I couldn't put my feet up - they really needed a foot rest at the very least on that plane!

Oh well - we survived, and arrived in one piece in LA!  First impression of LA......sand apparently! (read on!)

We were sitting in the middle three seats of the aircraft (so 3 seats, the aisle, our three seats, the other aisle, and the other 3 seats)   So we didn't have a window seat unfortunately, and our view was extremely limited.  I finally caught a glimpse out of a window and saw a pile of very tall looking buildings.  I said to emily - oh look, i see it!  She looks at the window and says "it looks like sand".  Huh??  Ummm, emily - you're looking at the wing.  Try looking out the *other* window!   HAHAHA

Because we had to juggle our carry on luggage and we had it on two sides of the plane, we thought it best to just wait until the crowds disappeared.  Which worked well - we were the last off the plane though!  But that caused the next problem, we get off the plane, and the place is empty!  The 400 odd people on the plane certainly disappeared pretty quick!  We had no idea where we were going or where everyone else was.  So we followed the maze of corridors - all completely empty - and then finally, turned a corner and stopped.  Literally a wall of people all waiting in line to get through immigration!  Oh look, we found the rest of our passengers!

So the next 45 minutes is spent in a slow moving line waiting our turn to speak with the immigration officers.  Nothing like seeing a bunch of guys wearing guns around their waists walking up and down the area to make you feel slightly intimidated!  Thankfully no problems this time with our passports - just a few quick questions to make sure we weren't planning on becoming illegal aliens - and we were on our way!

So here we are - we made it!  We're finally living our (ok, MY) dream.  All the stress and dramas have been so totally worth it!  We're happy, we're smiling, but by god, we are so tired!  I could sleep a week! :)

Waiting to board the plane to LA

The flight was delayed while we waiting for passengers on a connecting flight to arrive as *their* flight was delayed.  It was a looooong wait...very boring!

Oh - the long wait came AFTER the stress of going through immigration.  I handed over our nice shiny new passports, waited for the thump of the stamp......it never came!  we waited, we waited, the woman was mucking around doing god knows what - all i could hear was the tap tap tap of the keyboard. 

Then I started getting nervous!  What the hell??  What's wrong?  Have I been targeted as a terrorist threat? Have I done something wrong?  Has loser ex put a stop on Caitlin leaving the country?  I had a million worse-case scenarios running through my head!  I started getting dizzy - I could actually feel the floor rolling underneath me - it was so bad I thought one of the girls was bouncing on the floor making it wobble!  Sweaty palms and everything!

Then the dreaded words......"would you come with me Ma'am".  Suddenly there is this other immigration official there waiting to escort us to the office.  Oh god, oh god, what the hell has gone wrong now.  So we waited and waited on the chairs, feeling like *everyone* was staring at us like we'd done something wrong.  After about 15 minutes, the guy comes back, hands me the passports and says "have a nice flight".   WHAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTT??????

Are you kidding me?  You put me through all that and then leave me hanging???  I don't think so!!!  So I asked him - I'm sorry, but what was the problem.  Is this going to be an issue while we're travelling through the States??  Finally - he cracked a smile and said, oh no, no problem.  Are these new passports?  Yes I replied.  I thought so he said - they wouldn't scan, so we had to input all the details manually and the system was going too slow, which is what caused the delay, its all sorted now.

OMG!  I went through hell for a simple computer problem???  UGH!!!!  I swear, this experience is not likely doing anything good for my blood pressure!  LOL

Strange man sitting next to us, smells like incense.

This guy totally reeked of incense!  He looked around 70 years old at least, had really long dread locks tucked up into his beanie/hat thingy, a long ginger beard, and PURPLE nail polish on!  Not to mention the tattoos and the colourful luggage!

His wife looked as eccentric as he did too, but we thought it was a bit rude to try taking another photo (was trying to be descreet!)

Waiting for the train

Here we are, at the crack of dawn (well, 6am!) at the train station with all our luggage - 5 check on bags, 3 carry on bags and 2 computers!  We're going to have fun getting all that onto the train in the two seconds you have while it stops!

So much to do...

I can't believe we've only got TWO WEEKS left to go!!!!  We're all getting so excited!  But I look around the house and see there is just so much to do, and nothing seems to be getting done!  Very frustrating.  I wish someone would just come into the house and buy the lot and be done with it!

I had a woman come over last night - she saw my sofa advertised, and wanted to buy it. Also mentioned that she was interested in my bed, and would it be ok to bring her daughter and mother to check out what else I had for sale.  God YES!  So they arrived - an hour later than organised.  But thats ok, just buy all my stuff, and I'll be happy.  The mother left in a huff pretty quickly when she realised I had nothing she desired, and the father was shitty because I had no tools or a trailer to part with (WTF?).  Then the original buyer and her daughter were left, umming and ahhing over what they wanted.  Talk about confusing - the original buyer didn't want the sofa after all - she said she had already decided before coming over that she didn't really need one after all.  But then the daughter said SHE wanted it, but needed to check with her other half.  Whatever....  Then once they had decided what they wanted, the woman stood back and let her daughter haggle me down on the prices of it all.  Now, I *know* thats what people do, but it kinda pissed me off a bit, because I'm already practically giving this stuff away, and I know what this stuff is all worth.  In the end I decided to hell with it, a sale is a sale, I need this stuff gone, and agreed on a price.  They left to go get some money to pay a deposit (their idea) and said they'd arrange for a pickup the following day.

Now, half an hour later, I'm starting to get a bit uneasy with how everything happened.  The original buyer purposely arranged the time because thats when she had access to her son's ute (or someones) so she could grab the sofa while she was here.  Over the phone, she said she DEFINITELY wanted the sofa at the very least.  Then to have all of them come in, walk around the house looking at what's for sale, then to not want the sofa at all, and to not come back with the deposit....hmm, i could be just a bit paranoid, but I just have a really bad feeling about all this. And hey, if they don't want the stuff after, then why not just say so.  I'm going between being ticked off and worried.....

On a more positive note....

All the passports are renewed and in my hot little hands!  WOOHOO!!!
I have received authorisation for all of us to travel into the US!  WOOHOO!!!
All flights are booked!  WOOHOO!!!
Accommodation is booked for LA and Vegas!  WOOHOO!!!

I still need to arrange travel insurance, accommodation for canada, and a hire car in canada.  But at least that to-do list is getting smaller and smaller!