Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone in Europe! 

Here we still have Saturday afternoon. We just got back from a walk down Newport Beach, followed by lunch at one of the restaurants down there. Unfortunately it was a little misty and not so warm, but it felt great with some fresh air. And of course we had to show thew in-laws the lovely beach.

Now it is time to put that beef into the oven and get that dinner ready. And to start planning tomorrow's adventures. Hopefully it will be nice and sunny and we can get out of the house again.

Back to Normal

Christmas disappeared just as fast as it arrived. I never got into the Christmas mood this year, and most of the goodies I bought, such as glögg, never made it out of the cupboard. Simply forgot. Or couldn't be bothered.

I love the nice warm weather here, but next Christmas needs to be spent somewhere a little colder. Those who know me well, know how much I hate being cold. Though my love for Christmas may just be a little stronger than my dislike of being cold.

However, I cannot just blame this year's lame Christmas just on the climate. We have been so tired that we have had some really early nights, and small things like putting out the right Christmas table cloth (LOL) simply didn't matter. It has all been about sleep, sleep, sleep and Emily. This lack of sleep has taken me by such surprise, normally I am such an energy bundle, even with little sleep and being jet lagged in the past, I had no problem to work work work and still get tons done once I got home from work.

Oh well. Now we have the "days in between". The days after Christmas, but before New year. Family is still here, in-laws are soon on their way. Gavin is still off work. Best husband and dad in the world. Wouldn't have survived the past week without him! Next week I will try to schedule an appointment at the hairdresser's. And make it to the Brow boutique. And get a pedicure. Things which need to be done before hubby goes back to work!

-14 kg!! WITHOUT exercise! Another 14 need to go. Phew. Unfortunately they are currently stuck on my hips! Now that can turn out to be difficult. Took my first PW (power walk) this morning, and that is the new routine. Every morning. The challenge is on. I want to be back in my old clothes in March. I am more than ready to dump my maternity clothes. More than ready!! At least feet are back to normal size. And that was celebrated by ordering a pair of Burberry shoes yesterday. Oh yes!! I am sooooo ready to go shopping again!

Tomorrow we are diving into the world of paper work again. Time to apply for Emily's passport. American passport!

Thoughts

Ho Ho Ho - Only one more day to go and then it is Christmas!

• Happy Holidays I have noticed no one says Merry Christmas here, only happy holidays. Wonder why that is.

• Online shopping saved us this year Oh my, we have kept UPS busy. 

• Windy Some strong winds out there at the moment.

• Scar is looking great Had my 2 week postpartum check yesterday. Apparently I am a good healer. Scar is barely visible now.
• Busy Times A thought goes out to all single parents out there. Don't know how you survive. I am knackered. Constantly tired.

• Food Shopping Virtually need to do all the food shopping still. All we have is a Christmas ham in the fridge. And I don't know how to prepare it yet. Do I boil it first? Bake it? I am lost. 

• 6 cm! Emily has already grown 6 cm. And she keeps gaining weight. Great news!!

Busy Days

Not sure where the time goes these days but it it seems to fly past.

The trip to San Diego went well. The Swedish Consulate was a little bit hard to find, tucked away in a semi shady area in a dark building with its only entrance through the car park. Gavin expected something more like the British one, where you have queues outside and guards and high security. Nope, this was a small office hidden in a corner on the third floor. It took about ten minutes to hand in the paper work and then we headed back home again. All that driving, one hour in each direction, for that. Why do they make it so complicated....Thankfully, there is less work for the British registration, all paper work can be sent via post. This also regards the British passport. For the Swedish one they offer two appointments a year in San Diego (the next one in April is already fully booked), or we have to fly to DC. No Thanks. We will apply for it in Sweden.

Saturday it was time to pick up the much awaited ham!! We drove up to LA somewhat late, it was past noon once we got ourselves sorted, and arrived to Ohlson's about an hour later. We have the biggest ham I have ever owned, 6-7 kilos perhaps? Luckily we have a big oven - American size! Stocked up on a lot of goodies, all in all we spent $200 dollar on all kind of Swedish food, guess I am feeling all nostalgic now when it is getting close to Christmas. Some of their stuff are 5 times more expensive than in Sweden.

Headed to the Grove for some Christmas shopping and dinner afterwards, 

 

Manage to do the last of the Christmas shopping. The rest was taken care of online. Never loved online  shopping as much as this year. Would have been lost without it!

First Walk Outside

Took my first walk with Emily tonight. Had to post some Christmas cards (I KNOW, we are sooo late this year) and check the mail. Since it was a really nice afternoon we walked around the complex a little and spotted some of the neighbours' Christmas decorations,

Beautiful evening huh

Baby Emily in her pram for the first time, she looks so tiny!

Tomorrow we are off to the Swedish consulate in San Diego to get her registered in Sweden and to apply for the coodination number. Our first little mini trip. In the afternoon we have a follow up appointment with the paediatrician. We decided to go with another one after all since the Swedish doctor will take a sabbatical for one year. We opted for Newport Coastal kids, they are open 7 days a week and are a little closer. The good and the bad thing about US in general really applies to this office - anything is possible if you have the money. They charge $ 40 for walk-ins, $ 50 for weekend appointments and appointments after 5 pm. It took me close to an hour to fill out all their paper work. And I had to give them my credit card details. It's a first for everything I guess.

Emily

Well here she is: our latest family member, 50 cm long and 3.96 kg in weight! Born on 4 December, 2011.

Blog has been quiet since she took us a little by surprise - first she didn't want to come out and once we had scheduled the c-section she decided it was time and we had to head to the hospital one day ahead of schedule. Turned out to be a c-section anyway since she hadn't dropped. She was born at the Hoag hospital in Newport Beach.  Everything went very smoothly, between us arriving and the delivery there were only about 3,5 hours, mainly because of our choice of dinner the evening before: Korean BBQ. Once 8 hours had passed since the meal, the anaesthetist showed up and did his job (and gosh, was he GOOD at it, didn't notice the injection for the epidural at all!), OB did a good job too, not only did she do a great job getting little Emily out all healthy but the scar looks great (if a scar ever can look great, that is).

Hoag's is a really, really nice hospital, offering everything you can wish for at the mother baby unit. They have large family rooms where we all could stay together for the 4 nights we were there. The service was impeccable, there was a large menu to choose breakfast, lunch and dinner from, room had wireless and cable (not that we ever had the time to watch TV) and the staff was very very friendly. Nurses were very hands on, LOL, whenever we had problems with the breast feeding there were there straight away twisting the boob and positioning the baby. Actually, Gavin would make a great lactation specialist. Not sure I would like him to squeeze boobs all day long though.

The view from our room

We got discharged after 4 nights and have since then trying to get accustomed to changing nappies and lack of sleep. And dreaming of boobs and babies. It's proven difficult but I am sure we will get the hang of it sooner or later. Luckily, we are blessed with a super sweet baby girl who hardly ever cries.

List of To Do's is Shrinking

Finally managed to drive to the social security office and apply for a social security number. Check!
And here I thought authorities were unfriendly world wide, how wrong was I. Nice as pie and hardly any wait at all.

Also made it to homeland security where I caused a little confusion. I received my work permit last week, and I also received a letter with a scheduled appointment for this morning. I showed up - the office is in Santa Ana, right among the $ 1 dollar taco trucks, immigration lawyers and homeless people - and they were a little confused why I was there to have my finger prints captured when I already had received the card. Normally you don't get the card without the finger prints FIRST. Security leak! Haha, I was placed in a special queue (OMG, I nearly wrote LINE) and then they had the finger prints and photos taken andthe whole thing was quiteted down. Check again! Now it is only the driver's license left where I am learning English all over again. What happened to indicate and reverse? It is all about signal and back up in study material. Lost in translation completely.


Baked some super nice bread last night with some home made carrot soup. Bread turned out fantastic if I may say so myself, nice and crispy but gosh did it take long. Around 3 hours in total!

New Cleaners

Just had a Mexican couple over to look at the flat, they were recommended by a friend of mine and they seem really, really nice.  I only expected the wife to come (and to be late a la Hispanic style , guess if I was surprised to find a whole Mexican family 20 minutes too early outside my doorstep! They will start cleaning next week. Let's see how it goes.

Weather is still absolutely gorgeous, around 20 degrees C and no clouds.  We have put up the Christmas tree so tonight we will have to turn on the air con, light some candles and pretend it is chilly outside. Luckily, it gets really dark here at night so at least we don't have the sun spoiling the fun.

Bad news regarding the consignment. It is still in England, it will most likely be shipped this Friday and reach the US port on 5 January. It is an understatement to say that I lost my temper a little yesterday. Another reason why you should not read mails at 6 am in the morning, it ruins your whole morning LOL.  Now I definitely need to do some shopping before Christmas. Big sigh.

Healthy Living

When most people think of the US they think of unhealthy food and overweight people. Sure, we are surrounded by fast food here, and I have seen some HUMONGOUS people BUT here in California I think most people are quite slim and people seem to live quite a healthy lifestyle. All you need is some discipline. I'd even go so far and say it is easier to eat healthy here than in e.g. England, Sweden and Germany. Germans love their pork, bread, fried potatoes and cake. And what about those kebab places everywhere, and the beer. Swedes and their simple home cooking and all the sauces..England, well go to one of the large supermarkets and you'll find they like most things pre-made.


Here you often see products labelled with "fat free", "zero calories", "no carbs", "trans-fat free". People seem to like it. I will not comment on if these products actually are healthy or good but it seems to be a good way of making money. I prefer "normal" ingredients and rather eat leass, but those "normal" products can be quite hard to find. The good thing about the supermarkets we have around where we live (I would give ANYTHING to have a wholefoods in Europe, pricey, yes, but such a great quality) are some of the choices they offer:

• lean beef and the availability of organic meat
  
• fruit and vegetables - I am stunned everyt time I go shopping
• low fat milk, some great dairy products (compared  to Germany...)
• fresh fish and seafood

With some discipline and ignoring those greasy temptations, I think we can do pretty well here in terms of healthy living. I do wonder though, with all those skinny people in CA, who actually does eat at the fast food joints? And it is a little contradictionary people are buying all those products with no calories, it is e.g. hard to find normal butter but on the other hand people constantly chewing on or drinking something, and then all those fast food places... Burgers are nearly always on the menu here but on the other hand raw food is becoming very popular, people drink tons of soda but the new bestseller is coconut or aleo vera water.

Exercise is big here but that can't be it right? Must be another trick or is everyone on Atkins or LCHF? Just wondering :)

Anyway, we are back cooking at home,smoothies for breakfast, sallads sallads and sallads for tea. Better use all that veggie and fruit before it goes off.

Sugar Rush and Kick Counts

Here the OB/gyn asks you to do kick counts on a regular basis. If you notice a decrease, you should call the office (any time) and they will send you to the hospital for fetal movement monitoring. Average kick count once you have had food and sat down should be around 10 kicks within the following two hours. We never had a problem counting those kicks, normally we get them withing 10 minutes :) In Germany I was never asked to track them, not sure about Sweden,  perhaps because the gyn hook you up to the fetal movement monitor (CTG) every two weeks during the last weeks of the pregnancy to check the kicks and the contractions.
There is, however, a little trick to get those kicks going. Like a jump start. We were semi worried last night since we couldn't feel anything so Gavin off the sofa and poured me a glass of coke and got me some lovely Twizzlers.  5 minutes later we could feel some disco dancing going on inside the belly and she is still being pretty active. Why do the doctors never tell you about those tips and tricks? Needless to say, I had problems falling asleep last night and didn't sleep well at all. Hubby, who used to be such a sensitive sleeper, has adjusted (maybe a little too well) to my rough sleeping pattern where it feels like a hippo is rocking the bed everytime I have to turn around (which is pretty often) and would most likely sleep through an earthquake now.

As you can see, no other baby news yet. And the new healthy lifestyle is yet again postponed for a few days. I know we could start today but supposedly I need those carbs to squeeze the little one out :)

We had the regular Monday check up this afternoon, I now have three new appointments this week: fetal movement, another check up with the ob and one ultrasound. All at different offices and on the same day. Crazy.

And oh, I have been chewing those turkish pepper sweets all day, very yummy. But I'd trade them for some Glühwein at the Cologne Christmas market any time. That would be a real treat.

Christmas Fair

We made it to the Swedish Christmas Fair just in time before Lucia started. I was really amazed how many people were at the fair organised by SWEA, I guess I didn´t realise how many Swedes actually live in Orange county. There were definitely a couple of hundred people there and it was pretty crowded. Nice!  Also took the opportunity to join SWEA at the fair. Never joined in Cologne because we organised a lot of events with Swedish people anyway but I think it will be a good way of networking and meeting new people here since I am not working.

The Swedish school had a small Lucia and some handmaidens and starboys, it was quite sweet. This was probably the first time in 17 (?) years I had seen Lucia.

There were a lot of stuff on sale, some Swedish crafts and arts and of course some food and glögg. We bought 1,5 l of SWEAs own homemade glögg and some Christmas decorations, e.g. this candle stick for $ 25, which I was about to order oneline for 40. That was definitely my black Friday bargain! Finally some Christmas atmosphere in the flat!

 and another tomte, I have a huge collection of "tomtar" (santas) but since this is one of my weaknesses it was really hard to resist not buying it, plus, the great collection is still being shipped. When it comes to Christmas, more is definitely better.

I am not a huge fan of sweets but since I realised there is not a great selection here, I really miss no chocolate sweets and have ordered some from sockerbit.com, in the meanwhile I will enjoy thse which I bought at the fair. The feeling you get when you chew on them and the pepper explodes in your mouth..ahh sooo nice! Unfortunately the noise drives Gavin absolutely nuts so I will have to chew on them during the day :)

It turned out to be another sunny and hot day today so after the fair I googled for Italian ice cream cafes in the area and we found one down at Fashion Island which is a cute outdoor shopping complex. 13 minutes later we were enjoying some ice cream in the sun even though it was not quite what I had expected. Anyone who has been to one of those cafes in Germany will picure a huge ice cream cup with fresh berries, cream and some topping and that is the picture I had in mind when driving there...well, we are yet to find such an ice cream cafe here.

On our way home we decided to stop off at Pier I Imports to look at a sideboard and looking turned into buying...we are all set now. No more furniture shopping needed!

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Thanksgiving/Black Friday

We survived both!

We took a walk in the afternoon down Newport Beach to burn off some calories and make some space before heading down to Laguna Beach for Thanksgiving dinner, which was absolutely delicious. We were still in a food coma Friday morning. Initially we had no plans to do any  shopping but since we were so stuffed from the night before we had to get out of the house for a while. Started off at the Spectrum which is an outdoor mall with a lots of restaurants, outdoor ice-skating, merry-go-rounds etc. Kind of nice to just walk around there on a nice sunny day.

Walked around for a while, hubby did some shopping, had lunch and headed to South Coast Plaza (really hard to stay away from that place, I know!). Must say, we expected more deals and it to be far more crowded...Most shops had some kind of discounts, but you get them every couple of weeks anyway. I guess the bargains were to be made in electronics. A lot of the big shops such as Best Buy opened Friday morning at midnight already and had people queuing during the night. Just as crazy as when the Brits start queuing outside NExt at 5 am on Boxing day! Even apple had some discounts and the first apple shop we passed we couldn't even get into, that's how busy it was. Later on we did mangage to get this stylish mouse though which I had been looking at for quite some time. I know..the apple syndrom where you are willing to pay more for something just because it is apple.

We finished off the evening buy having a meal at a Thai restaurant nearby. I think I need to do some more research and find better places to eat out at. Food was ok, but it still felt like a fast food joint even if we had "real" plates. Surely there must be better options around here (I drive past them all the time but then forget about where they were).

Something I couldn't find on Saturday were Christmas decorations, other to hang in the Christmas tree, so for the first time ever I think, we have no Christmas decorations up on first of advent. I know people don't celebrate it here, but I didn't quite expect not to find ANYTHING to buy. Ah, I do have a somewhat Christmassy tablecloth bought at Target. The ONLY tablecloth we have right now, until the consignment arrives.


This afternoon I am hoping to get a little Christmas feeling (we currently have 26 degrees C outside..phew) at the SWEA Christmas fair. There will even be a Lucia!

Long Weekend

Thought I'd be smart and do some food shopping yesterday before the craziness starts. How wrong was I. It has already started. Manage to pick up some bits and bobs (thankfully, we are invited to Rosemary and John's tonight, and we are so looking forward to it) and then escape home again. Absolutely crazy out there. They say thanksgiving is bigger than Christmas here, well, I cannot compare but we are pretty sure we won't go anywhere near the shops on Black Friday. Nice to have hubby home for four days in a row. We started the long weekend yesterday by going to Tokyo table for some Japansese food. Yum!

People always seem to think Americans get no time off, well, not sure about that, I think there are constantly bank holidays here, perhaps because they are spread out a little more than in e.g. Germany and Sweden. Though Germany is pretty hard to beat, but I think Hong Kong is the record holder. They still have the British and also get the Chinese holidays (which are not so modest, either). However, many shops here, including dry cleaners, are open 7 days a week and after living in Germany where literally everything apart from petrol stations and some bakeries are closed on Sundays and bank holidays, it is such a blessing to be able to go shopping any day you want. The stress we used to feel Friday afternoons or Saturday mornings is completely gone and we have learnt to appreciate this quickly. It was always a stryggle to make it to the dry cleaner, butcher etc. in Cologne, whereas they close between 6 and 6.30 pm on weekdays, they would only be open between either 9 am and 1 pm. Add post office and some smaller shops outside the city too. Always such a race against time.

Just received my work permit! That must be a new record in efficiency! Not even a week since I posted the requested "evidence" such as marriage certificate etc. to the Homeland Security. Also got an appointment to capture my biometrics next week. Now let's see if that needs to be postponed:) So, like an ashamed dog I take all my complaints back about people being rather slow here.

I am due this Saturday..

I am getting asked a lot these days when I am due. I wish I could take a picture of people's faces when replying " I am due this Saturday". 99% of the people look stressed and scared and I can tell, they regret asking that question as soon as I answer. They look like I am ready to pop there and then. Ha, I wish I have had a tiny tiny little contraction so far. But no. So don't worry, there will not be a Target baby. Thanks for asking though :)


Had the regular Monday morning visit this morning. No news. I have bought raspberry tea, a birthing ball I am using to bounce about on and am trying to move about a lot. No sign so far. Yesterday I thought I could feel a wee contraction if I concentrated hard and long enough but that is the closest so far. The waiting game continues. Looks like we will make Thanksgiving dinner AND Swedish Christmas market this week. Nice.

Last night we watched the American Music Awards. Gavin was cleaning up his 2000 new (read: old, he nvever bothered to clean up his account before) and I was moving about on the new ball at the same time. Not only was it annoying to watch because of all the advertising, but also because 1) Taylor Swift won every category she was nominated for and 2) Nearly everyone started their thank you speech with thanking God. Trust me, even if there were a God I barely think he cares about the AMA. 

I have been looking for different baby groups (or, mom groups). Not so easy, it turns out. Where I would be happy with a general one; it seems to be a little more segregated here. Hispanic groups, Asian, multiracial, religious, proud stay at home mums, full time working mums etc....I have found one Scandinavian one but so far I got no response so not sure if it is active. The Swedish school has a play group on Tuesdays so I will definitely join that one but I clearly see some benefits in joining a local one too. Perhaps I will stumble upon one sooner or later.

When is it too early to put the Christmas tree up? We bought a smallish, plastic pre-lit one yesterday a the Home Depot. Plastic, small and pre-lit because we are not sure if we will receive the Christmas decorations on time to decorate a real one, and since it is plastic, I could really put it up next weekend, right? That and a small poinsettia are the only Christmassy we have at the moment so why not enjoy it. It is a Martha Stewart Christmas tree, have to admit, don't like her cooking but the Christmas tree does look nice.

Need to do some more studying now - that drivering test is lurking behind the corner and I am planning on getting it done this week.

A Wiedersehen of old Friends and Rain

On Saturday we drove down to Laguna Beach with Alan to have a very late lunch by the beach. In fact, it was so late that we watched the sun go down, see the pictures below which were taken with the iPhone, you can imagine what it would look like with a proper camera. Next time! Laguna Beach has plenty of nice restaurants and cafés, really hard to choose. I wish we had such a choice up in Irvine. Think we are turning a little American though, In Cologne we would never drive 20-30 minutes just to have something to eat and here we are slowly getting used to it. We do have lots of places around the appartment complex but they are "fa(s)t food " places, burgers, greasy kind of stuff..Not really places you would pick on a Saturday night.

Here is the view we had

While having lunch (I actually felt a little chilly for the first time, NICE) we got a txt from some friends we met in Germany who were up in Santa Monica asking if we wanted to meet up. Of course! So, drove back  home, picked up the new stools on the way from Pier I. One step forward making the flat look a little more homey:)

Yesterday we had some rain!! And it rained all day, so cozy! It was all over the news, warning about the driving conditions, flooding, delayed flights...a little bit like when it snows in Cologne ;)

The day started off very well, Liverpool won against Chelsea, such a close game towards the end. And 100 million pounds sitting on the bench doing nothing most of the game. Glad hubby came home with a smile on his face. I on the other hand,  made a some delicious smoothie while watching the game. My new breakfast. With all that great fruit here, it would be a shame not to buy it. I saw some plums the other day, big as apples! I will buy some and take a picture next time. Never seen plums like that before.

Here is the result of my first raspeberry, strawberry and banana smoothie in the new mixer. Bought some mangoes yesterday (again, so cheap and delicious looking here)

Also, bookshelf arrived yesterday. Don´t have enough books to fill it yet, but if our consignment ever arrives, we will.

We had everything packed and picked up end of September and still, there is no sign of it. It took me a long time to pick a moving company, I received a lot of quotes, most of them coming from UK based companies. I assume the competition is quite high in the UK as it turned out that all UK based companies were a lot cheaper than the German ones, even after converting the price into euro. Eventually we did pick a British one, based on price, professionalism and the overall quality of the quote they sent us. However, that was nearly two months ago, I have since then been contacted by 3 different people claiming they are my primary contact persons and now no one can tell us when the boxes will arrive or where they are. One of these contact personsn is now on maternity leave, one can only hope she reads all her mails just like me:)

Lesson learnt: Do not choose The Removal Company. Pay a couple of hundreds euro more and pick someone else.

What if they don´t arrive before Christmas? Diasaster!! We have at least 3 boxes of Christmas decorations...the motto for Christmas is ALWAYS the more the better. And I would start putting it all up next weekend. Also all our pots and pans....definitely needed for Christmas. I bit the bullet and bought a new muffin tray and we have some new frying pan, and a new turkey tray (I am sure there is a proper name for it, they sell them everywhere)..but other than that. EVERYTHING is in those boxes. The bikes, bed linen, pictures, clothes and books - we will survive a little longer without all those things. Kind of getting used to the minimal living. Also, all the candles and candlesticks, another month delay would not be a disaster, even if I did miss them yesterday when it rained..BUT the Christmas decorations and the pots etc, we don`t even want to go down that road and think about it not arriving in time.

Also sent a parcel with DHL nearly 5 weeks ago to be exact. Still hasn´t arrived. And the worst thing with that box (apart from it contains all my DVDs, incl. the whole Sex and the City series, all six seasons..) is that I can´t remeber exactly what is in it apart form the DVDs. Some Swedish books for sure, but I remember putting all kind of things in it which couldnt fit in any of the suitcases. I have tried to track it, but DHL needs at least 3 days to get back to me, then they have a question, I reply, and then they need 3 days again. This has been going on for nearly two weeks now and I am getting slightly annoyed. And worried.  We will use UPS in the future. Certainly they are more expensive, but they are fast, reliable and well reputed on both sides of the Atlantic.

This is also the fourth week of me waiting for my debit card. We will have a joined bank card for the first time, which should be interesting;) We did try once before in Germany and ended up paying 50 € overdraft charges. The monthly fee was 5 € and eventhough we agreed to transfer a certain amount every month to the account, we didnßt. So after 5 months, we got charged 5 € and the bank closed the account automatically. We shall see how it goes. I will pop to the bank after Thanksgiving and see what´s up.

We went for lunch at the Cornery Bakery cafe. For a minute I thought we were somewhere else, it surely didn't feel like California with all that rain pouring down outside but it wa super cosy. Also managed to buy some stuff at Bed, Badth & Beyond (used THREE coupons, total savings of 30 $, haha) and did some food shopping at Ralph's. I am becoming the queen of coupons because I dug out 7 of them for Ralphs, worth 8 $ and double points. Who would have have guessed I would become a coupon lady. Actually, I would much more prefer shopping without coupons, packing my own bags, have some places for returning shopping trolley on the car park and no free plastic bags.That would probably cut prices too.

Weekend

Weekend again, yaay. Not sure what happened to the week, but I am getting quite good at doing nothing and making the time pass.

This weekend will be pretty quiet, we are going out for our regular Saturday lunch tomorrow, despite all the fastfood places in our area, there is still one very close to us I would like to try, http://opahrestaurant.com/. I have been to another restaurant owned by the same person down in  Laguna Beach and that was delicious. If you are willing to travel for 20-30 minutes down to Laguna or Newport, there are plenty of fantastic places - with great views!

For Sunday the original plan was to watch the Chelsea - Liverpool game in one of the Irish pubs around here and enjoy an Irish breakfast. Change of plans - the bookshelf will be delivered between 8:45 and 10 am so it looks like hubby will enjoy that breakie on his own and enjoy some lads´s time down the pub.

Weekend also means new episodes! We are somewhat of TV-junkies...or should I say, TV-series...
US have some quality TV-series showing at the moment, other than those series we don´t really watch TV (although I do admit, I occasionally watch Top chef and house hunters). Beware us of all the reality shows, x-factor, big brother...oh no, no chance in this house..but the SERIES. Of course, we record them (how did we ever survive without the DVR) and watch them whenever convenient. Some the series we currently follow are

• Homeland - great, new series, probably the best at the moment
• Sons of anarchy - on its fourth season but still going strong
• The walking deads  great first season on AMV, second season is a little slow
• Terra Nova - a little B but still ok to watch
• The good wife - third season and still good!
• Blue bloods - NY cop family, nothing special but pleasant to watch if you have nothing else to do
• Hell on wheels - new series on AMC, seems ok,
• Hawaii 5-0, ok, entertaining 
• Boss - surprisingly good politial drama with Kelsey Grammer, nice surprise

Of course, we also go off series...we used to watch

• House
• Damages
• Dexter
• Desperate housewives

Sadly, I think all of the above have reached their best before date. We tried to watch some of them this season but they kind of felt "seen it before". As you can see, comedies are not so popular in this house,  not sure when I saw a good comedy the last time. Fawlty towers perhpas, and that´s quite some time ago:)

Time to wake Gavin up on the sofa and go to bed!


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Food

It has been a pretty uneventful week. No sign of the baby yet so I am focusing all my energy (trust me, there is a lot at the moment) on cooking and baking. The idea is to pre-cook and freeze for busier days, which we are sure, will come soon. One of the problems is though, it is hard to cook something nice without eating it! Made some Swedish meatballs the other day and when they were ready to go into the freezer, there were only about 11 left. So I had to make another round,

And some Swedish pannbiff...

Happy to say, my first attempt to make bread turn out really nicely. Below is some bread with sundried tomatoes, based on durum wheat (which I could never find in Germany), perfect to a salad or soup. Don´t know how I survived without the kitchen aid before, such a great companion in the kitchen and it makes baking soooo easy.

I tried to make some banana and blueberry muffins two nights ago, bit of a disaster so they had to go straight to the bin. No pictures of them, they were flat as a pancake coming out of the oven. You can imagine how I happy I was with the bread, was starting to have real doubts about my baking abilities.


Tonight´s dinner (i.e, if hubby ever comes home from work) will be oven baked chicken with dijon mustard cream sauce, mash and French beans. Slowly figuring out the gas cooker and oven, not super convinced that gas ovens are great, but the cooker - ever so quick so this is definitely an advantage!

I popped down to the Indian supermarket around the corner earlier on, looking for some ajvar relish. Even if it is turskish and not Indian, you´d be surprised what you can find there. They even have various Maggi sauces and such a hardcore German thing as Sauerkraut! But no ajvar, hence going for the dijon. Great supermarket though, half of the vegetables they sell, I have never seen before.

One Month in Irvine

I have now been off work for a month and I can clearly say this has been the most unproductive month in  a very long time. Who needs 6 weeks off before giving birth? I understand that not every pregnancy is as easy as mine but 6 weeks!!! In fact, I think it has made me feel worse. Had I had a reason to be up and about all the time I am certain, I wouldnt have spent minutes every day to feel how I am actually feeling. You know, it is all in the head and if you have too much time to start contemplating if every toe is doing ok, well soner or later they are not. You kind of over analyze yourself.

Anyway, I was kind of lucky since I could take advantage of the maternity leave and come and join Gavin here so I shouldnt complain, it has been great 4 weeks to spend with my hubby.

Some thoughts of the last 4 weeks

• Love the weather. I haven´t worn socks since I arrived. That says it all huh!

• Chatty people. People like talking to strangers and commenting on things. I think it is really nice and people seem to love pregnant women. I did run into some weirdo at Costco´s. This woman gave me her business card (preschool teacher) and I felt a little stalked after she approached me the fourth time and wanted to discuss The bump. Now, Costco´s is huge. No coincidence if you run into someone four times.

•  American toilets suck. They are full of water and they block easily. I dont want to feel as if I am going down a ride in a waterpark every time I am on the toilet. 

• Customer service is nearly always perfect. Such a joy to go out for dinner. 

• Manicure & pedicure: VERY cheap and everyone does it. I am not a huge fan of other people´s feet, especially not if they are minging. Such a joy for my eyes here, no neglected feet to be seen anywhere. And, even if I have a huge bum, humongous bump, my feet  and nails look very nice. Always something.

• Some people can be incredibly slow. When crossing the road, driving, shopping...Whether it is Irvine, Orange County or California or me having a serious damage from Germany, dunno. On the other hand, there are no annoying BMW drivers here beeping the horn or trying to undertake you on the autobahn.  Guess it evens out.

• Cars stop as soon as you are thinking about crossing the street. Big like! The nicest thing happened last week Friday walking from the car park to Target. No car would stop but within seconds a police car turn up, blocked the street off so I could cross it. Now that is service!

• Dissolving sausages. The strangest thing happened when I made a gumbo last night. A gumbo is a kind of a Southern stew. You roast the oil with the flour to get a nice chocolate brown colour, this will be the base. Now, I put in some chorizo sausages and I got this spooky colour and the sausages dissolved. Very weird. I was told this morning by a friend, there is a major difference between Mexican and Spanish chorizo. See, the Spanish is solid and will not disappear into nirvana. Glad it had nothing to do with my cooking. Slowly getting used to some of the products here. Really really love the supermarkets, they are all nice as pie, but I have realised everything is not what they tend to be.
• Still looking for a Spanish teacher. No luck so far.

• Finally made it to the pediatrician tonight. She is Swedish, seems very nice, but unfortunately she is taking a year off to go and work in Sweden. Office seems nice so we will probably stick with it.

Buying a birthing ball tomorrow. Perhaps that will speed things up. Although, I am really looking forward to our first Thanksgiving dinner in the US next week. And SWEA is having their anual Christmas market next week Sunday. Looks like we have a busy week ahead of us!

Where we live

Thought I'd tell you a little about where we live. Irvine is a planned city, consisting of townships called  "villages". The all look are pretty square and are usually located close to a shopping area. There is e.g. lots of stores like Barnes & Noble, Target, just across the road from us, which is really convenient. Irvine is also very green, has several parks and bike lanes. The neighbourhoods are quite uniform in appearance, and everything is looking quite neat.

We live in one of the many appartment complexes and it turns out to be quite a convenient way of living. The complex is a gated community, i.e, the community is surrounded by a fence and you need either a key or a remote control to get through the gate. We have a reception at the front of the complex which is open 8 am to 6 pm every day - great for picking up parcels if you missed UPS during delivery hours! There is a small business office consisting of computers, printers, scanner, fax machines all of which the tenants can use for free. Also, there is a small gym, free zumba and yoga classes, 2 salt water pools and jacuzzis, BBQ areas and a clubhouse which everyone can use. The complex is super clean and often you see the maintenance guys driving around on golf carts making sure everything looks spotless. It feels a little like resort living and even if it has a Stepford wives character, we really enjoy living here. There are a  lot events organized by the rental company: cookie exchange events, photo events, taco nights, wine tasting..all complimentary. So far we have joined the taco night. think I need to do some demo baking at home before participating in any cookie exchange events:)

Below are the pools,

The flats are very convenient, they all come with a full kitchen - large freezer and fridge unit, microwave, dish washer, cooker, lots of kitchen units, kitchen island - you learn to appreciate these things after living in Germany where you have to buy your own kitchen. It still feels like luxury here!! We also have a new device I haven't seen outside the US - the garbage disposal unit. It is a device installed under the kitchen sink between the sink's drain and the trap which shreds food waste into small pieces.  The waste is sent down the drain into the water pipes and out into the sewer system. Not completely environmental friendly but we occasionally use it.

In this complex all flats come with one garage, dryer and washing machine, one walk in closet and the floor plan is an open solution. The only thing we would change is the American predilection for carpets, I think it may be losing its popularity a little but we have them in every room apart from the bathrooms, dining and kitchen area. We have a 2 bedroom 2 bath room flat, in European words: 3 room flat with kitchen, 2 full bathrooms and a balcony. Needless to say: the walk in closet and kitchen island really did it for me when we looked at the flat back in February!

Outside our garage

Flat, second floor (third, according to American standard)

Outside the house

Across the road, shopping area (behind the palm trees)

New week

Today started just like every week so far here - a visit to the doctor's office. Still think it is quite awkward the way it works at the doctor's here. I wanted to change my phone number, and was handed this quenstionnaire to fill in, insurance number, etc etc...to change a phone number! So I decided to stick with Gavin's phone number in their paper work instead. Not worth the hassle. However, bump is doing great, she is being very active but not making any signs of heading towards the exit, despite of all the walking I did over the weekend. Gavin is quite pleased that she will most likely not be born this week as he has lots to do at work and since he gets 2 days off work next week, timewise it would fit him better then. I on the other hand, wish it would be yesterday rather than tomorrow. I feel as if I have been pregnant for years and gaining 25 kilos is not fun. Here they let you exceed the due date by one week before starting the induction. So one way or the other, we will have a new family member in the next 3 weeks.

Below is not a great picture but it shows the size of the bump 2 weeks ago, dare I say it is even bigger now.

Weekend

We had such a busy weekend! Friday we decided to be a little lazy and got some food from the Kobi van http://kogibbq.com/ outside our appartment complex. Rented a film from iTunes - Captain America - and went to bed pretty early. Not a great movie, but watchable.

Got up early Saturday to watch the football,  Spain against England (thankfully, England won) and we did some chores in the appartment before heading out. We had a couple of things that needed to be bought, armchair for the bed room, bar stools for the kitchen, book shelf for the lounge, side board for the dining room....Had Gavin known beforehand that I can still go shopping for 6 hours, I think he would have stayed at home that morning. Not bad huh, still being able to wear hubby out shopping while being 38 weeks pregnant!! We didn't get back until 8 pm, completely knackered and shopped out. We started at IKEA and the car park was full..once we found a parking space it was luckily an in and out job and then we continued to South Coast Plaza. Car park was pretty busy here too and it was pouring down so we took advantage of the valet parking. What a great decision! We walked around Crate & Barrel for a while but couldn't agree on neither a sideboard nor a book shelf so we continued to World Market around the corner. No luck there either, but we did see some Glühwein for $ 8. $ 8!!!!!! Didn't buy any - tempting but waaaay to expensive.

We headed to Pier I Imports to look at some bar stools and finally found some (we have been looking for months), they will arrive later on this week. There was no space left in the car since we already had bought the arm chair at IKEA. Popped in next door to the wine shop, and then Toys r us. This is where I capitulated and we decided to go home. I think Saturday was the first time I experienced rain all day. Not rain Cologne style, or Sweden style. It was still quite warm, not humid and even if it poured down, it didn't quite feel as bad standing outside in t-shirt and flip flops looking at the palm trees. Actually, I thought it was rather cozy.

Sunday started off really nice. Blue sky again and warm. Well, the locals wore jackets and said it was a rather chilly day but for us it was like any summer day. We drove to the Farmer's market at the Great park here in Irvine,

the market itself was quite unspectacular but it was the views surrounding the park are pretty amazing, you have mountains in the background it was a very tranquil place. Had some food, walked around and bought some fresh bread to take with us home. Unfortunately we didn't manage to take any good picures.

Before heading home again we had to stop off at Costco's,

Mental note for the future: never go to Costco's on a Sunday. Car park was full, the warehouse was full. Super busy. They have a lot of sample stations inside where they prepare food, drinks, pies and people can try it. Oh my, there were queues every where. A real nightmare. Needless to say, we were completely worn out Sunday, Gavin more than me I think.

We rented another movie from iTunes Sunday night, Bridesmaides. This is by far one of the worst films I have ever seen, bad actors, bad "jokes" and I am not sure how it even made it to the cinemas.

Tired

Think I slept for about 2 hours last night. Once hubby got home, we had to run some errands and it got pretty late so we decided to grab something to eat while we were out. We have alot of fast food joints around here and a few decent restaurants. Normally we´d never go to any of the fast food places but we decided to pop into Red Robin for a burger. It must have had some kind of energy effect on the baby because she was up all night doing summersaults. It felt like she was having a kick boxing fight with my stomach which made it imåpossible to sleep. Sweetheart, the only way out is head down so please don´t turn again. I had just nodded off when Gavin´s phone rang, at 4 am this morning. Can´t believe he actually picked up the phone, I will start dreaming about HIS work soon. No one will be more happy than me once that service tool is working. Last thing I remeber before falling asleep again is my naked husband hopping to the lounge to boot up the laptop. Needles to say, I am super tired today.

Yesterday was quite eventful. I did some excellent shopping at Sephora at South Coast Plaza, I still enjoy all the free parking and all the parking spaces here. A real treat! And if it would be crowded, or raining, there is always valet parking. Most upscale malls and restaurants have valet parking this American innovation can definitely come in handy at times.  Not sure how I managed to spend 174 dollar within 10 min at Sephora but I did (and all ladies reading this can relate, I am sure). Next stop was Walmart. Now, I am not a big fan of Walmart but I wanted to have a look at the prices and at some baby formula. Took me about 20 minutes to get to Mexico City, (err, I mean Santa Ana, it sure felt like Mexico) and I have to say, this was, dispite the neighbourhood, the nicest Walmart I have ever been too. It was HUGE, clean and had a great fruit and vegetable section with some very decent prices. The hispanic section was also very impressive (probably because of the neighbourhood, about 90% of the customers were hispanic), my goodness, I didn´t know there were so many different kinds of dried chilli. The selection of spices here in general is very very impressive. I am still like a child walking in the super markets, looking at the spice and fruit & vegetable section. Now the food section in Walmart was only about 1/5 of the super store, so you can imagine how big it was. In the car on my way out of the car park I saw there was a pretty big Christmas section outside, I will have to go back and check it out some other time. Stopped by at Ralph´s on my way home and found some yeast - expensive but fresh! Will bake some bread over the weekend.

Just got back from Barnes and Nobels. Got a couple of magazines with recipes. Need to find one to subscribe to. Subscription is the way to go here, so cheap instead of buying the monthly issues. Think I know nearly all the cooking magazines now, apart from Martha Stewart´s. Haven´t forgiven her for that really awful pea soup I made last year. I made it twice according to her recipe and even watched the how to video. It was the most disgusting thing you can imagine. Still dissing her for that.

Sweet as a Kitten

It took me 3 days to decided where to put it, but now here it is: The Kitchen Aid.

 Only thing missing now is some fresh yeast so I can bake some bread. Decent bread. Nothing like the chewy stuff they sell here. I did find some super German bread at Trader Joe's, but it was kind of an overkill. Rock hard full of pumkin seeds. A little too extreme for my taste. Finding yeast has turned out to be a little trickier than expected. I have been to ALL supermarkets, it is easier to find ghee (used in the Indian kitchen) than yeast. Last hope is now Ralph's which claims online that they sell fresh yeast in November/December. If that fails, I need find a nice little bakery (not that many around so I guess it will be any bakery) that might sell me some.

Also, my iPhone has arrived! It still needs to be activated with SSN and the whole lot so I have to wait for husband to come home so we can drive down to the shop. Everything is a little different here :) Since  have no SSN, I officially don't exist.

A couple of things on the agenda today:

• Buy a new hoover. A proper one. Not a monster a la American style as shown below 

which Gavin bought when he first arrived here. I gave him an ultimatum, either you buy me a cutie like this or you can do the hoovering yourself. Babe, I know you are reading this, so see this as a reminder:)

They are about twice as expensive but soooo worth it. Trust me, I still haven't figured out how to turn the monster on and off and surely there must be some technique how to move it around but to me, it seems very inconvenient.

• Secondly, we need to find a pediatrician. I have been recomended a Swedish one in Laguna Hills and there was some kind of an information event held at her office last night. Unfortunately hubby was stuck in traffic and Tom Tom let me down. I drove around in circles until I decided to use myu last 4 euros on my German prepaid phone to Gavin to let him know, meeting was probably over and I was parked up on a dark parking lot next to the hospital. 10 min later he found me and we were able to find the office in a huge Taj Mahal building. Who names a building full of doctors offices Taj Mahal, seriously? I was more thinking of an export import company and would never have found it on my own. Anyways, it was closed and today we have to sort something out since time is ticking and the ob/gyn has asked us several times already about which pediatrician we have chosen. This pediatrician is not associated with the hospital we have chosen for the birth so she will have to choose someone who is to visit the baby once she has been born. If she is not bothered, the ob/gyn will pick someone at the hospital to do the first check ups. Lots of choices to be made here!

• Need to buy such an exciting thing as a bin, or trash can, as they say here. It is for the plastic which can be recycled. Best thing about this apartment complex, well, after the pools, BBQ areas and the gym,is the large bins. There a four HUGE ones, two for all kinds of rubbish, two for recycling, however, they mix paper, plastic and glass. There is always space and they are emptied at least once a week. Now, in Germany we had 4 bins, quite small, and e.g. the yellow (plastic) bin was only emptied every second week. We always had to calculate when to bin things and fight for space so the HUMONGOUS bins are much appreciated. Only thing I really dislike is the mixing of paper, glass etc. Coming back to buying a new bin, good citizens as we are, especially after being trained in Germany, we separate everything, hence we need more bins. Lucky us, we have a coupon with 20% discount for Bed, Bath & Beyond. LOL.

I guess one of the reasons why you need big bins here is all excess packaging. The amount of plastic   and paper we have to take down to the bins on a regular basis is just unreal. Every time I open the mail box there is at least a kilo of advertising and coupons, half of LA Times consists of advertising, or every time I order something online or buy something in the supermarket, this normally requires one or to trips to the bin. Still like the big bins though:)

• Need to post my application for the work permit. No worries, I am not planning to apply for a new job, but without this piece of paper I cannot get a social security number. And without the SSN, I am pretty much a persona non grata here. No credit card, no phone contract on my own, no car lease..The only thing I can and need to do without it is to apply for a Californian driver's license. Which I also need to do this or next week.

• Last thing on the agenda, South Coast Plaza. Still need to do some walking, there is no better place than inside a cool, large shopping mall! Might even pay a cheeky visit to Sephora!

Weekend

A little hard to concentrate at the moment - I have the LOUDEST dish washer on in the background. But turning it on during the night was definitely not an option.

Weekend started off well with going out for Mexican food Friday night, so nice but not so healthy. We always manage to overeat. I know I will get stuffed by having a starter, and still, we usually order chicken wings to share. By the time my salad arrived I was ready to fall asleep, Gavin too I think, he didn't finish his quesidilla either, which is unusual.

Saturday turned out to be a super busy day. We got up around 8 to watch the footie but unfortunately Liverpool was not on so Gavin watched another game before we got ready to head down to Lake Forest and the hairdresser. Once we were there, we ended up going to the barber's instead and that was certrainly a trip to the past. Sweet little place. After Gav's makeover we bought some EXPENSIVE bits and bobs at the Indian-British supermarket and then headed up to Los Angeles to Olsson's, a Swedish little supermarket owned by three gentlemen in their best years...they were in their seventies..or eighties. Very cute. Not a cheap place but oh so necessary. Paid 80 dollars for this and that and ordered the most important thing - THE Christmas ham! 5 kg!!! I forgot to ask how much it is but no doubt, this will be the most expensive Christmas ham ever.

Husband took me out for lunch, a small panini place around the corner where we contemplated where to go next. Felt silly to drive for an hour to do 20 min shopping and then drive back again. We decided to go to the Grove. The Grove is an outdoor shopping complex with cinema, farmer's market and restaurants. Turned out to be very nice. It felt a little weird seeing this smashing christmas tree in the middle of the complex while still walking around in a t-shirt.

This was the view from the car park. Spot the Hollywood sign in the background.


The farmer's market turned out to be a little gem and now we know where to go for lunch next time. Even if the paninis were tasty..it is nothing compared to what the food at the market looked like :)


Sunday started off well and ended in disaster, in Sunday roast disaster to be more exact. We took a nice walk along the trail in the morning, watched a few video clips on youtube how to fit the baby seat in the car when we got back (turned out to be a a little trickier than expected, luckily I am married to an engineer!) and then ventured out to babies r us for some baby necesseties. As usual, NO customer service in there and as always we needed forever to make our minds up what to get. Which pampers, bottles, wipers...
Came back and started cooking what was meant to be the first SUPER DELICIOUS ROAST DINNER AT THE CLARKE'S...but instead turned out to be a complete disaster.
We are pros when it comes to roast dinners, especially the yorkies and the spuds turn out to be crispy and perfect. Beforehand I had been  reading up how to roast a chicken in a gas oven, bought these Thanksgiving magazines for tips...and yet, we broiled it instead of baking it for the first hour. I miss European owens. After a while we (Gav, Alan, me) felt this strong smell in the flat and noticed something was melting in the oven. Plastic. While Gavin gav me the blame for not taking the plastic label off the new chicken tray Alan noticed it was not just plastic covering the the inside of the oven, but something looking like ash..
My very expensive Himalayan rosmarin sea salt, bought in Sweden. Somehow that little devil had attached itself to either the potato pan or the chicken tray in the oven and melted. Off with the oven, get the screwdriver out, open up oven and hover up all the sea salt..oven back on, in with the food, and one hour later but 2 hours delayed we could sort of enjoy the overcooked and reheated roastie toastie..Doubt Bratton will be over for food any time soon.


Watched the new episode of The Walking Dead and then went to bed after watching Gavin nodding off several times.

This & That

It is raining today! The normal blue sky has turned grey and finally, finally I can open some windows to get some fresh air and turn the air con off. I really like the sunny weather every day, but to be able to put the kettle on, light a candle and have soup for lunch feel kind of cosy too. I might have to postpone that walk to the dry cleaning though and take the car:)

The cleaning compay tunred up on Wednesday, even if an hour late. Pretty happy with the result, not AMAZING but ok. Will keep them for now until I find a better option.
Also made it to the hairdresser. Somehow my hair is darker than before (I had highlights done) so not sure if there was some miscommunication but it will also do for now. Not sure if I will go back to the same place, but I will make an appointment for Gavin there tomorrow (with a different hair dresser) since I received a gift card worth $25. You have to love all the coupons, gift cards etc. here......

Went down to Laguna Beach yesterday to have lunch with a friend. LB is probably one of the prettiest places I have ever seen and this would most likely be my choice where to live. This photo shows the main beach

This photo was taken another time but yesterday was just as pretty, we could even watch some dolphins and seals playing in the water while having lunch!

Weekend is nearly here! Friday night is Kobi night. Most Fridays there is a small truck parked outside our apartment complex, it is the Kobi truck serving Korean BBQ food. It is more like a mixture between Mexican and Korean and so far we have never made it. Last week we were too late and ended up trying a new Mexican venue out which turned out to be a good choice but perhaps tonight. These food trucks seem to be very popular here.

Tomorrow we might head up to LA to buy some Swedish food! There is a small deli which sells all kind of stuff and I need to find out, what kind of Christmas goodies they will have, e.g. do I need to order the Christmas ham? Luckily for Gavin, the  hairdresser I went to has a British/Indian food mart next door, they have an excellent supply of Indian spices etc and a lot of British food, Bisto, pork pies, mushy peas. I asked the owner where you can get a good curry in Orange County, he looked at me as had he never heard of OC but then pointed me towards the back to the food corner. So take away it was that night. Unfortunately half of India walked in at the same time and it had probably been just as quick to make the curry myself but it turned out to be quite a half decent curry. Even got a freebie - another coupon which gave us 10 $ discount if we spent more than $40. So he added something from the menu to reach above 40 and then I paid less then I would have initially. I told you - welcome to the coupon country!

I have started subscribing to LA Times. Wow, it is a lot thinner these days then I remember it being. It is cheap: $1,50 a week for 4 issues a week, Thursday to Sunday, but the paper is nothing compared to what it used to be. It is very very thin, and you know how thick the Sunday edition normally is (any newspaper would normally require half a day to read it), well, no more..not so different from any other day. Coincidentally, it has been covering a topic I am only too familiar with lately. How hard it is to find used cars here, AFFORDABLE used cars. Very interesting articles, but I am still wondering..what happens to all the used cars?

Another thing we are now subscribing to is Skype. We purchased a Skype phone last week, bought two phone numbers in Europe, one in Sweden and the other one in the UK. Now that part is working fine. But we are also subscribing to unlimited free phone calls in Europe and this part is not quite working yet. I have contacted the customer support and all I get is some very general answers and not much help (is it a mobile phone you are trying to call? No. blah blah). So we will see if it will turn out to be a good idea or not.
Basically friends and family can now phone our Swedish or English numbers and we can pick up the phone here, which is is connected to the router. I think we pay around 20 euro a year for each number. The subscription for unlimited calls Europe is about 60 euro, so all together, around 100. Now, that sounds a lot better than 20 dollar landline per month excluding the call charges. I'll keep you posted about the outcome.

Busy Days

Since getting the new car I find myself being quite a busy little bee. The whole day just disappeared yesterday and I have really no idea where it went. I went down to South Laguna in the morning to the Brow Boutique http://brow-boutique.com/BrowBoutique/Welcome.html, such a neat little place. I discovered it back in February and they treat your eye brows as they wre the last drop of water on earth.

Continued to Costco, Whole Foods..and whoops, it was already 4 pm. Completely failed in Costco's, I always try to spend less 100 $ in that is a promise I rarely can keep. Hubby came home last night and complained it was a little chilly outside. Chilly?  I needed a second shower when I came home. Remember what we left behind us, my dear. November in Germany is not fun! Weather forecast on Sunday showed some cooler temperatures for this week, well, we are back to 26 C today so it looks like it is going to be another beautiful day. Funny thing is, when I was looking for new flip flops the other day at the mall, all they had were winter shoes, boots etc. Hm.

The cleaning lady should be on her way soon so I am frenetically trying to find something to do for the next 2,5 hours. I do need to find a hair dresser, the sooner the better. It took me years to find a decent one in Cologne so I expect some research will be needed online first. And some idea of the prices here. We tip at the hair dresser's in Germany too (not in Sweden) but I have a suspicious feeling, the tip might be a tad higher here though. I'll let you know how it goes. Last time I searched for "Best xxx in Orange County" (I think I was looking for a facial) I did not end up happy with the result, even if the location I picked had loads of good reviews. I'll let you know how it goes.