Our Day in Prison! VERY Picture-Heavy Post.

This past weekend saw us spending time with Robert's sister and her family. They were here as a part of their big holiday to Hawaii, SF and Vancouver! On Saturday we (finally) went to Alcatraz! Thankfully, Nicole (Robert's sister) had booked our tickets well in advance because there were a lot of people there and I doubt you can easily get tickets just by showing up. It was a cold day and we drove through a lot of fog on the way, which was interesting as we'd never driven through so much fog here before! Getting a good view wasn't boding well with the amount of fog there was! Despite the weather, though, it was lovely to see Mr 2 with his three older cousins who doted on him so much! It's meant so much to us that the people who matter the most to us have been to visit. 

We had to get a ferry across to the island, and as we did, I was relieved to see the fog starting to lift, but also to see that it was sitting on the city, itself. As we pulled away from the land, we left behind this cloud which made the city look rather ethereal sitting in a land of clouds. We came out into sun and a lovely clear day for a trip to an old prison! 

Alcatraz itself was, well... not as haunted as I was hoping for. LOL. Being an old GAOL, I was assuming it would be dark and there might have been some tales of ghosts or something, which may have given us some entertainment. But it really was nothing but an old prison. LOL. And I think the nicest thing about it was the view of SF from the island itself. Maybe it's just my over-imaginative mind, but I really thought it would be a spookier experience! 

I'm glad we went, though, as it must be one of the penultimate tourist-y things to do here. So I sort of felt like it was something we needed to do! But as usual with this blog, pictures speak 1000 words, especially when I'm half asleep! 

...there was a big of fog!

Fog over SF.

Getting closer to our destination...

...about as spooky as it got...

And if you had any doubt as to SF being a hilly city, here's some proof!

Rows and rows of prison cells.

In other news, I'm a week and a half into my studies, and I feel like it's going well. I'm still getting my head around being organised and making sure I get everything done around caring for a toddler, but it feels great to have a life and (hopefully) a future career to get into when Mr 2 begins school and gets more independent. I just submitted my first Photoshop assignment and I've had to do a few drawing exercises. It's a tough life. LOL. 

...but having said that, I will leave this post here as said toddler will likely wake from his nap soon. Thankyou, as usual, for reading and following. :-)

xoxo

Happy New Year! What a Year It's Been!

I've been meaning to update this blog for so long, now!!! But as the sun's setting on 2016, I thought that now would be a good time to FINALLY do so! (I also spilled ginger beer on my laptop a while ago, which made it difficult to type! But Robert got me a shiny new laptop for Christmas (one of the new MacBook Pros with the touch bar thingy!), so things are much easier!)

In the time that I haven't posted here, we've had our first Halloween, our first Thanksgiving, the election happened and Christmas has come and gone! What a year it's been. I said on Facebook earlier today that all in all, it's been a good year for our little family. Our move here has been a mostly positive experience. I start my graphic design studies in a few weeks, and the toddler is officially enrolled into pre-school that starts in August! Life just seems to be racing by!

My family was here for a week over Christmas. It certainly didn't last long; felt like I blinked and they were gone. :-( But it was so awesome having them here, and it was SO nice to have a WINTER Christmas! The only downside to that being that it didn't really feel like Christmas in the weeks leading up to it. Despite the Christmas trees, the carols playing in all the stores and the huge amount of decorations around the city, ironically for me, the Summer heat is what makes the Christmas season feel like Christmas. Despite that, both my Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys were pretty good successes!

Looking back, the year really has gone in a flash, but I don't think we really have any regrets. Missing my family is really the only thing that has made things difficult.

The best things have been (in no particular order):

~BALLET is still the no.1 for me. Aside from injuring my foot a couple of times, it's just been a dream come true. I've been doing pointe for almost six months, now (I think?), and I just feel so grateful for the whole opportunity every time I go to a class! I've also become Kathy's graphic designer. LOL. I make online flyers for her, which in turn, is giving me some great design practise (you know what they say: 10000+ hours of something makes you a master in it!).
~The 2 year old boss and I have also made some really lovely friends, which I'm just so happy for. We don't know whether we'll have anymore children, so it's really important to me for the little guy to have friends early on. I'm also incredibly anti-social and was always a really awkward, shy kid, so I just do what I can to encourage the little dude to not be like me! So far, he's much more easygoing than I was as a child, and I'm very glad for that! Haha! Having good friends that we see regularly has also taught him so much! His language skills have improved so much, and he's learned to share!
~AMAZON. LOL!!! Amazon makes life even more convenient. I'm mentioning Amazon here because as of yesterday, I'm so thankful for it! The toddler and I bought Robert a pair of Coach gloves for Christmas (toddler even picked them, himself). But they were the wrong size. We went back to the store yesterday, only to be told that not only did they have none left in stock, but they weren't able to order more as they've stopped making them! We wandered around the city in the hopes of finding another pair from a different store, but I didn't like our chances as they'd gone on sale, so they'd pretty much sold out everywhere! I was so gutted (probably even moreso than Robert!). But we had a chance look on Amazon and found they had ONE pair left! So I was very happy and am now more appreciative than ever of Amazon. LOL!!!
~All the kids' facilities and activities available here. The Bay Area has (so far) been an awesome place in which to raise a family!
~The adventure of it all. From just being in a brand new place to learning to drive on the opposite side of the road to exploring, it's really been a fantastic experience for someone as unadventurous as I am!
~People are generally quite friendly. Unless you're on the road in which people simply become impatient douchebags.
~The appreciation for the arts. Enough said.
~The opportunities available to Robert and his career. Also enough said.
~The city's multiculturalism. Also something that's very important to me.
~The convenience of everything. Whether you're wanting ice cream delivered in the next couple of hours or you're looking to study, it seems that everything's available here. Of course, the flipside of that being that it really makes you feel spoilt. I feel like a spoilt brat of the world, especially compared to what so many others are going through these days. I'm not an overly religious person, but I find myself saying little prayers to myself (or God or whoever's up there) everyday for the fortunate life we lead. It's scary to see how easily it can all be taken away, so I'm grateful everyday for the blessings I've got.
~Living in a country where everything seems relevant. Whether it's a TV show you're watching or politics, I feel like we live in a place where I'm immersed in what we see on TV, online, or wherever else. Maybe that's thanks to the media, but it's sort of exciting to see things and think 'yeah, I get that now', or even 'crap, how's that going to affect us now?' (in RE: to the recent election). I've found myself caring a lot more about world happenings since I feel like they're a little more relevant to our lives now.
~Feeling like an anonymous nobody. This sounds a bit strange, but I like cities. And I like feeling like I don't know anyone or that there's a big chance of me running into people I know. I like anonymity, and that was something I looked forward to in having a new start. For some reason, anxiety really kicks in living in a small town or the country, especially if it means I constantly have to see people that I need to make small talk with. Yes, I'm anti-social, yes, socialising makes me incredibly anxious if it's random, but hey, that's just the way I am. Sigh...

And I'm sure there's more. However, I've had my annual new year's drink and I'm already feeling the effects. I have no idea how I've managed to type this much!

So in saying that, I wish anyone reading this a very HAPPY NEW YEAR! I really hope that 2017 is fantastic for you. Thank you so much for reading/following this blog. Hopefully I'll make more regular posts in the new year!

xoxo

Six Months On!

I do apologise for the lack of updates here recently. We've been rather boring lately, so there hasn't been a lot to post about!

That said, as of yesterday, we've been here for six months! It's gone really quickly (as has 2016 in general), but in some other ways it's gone quite slowly. I guess it's been six months of adjustment, adventure and settling. (And yet we still don't have a lounge! LOL.) There have been positives and negatives for all three of us. Off the top of my head, here are some:

Positives:

~As I've been saying all along, ballet has been the no.1 positive for me, personally. Obviously this is just for me, not the three of us as a family unit. But as I've said before, I never thought I'd do it again, so it's been a little dream come true which is just amazing. Plus, it's been a great way for me to meet some new people, and our teacher is one of the most lovely people I think I've ever met. I managed to get on pointe within a few months, too, so that's been a small achievement for me!

~It's been great seeing Robert in the city that's The place to be for software engineers and architects. I think it's been really good for him to be surrounded by so much more possibility for his career. I'm very proud of him, and really proud to be married to someone who's so smart and so full of potential. :-) 

~Lots of kids things around! SF in general has been very convenient, but it's great that there are so many child-friendly things around. The kids' museum is our second home (and there's nothing like it in Sydney!), and the restaurants here are all very kid-friendly, which is great. The playgrounds here are also awesome, in that they're all gated and have really good play equipment! There are also so many family-friendly things around that just don't even exist in Australia. So that's been great to check out!

~The arts support here is awesome. If I'm ever able to build my own career, it's great that it might be in a city that supports the arts as a legitimate career; not something that should be done for people for free.

~Convenience of the city has been great. I feel like everything's on our doorstep (literally). Whether it's just outside our apartment or online. Robert's had an Amazon addiction since we got here: we can order something in the morning and have it delivered by the end of the day (even on weekends).

~Weather. As someone who cannot handle temperatures much higher than 25C or so, SF is great! It's Summer here (still), and it rarely gets above 25. It's hot in areas outside SF (in the Bay Area), but SF stays cool.

~Having an adventure has been nice. It's been good for me to be somewhere we didn't know anyone and to be somewhere we can explore and start anew. I really felt like we needed a new start.

~The internet's been pretty great. LOL.

Negatives:

Unfortunately, I think this list may have grown since I last posted about positives VS negatives...

~In general - and obviously I'm making a huge sweeping generalisation here - the attitude of people here gets on my nerves. It can mostly be seen on the road. There's a big attitude of entitlement here: people think they should all be first, they deserve more, they deserve to be in front. After seeing it, it's almost no surprise at all that they're always suing one another over petty, stupid things. It's a regularity to see people yelling at one another on the street or out of their cars. It's just charming.

~It's expensive here. Everything is expensive except for the ice cream! It makes Sydney look cheap.

~I miss my family a lot, and it's sad sometimes to see our son not growing up around family. That said, my mum was here last month, my mother in law will be here in a couple of months, my family should be here over Christmas and my sister in law and her three kids will be here in January! So at least we have amazing immediate family (the people who matter the most) willing to make the effort to come and see us! That means a lot. :-) 

~The politics. I don't think I need to say more.

~The homelessness in this city is sad. It's a constant reminder of how lucky we are, but it's terrible to see such poverty right on your doorstep. It also makes you realise how fine the line really is between being comfortable and ending up on the street...

~As a parent, I'm so far not a fan of the way school's run here. They get most of the Summer off, and the new school year starts in August. That just makes no sense to me. Shouldn't school just start at the start of the calendar year? I also don't think the school year's broken up into four terms the way it is in Australia. I think Summer is basically the only break they get, aside from public holidays. That sucks. 

~The health system. We've yet to find a GP, but everything depends on your insurance. Even if you're dying, what hospital you go to depends on your insurance. I don't think you can call 911 and just be whisked away to the closest hospital. And if you don't have insurance? Well, I guess you're just dead.

~Robert's had to make a few trips back to Sydney for work. For a few days. He's on one now. I don't think it's really what he wanted, and they're not long enough to justify the toddler and I going back for a bit.

~Although the convenience of things has been great, I feel like it spoils you. The ease of life here almost makes you feel like a spoilt brat. It sometimes frightens me to think of raising a child in such a society where everything is just easy, and therefore makes you think you're entitled to whatever the hell you want.

...I think I had more to say, but I should probably stop being a lazy parent and go and spend time with the toddler. I realise I sound a little cynical with those negatives, but generally life has been OK here. Give us another six months, and things will probably be different again. 

This post looks incredibly boring without any pictures. Lots to come in the next post!

As usual, thanks for reading/visiting!

xoxo

Saturday Spent in Sodor!

Robert and I both have our fair shares of hobbies, and we've both - to a degree - been able to indulge our hobbies while we've been here: me with my ballet, art and Snoopy love and Robert with his Magic (card game) playing (although he hasn't managed to play as much as he would have liked!). Mr Toddler is also taking after the both of us in that he becomes *slightly* obsessed and focused on things he enjoys/loves. He has a general love of cars and trains, but at the moment, it's specifically Thomas and Friends. I'm not sure whether it's just him or most kids, but he is so one-track minded when he finds something he loves. At the moment it's like he's running on Thomas-vision. He's obsessed. So I was a bit excited when I found out that Roaring Camp Railroads were running a Day Out with Thomas for a few weekends in July and the beginning of August. I booked tickets pretty quickly after hearing about it, and our day was yesterday. No wonder you needed to book: the place was really busy!

Firstly, I will say that I don't think events like this ever would have happened in Sydney. I felt like this was something I would have seen or heard about from Sydney and thought 'dang, I wish they'd bring that here'. And when I realised the place is only about a 90 minute drive from SF, I felt even luckier. (It's amazing how excited I get when I find things that I know my child will like. LOL!)

The place itself is pretty quaint. It's situated in a redwood forest, not dissimilar from Muir Woods and is set up like a small western town from the 1800s. There was even a blacksmith there showing people how things are made by hand. But for this occasion, the entire place was decked out in Thomas paraphernalia, and although I'll be the first to admit that I'm a complete sucker for things like this if it means a smile on my child's face, most of it was a big advertisement for the toys. That said, they did have various activities, and maybe I'm just slightly cynical because my child's currently too young to do things like go on a jumping castle or wouldn't be interested in having his face painted. 

The train ride itself was nice for adults just as much as kids. Despite the Thomas music playing on each carriage, the ride was through forestry and nice scenery. But unless you were right up the front, you didn't really know that you were riding Thomas as the train itself was quite large. But it was amusing to see a life size Thomas train. It's amazing how big the franchise must be to have things like that made! The one unfortunate thing (and this is no one's fault... I guess? LOL...) is that Mr Toddler is perhaps a bit young to have realised we were riding a Thomas train! He saw the train before we got on, he also saw the general steam trains that live there, and I'm not sure he recognised them as the real versions of his toys! It was almost like he got a bit intimidated at the realisation that "choo-choos" are really these huge machines that are much, much larger than his little toys!!! By the time we got off the ride, he was going around saying "choo-choo, choo-choo" as if he hadn't noticed we'd just been on one! 

And despite the fact that tickets for this ride weren't cheap (or perhaps I'm just a cheapskate!), the things he enjoyed the most were the shop (they must make a mint!) and the track tables that were set up outside. There were about six little tables set up with wooden tracks that kids could play on. Mr Toddler is currently addicted to these things (so much so that he's getting his own for his birthday next month!) and he was playing on them for a good hour yesterday before I had to pull him away. I'm sure he would have stayed longer if we'd just left him! It's always great to see how much fun he gets from something (despite some crazy grandparents and parents that are often around. It's amazing what some people will do as parents or grandparents...). And as I said, he loved the shop. So needless to say, he didn't walk out empty-handed...!

I was really glad we went. I'm even considering taking him back there for his birthday which is next month, just for the general trains and train rides (Thomas or no). The steam trains that they have there are really quaint, and we've seen quite a few of them around. Just something else that I think Sydney could do with! Or maybe I'm often just amazed at how there doesn't seem to be much that this country doesn't have.

But as usual, here are some pics. I haven't done too well with the picture taking lately, but I hope you get the idea from these!

xoxo

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a great picture of Thomas without a lot of other people in it. I was lucky to get this: you weren't really supposed to get right up to the train unless you were having a professional family picture taken. I got a bit sneaky and snuck in to get a close pic! LOL...

A traditional steam train that kids can climb into and check out.

Pretty sure my Dad would love these trains!

A crappy picture of some forestry from our ride!

He didn't leave empty handed. We got him the event-specific souvenir train, because according to Robert: "everything else here can be bought cheaper on Amazon". >_<

Reminded me of Narnia. Without the snow. LOL.