WOW! First blog of the year!

A very belated HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! Mind you, it's Janurary 28th...so quick it's going to be February and then again this year will go fast! Some exciting and boring bits have happened with me in the first month of 2010....

WORK
New graduate nurses are coming through the ward I work at....I welcome all of them who have joined our crew. It'd be a very busy year for all of them, yet I'm sure they'll enjoy their time. It's been such an overwhelming month so far at work. Won't say as its confidential, but just MUY LOCO!!!!! 3 days time it will be 4 years since I have worked! A few more digits before I get long service leave Hahaha!

TORTILLA de PATATAS

I have to give credit to my boyfriend Rémy as he made one for me on New Years Eve, since then I observed how he made it and then made my own. I have to admit the first time wasn't much of a success but still was good....so far I have made probably 5 tortillas. It's bloody addicting. Tortillas has potatoes and eggs as like an omellette but looks more like a frittata. Pretty easy to cook and tasty as well! Will make anyone of yous one..and I'm sure you'll be hooked with it.

FOLKS BACK FROM THEIR USA TRIP
So it's my brother Ray and my end of our 'little break from parents.' Our folks came back from their epic USA trip. From freezing temperatures to sweltering hot Brisbane weather. No matter how much fun Ray and I had while they were away, it was good to see them back. Yes Mum, it's back to reality...yet time to save more for another trip somewhere else.

UNIVERSITY
Funny story, sort of...anyway I got an OFFER letter from QUT for summer semester classes - pre-requiste for Psychology. Yes I (did) plan on studying psychology. So 'summer classes' started on January 18th, so here I go to uni, late though (class started at 930am, and I rock up @ Kelvin Grove campus at 1040am!) so I went to look for the class...it was another hot day and looking for the class was making me annoyed so I decided to go to the student service and ask about summer semester.

For some reason I just had this feeling I really wasn't enrolled. And indeed I was right..lol and I am such an idiot to go all the way to university; however driving back home I was having second thoughts of postgrad psychology. I guess it'd come in handy in my nursing, but then at the same time didn't want to spend more on HECS for it or moneywise....so I decided that I will learn a language. Spanish and French @ University of Queensland for a year. Since it was part of my resolution aim to become fluent or understand more of both languages by the end of the year.
So yes I have scrapped the Psychology part to do languages which I feel I am passionate about.

BLACK
Been to the beach with Rémy and his friends to Noosa; and the following weekend Rémy and I went to Byron Bay. It was a beautiful time but a pity we didn't swim much, because stupid bluebottles in the ocean and people got stung by them. Instead we just roasted under the sun, hence 'black' for me because I was friggen dark! Dark with bikini mark ha! Though we did have a bit of a dip in the water to cool off for a bit went straight back to our towels to sunbake

more....Later we went up to Byron Bay Lighthouse, seeing the beautiful view as well as being a photographer for Rémy =)

WHAT'S NEXT? more beach, work, dancing, tortillas and just chilling out with friends and family....and music festivals.....can't wait for that! Until then, Adios V x

The Last Day of December...Bring on 2010!

Hello everyone,

I have yet to continue typing about my November-December Trip in the USA! I haven't forgotten... Just been busy with the festive season with last-minute-shopping, celebrating Christmas at work, working and trying to sum up what my 2009 has been.

It has been a fabulous year. Apart from some slip ups it has been such an amazing year. Have met up with new and old friends and partied it up here and there. Two thousand and nine will be the year many have moved to new places, jobs, hair cuts, marriages, engagements, babies and vacations. The year will end in a huge bang (fireworks that is). I wait for what next year will hold for me.

Bring on 2010!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year/ Bonne Annee/ Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Kisses/Bisous/Besos

V x

What's with Atlanta, Georgia Airport???

Early Wednesday morning, Uncle Sam and Lordgene took me to Jacksonville International Airport, my final good byes etc before departing to Los Angeles.....The plane was on time, driving through the tarmac, traffic and waiting for it's turn to fly off.....NOT....the pilot announced there was bad weather in Atlanta that we were on the Tarmac for 45mins..waiting for more announcements before we can jet off.

I panic inside...just quietly, however we finally set off....about an hour flight to Georgia and despite that there was a delay there, I obviously missed my 1135am flight to L.A. D'OH!

I had to go to the Delta Customer Service and the lady put me on Stand By. Now being on Stand by was rather frustrating and an anxious time, because you don't know if you can get on the next flight or not.

Inside my head I was like ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Felt like I was going to hyperventilate but no..I remained calm..while listening to Daddy Yankee, and my house/dance music...*breathe in....breathe out*........there relaxed.

It was close to boarding Delta 2058 so I had to keep looking at the screen making sure I was still on standby, what number and when I was on the 'cleared screen' to get onto the plan...I kept visualising myself getting on That plane....my luck I got on the Plane yay!

Got to LAX airport.....my oh my, my luggage got there first before me!

I heard similar story from my Mum, when she was here in the States in March...seriously what is wrong with Atlanta Airport???

On a good note...L.A I am here ^-^

Until then...

Adios

V x

Florida....the land of Food...no not really pt.2

(Continuing on...) And so I had a hangover, that I slept till 1030am. I woke up frm the smell of bacon and so I got up, and when I went to the kitchen to greet my Uncle Sam and Auntie Lani before I went to go and have a shower. Then all of us got up to get ready for the day. Uncle Sam cooked us a delicious breakfast of egg omellete and bacon. DELICIOUS!!!! Talk about restaurant style presentation and yes parsely for garnish!

After breakfast, Uncle Sam kindly showed me around the area where he and his family lives. He lives in an apartment resort with a gym, hot spa, pool, tennis court, small putt putt golf and a place to just go for your morning jog or walk. He has a nice small place which is good, because you really don't need to have an enormous place (even though Americans love everything HUGE!)

After our walk, we headed back home to get ready to head out to the Town Mall Square. First it was Wal-mart to get something (I can never get away from a WAL-MART!....) then headed to the Town Mall Square. It is like Santuary Cove place in the Gold Coast and big. So Uncle Sam and Auntie Lani let us go window shopping and shopping of course...and how I stumbled upon yet another Victoria Secrets (...another place I can never get away from!)

So we spent about 3hours or so then headed back to....Wal-mart..seriously I really can't deter away from that W store! Ha! Before heading back home where Uncle Sam cooked my favourite Filopino meal - Palabok...then enjoyed watching 30-Something with my cousins before heading to bed at 2am!

[Monday November 30th]

Got woken up by some piercing beeping alarm at 7am cause someone was cooking something to a point it hit the fire alarm! Geez!....I managed to get back to sleep, and then woke up at 10:30am again. The smell was amazing so I go to the kitchen to say hello to my Uncle, but he wasn't there, however spotted a rather large bamboo steamer! "Morning my Anak!" I hear from the bedroom.
Yet more food.....breakfast for BLT and Puto! Okay its also the Spanish slang for something but in the Philippines it is also a name of a snack (click on the word "puto" to find out) Its delicious made out of rice. Uncle has cooked another restaurant style sandwich!

In the middle is the Puto. I was full then after got ready to head to St. Augustine. The last time I was here was in 2002 with my family. This time its Uncle Sam and me. I love this place its old-fashioned, it's history and the little church there, which is one of America's oldest church. St. Augustine is about an hours drive from my Uncle's place. Between that took pictures at a beach on the way and then finally went to St. Augustine. The place has a European/Medditeranen feel to it, because the Spainsh came to this part of Florida. I love the way how its still has its old charms and the big fort at the front where there were I guess battles etc.....nice cathedrals and cute shopping alleys for us tourists and locals as well. I will definitely come back here again.

Headed back home were yet again had another wonderful snack of Uncle Sam's famous Hot Chicken Wings YUM and and good ol' Bud Light beer, which I beat my Uncle drinking. I drank 5 and 1/7th bottles..BORRACHA MUCH???? And happen to get on to Facebook..before I passed out on the bed at 130am.

[Tuesday Dec 1]

First day of winter in USA and 1st day of Summer in Australia! Thank you too everyone who greeted me via Facebook and text...made my day. So yes it was my 26th birthday...exaggerating that I'm getting older and need Botox..STAT! Kidding. Suprisingly I didn't get a hangover from the night before, which is good....and then yet again had more food of bacon, potato pieces and rice..Sarap! My cousin Lordgene 'wagged' school as we unoffically declared that today was a public holiday - Vivian Day! :P

Uncle Sam took us to his best friend's place to visit for a while, before heading to Jacksonville Downtown, saw the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium (friggen HUGE, however they Jaguars apparently weren't doing well this season or so I heard) and the Landing before having a lovely frappachino from Starbucks (it ain't Amercia if you don't have a Starbucks!) before heading to her sister's school to pick her up before heading back home....well not exactly home...one more stop to Wal-mart THEN home.

My final meal was Pork spare Ribs. YUMMMMMMMMMM! It was delicious of course. While having dinner their family friend Ronald came by to have dinner with us....
Ron - "Did you cook this?"
Uncle Sam - "Nah I brought it from TGI Fridays......[pauses]...."
Lordgene well all of us "nah he's kidding he cooked it"
Ron - "bull!"
Uncle Sam did cook the ribs, but since its like top quality and looks like something you've ordered from TGIFridays, Uncle did cook the ribs...if you tasted it..you wouldn't know the difference!

My trip to Florida was so full of yummy goodness and good memories....! Next and final stop is L.A...here I come!

Until then..

Adios

V x

Black Friday Sales...I'm sorry my credit cards.....

The day after Thanksgiving day, my cousins Michelle, Lucia and I got up early to do what I call it "pre-christmas shopping" or what it's called there "black friday." So you think what is Black Friday?

I thought it was about the whole "Friday the 13th" (yes and no) but this Black Friday is about the shopping malls having a huge discount on their products like up to 70% items and they open at 4am or 5am...and apparently it goes extremely crazy!

I heard a news from my cousin that last year's thanksgiving/black friday was a disaster somewhere in VA (Virginia) (i think) that one of th employee was opening the doors in Wal-mart and once the doors were open, the poor employee got trampled on. Another story was that some d*ckhead shot someone in a store, fighting over some kinda item. How sad is that! I was thinking Oh great! I'm gonna be fighting over something like in the movie "Confessions of a Shopaholic!"

..Seriously..nothing happened like that when I went shopping....
..I was hoping to get a pair of Converse shoes, so Lucia suggested we stop over @ DWS for the shoes..we got there and it didn't open til 10am..our time said 845am..bugger. Instead we went to Tyson's Corner.....it spiralled out of control once we (or I) so Victoria Secrets...my shopping spree started! We had a quick break with having Starbuck frappachinos in our hot li' hands for our caffine kick (and energy to look round)Looked round stores, compared prices, went back and forth then round 130pm we went to have lunch. Round 2pm we did our final window shopping/ buying things before we went back to DWS to spend another 1hr or so looking for shoes. I brought a pair of converse shoes and a shoulder bag.

We later stopped by at Target for a bit before heading home to rest and eat...and me packing up yet again *sigh* Later my uncle wanted to head to a sporting store to buy some hunting stuff...Josh, Michelle, Uncle Joseph & I went to Dicks Sporting Center. Michelle & I were being oh so stupid and me PFFT a 25 year old acting imature (LOL) we decided to talk in a southern accent round the store, looking at things, snowboards, looking for Uncle Joseph & Josh, right through to when we went home. Yea I felt like I wanted to be a dag and don't car hahaha.

My last night in Virginia was watching a lot of George Lopez and watching Josh kill people...On the Ninteno Wii that is.

OH gosh I will miss my relatives in VA.

Until next time

Adios

V x

P.s...I can never get away from a Victoria Secret store can I?

Florida....the land of Food...no not really pt.1

Okay so not literally the land of food, Wal-mart, & Victoria Secrets, but it felt like that to me...you'll see why.
I departed Washington D.C's Reagan Airport round lunchtime, saying my final thank yous and farewells to my relatives on Saturday 28th November. Boarded my American Airlines flight to Miami (as I needed to transit there to go to Jacksonville)
About 2hour flight..I drank and snoozed a bit etc...and when it was close to Miami, I see out my window seat MIAMI..oh my gosh how beautiful it looked. It was sunny, the beach, the buildings just like the Gold Coast in Queensland, it looked amazing from 10,000ft in the air.
I wanted to take a picture, however it was the time on the plane when you needed to "turn off your cell phones and electronic devices." So all I have of it is in my memory *sigh*. I so wish I went to Miami. It would have ben awesome.....next time.

So I touchdown in Miami International Airport and then go to the next gate to board another flight to Jacksonville. I board my flight at 430pm and 1hr and 30mins I touchdown to Jacksonville International Airport.

So I get out.....through to get my baggage, while on the way there....(and I wasn't wearing my glasses) This guy comes close to me and when I looked again it was Uncle Sam..."Uncle Sam!" I say with a huge smile on my face and hugs. I was so excited...we go and get my bags and then he goes "we're going to a party! You tired?"
"Oh you didn't tell me (then I realise he did tell me via E-mail) and I am kinda tired...I may need a Red Bull!" So we stop over at a 'gas' (note I would have said petrol....lol american way lol) and a red bull, before we went to his place and got ready (in between saying hello to Auntie Lani and my cousin Samantha). Lordgene (my other cousin) was already at the party. So we all go to the party.

--- The Party ---
It was Lordgene's Best friend Nicole's sweet 16th party. Wow it was a biggest 16th party I've seen. A conference room; food and lots of people, friends/family/relatives/strangers (like me lol) and a dj....It was pretty cool but the funny thing is that the parents/families there all thought that I was 17yrs old and couldn't believe I was a nurse and was 25! Oh what compliments *smiles*


There was dancing, Pinata and the Limbo. I danced a bit (really stupid) and just sat down most of the time.















The pinata (can't spell it) was funny cause once someone whacked the paper mache the candy popped up all the li' kids (and big ones..not that I am hinting this to anyone) went to the floor grabbing as much candy as they could. It looked hilarious. Round 11pm Sam, her friend Kelcie, Uncle Sam and me went home..Ronny, Auntie Lani and Lordgene came home after. Uncle Sam and I decided to have a drink, so we went to good ol' Wal-mart (prob a 8min drive from Uncle Sam's place) for Smirnoff Vodka Passionfruit flavours and Mascato Wine.

It was good...until I got drunk..and had a hangover the next day....To be continued.....

Until Then

Adios

V x

Death By Turkey

November 26th is Thanksgiving Day in America...I honestly don't know the history behind thanksgiving (because I live in Australia!) However for an Australian celebrating Thanksgiving, it just feels like the 'pre-Christmas Celebration before the actual Christmas lunch/dinner on Christmas Day.'

My understanding is just an American tradition to stuff your face with turkey, stuffing, desserts, drinks and sharing time with dear family and friends from
all over the USA or anywhere in the world. Okay so like I said I don't know the American history of Thanksgiving...but as far as I know it was some kinda tea ceremony somewhere in the east coast of America and some other place and some Indians...yea something like that. Hrm..I may have too google what Thanksgiving is.

I was sharing the bedroom w/ my cousin and I hear the alarm go at 6am, to help out with the turkey...then Uncle Joseph thought it was too early to start so they started cooking round 730am....while they were doing that, I was still asleep then my alarm goes off round 830am. Auntie Beth wen into my room and said that I can go back to sleep and they can wake me up when its closer to eat....so I re-setted my alarm again to 1030am and then watched the TV in bed, watching George Lopez, some random movie before Michelle came upstairs to tell me to switch it to channel 7 - The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City live....then I slept again.....

1030am..alarm goes, I get up, have a shower and greet my Uncle, Auntie and cousins Michelle and Josh...MMmmmm the turkey smells so goodddddddddd! I laze around for a while before Josh and Michelle's sister Lucia arrives.

1200pm..lunchtime..nope not just yet, Michelle and Uncle Joseph busily mixing, adding etc to whatever they were cooking and I go and help Auntie Beth set the table..oh gosh my stomach is going to eat itself. I didn't even have
any breakfast because I was waiting ever so patiently for lunch.

130pm...nope still not eating..stomachs churning and grumbling actually all of us were so hungry that we started either picking on some food to nibble on or eating a traditional filipino snack made out of rice and chocolate coated poulveron (powdered sweet snack). Then round about 230pm we finally ate.

Had to say what part of the turkey we wanted, I wanted the 'drumstick' - turkey legs and was my favourite part of the turkey YUM. It was HUGE (do see my DC album on Facebook if you want to see how big the turkey leg is). Had
salad, mashed potatoes (it was delcious!), sweet potatoes, cranberry jelly/sauce, gravey, beans, corn oh how delicious it was....30mins in the meal we were all getting full. Despite that we still nibbled on bits of the turkey, corn beans etc to the point were we couldn't eat no longer. YES Thanksgiving is stuffing your face until you actually die!
From all the turkey and food. It was a stuggle to get up from the chair. Joshua started playing the his PC game, Auntie Beth went downstairs in the basement, talking on the phone (then passing out on the couch there), Uncle Joseph watching the NFL while Lucia, Michelle and I were still in the dining room, talking and didn't want to get out of our chairs for another
40mins. OH MY so full...I quietly died.

Josh later played the wii Resort and Godfather and then Lucia, Michelle and I finally went slowly to the living room to watch Josh play some wii before watching tv. We were all talking before we slowly, like dominos passed out....
zzzzz......I woke up intermittently to see who survived....Josh just quietly playing the Godfather, Uncle and Auntie asleep upstairs and Lucia and Michelle on the chair and couche respectively - asleep....then I went back to sleep
again.

We all woke up round 730ish pm, still full we all went out to D.C to go night sightseeing of the Lincoln Memorial,
Thomas Jefferson monument and a drive round DC, before heading back home...for more food T-T

...I still died....

Until then

Adios

Vx