Bigger is better

Hi everyone,

Things are going really well here now. I went through a small adjustment period, but now it all feels normal. We've done heaps in the last week, its hard to write it all.

I guess I should start with the rock pools, that we saw at a state park, and there was so much wild life! It was quite amazing for somewhere that has such a huge population. How does life manage to thrive like that in all the pollution? And there would have been even more if there weren't a bunch of idiots with their buckets making their own personal collections - despite all the signs explaining the fines they would get if caught. I started trying to tell one lady that it was illegal, but then I noticed a massive biker dude doing the same thing, so I promptly shut my mouth. Even so, the rock pools were great, heaps of hermit crabs and anenomes (wish this blog writer had a spell check) and urchins.

Then we went to Disney Land again to use up our second day. Went on a week day which was vastly better. Minimal waits for rides made all the difference - and really it was all about the rides for us, the kids had sub zero interest for parades and cartoon character autographs. Paul managed to put his back out on a huge rollercoaster there. He said that when it went upside down his neck jerked and he just felt daggers in his shoulders. Luckily we found one of the only places in Disney that served alcohol so he could dull the pain enough to last out the day. It tooks days to return to normal. Poor Boy.

The next day I picked up Mum at the airport. Shes with us for two weeks, which will is nice. Went to the LA Museum of Natural history which was gerat. They had a spier pavillion going, which was like a butterfly house, but with spiders. They were all pretty harmless, but some were quite impressive. The visitor spider from Malaysia was huge! Saw a few live tarantulas (not on loose - phew), theres something just so creepy about those spiders, must be all that hair. They also had the most vast gem and mineral collection I've ever seen! I'm always so amazed that these rocks are created in and by nature - some of them just look so man made and glitzy. Very very impressive.
Went to the homeschool group again aswell. The ladies there are so nice, we've been invited to one of their houses to do trick or treating on halloween with them and to borrow some of their costumes. This crazy little gated 'community' forbids it here. We're also not allowed to recieve mail. You have to organise with the people that run this place to have a special little mail box, the post man can't deliver to the houses here. So the costumes I bought from ebay won't be coming. Who knows what'll happen to them. Waste of $22 (read $40AUD).
Then today we went to a colonial spanish mission. I really loved it. It was nice to go somewhere that was real, not all this artificial entertainment that seems to be the skeleton of LA. The buildings were more than 230 years old and they had great little exhibit rooms in them full of the type of furniture and clothes that they wore.

Clearly we were all very happy here.

I've also come to the conclusion that America is very similar to Australia, except that everything is just bigger. A lot of LA actually looks like Dandenong. With big buildings for shops and take away food etc. Anyway, I took this great picture of an onion. When I saw it in the store, I just had to buy it. Such a novelty. Its sitting on a piece of A4 paper, with a $2 coin. And believe it or not - its organic! Try sitting on anormal onion on a piece of A4 paper and see the difference.

Also got this great pic of the sandwich I had at the museum. Note the 10 layers of ham, and the toothpick they needed to hold it all together. (Click it to see life size). Its just so American!

The other massive American thing that we bought was this beast of a car. I feel a bit ashamed of myself, after all my whinging about the Landcruiser to have gone and bought something equally bad, if not worse. I'm consoling myself with the fact that its only very short term. Functionally though, its great. We can have all the seats down and still fit all our luggage in the back. We also got a bargain! 2001 and one luxury model (leather etc.) for $6500 Australian! After selling our 1993 equivalent for $10000! We may even make a profit when we got to sell it at the end, because the dealers had this model for about $12000 Australian.


Which brings me to our plummeting dollar. Its all very depressing, I've taken to doubling everything to work out the exchange rate, which really makes me cringe when I pay $9 for a 200g block of cheese, or $7.50 for a coffee. Some things are quite a bit cheaper, but its not really the everyday stuff. Theres not a lot I can do though. Maybe we can get the Brits in our house to pay rent in American dollars.

Anyway, I'll try to blog again sooner, cheers, from Nic