LAND DOWNUNDER

[Kath 0]

hi ya sharyna

i would go for it mate...you could state if an interview gets cancelled can you contact me...ya never know ya luck in the big city ....

well i think loke would be home by now and in the arms of his new family...whooo hooo ....

hi moonie or should i say mrs sugarbob .. congrats to ya mate.. glad it turned out lovely and was a memorable one...i still cant believe i have been here a year and married a year dont feel like it..lol...

hi ya jess

good to hear all is well with you on this side of the pond...glad the poe was painless for you...and the most importatnt thing is that you two are happy...good on ya's...

hi ya pris

hows things with you mate.. you copeing ok ... melb cold is it ..hehehe....gorgeous days here the sun dont have the bite in it like we do in oz....

take care

kath

[SharynY 2]

hey kath

i'm also torn because i'm a firm believer that things always happens for a reason..........

my fiance is due to come out in october at my request because i told him i need his support for the interview - that being said.... if i have the interview earlier and he isnt here - theres this little niggly doubt that i wont pass lol.... oh i know i will but you cant help but have a niggle of doubt............

everyone always talks about phone calls and whatever whereas me and him we constantly talk on email - he works afternoon shift which coincides with my day shift so we talk all day long......... we've spoken on the phone, but emails are free and so is skype.............

[Poi_n_J 0]

hi ya pris

hows things with you mate.. you copeing ok ... melb cold is it ..hehehe....gorgeous days here the sun dont have the bite in it like we do in oz....

take care

kath

Hi Kath!

Good to hear from you, hope you had a lovely trip!

I'm good thanks. Yes it is nice and cold now but I've taken it on - I'm walking the 3-4kms to work now (Elwood to St Kilda Road) instead of hiding away from it like I usually do and trying to get fit again. I've just moved out with a friend till I leave, who is lovely and the place is nice and warm not like my old one..ha! So I've settled in for the duration of the visa journey.

J's just had his mother's wedding. She finally knows about me and I got to chat to her and his pa (who is also getting married in a month's time..!!! - how uncanny three family weddings in a year) over the weekend. They sound lovely; I'm really looking forward to meeting them in person.

Well that's all my goss really and just working hard!

Oh BTW.. I've had to put off my doctors' appointment again cos I lost my passport pics in the move lol.. Guess I will get there eventually....lol.

It sounds lovely there Kath, be better for the skin too.

Cheers,

Pris.

[Loke 0]

Hi all,

just a quick one at the moment to say I AM HOME IN DENVER!

Everything went really well as far as POE and immigration and customs people were concerned, they were all nice and helpful. I lost my wallet though

I think I left it on the plane from LA to Denver, after being all paranoid and keeping it safe up until that point. Cancelling and requesting new visa and bank cards has been done, which I guess was the important thing but still highly inconvenient - and I am really annoyed at myself. We are still hoping it will turn up though, so fingers crossed. I hardly slept at all on the flight from Melbourne to LA but slept heavily on the flight from LA to Denver and was pretty out of it when I landed, so I am blaming lack of decent sleep and total brain fade for the incident. Lucky I didn't lose my passport though, that would have been worse.

Anyway, its 3:25 in the morning here and I was having trouble getting back to sleep, so I guess it's fair to say jetlag has kicked in. Total of 6 hours sleep over the past 3 days and i thought it would be easy to sleep a full night but it ain't working out that way.

YAY Congrats Jezz on landing and I hope everything is going smoothly for you, and congrats Moonie and Sugarbob on the wedding, it sounds kind of similar to the one Rings and I had, our beach was perfect and I wouldn't have done it anywhere else in the world.

Welcome back Kath, sorry to hear about your hip mate, but it sounds like you had a great adventure while you were away. Glad you survived the bears and the skunk - Who would have thought of the two encounters, the skunk would be the one to cause injuries?? Wish I had been there to see it lol.

Congrats on getting close to your interview Kym, it will all be good I am sure, and Sharyna I would keep plugging away, there has to be a closer interview time than October, especially if they are not closing the consulate as previously stated. The worst that can happen is that they still keep your original date scheduled, so I can't see any harm in asking again. Just mention that you heard the consulate is staying open and you are wondering if that means more interview opportunities have opened up sooner than October.

Rings and I didn't talk a lot by phone, but were in constant contact through email, often with webcam and microphones simply because it is so much cheaper than the phone. I printed a whole lot of chat logs and emails and took them with me, but the lady didn't want to see any of my evidence of genuine relationship. It was kind of frustrating in a way, I half wanted to say "Look at all this stuff I carted up here with me, don't you want to see our gorgeous photos and at least pretend to read the chat logs that I have so lovingly blacked out all the naughty stuff from?" but the reality is I was just glad to get the visa, and I know one person's experience isn't gospel, but I think if you take some chat logs and emails with you just to show the contact is regular, it will count for something (if they even ask to see the evidence you take at all).

Hi and hello and greetings to everyone else, hope you're all well and happy and coping with whatever the immigration monster is throwing at you this week.

[Kath 0]

hi loke

great news that you arrived safely...that jetlag thing is a bugga huh..you will be fine within a week or so....

try and stay up as much as you can and get plenty of light when you first wake up .. go for walks...it was different for us cos robbie works 2nd shift so that is aussie time so it didnt really affect me that much...it was always the journey back home that got me...

as for the hip its still aching but getting better ... the skunk is a funny story...robert said when i asked him why he ran ..i would rather a sprained ankle than smell like a skunk for a week that stuff is nassssssty....lol..

anyways loke glad ya arrived safely and your reunited with your family at long last...keep smiling...and good luck on getting your AOS stuff in before the fee hike...rotten bugga's i still cant see it improving ya know...

hey pris

good to know ya keeping well and staying warm...isnt it funny how a suburb can trigger memories...st kilda market the beach long walks along the esplanarde...i so miss the beaches...i can see you walking with the cold wind blowing in your face with a scarf wrapped around your neck up to your chin lol and here is me sitting here in my sarong lol

it is nice to not have such a harsh sun pris... i tan here lol im so fair i burn easily in oz i would of been a beetroot with all the sun i have got here ....

our trip was lovely drove for miles to see things...went into dolly partons quilt factory...bought a gorgeous wedding quilt with rings joining for 23 dollar and it was king size too...we are nature lovers so went walking in the state forests alot...camped in a state forest with no water or electricity for 5 days but my genious husband rigged up the battery on the camper so we could have a bit of light and filled the tanks so we could have a shower at least one day out of 5 lol i tell ya it was so nice to have a decent shower when we got home felt almost human again lol...

well i hope things move along faster for ya pris..thinkin of ya mate

talk soon

kath

[Poi_n_J 0]

hey pris

good to know ya keeping well and staying warm...isnt it funny how a suburb can trigger memories...st kilda market the beach long walks along the esplanarde...i so miss the beaches...i can see you walking with the cold wind blowing in your face with a scarf wrapped around your neck up to your chin lol and here is me sitting here in my sarong lol

it is nice to not have such a harsh sun pris... i tan here lol im so fair i burn easily in oz i would of been a beetroot with all the sun i have got here ....

our trip was lovely drove for miles to see things...went into dolly partons quilt factory...bought a gorgeous wedding quilt with rings joining for 23 dollar and it was king size too...we are nature lovers so went walking in the state forests alot...camped in a state forest with no water or electricity for 5 days but my genious husband rigged up the battery on the camper so we could have a bit of light and filled the tanks so we could have a shower at least one day out of 5 lol i tell ya it was so nice to have a decent shower when we got home felt almost human again lol...

well i hope things move along faster for ya pris..thinkin of ya mate

talk soon

kath

Haha..cheeky..love it!

Oh if you cold have seen me this morning..it was one of the windiest and coldest mornings yet! I must be mad! Yes, I love this city, I've just recently added to my myspace page a section there on pics of Melbourne so I can look at them when I'm homesick.

http://www.myspace.com/priscillaqueenof - do you have one?

I've been on that matesupover site and there seem to be quite a few aussies in Arizona and who are keen to catch up when I get over so that will be nice. All I need now is a job and I'll be happy.

The quilt sounds lovely; are they as good as our doona?

Your camping sounds like it would have been grand; we love bushwalking too. Though not sure of the lack of facilities, I've done that before but promised myself never again lol..

Thanks for the catch-up, always good to hear from you.

Cheers and hugs,

Pris.

[Rings 10]

I have Loke!!!! YAY.. Ok I am way too busy to be here right now so this will be short, but I wanted to wish you all well!

Pris I added you to myspace! I love the Melbourne photos and it made me homesick for Melbourne and I am the damn American here

Anyway I hope you can get your appointment changed Sharyna!

[SharynY 2]

i got a reply from the consulate - they dont have any closer dates to offer me due to their involvement in the APEC meeting - but they will put me on the waiting list - i told them thankyou and that i'll see them on the 10th october (my original interview date) if no other closer date came thru............ they replied yet again saying Thankyou.

meanwhile my fiance is working on coming out here to be with me......

at least i asked.......

[Kath 0]

hi ya pris

nothing like a doona .. they use wadding thinly inbetween the backing nice summer bedspread...

ohh im with you on the never again bit...next time we go camping gunna sook for the electricity and water lol...

loved your my space... i dont have one but my kids do...loved the way you did the melbourne pics they were lovely..

hi ya sharyna

there ya go .. you wont know if ya dont ask huh...shame they dont have an opening but at least your on the waiting list...my hubby came over and got me and came to our interview was really great to have him with me and he got to see more of australia too..he loved the opera house .. he studied it when he did his artetech studies and was rapt to finally get up close...wasn't too impressed with the city of sydney too closed in for him...and to have him there when i was saying bye to my family was an added support for me to get on the plane...when he first mentioned getting married i said to him jokingly if you want me to go live in the states you gotta come get me and 3 years later he did ...he kept his promise to me...sighhhhhhhhh.....

well we still dont have the car back another 2 days.. driving me nuts...lol robbie misses his baby so much (the jeep)

but at least we weren't in neverland when we discovered the problem...

ohhh im going for my driver's test on thursday and its forcast for thunderstorms ..im wishing often that it dont rain too bad for me lol

well thats it for me

take care

kath

[SharynY 2]

my first driving lesson was on a dark rainy night - couldnt see the bonnet of the car it was raining so hard.... but i still did it lol...

[jezz85 0]

Hi everyone!

Well guess what, Jess & Tony are now Mr & Mrs Jess & Tony!!

Everything is going really well here, we're lounging around right now enjoying the really nice weather and our last day here in LA. We have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to head home to Maryland. Tony's family is so lovely that I will miss them! Even though I have only just met them.

I'm slowly getting adjusted to the time difference, although east coast time is going to mess with me a little I think. It did the last time that I was here. I finally got a full nights sleep last night, only woke up once and was back to sleep again pretty quickly. Slowly but surely my body clock is coming around hahaha.

I'm looking forward to getting settled in Maryland, I'm yet to see my new home for the first time so that's going to be a big change for tomorrow!

Sharyna, sorry to hear that you can't bump your interview closer... you're right when you say that everything happens for a reason. Enjoy the time that you have in Sydney while you wait October 10 will be here before you know it!

*hugs* to everyone.

Jess

[SharynY 2]

Great NEWS GUYS!!

the consulate just emailed me - new interview date - 24th July - next week!!!!!!!

i'm so totally unprepared for this news!!!!

[Kath 0]

sharyna you are so funny.. not prepared geez woman ...you will do fine you have everything they need to see now get to that consulate and get that visa and get ya butt over here to your loved one...lol

they came threw for ya mate .. and it is great news that they could do that for you...whooo hooo ....just double check and check again of the order they want the stuff in and go for it ...

hi jess

congrats to you...can you post some wedding pics for us...

how exciting this time is for you...enjoy...so happy for the both of you...

not many more aussie to come over here...sings ... come on aussie come on come on...come on aussie come on!!!!

kath

[SharynY 2]

rofl

well my heart is pounding and i'm like OMG OMG OMG.... in my head i had OCTOBER..... now its like JULY!!!

I'M Double checking everything.... tonight incase my fiance needs to send emergency something to me..........

sorry Jezz!! congrats!!!! yayy!!!!!!!!

Edited July 17, 2007 by sharyna

[Poi_n_J 0]

rofl

well my heart is pounding and i'm like OMG OMG OMG.... in my head i had OCTOBER..... now its like JULY!!!

I'M Double checking everything.... tonight incase my fiance needs to send emergency something to me..........

That's wonderful news Sharyna; for both of us..goodluck.!