petercristina.com

peter's friend rae, the one who had recommended peter for the position at ms, invited peter and i to her home on saturday. she and her husband, jason, live in redmond, which is about a 15-20 minute drive from where we're staying in bellevue. they've both worked for ms for over 5 years now and so they had many stories to share with us about their experiences there. we chatted away in their lounge room for awhile, after which they gave us a tour of their beautiful home, which came complete with a home theatre room! wow! then they treated us out to dinner at a nearby restaurant, followed by a scenic drive to a beautiful place called kirkland, which was right by lake washington. the night was full of laughs and non-stop conversation and peter and i thoroughly enjoyed their company! we're looking forward to seeing them again soon :-).

this morning peter and i attended mass at a local church we had found through dex (u.s. equivalent of the yellow pages). the church had quite a modern design and we really liked the priest who had a great sense of humor and kept making us laugh. the choir was also very polished. after church, peter and i drove out to a place called renton, as we wanted to explore different parts of the seattle area. whilst driving along the area, we noticed a westfield complex called "southcenter mall". of course we had to pop in ;-). it felt a lot like being in the westfields in sydney, except of course it had different department stores like macy's, nordstrom and jcpenny, instead of myer and david jones. peter's never been fond of shopping because he always complained of getting sore feet with all the walking involved. but the week before we left for seattle, his bro-in-law trung, who's a podiatrist, made him a pair of orthotics (custom-made insoles worn in shoes) ... and wow!!! peter and i are amazed at the difference they've made! normally peter will sit down with a newspaper and read whilst i shop, but today he walked around the mall with me hand in hand for almost 3 hours! ... without a single complaint! he said his feet didn't hurt at all and he looked just as stunned as i was! thank-you trung!!

we saw some unbelievable sales today and i scored a dkny jacket and a ralph lauren jumper that were discounted by 70%! yay! :-) it seems like they have so much more variety in clothes, shoes, handbags and homewares here that i almost don't know where to look first! ... and when things go on sale, they really go on sale!

we headed back to bellevue and after some more shopping at bellevue square (my favourite mall so far!), i suggested we try the restaurant that was recommended to us by our destinations consultant, josh, called "the cheescake factory". peter's first reaction was "baby, i don't like cheesecake" (hehe) but i told him the name was misleading and that cheesecakes weren't the only thing on their menu. in fact, when we looked at the menu, i don't think peter and i have ever seen a restaurant that offered so many choices! we ended up really liking our choices, both opting for pork tenderloin meals and fruit smoothies, and the atmosphere and service were great!

peter and i definitely enjoyed our first weekend in seattle. peter starts at ms tomorrow (he's so excited it's cute) so i'll be on my own during the weekdays. but thankfully our location is ideal and so i should have no problem walking or catching public transport to do some exploring on my own :-).

hello everyone! it's only our second day here but so far, our first impressions of the people and the area are very positive. the people are super-friendly and extra-helpful, and the area is so clean and tidy, with beautiful scenery everywhere. no matter where we are, be it in the suburbs or in the city centre, we can see mountains in the distance. we'll take photos of it soon so you can see :-). even the weather so far has been better than expected, with sunny skies and light even up until 8pm. seattle seems to be making the transition for us relatively easy :-).

this morning, a guy named josh, who's been asssigned as our destinations consultant, came out to see us. he had a welcome pack for us, filled with information about the seattle area, recreational activities and local attractions, transportation, banking, maps and much more. there was even a table in there of the best purchasing months for things like computers, electronics, appliances, homewares and cars. a book, "hello! usa: everyday living for international residents and visitors" was also included which should be fun reading. josh sat down with us for awhile to discuss all the information, then he drove us around to get our accounts opened, show us around the area and point out possible places of interests (like malls, recommended restaurants, etc.). at about 1pm, he dropped us off at avis, where we picked up our rental car - a silver chevrolet malibu - which felt quite big when we stepped in, as peter and i are so used to our honda civic coupe hehe. but thankfully, peter adjusted to driving it quite easily :-) ...

the rental car MS has provided us with for the next month - a chevrolet malibu

i took some photos of our corporate housing today. peter and i are really happy with the place, in fact it's much better than we expected, and its location is fantastic! we have a large grocery store about 5 minutes walk away, the city centre with the malls, shops, cinemas and restaurants is about a 3 minute drive away, and getting to microsoft would take about a 10-20 minute drive (depending on traffic). despite that, it's whisper quiet here! when we picked up the key to this place, we were told it was brand new and when we arrived, i found that even all the pots and pans and utensils etc., that have been provided for us were brand new and still had their tags on them hehe. more bonuses are that this place has centralised heating and heaps of wardrobe and storage space. we have this place for the next two months and we intend to enjoy it as much as we can! :-)

My parents and sister, Maria, arrived early in the morning at my in-laws place, where Cristina and I had been staying for the last week. Cristina's parents had taken the day off to take us to the airport also. We arived at the airport early, checked in our baggage, received our boarding passes then headed for the foodcourt and had a McDonalds breakfast. We spent some time talking while we waited for our flight. Plenty of promises were made from both sides of the family to visit us in Seattle, promises I know Cristina and I will remind them of ;).

An hour before the flight we said our final goodbyes, made our way through customs then onto the waiting lounge. While we were waiting I could already hear the distinct American accent behind us from visitors on their way home. I already felt like a foreigner. Our plane was a QANTAS 747 covered in Aboriginal art. For some reason I just felt the urge to jump up and yell "Crikey! Isn't she a beaut!" - but common sense got the better of me.

We had window seats in economy towards the back of the plane. I think they deliberately make you walk past First and Business class as you shuffle your way to the back - just to taunt you. We looked like cattle being herded into our pens. 'Economy' conjured up imagery of ripped and tattered upholstery with food stains, like some of our trains, but to my delight it wasn't like that at all. The seats were quite comfortable, we had pillows and blankets and every seat had a TV! Not just that, there were a good selection of current movies, music, news and games. I was suddenly reminded that poverty in todays world means having one instead of two cars :P.

There were slight delays but the plane eventually took off at 11:30am Sydney time. I could see some ships in Botany Bay outside the window and as the plane climbed, they became small dots. We quickly climbed above the clouds to about 10km and the world as we knew it was left behind. 13 more hours of cruising and we will arrive in LA at about 7:30am local time. To avoid jet lag we were going to have to sleep most of the trip. To achieve this, I had deprived myself of sleep the night before so I had no problems getting to sleep even though it was in the middle of the day. Cristina on the otherhand, had discovered Tetris which I would say was the main contributing factor to her jetlag. I did manage to wake up between sleeps to enjoy the braised beef dinner and bacon, sausage and egg breakfast. I really enjoyed the food and snacks that was served on the plane. I even managed to fit in two movies during the flight - Zathura and Tristan & Isolde. Even though the flight was 13 hours, it felt much shorter because I had slept for much of the trip.

We arrived in LA in the early hours of what looked to be a bright and sunny day. Good morning America! We got off the plane and as I walked through the passenger walkways I kept my eyes open for the stars and stripes which I was sure would greet us. Nothing, not even the Star-Spangled Banner in the background. Maybe I just watch too much TV. As we entered the airport building on our way to customs I almost I forgot we were in America, so to help visitors like me with bad memory a nice little sign was placed over the entrance as a subtle reminder....

The face on the left was universally recognisable...I mean recognizable...but the face on the right was unfamiliar to Cristina. "Babe, who's the guy on the right?" she asked. "Someone you definitely don't want to go hunting with" was the first thing that came to mind.

After we passed customs, we had to dash across the airport to the terminal with our connecting flight to Seattle on Alaska Airlines. During the 5 minute dash between terminals, we were exposed to the harsh LA landscape. Oxygen content seemed capable of facilitating life. To remind me that we were still in "no man's land" Cristina whispered "Baby, please don't offend anyone - they have guns here".

After lining up in several queues and various security checks as required by Homeland Security, we boarded our flight headed for Seattle. As the plane flew over Washington State, I could see the forrests and snow mountains of the national park. Seattle had islands and waterways everywhere and the whole place was green - it was beautiful. We touched down at about 1pm and were surprised to find the the weather was perfect, warm and sunny. Unfortunately we couldn't enjoy the weather because both Cristina and I had prepared for sub-zero temperatures with turtle neck jumpers. We made our way to the taxi ranks and directed the driver to Redmond to pick up the keys to our temporary housing. During our chats with the driver, we discovered he was Filipino. Interestingly the customs officer who handled our case back in LA was also Filipino and the lady in the booth next to him was a Nguyen! I am still waiting to meet my first Mexican...

We arrived at the corporate housing office to pick up the keys but were two hours early. We spent the time napping and watching TV in the waiting lounge. When the keys arrived we then called for a taxi to take us to the apartment complex. We discovered that taxis are not very reliable in the area and had to wait 2 hours before one arrived! We finally arrived at our corporate housing around 5pm, which was a two bedroom townhouse in Bellevue, a city on Seattle's east-side. It was more than we expected and we're really happy with the place! Now we have a week to adjust and explore the area before my first day at MS.

On Saturday we had our farewell BBQ at our apartment. Organising the BBQ was quite tricky since invites were sent our during the Easter period when many people were on holidays. Because our home line and mobile were already disconnected, we had to rely on e-mails, which decreased the certainty of knowing who was or wasn't coming. Despite all this however, more than 50 of our friends and colleagues turned up to bid us a final farewell, two days before we were due to fly out!

Because our apartment was pretty much empty and having had little time to organise the BBQ, we thought it would be best if we asked friends to each bring a small item. Cristina and I were nervous at the idea because we hadn't tried this approach before and there was certainly a fear that there would be too much of one thing or not enough of another. For awhile it looked like that might happen when most people responded saying they'll be bringing desserts. Seeing as I have a sweet-tooth, I wouldn't have minded having 3 courses of desserts but common sense got the better of me so I had to steer a number of people to other items :)

In the end, the items that were brought were just right. Our friends had brought along sausages, steaks, kebabs, pork sticks, prawns, salads, bread, drinks and cakes! Thanks so much to everyone for helping out!

We had the BBQ area booked from 4pm-9pm, which a small group of girls discovered to their disappointment. They didn't realise there was a booking system and had rocked up to the BBQ a few minutes after we got there. My sympathies go out to them, but this is exactly the reason the booking system is there for. Soon our friends started to arrive and with what everyone brought with them, we were certain we weren't going to run out of food anytime soon. After we finished at the BBQ, half the group that was left headed back to the apartment for coffee and tea. We all sat in a large circle in what used to be the living and dining room. It all looked like some sort of tribal council but noone was voted off the island. We stayed and chatted til past midnight. The group had dwindled down to about twenty of us. It seems many of us were trying to ignore the time in some hope that it might slow down. Unfortunately, the time came when we had to say goodbye to the friends who we've known for a long time.

Throughout the evening, as friends left one by one, the goodbyes became a little more difficult. The distinction between the friends from school, university or work had blurred and I realised it didn't matter. All I can say is that each and every one of them had contributed something to mine and Cristina's lives and they had all turned up maybe because they felt that we've also contributed something to theirs. Thank you friends for coming.

Today my parents held a farewell BBQ for us, inviting family and relatives at their place in Fairfield. It was your standard Vietnamese BBQ complete with a roast calf on a spit. I actually discovered from a second cousin who turned up that two of his brothers actually work for Microsoft. I also found out from a family friend that his brother also lives in Seattle! The world is definitely a small place. There were more well wishes and goodbyes and soon it was time to head home and pack for tomorrows early flight

great news! our real estate agent called us today to let us know that we have tenants for our chatswood apartment! yay! it's just in time too because we leave in a few days! we were told the tenants are a korean lady and her child, who have signed up for a 1-year lease and were looking to move in this saturday. but because of our "cya later" get-together that's happening this saturday at our chatswood apartment's BBQ area, i've asked them to make it monday instead - which is the day of our flight! what luck eh? :-) actually, we've also been really lucky with our strathfield apartment, which, for the last two years, has been rented out by a male student, also korean coincidentally, who's been a model tenant from the start. peter and i feel so relieved to have a tenant lined up for our chatswood place in time for our departure - it puts our minds at ease, not to mention our pockets hehe. these past couple of days we've been running around tying up loose ends, and i think everything seems to be falling into place. :-)

the highlight of today was definitely seeing peter go on the teacup ride with our god-daughter lizette haha ... she can get him to do anything for her ;-).

my parents hosted an intimate farewell dinner for peter and i tonight, with just some family and close friends attending. but as usual, mum had prepared a feast that would have been good for an elaborate gathering(!), with dishes such as mud crab, king prawns, and roasted duck, just to name a few. thanks mum and dad! it was an enjoyable night of eating scrumptious food and sinful desserts, and being around loved ones!

tonight, i especially enjoyed the tetris challenges that went on 'til past midnight between our friends adrian and vera, mike, peter and i hehe! hmm ... i don't think it was clear who the overall tetris champion was because we all seemed to have our kick-serious-butt moments hehe ... so i think a re-match session is in order! ;-)

Today was my last day at CorVu. I thought I'd bring my camera along and take photos of my trek to work (all 3 minutes of it). I spent part of the day cleaning out my office, sorting through tonnes of paperwork that had accumulated over 6 years, and other standard procedure stuff. Throughout the day, I received well wishing phone calls and e-mails from various people in the company. I also went around taking photos of the office and my colleagues.

A farewell yum cha lunch was organised at a chinese restuarant close to the office....

Towards the end of the day, a company meeting was held to say a formal farewell. Mick, one of the product managers I've worked with for the entire 6 years I've been at CorVu, gave a brief history of my role and contribution to the company. What he said in his speech made me feel really proud of the work I have done and my achievements while at CorVu. I received a set of gifts which included a card signed by Corvu employees in Sydney, several CorVu memorabilia, a beer mug with the engraving "Dear Peter, Best wishes from your friends at CorVu, Apr 2006" and a flashing t-shirt with an alien on it. The alien, apparently, symbolises my status in the US. I wasn't prepared to give a speech so I just said whatever came to mind at the time. I don't remember what I said exactly but I'm pretty certain it wasn't coherent. It's probably one of the few days my team has ever seen me lost for words :P.

i had my post-operative check up with my surgeon today. he called me in and even before i sat down, he told me the nodule they had removed from me wasn't cancerous. *relieved*. although he had always said from the start that it would unlikely be cancerous, nothing compares to having it confirmed! he then removed the bandage on my neck, examined the incision scar, smiled and then told me to go look in the mirror. so i did and was surprised at how barely noticeable the scar was! i expressed how grateful i was for the flawless job he'd done! no wonder he came so highly recommended! after giving me all the necessary instructions about bandage changes and regular check-ups, he wished peter and i all the best in the U.S. :-)

Jenny from my work had organised a farewell dinner for me today, as well as rock climbing for after dinner. You could say Jenny is the team's annointed events organiser, yum cha manager and team softy - save her deadly kick :-P.

Dinner was at Chatswood's Gourmet Pizza Kitchen which is just 10 minutes walk from the office. The Java team, Billy (our young and brooding sysadmin) and Cristina came to the dinner. Five pizzas were ordered and for the special occasion, we insisted the 'Java' (king prawn) pizza be one of them! :-)

After dinner, Billy, Shannon and Lev headed home, and then we dropped Cristina off at our apartment because rock-climbing would have been too strenuous an activity for her neck still. The remaining 5 of us then made our way to the rock climbing center in St Leonards.

This was my first time rock climbing so I had no idea what was in store. We had to sign our life away on a waiver before they gave us the harness and shoes. The harness wasn't the most comfortable thing to wear but I guess that's the price of safety. After awhile you forget you're wearing the harness so it wasn't too bad. We were given 10 minutes of instructions on how to use the equipment then we were let loose. Climbing up was ok, but when I reached the top I suddenly realised the only guarantee I had of making it back down was the person at the other end of the rope. I've never felt comfortable putting my safety in the hands of others. I'm a driver, not a passenger.

Fortunately after completing the first climb I felt more comfortable and the climbs became routine. As my confidence grew, I attempted more difficult climbs. I felt all the gym work starting to pay off. After about 2 hours doing rock climbing we felt our hands and fingers had had enough punishment. It was time to reward ourselves. Gelato at Crows Nest was a well deserved treat. Since I was already on a roll doing rock climbing for the first time I thought I'd continue by trying gelato flavours I had never tried before. Passion fruit and raspberry it was! What a way to end an eventful and fun evening. Thanks Jenny for organising it all!

our apartment's empty! so i guess peter and i are now officially living out of our suitcases hehe. the removalists came back today at 9am and had all our belongings loaded into their truck by noon. there's not a single utensil left in our kitchen, nor a piece of clothing in our wardrobes, or furniture anywhere to be seen. so it looks as though our floor will become our seating, dining and sleeping area for the next couple of days until peter finishes up at his work this thursday. come friday, we'll be staying with my parents and hopefully sleeping once again on comfortable beds and enjoying home-cooked meals hehe. but for now ... peter and i are back to the bare essentials - a roof ;-). actually, we're both finding it quite nostalgic :-).

but who needs a couch to sit on or a table to eat off when you've got pretty flowers eh? hehe ... jess came round at lunch bringing with her a bunch of white roses for me! my favourite! you're too sweet girl! she hung around for a good few hours - we talked, ate lunch, had ice-cream (:-P) and discussed some of our ideas for www.beadtheway.com. it was a much needed power session i think ... and we're psyched all over again!

I was up late last night, spending some quality time with my computer before it got packed up today. I read the news, checked my e-mails and read some forums like I usually do. To ease the anxiety of separation, I decided to take the hard drive out of it and put it in my external drive case. Somehow knowing all my data was near me gave me some sort of comfort.

Tonight, as I was watching TV, my attention was regularly distracted by Cristina using her laptop. I had a real dilemma....go without internet for the next 2 weeks or swallow my pride and use her Mac. Internet withdrawal finally got the better of me....

today was the first day the removalists came out to our apartment, and to our surprise, only two men turned up. peter and i wondered at first whether that was enough man power to get everything done in two days ... but wow ... these two guys were good. efficient. fast. and super friendly! :-). their first words to me went along the lines of "we want you to completely relax, sip coffee and leave everything to us!" and that's what happened - i didn't have to lift a finger the whole day, except maybe to point out things hehe. they saw the bandage on my neck and after explaining my recent surgery, they were extra sympathetic and made sure i didn't have to do much talking either hehe. they had turned up at around 9am and by 4pm they were gone, having wrapped, packed and labelled practically everything in our apartment and storeroom, ready to move into their truck tomorrow. it's amazing just how much this service has alleviated any stress from the move!

the soreness in my neck and throat is almost completely gone :-). i've been on soft foods for two days (thanks for all the delicious comfort food mum!) and i guess i no longer have a real reason to eat ice-cream hehe (like i ever needed one! :-P). thanks so much for everyone's prayers, to my parents for being their usual amazing, go-out-of-their-way-for-their-kids(!) selves, and to peter, for being extra caring and helpful! i love you guys!!

this whole weekend was spent at home - me mostly resting on our couch (peter wouldn't let me do anything!), whilst peter was up and about preparing for the arrival of the packers/movers tomorrow (i.e. seperating what we wanted to go by air freight from what we wanted shipped). last week, i felt restless and called the representative from the moving company who had come out to see us, and asked if there was anything i could do to help the process, like take our clothes off hangers and fold them at least. but she laughed and told me that i didn't need to do anything and that they'd handle it all for us. hmm ... it actually felt strange to do nothing. today peter took out our suitcases and started packing what we plan to bring on the plane with us - mostly jackets, jumpers and warm clothes ... and i realised today that peter can't fold hehe. too cute.

in the afternoon, maria and trung came to visit, bringing their adorable 3 year old nephew, dylan, and another one of those jewellery stands for me :-). my parents called numerous times to check on me and i also got a phonecall from peter's mum, as well as text messages from friends and relatives. i must say, all this extra attention has been really touching :-).

In the last 5 weeks, Cristina's been admitted to hospital twice. The first time was on March 3rd, when I had to take her to Emergency at Royal North Shore Hospital at 11 o’clock at night, as she had been throwing up all day and couldn’t keep any food or liquids down. It was dreadful having to wait 6 hours to see a doctor, during which time my poor baby threw up another six times! The Triage nurse underestimated the severity of Cristina’s condition. Even after seeing a doctor we had to wait another two hours until the results of her blood and urine tests came back. Cristina was so dehydrated and exhausted by this stage that she ended up sleeping across the chairs in the waiting area. The results eventually arrived and they weren't good. Cristina had extremely elevated levels of blood acidity and immediate measures had to be taken to bring it back to normal levels. Cristina got a proper bed and they put her on an IV drip. Did I ever tell you that Cristina HATES needles and blood tests? And during her 2 day stay in hospital, she had to brave 9 blood tests! That first day, I stayed with Cristina until she fell asleep. I was quite tired, it was already daylight and I had to meet Cristina’s parents when they arrived, so I decided to wait in the car to try and take a quick power nap. When I passed the emergency area, I noticed a couple still waiting to see a doctor. This couple had been waiting before we arrived – that’s over 8 hours of waiting!!

Cristina’s parents arrived as soon as they could and I met them in the parking lot. We went directly to Cristina’s bed and found her still sleeping. Cristina’s parents were informed of the results of the toxicology tests and hearing that her condition could be life threatening really shook Cristina's mum. An endocrinologist visited us soon after and indicated that the dangerously high levels of ketonine in Cristina's blood was quite unusual and so he wanted further tests to be done. Throughout the day Cristina went through numerous blood tests, x-rays and ultra sounds to track down the source. They were able to get her levels back to normal after 2 days, after which she was discharged from hospital. She was booked in to have more tests done at the hospital the following week, and what they eventually found was a toxic nodule in her left thyroid gland. This was 4 weeks ago.

In the weeks to come, Cristina saw several doctors and specialists, who all said it was fortunate that Cristina's condition was found in its early stages. They said if left untreated, it could cause damage to her heart and bones, so all of them recommended the same thing....surgery....a "left hemithyroidectomy" to be exact, where they remove her left thyroid gland. It's a good thing we had private health insurance because we were able to schedule for the surgery to take place as soon as possible, for the following week, on April 6th at Sydney Adventist Hospital in Wahroonga. On the day of Cristina's surgery, she, her mum and I arrived at the hospital around lunch time and we made our way to the Day Surgery waiting area. Cristina kept getting text messages from family, relatives in the Philippines and friends letting her know that they were praying for her and wishing for a successful operation and her speedy recovery. Thank-you all for that. We waited another hour before Cristina was called into a waiting ward where she had to dress into a hospital garment. All week she’s been anxious about this operation, as the thought of them cutting into her neck scared her. But we made sure we chose the best surgeon there was, who came highly recommended and performed about 400 of these operations a year! We opted to have this done privately, as apparently, in the public health system they let registrars do the operations. Sorry, but no noob is going to cut my baby open!

Did I tell you they had Foxtel in the waiting ward? Nothing like TV to calm the nerves just before an important operation. Judge Judy was on....cool! I reached for the control to turn up the volume…hmm…volume didn't change. Suddenly we heard the beeping noise of a siren. Oops!!….it seems I had pressed the button which caused alarms to go off and sent the nurse rushing over. Ah well, at least I made Cristina laugh ;).

Cristina had to wait an hour before being taken to see the anaesthetist. The operation took an hour and then post operative recovery was another hour before she was moved back to her own room. During this whole time all Cristina’s mum and I could do was wait. So we had lunch in the snack bar and talked until they closed at 5pm, then we moved to the hospital cafeteria and talked until 6:30pm which was the time Cristina was supposed to be moved to her private room. The move was delayed by 20 minutes so we had to wait in the waiting lounge. Cristina’s dad arrived while we were waiting so he joined us and all three of us did more waiting....

When Cristina arrived, she was still very sleepy and there were betadine stains around her neck and a pack of dry ice on her throat. We were all relieved to see her. We had to allow the nurse 10 minutes to wash her a little before we could enter. The nurse who was responsible for Cristina was happy to see us there because it meant we could keep an eye on Cristina. We were told to keep talking to Cristina and try to get her to respond. However, Cristina was probably so tired from lack of sleep the last few nights that the best response we could muster from her was a slight movement in her eyebrow. I could see Cristina’s mum was really anxious and she kept asking me if Cristina was still breathing. Mothers, they always take it the hardest in these sorts of situations. The three of us stayed by Cristina’s bedside until visiting hours were over at 8pm and Cristina’s parents had to go home. It’s almost an hour and a half drive back to their place. I waited around until the surgeon came up to talk to me about the operation. He told me the procedure had gone really well, that the toxic nodule was being tested and that it most likely wasn’t cancerous.

Cristina was really happy that she only had to stay in hospital for one night. I arrived yesterday at 9am so that she could leave by the standard discharge time of 10am. She was still a little weak and felt quite sore, but she was mobile. I had to drive cautiously to avoid sudden movements in her neck.…just a little more cautious than I usually do ;).

Cristina’s parents had taken yesterday off as well and they had arranged to meet us back at our place with food. When Cristina’s mum says she’ll bring food, it’s not just a happy meal….it’s usually a 5 course meal that would last us several days :). This time was no exception. She came with a large pot full of delicious home-made chicken congee for Cristina, crispy chicken with tomato rice and noodles for me, tropical fruits and ice cream. Since anything that kept Cristina's throat cool was good, ice cream was called for. Yup, she HAD to have ice cream hehe. I don't think Cristina minded ;). Her parents also came over today with more tubs of ice-cream, noodle soup for Cristina, and my favourite fish dish for me :).

Thankfully, Cristina's recovering really well but we have strict instructions that she must avoid vigourous activity for the next week or two. So I've taken over all of the household/moving tasks to ensure Cristina is fully recovered by the time we fly to Seattle. Her surgeon did assure us that she should be fine in time for the move which was great news to both of us. It would have been terrible to have to fly out seperately. Now we can experience everything together, from touching down in Seattle to buying our first super-sized meal ;).

we received our travel itinerary today!! we fly out on the morning of april 24th, with qantas airlines in economy/coach class (oh well). i inquired about upgrading to business class and the travel agent quoted one business class ticket from sydney to seattle costing over $8000 ... *silence* ... economy class it is then haha ...

we stop-over in los angeles (that first leg taking 13 1/2 hours) and we're scheduled to arrive in seattle around 1pm (seattle time). we'll be in the air for a total of 16 hours!

my dad just called. he's a senior analyst programmer for qantas and he told me, as gently as he could, that if he had been able to book a ticket for me as he usually does (which wasn't possible in this case because ms use their own travel agency), he could have gotten me business class tickets for around $800 ... *silence* ... #%&@. oh well ... there's no way i would've allowed myself to sit in business whilst peter was in economy anyway hehe. oi ... i wouldn't! :-P

peter and i headed into the city this morning to attend jess' birthday get-together at "marigold restaurant". jess wanted us there at 11am, with our appetites ready for a yum-cha "brunch". we were all there for well over two hours, relishing in the delicious food and good conversation. we might have stayed longer if it wasn't for the "please go now" hint we got from one of the managers hihi.

afterwards, peter suggested he and i see "v for vendetta" at the cinemas (his workmate, brian, had recommended it to him) so we headed back to chatswood to catch it there. i don't think the cinema experience is the same without popcorn and coke, so, despite being full from just having had lunch, i still made room for a "mini-combo" :-P. the movie was ... hmm ... let's just say, it's a good thing natalie portman was in it hehe. i'm expecting peter will elaborate in a future entry ;-). brian, err ... have you met peter?? :-P

after the movie, we had about an hour before we had to head off to parramatta's "charcoal mine" for will's birthday dinner. it was a korean-style bbq restaurant where you cook your own food at your table. umm ... you could definitely tell peter and i need a lot more practice at it! :-P no doubt more talking was done tonight than anything else hehe ... *hunger pangs*. overall, it was a great day of catching up with old friends, and hitting it off with new ones is always a bonus! :-)