Pete off to Australia

Pete left this morning for Hobart, the trip will take 40 hours and he is currently sitting at LA airport. We had a return ticket for LA to Melbourne so we only had to change the date. That was a feat in itself. Flight Centre said we had to change the ticket through the carrier - United Airlines. United Airlines said they couldn't change it cos it was a Lufthansa package deal. Lufthansa said they couldn't change it cos they had no record of it because it was a United Flight. Numerous phone calls later back and forth between the two (of course they couldn't simply ring each other) we had reached a stalemate. Eventually we found a 24hr helpline for Flight Centre and it turns out they could change it after all. Moral to the story though is if you are flying international before you go get the Amadeus number of the flight and ticket numbers and everything else you can. If we hadn't had cell phones and the internet we would never have been able to change the flight!

We are not sure how long Pete will be in Hobart. It depends on how well his Mum is going. We move into our new place in a couple of weeks so he has conveniently got out of packing and moving! It is probably a good thing though. It means that I will have plenty to keep me busy while he is away. It also means I get artistic control of the furnishings. Yesterday we did a mega shop at Ikea and it should all be delivered on the day I move in (fingers crossed) We were there 5 hours and managed to spend over $1000 and still don't have everything. We went first to the seconds room where we got some good deals on furniture that was still in boxes but the boxes were damaged. There are also lots of garage sales (called tag sales here) at the moment. The University year is almost over so there are plenty of bargains. So far today I have bought an iron, ironing board, bedside drawers, side table, photo frame and floor protectors for the bottom of the furniture, oh and I just bought a 21'' TV that will delivered tomorrow. - A total of about $100. I am an expert bargain shopper!

I am planning all the things that I'm going to do while Pete is away. I decided I should cook instead of eating take out and frozen dinners the whole time. I googled recipes and guess what I found - baked bean casserole! I'm not the only person that makes it. Did I tell you we found real baked beans - in the international section at the supermarket.

I no longer have Pete to carry my shopping so I'm going to have to get a shopping cart for when I go to the supermarket (grocery store here). You know the sort that only old ladies have? Well lots of people use them here - all ages. Though Pete says when he comes back he isn't using it.

I had another wacky American experience a couple of days ago. I was sitting out the front of our Apartment building waiting for someone, sitting on the concrete steps. I reached back to get my cell phone out of my back pocket just as a big black lady walked past. She said, in a rather loud voice - "Honey I know AHHLLLLL about hemorrhoids" and she went on to tell me all about her hemorrhoids. I didn't have the heart to tell her I had just been getting my cell phone out of my pocket. The scariest thing was that it didn't even occur to me that this was odd till much later.