End of the Aussie experience 2010

Shammy and I have really enjoyed ourselves the last 2 weeks and it has been nice to be part of all the family activities. We went to some very memorable places in Tassie and Nathan and Abbie were great hosts. Shammy has fond memories of blackberry and strawberry with ice cream and cream, cleaning Henry's snotty/choccy face and great homely food. I loved the early morning runs and just being around everyone again. I love our family and how cohesive everyone is in their own intricate ways :). We saw some serious cycling tush and enough shaved men's legs to last for a while.

I'm leaving feeling sad but at the same time focusing on the upcoming promised family visitors, we will hold you to it.

Now for the adventures in India...

Love you all

Sammy and Shammy

Aussie land so good to be back - Aah sunshine

After just getting away from JFK airport before the snow set in, the tropical and really relaxing feel of Brisbane really hit me when I arrived in. I have loved catching up with everyone since being back. The relaxing week spent in Noosa with Abs, Nan, Mum and Henry and the crazy family weekend that followed. It was so nice to see everyone again and I appreciated the effort everyone went to to get together. It was also great to finally see Henry and Hana, they are both completely cute and adorable.

Some of the moments that spring to mind already:

-turning around to see Henry madly crawling after me as I headed down to the beach when we took him for a sand outing at Scarborough, and the inevitable crawl up the leg to be carried

-Hana's description of sour and blowing cotton fluff off our hands together at the farm

-an afternoon spent folding Dad's clothes where due to my high quality folding action, Mum, Dad and I were in hysterics

-coffee and chats with Mum at Guylian chocolate shop on Sydney Harbour

-dinner at the barracks with Ads and Neenz

-the classic hot mustard sandwich Nan nearly choked on while Nathan hooked into one optionally only needing to exhale quickly a few times to cope with the chilli bite.

-Lazy breakfast at Putney with James and Sarah and dinner on the water front in the evening

the list just goes on.......

I have only needed to cook dinner once since being in Sydney after being banned from the kitchen after cooking chana masala (chickpea curry) on the first evening here, Sarah and James liked the flavour but said their mouths were on fire :).

The only thing missing is Shammy but not long now and he'll be here to join me, and the holiday continues.....

Superbowl 10k revisited and Shammy's B'day

Lehigh valley parkway, where run takes place

We celebrated Shammy's birthday with a quiet dinner out at a Thai restaurant, we were both pretty tired after our 5:30am starts these last few weeks with Shammy's work. He has had a week long celebration though, starting with dinner out on Saturday night with Muneer, Raj and Pallavi, drinks on Friday with friends before the snow started, and then last night he had more birthday cakes and pressies with our friend's Ash and Krish.
The weather here has been interesting to say the least with some serious snow around 8 inches in which we even had to get help to push the car out of its parking spot and I managed to follow the tracks of a 4 wheel drive in front to get to work. The snow hit Friday night/ Saturday morning and cleared for a beautiful sunny day that reached just below zero degrees celsius for our run. We started off with numb fingers and toes but by the time we had climbed the first few hills we were warmed up enough. We both ran well, Shammy came in just before me (50:23) and I was happy after knocking over 8 mins off last years time (50:38). For our results check this link: http://photosbyjohn.net/Documents/SUPERBOWL%202010%20OVERALL%20RESULTS.pdf
The next fun for us is our holiday to Australia and India, the only downside being that Shammy is not leaving with me but coming later.

First pay as American Pharmacist yey!

It felt good having my first pharmacist pay packet in hand today and feeling like I finally am being paid appropriately again. Working in the same place as I was an intern had its initial teething problems as one of the pharmacists became a bit territorial but thats settled down and all is well.
I'm currently working 3 days a week but I'll try to increase this when we come back from our holiday.
Shammy has applied for his board exams in August so he will be the next one to hit the study books and as an added bonus he will be starting his fellowship at the same time, now something tells me thats going to be an interesting time :)


We recently had an indian cultural night for everyone at work, it was great fun. We all made our way to Pauline and Harry's place to save them a babysitter and I cooked the main dish and Harry even attempted a coriander coconut tilapia to keep in the theme and I think to make sure there was a non-spicey option on the menu. Today he wanted to know how our digestive system handled the indian diet ( I made a dahl and curried vegetable dish) as after a few days of leftovers he was definitely having some interesting after effects :).
We are off to a resident dinner at the golf club tonight, which is just across the road, followed by a trivia night which I'm hoping to avoid knowing that even in Australia my trivia knowledge is disasterous.

Emerald nuts midnight new years run 2009

What an experience! The race started with the new years countdown to midnight and with fireworks overhead Shammy and I with over 1000 other runners started nudging our way to the starting line.
I was so damn happy to get that race started. The bus arrived about 2 hours before the race, enough time for the icey sleet to work its magic on our bodies so that I could no longer feel my toes, nose or fingers. Shammy and I were jumping around for 20 minutes among the runners with our lighter running gear on trying to keep warm.
There are definitely some keen runners in New York they started flocking in about 20 minutes before the race, even a group of girls whose only attire was bra and undies (now thats chilly!). The ground was coated with a nice sheen of snow making it very slippery underfoot, this didn't seem to worry many people and I kept on telling myself all these people are running fast and no ones falling so why should you be any different.
It took a bit of time to clear the start and crowds at the beginning but Shammy and I ran the 4 miles well, coming in around 34 mins with Shammy half a minute in front of me. We even had spectators hi-fiving us and trying to offer us champas :).


Our friends Raj and Pallavi came as well and they walk/ran the course stopping off at the half way mark for some apple cider, we were impressed that they even made the effort to come. Once we were back on the bus we had a glass of bubbley to celebrate. A long but fun night, we got back to the parking lot at 4am to bundle ourselves up again and make the drive home. Exhausting but I'd definitely do it again, and the group of runners we went with were good value.

Christmas wishes

Well we thought we would get in in advance and wish everyone a Merry Christmas, I hope everyone enjoys there family time.

The white christmas arrived with a blizzard last night and with the heaviest snow fall we have had for a while with about 6 inches of snow falling in a few hours, Philadelphia got 22 inches overnight so we just narrowly missed the centre of the storm front.

We thought we would venture out to grab some goodies from Wegmans but our car couldn't make it up the hill so after a few driver changes and lots of forward and reversing action Shammy managed to get the car back into our complex, with lots of celebrating from us. We then decided to make the most of it and trek our way through the snow to Wegmans, chilly but refreshing :). Needless to say with temps hovering around -6 degrees our heating got its first workout of the season.
I finished my law exam last week so now I just have to wait for the results and if all goes to plan I will be registered soon, fingers and toes crossed. We had our work christmas parties last week which were great fun and I managed to try some very yummy martinis at the Medicap one. Shammy is currently on 2 weeks of nights which will finish on christmas night. We are planning to spend christmas at Ash and Krish's place with a few friends of ours which will be great.

Winter is here again

Well today is the first day of heavy snowfall in allentown so I guess winter is really here again. I have been busy lately studying for the pharmacy registration exams, one down, one more to go (law) on the 17th of December. I haven't got results back yet from the first one (clinical), it was pretty challenging and I didn't feel overly confident when I finished it but my friend Nina assured me thats how everyone feels when they finish it.

Shammy's wisdom tooth removal went well and he is now proudly pulling out the dissolvable stitches to show me when they dislodge while he is eating, yuk!

We spent thanksgiving with our friends, Ash and Krish and their children Om and Shiva. Om is a little buddha and I definitely felt his weight when I was carrying him around, he loves being bounced around but my arms can only take so much of that.

We are just awaiting the arrival of Shammy's visa from the Australian consulate and then we will organise flights to Australia and then India next February and March. It also involves a paperwork trail to sort out documentation and immigration forms before I go so that I can update my visa to America when I return to Australia.

We have just signed up with a few friends of ours to do a 4 mile midnight run in central park for New Years, should definitely be an experience! A bus leaves here with a group of runners and after the run they provide champagne and Hoagies (sandwiches in a long shaped bread roll, hmm come to think of it I hope they come in a vegetarian variety, if not I'll just have to rely on the champagne :) ). Shammy is working the next day so I'll be interested to see how he pulls up for that.

We have also registered for the hilly 10km race that we did last year in the snow, to see if we can improve on our times.

Happy Christmas and New Years to everyone and know we will be thinking of you all!!!!!!

x Sammy and Shammy