Small World

Why is it that no matter where you go, you always find someone that lived in Greenville, South Carolina?

Merrick and I jumped on the bus to head back to downtown after the race and we were just sitting down having a normal conversation when all of a sudden some guy asks us if we were from South Carolina. We say yes, and the guy went on about how it felt good to hear a southern accent again.  We were just excited that we found another American! We start up conversation with Josh and his girlfriend Tarene and then Josh starts telling us that they work for Fluor and that he was stationed in Greenville for a while then Afghanistan, and now Perth. We get excited because he dropped the name Greenville.  We tell him that's where we are from and of course that's when we start talking about Chicora Alley, Oysters, Liberty, and Merrick had to mention The G-Spot and Corner Pocket.

I was wearing a Citadel hat and Josh started asking us if we knew a Mills Maxwell. Shit if I didn't see Merrick's eyes light up with excited screaming to Josh, "That's my best friend!!!" They then start dropping other Citadel names and they ended up knowing a lot of the same people.  Such a small world.  Merrick asked for Josh's number and said he would love to get together to watch sports. Josh was just as excited to talk sports knowing that the Aussies here don't care for American Football. Merrick is thrilled he made a new friend and doesn't want to rush things, so he said he is going to wait about 2 weeks then text him!

It made our day meeting them! It never gets old when you find someone who can talk with you about Greenville!

Here are some pictures from the race we took and our final times.  I am thrilled about my time! I remember when I ran the Cooper River Bridge run I ran a 10K in 1 hour and 20 minutes and I ran this 12K in 1 hour and 18 minutes!

Facebook and Driving

As all of you know by now....Merrick Cantrell is on Facebook.  These past few days I have been getting irritated with Merrick always on my name, "like"-ing my own status, pictures, posts, etc. and him saying nasty things to his friends, posting dumb videos from the 90's and asking people I don't know to be my friend.  Thanks to his good buddy Matt Pete who joined the other day, Merrick said he would do his own. I can now go back to "like"ing my own things! Haha

But, we have come to a problem in just a short amount of time.  Merrick has gotten big headed.  He has had over 30 friend requests (wonderful), people commenting on his wall (wonderful), and people messaging him (wonderful). That is the point of Facebook!  He is now saying it's his Facebook page and I am not allowed on it. Haha, can someone please talk some sense in to this man!??! He is crazy! What's mine is his and what's his is mine...right?

Oh, and he also wants to put "in a relationship" on there...I say no, is that bad?

Here is Merrick for the driving portion of this post: Take it away....

Hello again.  As we all know Pam is an awful asian driver.  At home i get nervous about her hitting a mailbox or sitting to close to the steering wheel.  Here she has an obscene obsession with trying to hit curbs.  There are a ton of roundabouts here and she cant resist hitting them in my car.  I have tried praying, keeping silent, and calmly telling her that curbs are not good for our automobile (none of these tactics have worked).  So i have resorted to the only thing that I believe will be beneficial in her "commonwealth driving education" I yell/scream at her with as many obscenities and course language as humanly possible.  Still she continues to barrel head first into these man made obstacles without a shread of worry.  So anyone that is reading this blog I am looking for another alternative, suggestions please...

I think I am a great driver and the fact that I just got in the car and started driving is a huge success! He has been getting on me for "hitting curbs" he hit one on the way to the park this afternoon! -Pam

❤ Starting to Feel Like Home ❤

So, I have been here for over a month now! It's crazy! It doesn't feel like I have been here that long! Merrick and I have been out and about running, fishing, meeting up with new friends, and enjoying some (finally) sun out in the backyard. We have been in the works for doing some traveling around Perth and I am pretty excited! We are heading to Margaret River (its really a beach community), which is about 3 hours South of Perth.  They have great hiking paths through caves, beautiful beaches, and our favorite...wineries! People usually camp out there, but the weather is so sketchy right now we might just stay in a hotel! Here is what we can expect! I'm excited!

Margaret River Beach

                            

Margaret River Caves

Margaret River Winery

Back to reality, we have been on the search for a gym and it has been a lot harder than we thought.  Everything has to be paid weekly and its like $40 a week. That's pricey!  Luckily, we found a gym down the street from us and since it's new we got so many discounts! So, we are paying $10 a week!  It's called, The Rise Community Center. There are basketball courts (Merrick has a bad ankle and it scares him to play), a library (I'm not a reader, but being able to check out books and cd's excites me), and other community classes we can take.  But here is a picture of the front of it. It's Huge!

A great side note, Merrick did a really sweet thing the other day.  He got me a 4-week photography course downtown! I start the beginning of September and can't wait!  It looks really cool and hopefully I can meet some more friends! It has different levels and this one will just teach me about editing and then I can advance to other classes!

Lastly, Merrick and I were on FB and he was commenting on how he will never be the guy that will take a thousand pictures.  Everyone knows how I love picture taking and since we have been dating my picture taking has gone through a huge decline.  I told him the other night that he needs to suck it up! I am a picture taker and I have a lot of pictures to take. Especially, since I am taking a photography class. He said he will try and step up to the plate, but I just couldn't make him look like a fool.  I agreed.

So, all in all we are happy and know we found a great place to live!  We have some great adventures planned and I am going to take the lessons i've learned in my photography class and take a million pictures of Merrick and I.  I'm sure he's excited about that!

the weekend

hey guys,

im sitting here trying to relax and pam "bothering me" thompson wants me to update the blog.  So here it is....We have had and interesting week here.  I had to work all weekend with people from my company coming into town for a huge exposition this weekend.  Friday night we went out for a bite to eat and drinks with my co-worker here in perth and a couple i also work with from sydney.  Pam enjoyed being able to hangout with some girls and listen to them call me a cheap ass all night.  So it has been brought to my attention that i am extremely greedy with my money (i think we all knew this before friday night so no hair of my ass).  Yesterday we went to our 1st Aussie BBQ, it was great they had burgers, brats, weiners, anitpasta salad, and there were about 10 children running around.  We were invited by another guy i work with that is from Texas working out here in Melbourne.  They have 5 kids so that would explain the obscene number of children running around.  Pam had a good many beers and was extremely funny.  we were told that she might be the only girl in the world that is brown/asian with a southern accent.  They loved her.  Anyhow, i hope everyone is doing great.  Love you guys and miss you guys!  Holler at your boi

Merrick over and out

Forgot about these hotties...

I totally forgot how much I enjoy Steve Guttenburg and Steve Martin!  I was telling Merrick last night how good looking these men are! Am I crazy?

New Friends

Merrick and I had a double date with Natalie and Stew from the UK.  We met them at Merrick's old apartment and he has kept in touch with them since i've been gone.  They are bouncing from one cool place to the next to live and travel.  They have been here for about 3 months now and are both working to save money to head to their next destination, Bali!!  So, these are friends we will have for about another month.


She and I have both been craving female companionship.  So, when we got together we were talking all girly stuff. It felt really good to actually talk to someone face to face about things Merrick would never care about!  We were comparing prices, talking about the Kardashians, places we should go shop together here, wanting to hold a Koala, and of course Geordie Shore (UK's Jersey Shore)!

Merrick has a male crush on Stew and tells him all the time he should be a model. They are complete opposites and it is hilarious to see how well they get along! They feed off each other and its very funny to watch. We struggle to understand each others accents some times, but it's cool to compare our cultures.

So, for our date with new friends, we did it simple. We ended up  eating some finger food, grilling out, drinking some wine, and playing card games.  It was funny when I started to play dress up with Natalie in my Braves gear.  I pulled my camera out and snapped this gem! We finished the night just hanging out and they spent the night to be on the safe side!

We had a great time and will be meeting up with them soon!

What is Melting Pot?

Okay, so Merrick and I have had an eventful week.  We have turned domesticated with our excitement for new recipes, date nights, and Jeopardy competitions.

It's gotten pretty intense where we have made rules for our Jeopardy nights.  I am known for just screaming out all kinds of words hoping one of the words I say is correct. So, Merrick put a smack down on that.  The last word that comes out of my mouth is my final answer.  When it comes to categories we know who is going to master what.  I am pretty good with brands, technology, and pictures.  Merrick is good with sports, geography, and history.  When it comes to categories like Presidents, Bible, and literature we say the same names...Obama, Bush, Clinton, David, Abraham, Jesus, and Shakespeare. We just know these are guaranteed answers! haha!

Anyhoo, the other night something great happened.  I killed Merrick 25-6 (would have been higher for Merrick but he got cocky with the daily doubles).  I think everything that I have ever learned in my life was in this one game of Jeopardy.  I was clearing categories. We are still in shock and just can't get over it.