On a Roll

After four months of shopping I'm getting used to the cost of things here. On a positive note, it really has cut down on my impulse shopping. But then, every so often, I go to the store and see something like this that stops me in my tracks.

Here's my Mayo.
'

And this is the receipt for my purchase.

That's right, I spent almost $12 on a jar of mayo. Granted, it is the big bottle, but I think I paid under $5 for the same one in the States. It's not even a matter of being able to buy another brand. For some reason, Aussies love to put sugar in their mayo, so pretty much every local brand tastes like Miracle Whip. I think I may have to start whipping up a batch of my own homebrew every week. And, just in case anyone thinks we've taken to eating baby sheep, a lamington is actually just a chocolate covered spongecake. We just can't get into the lamb thing.

BBQ

I think I've figured out why Oz is such a BBQ friendly culture - it's too damn hot to turn on the oven three months out of the year! I finally made it to the store this afternoon, and since today was another scorcher we decided to grill chicken and sausages for dinner. Just moments after Don put the meat on the grill, our friend stopped by for a nibble. Sometimes he will fly right to the grill and sit on the side, today he perched on our windowsill patiently waiting. Unlike the Magpies who will totally peck your eyes out (like this one, or this one ) without warning, the kookaburras here are pretty tame and really quite lovely. He would probably take the meat from our hands if offered, but I'm still a little wary of that big beak so I drop it a few feet away. I've heard people here complain about the noise they make, but I just love them. So, even though we're not supposed to feed them on a regular basis, I just can't resist throwing them a bite whenever they stop by.

Boxing Day

Today is Boxing day in Australia. While talking to my friend Becky this morning I offhandedly mentioned I really didn't know what it was, She explained it to me, then kindly forwarded this link (apparently I'm not the only one who loves Wiki). My brother in law David further humiliated humbled me when not only was he able to explain what it was, but also educated me that Canada and England celebrate it as well. By the way, they both live in the US; a country that doesn't celebrate Boxing Day. Earlier this week I had seen a report that the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race opens on Boxing Day. It begins in Sydney Harbour, and I'd heard that watching the ships pass by is a popular way to spend the afternoon. We left for Manly about 11:30; the race was to begin at 1:00. Tons of traffic, lots of people with the same idea. We drove up narrow city streets and finally arrived, just in time to get one of the last parking spots in a local lot. We walked two miles in 95 degree heat, toting a picnic lunch and drinks, up a hill along with tons of others to secure a prime spot. Just as I was about to say let's turn around, we saw tents set up. We walked down a zigzag hilly ridge, and found a spot - right in the middle of some thorny bushes. I'm not sure if we made a wrong turn, but there were tons of other people in this same location as well. We sat down on a blanket just in time to unwrap our sandwiches and see the first yachts float by. We were pretty high up, but it was a spectacular sight. There must have been a few hundred spectator ships, and a few dozen racing.



About the time we finished our sandwiches, the last of the ships sailed by. And then they were gone. A few minutes later everyone headed out. You've got to be kidding me. I hoofed it two miles in flip flops carrying a cooler and a tired five year old for a fifteen minute race? But yes - that was it. We gathered everything, climbed a quarter mile up the hill, then another two miles back to the car with hundreds of others and drove home. I might do it again, but only if I was with a group of friends and we were tailgating in the parking lot before and after. I'm glad we did it, but it felt a little anticlimactic. By the way, in case anyone sees the photo above and thinks, "what is she talking about, that looks like a lovely grassy area to watch boats sail by". That was actually the place we flopped for a rest on the walk back. It was someone's front lawn and we didn't even care - an indication of how hot and tired we were.

Ultimately I've decided that I don't care for Boxing Day. Not that I don't think it's a wonderful idea, giving to those less fortunate. But I really don't need the entire freakin' country to shut down for the entire day. While living in the States I was used to pretty much everything shutting down for Christmas. But here, it shuts down mid day Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and then the 26th - Boxing Day. And I mean shut down. No gas stations, limited hours for one grocery chain, no restaurants, nothing. Apparently for the last few years, two chain stores David Jones and Myers actually received permission from the government to open their doors for Boxing Day. That's fantastic news if I'm looking for a skirt or a pair of heels, but it isn't really helpful if what I need is a tank of gas and a half gallon of milk. After returning from the race we decided to barbecue. It was 4:00 when I drove to the grocery store; the parking lot was a ghost town. They were open from 10-3. Commercialism (or is it capitalism?) does have its advantages.

So Long Fred...

Tonight our elf Fred will fly to the North Pole, and won't come back until the day after Thanksgiving 2009. We'll miss you Fred - you sure have been a lot of fun. I know that there are elves all over the world just like you, but you're our elf and you're very special to us. You even followed us from Washington all the way to Sydney! Like clockwork, every night, you've flown back to the North Pole to report to Santa if Mitchell has been naughty or nice. You've always returned just before he wakes up, always sitting in a different place. Thanks for keeping an eye on Mitchell, and reinforcing that Santa sees everything. But most of all, thanks for the joy that you've brought us, by allowing us to experience the magic of Christmas through the eyes of a five year old. See you next year.

Birthday Boy

Mitchell is turning five on Tuesday. He already thinks he is five since we celebrated his birthday last weekend. This is the second year that we've celebrated his birthday early, and it actually works out well. The week before Christmas is so hectic, we'll probably keep doing it this way. Since we just moved here a few months ago, a party just wasn't feasible. We decided to have an outing instead. I started researching places to go, and when I heard about the Pirate Ship in the Harbour that does luncheon cruises, I knew it would be the perfect way to spend the afternoon. It was a lot of fun, and although there were many others on the ship, the captain and Pirate Pendelham made sure to make Mitchell's day extra special.

Of course, there was hard work to do like raising the sails



And swabbing the deck


Steering the ship


And hunting for treasure

But after all the hard work, there was plenty of time for fun!



The Birthday Boy even got to hoist the Jolly Roger!




Overall, just a fantastic day.

Love This Commercial

This Toyota Corolla commercial has been playing for a few weeks here. The first time we saw it, Don I and just looked at each other like WTF? Every time I see it I notice new details.

Wally Ah-Cha

Last Thursday Mitchell's preschool put on a Christmas pageant. That's Mitch in the back with the red Hawaiian shirt on. They sang "We Wish you a Merry Christmas", "Jingle Bells", "Little Bell Ringing", and danced the Chicken Dance. They also sang a little song about a train - Wally Archer. Tonight after dinner I started to sign the song - "Wally Archer, Wally Archer, Do do di do...". I didn't even get to finish the first verse when Mitch started waiving his hands frantically and said "no no no, it's Wally AH-cha". So I guess this is how an accent starts? Oh, and please excuse the crappy photo - I definitely need a new camera. Santa??

Friday Music

One thing I didn't take into account living here, is the difference in music. Think lots of Kylie Minogue and you're half there. I also find it really interesting that the radio stations play Land Down Under by Men at Work pretty frequently. I hear it a lot more living here, than I ever heard it in the US, except during the '80s of course. On the flip side, I'm hearing different types of music I probably would have never been exposed to in the U.S. A while back I watched the ARIAs (the Australian version of the Grammys) and the Australian group The Presets swept the awards, winning both Album of the Year and Best Group. After hearing "Talk Like That" a few times, it really grew on me. Here they are performing....



Since we're on the topic of music, I found this collection of bad Swedish dance band music covers while I was surfing around the other day. Enjoy.

http://pics.yemii.com/swedish-dance-bands.html

Upside Down at the Opera House

On Monday night Don and I went to the Opera House to see the Umbilical Brothers in concert, otherwise known as David Collins and Shane Dundas, also known as those Australian guys from The Upside Down Show on Nick Jr. Mitch loved The Upside Down Show when it came out a few years ago and he watched it faithfully. The show was very smart, popular and was critically acclaimed. So of course Nick Jr did the most logical thing, and stopped production after the first season. Bummer. I've never really been able to find out why. I assume it had something to do with salary or creative license, or something along those lines. Neither Don nor I have ever been to the Opera House, so when we found out the guys were playing there it was the perfect opportunity to check it out and make a date of it. The show was very entertaining, and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. In case you haven't heard of the Umbilical Brothers, or The Upside Down Show, I've included a clip below of them in concert.

Thanksgiving

I was a little puzzled this year on how to celebrate Thanksgiving. Turkeys are usually only served for Christmas here, and are terribly expensive. Plus, with only the three of us, a turkey seemed a little over the top. We usually get one of those breast turkeys that already have all the appendages chopped off. Probably not the best way to describe it, but it is what it is. I love those because I just can't seem to cook a complete turkey. The breast always ends up dry and the dark meat is usually undercooked. Last Thanksgiving was a bust, food wise. I selected a free range turkey and brined it for two days in a really elaborate broth from scratch. It took up a huge portion of my fridge for the days leading up to Thanksgiving, and the anticipation was incredible. I had imagined the pleased looks on the faces of our friends and family, looked forward to the nods of approval around the table. Alas, I couldn't get the darn thing cooked all the way through. I even had my friend bring over her meat thermometer, thinking mine had somehow failed. However, it quickly became evident that the only thing that had failed was my cooking. Add to this gummy mash potatoes and it was a disaster disappointment. I had been using a potato ricer for a few years, and I loved it. I decided that on Thanksgiving I would use Yukon Gold potatoes instead of Russets - try to shake things up a bit with a fancy potato. Turns out that the starch content has a lot to do with how mashed potatoes turn out. Yukon Gold have a different starch content than Russets, and my ricer had somehow broken down the potato cells and released a flood of starch and moisture, resulting in something that resembled what kindergardeners use for art projects. Good times. Everyone kept telling me that it was wonderful, but I knew better. This year we baked a chicken. I did make mashed potatoes with my ricer, but I used Russets and they turned out perfect. I also made herbed carrots and gravy. A small spread, but with the Thanksgiving tableware, it was perfect for us. I even located Ocean Spray Cranberry sauce; it totally made the meal.

These last three months have been challenging to say the least, but for one day I decided to put on my big girl pants and be thankful instead of looking for the worst. We have a home, we have three meals a day, we have our health, and we have each other. What more do we need? Well, being with friends and family would have been really nice. Maybe next year.

Lovely lorikeets

We've had several bird encounters since moving here. One involved a meat eating kookaburra that swooped at me to get my steak, the other was an angry cockatoo who tore our back screen door apart. These both occurred at the "Gordon House". We no longer live at the Gordon house, and maybe when I'm at the point where I look back at that time and laugh, I'll share those episodes.

We've been in our new home a few weeks now. A few days ago while doing dishes I glanced up to see this little cutie looking in our kitchen window.


Rainbow lorikeets are members of the parrot family. They're absolutely stunning and just an example of some of the beautiful local wildlife. It's very common for residents to feed the backyard birds here. And really, who wouldn't want to encourage these from making your backyard their home? Mitchell and i went outside and the lorikeets were still hanging around.


I figured that the prior owner must have fed them, so I brought some bread outside to see if they were interested.


Aren't they cute?

Yo Ho Ho

A few weeks ago we visited the Australian National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour. It's a fantastic place, even if boats don't usually do it for you. They have several ships that you can tour, one is a replica of the Endeavor - Captain James Cook's ship of discovery, the other is the tall ship James Craig. They also have a destroyer, a submarine and smaller patrol boat you can board; all are very well maintained. Don was having a ball climbing around the destroyer and showing Mitch how you have to duck inside the submarine. The museum itself is pretty incredible as well. You could easily spend several hours touring the displays and not see everything. We had such a good time; we'll definitely be back!

Fa La La La, La La La La

Since Australia doesn't celebrate Halloween or Thanksgiving, they tend to start preparing for Christmas early. Christmas trees are up in the stores by October, really. We've been holding off on the early festivities, but last weekend we finally caved in and went to the Christmas Festival at the St. Ives Shopping Village. It's the place featured in the stunning photo on the Wikipedia entry for "St. Ives, New South Wales". I have no idea why Wiki chose a photo of a mall to identify St. Ives, when there is a perfectly fine wildflower garden that they could have featured. Anyways, Mitch has been talking about Santa quite a bit lately so we figured we'd take him to see the jolly man in red, as well as partake in the festivities. Surprisingly, it was really well done and ended up being a nice way to spend the afternoon. First they had a cool little procession leading Santa in, consisting of three people in costumes on stilts banging cymbals and drums. They also had two wise men on camels. Where was the third wise Man? Who knows, we never saw him.

We visited Santa, and incredibly, the mall wasn't pimping him for paid photos. Kids just talked to Santa and Mrs. Claus for a few minutes, then Santa gave each kid a hat and a little pad to use for their Christmas list. As you can see from the photo below, I'm the annoying mom you usually see pushing their kid in to get closer. I didn't even realize I did that until I saw the photo. Mitch got just close enough for Santa to hear something about an electronic train set, but not close enough for a quality photo.


Afterwards we stopped by the face painting booth where Mitch was treated to a bat paint job.


It turned out more like a black butterfly, but he thought it was pretty cool. It was the first time we had face painting and I was dreading bath time. Fortunately, the clown painting his face was telling the truth when she reassured me that the paint washes off easily with soap and water.

Oddly, they also had a Punch and Judy puppet show. I've never seen the show, but I know it has been around forever. I was interested in seeing it, if only to try and uncover it's lasting popularity. The only thing I really knew about it was that one of the characters has a stick and beats other puppets with it. Anyone with a four year old boy knows that sticks are always a good time, especially if they make contact with something, preferably human. So, the puppet show seemed like a good option. But after about five excruciating minutes we left, it was just unwatchable. All I could gather is that Judy left a screaming baby puppet with Punch, who it turns out, is a totally inept and terribly annoying puppet. Since I left with more questions that I had started with, I did a little research on Wiki (Yes - I know Wiki is terribly unreliable, but it's good for general information). Turns out my perception wasn't totally off. Per Wiki, "The stereotypical view of Punch casts him as a deformed, child-murdering, wife-beating psychopath who commits appalling acts of violence and cruelty upon all those around him and escapes with impunity; this is greatly enjoyed by small children." So there you have it. Not exactly what I imagine when I think of a kids puppet show.

Hopefully everyone is getting into the the Holiday spirit. We're coming around slowly, it's a little difficult imagining a hot humid Christmas when our last two were "white". By the way, here's a closing photo to remind everyone that Christmas is now only four weeks away!