From the Arctic to Australia

Beautiful Day for a Walk

2012-01-27T15:33:00.003+11:00

I took a break from packing today and went for a walk with some of the girls in the mother's group today. The weather is gorgeous so it was nice to be outside and by the river for a while. We stopped and had some lunch (some of the best pizza I've ever had - they aren't traditional pizzas they're thin crust with "weird" toppings like lamb and minted peas or chicken and couscous). It was nice to get out of the house and have a chat with the girls about the goings on of all our babies.

We took a load of things over to the new place yesterday and Glen's taking some things over on his way home from work. If we take little loads like this when it comes to moving the big stuff it should only take one trip (that is if I can convince Glen we need to hire a truck rather than using a tiny trailer!).
Aurora was in a great mood while we were unloading things and happily sat in her capsule and wiggled around on the floor

Happy baby in her capsule.

Can't wait until we can have a BBQ and play table tennis at our own place!

Temperature: +28C
Sunrise: 6:27am
Sunset: 8:38pm

Trying to get into the groove again.

2012-01-23T11:17:00.005+11:00

So we're a month into the new year and I haven't blogged yet. I've been meaning to but every time I sit down I don't really know what to say? We haven't been up to a whole heck of a lot - well nothing that would make exciting blog material anyway.
A little recap is in order I guess. My mum left at the beginning of December after a whirlwind end to her trip so we're now a family of 3 and we've been enjoying working out all the little quirks of our now 3½ month old. We had a nice Christmas and a very quiet new year. I've been going to a mother's group once a week and that has been really great. It's so nice to meet up with other people with babies the same age and get support through any difficult situations.
Aurora is an awesome baby. She's calm and easy going and is usually quite cheerful. She's been sleeping through the night for a little over a month now (with only a few hiccups here and there).

Here's a few pictures of her with her Christmas stocking:

In a few weeks Glen and I are moving to a little house about 10 minutes from where he works (we're about 30-40 minutes away now). I'm really excited about having a little yard and a bit of outside space. I'm also hoping to get more of a chance to do some sewing (we'll have a spare room that I can use for crafty things). I have a few "Little Differences" posts up my sleeve so hopefully once we move I can post those as well.
In the mean time, to get some of my blogging mojo back, is there anything anyone wants me to write about? Australia questions, Canada questions, baby questions, random questions? Ask in the comments!

Aurora a few days ago.

Temperature: +28C
Sunrise: 6:23am
Sunset: 8:40pm

Update!

2011-10-21T20:59:00.004+11:00

So what can I say... Pregnancy and working full-time are incompatible with blogging... With both of us working there hasn't really been a lot of chances for us to do anything blog worthy - especially when we don't always get the same days off. Now that there is a baby involved I'm sure I can find heaps to blog about but I don't know how interesting of a read it would be for anyone else!

My mum has been here since the beginning of September so that's been a lot of fun. The first month she was here we spent a lot of time going on walks and things trying to spur the baby into coming on time. The baby had her own plans and ended up coming two weeks late! If we would've known that we could've done all sorts of things and gone on even more day trips and things (near the end I didn't really like going too far from home just in case!).

So yes, the baby is here! Born a full two weeks late (born Oct. 4th) and having to be forcefully evicted (they broke my water and I had a surprisingly quick labour - 6h 25min - drug free and as natural as an induction can be!). Despite being two weeks late, she was a petite 6lbs 12oz and 19.6" long. She was pretty tangled in the cord so we think that's why she didn't come on her own and possibly why she didn't get very big in the last few weeks.
We are of course biased but think she is the most gorgeous baby ever!

Aurora Elizabeth (11 days old)

I hardly did any knitting while I was pregnant and only managed this set along with a few other things:

Coming home from the hospital (3 days old)
(A pattern from Pattons Heirloom Knitting)

And I managed to get the Puerperium Cardigan done just after she was born (I had the sleeves left to do and knit most of them while I was at the hospital being induced. I think I had about 2" left on one sleeve to do when we came home):

12 days old

I knit a few vests but I don't have pictures of those yet because they're slightly too big still (they won't be for long, this baby is an eating machine! She's gone from 6lbs 12oz to 8lbs 4oz in two weeks!)

Glen goes back to work next week and before that we're trying to cram in some touristy things with mum. We just got back from driving The Great Ocean Road and next week we're going to Wilson's Prom and Philip Island.
I'm still doing my Project 365 photos but haven't uploaded them onto my computer in months (see above re: lazy!).

So yes! I don't know how good I'll be at updating now that the baby is here but I'll really try. Once things settle into more of a routine things might (maybe?) be easier.

Temperature: +14C
Sunrise: 6:28am
Sunset: 7:43pm

Sheepishly

2011-07-03T10:23:00.003+10:00

I am probably the worst blogger around at the moment!

I don't know if I can really blame pregnancy on not blogging or if it's just laziness. I can tell you though that I spend a lot of time THINKING about blogging and the longer it's gone between posts, the guiltier I feel and the more it feels silly to come back and do a post like this. All the things I was going to talk about after the last post are kind of old news and no one probably cares about a trip recap from a trip that happened 5 months ago!
Another thing is not a whole lot has been happening! We haven't gone on any other trips, gone on any long weekend excursions or day trips. We're both basically working (virtually opposite days off), coming home, sleeping and going back to work again. There's the occasional midwife visit thrown in there and the regular Sunday dinner at Glen's parents and really... That's as exciting as it's gotten around here!

With regards to the pregnancy, everything is moving along as it should and I've had a pretty boring and regular pregnancy thus far. I'm incredibly thankful that my only major complaint is being so incredibly tired (the major reason I haven't done much of anything - my days off are basically spent in bed asleep). The baby (as far as we can tell, it's a girl!) is growing as she should and has looked and sounded good at all our appointments. I'm edging up to 29w so only 11 to go until my due date! It's coming up VERY fast! I've definitely moved passed the "is she fat or pregnant?" stage and am enjoying being visibly pregnant. I'm also enjoying all the kicks and flutters and things. A lot of people find it weird or don't enjoy the kicking but honestly, I love it. Sometimes it's a little uncomfortable but I think it's pretty cool.
We have my mum's plane ticket booked and she'll be here two weeks before the baby is due so as long as I don't go early we should be ok! (the baby can come early as long as it's after September 7th!).

I'm still doing my project 365 photos but taking actual photos with my camera has taken a bit of a backseat - mostly due to not being able to get out and do things. The weather here has been pretty cold and miserable and like I said before, Glen and I haven't really had any days off together -- the days we HAVE had off together have been due to one (or both!) of us being sick - so we've spent the day in our PJs watching TV.

I kind of wish I'd kept up a bit with blogging during the pregnancy but honestly there hasn't been a lot to say. I'm going to make a concerted effort to keep up with things - and even post about the baby knitting I've done.

This is pretty much how I feel most days!
Koala at the Koala Sanctuary on Philip Island (Feb 2011)

Temperature: +11c (windchill +9c)
Sunrise: 7:36am
Sunset: 5:12pm

Time for an update!

2011-03-15T19:28:00.005+11:00

My poor blog is being neglected! I've still been taking my project 365 photos and I've had a bit of exciting news to share I've just been... Too tired!
I actually have a pretty legitimate reason to be so tired and it's not laziness or working too much...

Yup! I'm pregnant! It was a bit of a surprise and not something we were really planning but we're pretty excited.
So I'm due September 20th and I've just ticked over to 13 weeks and the second trimester. I got to celebrate hitting 13 weeks this morning by throwing up. Lovely. So far though, that's only the second time and both times seem to have come after a busy day at work where I'd been quite tired. I've had nausea on and off the whole time, more so when I'm in the car (curse you motion sickness!) so I think I'm pretty lucky I've actually only barfed twice.

Other big exciting news is that Glen and I got engaged in February! I should write a proper post about it since he was sneaky and arranged for me to have time off work and arranged for us to spend a few days in Philip Island.
We had a really great time and Glen did a great job planning the trip - and the proposal. He managed to arrange to get my mum's wedding rings (so he's had them for almost two years!) and he proposed on my dad's birthday. It was such a nice way to incorporate my family into the moment.

One more exciting thing is that I have my paperwork for the second stage of my visa (getting permanent residency). Thankfully it's not as much paperwork as before but as always there's a little bit of stress making sure you get everything right!

When my energy picks up a bit I hope to do an update of my 365 photos and write a proper post about our Philip Island trip.

Sorry I've been so slack!

Temperature: +17C
Sunrise: 7:18am
Sunset: 7:40pm

Project 365 - January 30th - February 11th

2011-02-12T17:02:00.001+11:00

January 30th - It didn't quite hit the +40C that was predicted for the day.
January 31st - I asked Glen what I should take a picture of and he suggested the coaxial cable he just bough... ok?
February 1st - The drive to work.
February 2nd - Petrol prices (the guy was in the middle of changing the prices - putting them down a few cents thankfully!).
February 3rd - Fruit Salad mmm!
February 4th - The slow drive to work. The freeway was like a parking lot.
February 5th - Laying in bed and realised I hadn't taken a picture for the day. Lazy day!
February 6th - Pretty chilly today! I had to break out the hand kits!
February 7th - Random yarn.
February 8th - Books from home.
February 9th - The penguin parade at Phillip Island. No pictures allowed where the penguins are.
February 10th - Koala at the Koala Conservation Centre.
February 11th - Breakfast in Rhyll. The view from our table.

Temperature: +17C
Sunrise: 6:46am
Sunset: 8:23pm

Project356 - January 23rd - 29th

2011-01-30T12:34:00.000+11:00

January 23rd - Christmas put away for another year.
January 24th - Gummy Snakes!
January 25th - The tile in our kitchen.
January 26th - Happy Australia Day!
January 27th - Petrol prices again. A little more reasonable this time!
January 28th - Random living room picture.
January 29th - A bit of knitting (finally!).

Sorry this has turned into a project 365 blog, we haven't really been up to a whole lot in the last few weeks. Work, home, work, home. I haven't really had the energy to do too much after work so we've been keeping it pretty low key. We've been watching a lot of tennis (or as much as we can) since the Australian Open is on (ends today) but we didn't manage to get to any actual games (besides the Rally for Relief) this year.

Temperature: +34C
Sunrise: 6:30am
Sunset: 8:36pm

Project365 - January 16th - 22nd

2011-01-23T12:09:00.006+11:00

January 16th: Rally for Relief. Rod Laver Arena
January 17th: The drive home from work.
January 18th: Our mailbox.
January 19th: Random flowers in the yard.
January 20th: Not even 9:30pm and I'm exhausted! Time for bed!
January 21st: Outrageous petrol prices today. $1.42/L. Ouch
January 22nd: Petrol prices again - still outrageous ($1.36/L) but not quite as bad.

Temperature: +25C
Sunrise: 6:23am
Sunset: 8:40pm

Project 365 - January 8th - 15th

2011-01-17T20:27:00.004+11:00

January 8th: Woke up and discovered my glasses were broken. gah!
January 9th: Playing Mario Kart.
January 10th: My aloe plant is loving the new pot - its sprouting all over the place!
January 11th: Rain, rain, rain. Taken from work.
January 12th: More rain...
January 13th: And more...
January 14th: Flowers in the front yard (they are actually purple in real life).
January 15th: Relaxing in front of the fan and watching tennis (yes our Christmas decorations are still up!).

Temperature: +16C
Sunrise: 6:16am
Sunset: 8:43pm

New lens & Birds

2011-01-09T10:20:00.005+11:00

We bought my mum a new camera for Christmas (we = us and my brother and his wife) and a few days ago I picked up a new lens for her from work. The camera that we got her came with an 18-55mm lens which is a pretty good little lens but she's used to a lot more zoom so I picked up the 75-300mm for her.
Before I could send it to her I figured I'd better test it ;-) haha so a few days ago Glen and I went for a walk to take some pictures (part of testing this lens is to figure out if I could live with that lens myself or if I should shell out the big bucks for the 100-400mm).

Magpie

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Superb Fairywren

It was a pretty hot day so most of the birds were hiding so I didn't really get many shots. I was pretty impressed with the range since my longest lens only goes to 135mm. I think I'd still like the extra reach of the longer lens and the extra crispness of good quality glass. We'll see though!

Temperature: +18C
Sunrise: 6:08am
Sunset: 8:45pm

Project365 - Jan 1st - 7th

2011-01-08T10:06:00.005+11:00

I've decided to give Project365 a go. I've wanted to do it for a while not but had missed out for some reason or another (I suppose I could've started it in the middle of the year). I figured the best way to actually get this done would be to use my phone to take the pictures - I love my SLR but there is no way that I'd actually complete this project if I had to lug it around with me every day all year. Another thing to keep this convenient is that I've downloaded an app on my phone so I can upload the picture straight to the website I'm compiling this all on.

Once a week on my blog try to I'll do a roundup of the photos from the week and if you're interested in seeing the photos before I upload them here, you can view my calendar here.

January 1st - New Years Day at the beach in Torquay
January 2nd - Twenty20 Cricket at the MCG
January 3rd - Quesedillas for dinner
January 4th - The drive home from work
January 5th - Glen has his nephew over for games night. The view from my laptop
January 6th - A walk in our favourite park on a warm evening
January 7th - Skating at the new rink in Docklands

Temperature: +29C
Sunrise: 6:07am
Sunset: 8:46pm

New Year

2011-01-01T21:24:00.006+11:00

Now that Christmas and New Years is over and done with hopefully things can get back to some semblance of order and routine.
Not that I didn't have a good time during Christmas or anything but working two (retail) jobs sort of sucked all the fun out of it. I was looking forward to and dreading Christmas. On one hand it was going to be my first day off in a month (and it was CHRISTMAS) and on the other it meant the next day was Boxing Day which is pretty much the most dreaded day if you work in retail.

Anyway, we had a good day even though we were dead tired by the end of it. One of the highlights (comedy wise) was throwing Glen's 13 year old nephew into the pool because he was being cheeky and didn't think we'd actually do it haha

On the 27th we went to the MCG to watch day 2 of the Ashes in Melbourne (The Ashes is a cricket game between Australia and England). Australia did pretty bad but it was still fun - and it was my first time going to the cricket.

We had a pretty low-key New Years. We went to a BBQ at one of Glen's co-worker's and then came home around 11:30 and watched the fireworks on TV then went to bed. I know the whole point of going somewhere on New Years is to actually still be out at midnight but they were all driving 45 minutes down the road to the beach and we didn't want to be out driving that late.
It was also incredibly hot yesterday (+41) so that pretty much sucked the life out of me and I was asleep right after the fireworks finished.

It was pretty warm again today so we decided to take a drive down to the beach where it was MUCH cooler than it was in the city. We still managed to take a dip in the water though! (I told Glen we need to make 2011 the year of getting to the beach!).

Lets hope we all have a great 2011!!

Temperature: +16C
Sunrise: 6:01am
Sunset: 8:45pm

Views from my sewing machine

2010-12-07T19:55:00.004+11:00

The spare room is slowly coming together. I finally have a table to set up my sewing machine and other crafty things, a few bookshelves have been put together and I've actually done a little sewing.

(These hydrangea bushes run all the way down our side of the building so we have a great view of them from every room)

Nothing finished yet but I'm making some progress on a few Christmas presents.

I haven't felt up to blogging lately because I've got a pretty busy work schedule at the moment. I'm working my regular 5 days a week and I volunteered to fill in two days a week (my days off) at Glen's work through the holidays. I started my epic run the last week of November and my first day off won't be until Christmas day (and then I only have the 25th off since boxing day is a big day in retail).

Temperature: +23C
Sunrise: 5:51am
Sunset: 8:32pm

Dragons, Pottery and Gold!

2010-11-21T11:16:00.005+11:00

Glen and I finally had a weekend off together last week. It'll likely be our last days off together until Christmas day and even then, we won't have the day to ourselves.
We took advantage of the freedom and spent the day in Bendigo. The drive was quick and easy - basically we get on the freeway near the house and keep driving and it takes us straight there (no turns or anything!). One thing to keep in mind is that Bendigo basically closes on a Sunday. The streets were very quiet and a lot of shops were closed. Thankfully some of the touristy things were open.

Random shot of our rainy drive home.

We started off at the Chinese Museum and the Chinese Gardens (essentially a koi pond - not something I'd pay to see separately but admission was free when you buy a museum ticket).

We got to see the longest imperial dragon and the oldest imperial dragon.

The longest imperial dragon in the world - Sun Loong

Random other dragons (one is a guardian lion I think)

We walked through some gardens and saw a whole heap of bats (silver headed flying foxes).

We picked up a free tourist guide at the museum and we flipped through it to look for other things to do. The pottery place and the gold mine happened to be open so we decided to take a drive out to the pottery place first. The pottery place was AWESOME. I thought it might be some fancy-schmancy-arty pottery place but most of the pieces were utilitarian type things - sugar/flour/tea canisters, mugs, plates, bowls etc. We bought a few Christmas presents for family and picked up a sugar container for us. I'd love to go back and get their flour and tea bag container.
After that we drove over to the Central-Deborah Gold Mine and took a 75minute underground tour. That was awesome too. I thought I might be a little freaked out by taking the elevator and being 20 storeys underground but I was fine. Part of what made the mine tour great was our tour guide and there were only four people in our group (us and an older couple). They have an even longer tour available (you go further underground!) and I'd definitely consider doing that one as well (and it's definitely on our list of things to do when people come to visit).

We did a little bit of driving around Bendigo and happened upon this great sight:

Unfortunately it was closed so we'll have to take a trip up again.

We're in the process of planning an even more exciting trip for around March but I'm sure we'll get in a day trip or two before then! (more details when we have a few things confirmed!)

Temperature: +17C
Sunrise: 5:56am
Sunset: 8:16pm

Soggy Spring

2010-11-07T13:37:00.004+11:00

We have a had a cold and wet spring. Everyone has been complaining - especially about how cold it is. I just kind of shrugged because I remember when I first came last year I was SO cold in the house and it took me a while to adjust to the cooler temperatures coming from summer in Canada (and in Montreal no less).

Well, I may be converted to thinking that we actually are suffering with colder weather. I just went to look at some pictures from this time last year - and posts so I try to repeat myself as little as possible (since I was thinking about talking about the Melbourne Cup) and this time last year we were at Wilsons Prom soaking up the sun on the beach.

The plus side to all this cool wet weather is that our dams are at 50% which is a first in many years (I've read varying reports from first since 2006 to first in 30 years... Either way it's a big deal).

Anyway, the first Tuesday in November is Melbourne Cup day - the major race in a spring horse racing carnival. It's the race that "stops the nation" and everyone at 3:10pm stops to see who wins. We thankfully had the day off though we were surprised at the amount of stores that actually opened.
Glen and I put a small bet on a horse each and spent the day at his sister's house with the rest of the family. We all picked two horses out of a hat and put $1 in just as fun (convenient in a family of 12 to have 24 horses running).
If you don't go to the actual races, having a BBQ and having family over is a pretty typical way to celebrate.

I spent the day yesterday getting the spare room into better shape. We inherited a great old (large) shelf from Glen's grandpa so I wanted to start unpacking some boxes to get the room in working order and then I'll be able to suss out what other furniture I'll need for in there (looks like a few short bookcases like we have in the living room and a table as well as storage bins).
Here's a picture of the shelf with tonnes of stuff piled on it (it's a great shelf made of real wood - it's solid and heavy - a real quality piece of furniture - there's two doors on the bottom that open up to small shelves).

I managed to empty 7 boxes yesterday (or condense a few anyway). I think I have around 10 more to empty before we're completely box free.

Temperature: +21C
Sunrise: 6:07am
Sunset: 8:01pm

Pumpkins Found!

2010-10-24T11:10:00.007+11:00

Remember how I was lamenting over the lack of proper pumpkins over here? Turns out they DO exist and they're mainly marketed as carving only pumpkins not eating pumpkins (or at least on the ads I've seen they're talking about carving them). Which I guess is the case at home too but people do still make homemade pies with them. I have a feeling they're also a one week only/blink and you'll miss them type of thing especially when Halloween is NOT a popular event.

Anyway, I saw an ad on TV for big orange pumpkins and so when we went grocery shopping this week I picked one up. I can't remember how much they are at home - especially since a lot of my pumpkin buying was done in Inuvik where things like that are notoriously expensive. These pumpkins were $26/ea which is not too bad since I'm actually going to be cooking it not carving it/throwing it away (even though I wanted to carve it SO bad when I was cutting it! It felt weird to cut it in half instead of cutting the top bit off to scoop the insides out that way).

So my plan for today is to roast up this pumpkin (it's bigger than it looks in the picture - half of one cut in threes barely fits on our cookie sheet), blend it and freeze it in 1 or 2 cup portions to save for pies and other yummy things.

Another bonus in finally finding a pumpkin?

The seeds! yum! (I might have to go buy another pumpkin this week before they disappear again!)

Temperature: +12C
Sunrise: 6:24am
Sunset: 7:46pm

New Phone! yay!

2010-10-23T11:45:00.008+11:00

I managed to snag myself an iPhone this week after a bit of drama with the phone company (basically I couldn't sign up in my name so Glen did it in his and because of that, I couldn't keep my old phone number). Besides having a new phone I'm really excited about the camera portion of the iPhone and downloaded a few cool camera aps. I'm hoping to do something similar to project365 but with my phone - my camera is just too big to lug around everywhere every day and there are some seriously cool photography aps out there.

So because I've gotten a new phone I'm getting a case for it. I bought one for the time being because there's no way this phone is going to go without a case (I put a case AND screen protector on it before I did anything else) and I want to order a custom case for it. I found a site that will let you upload a photo or artwork and it turns it into phone case. I picked 16 of my favourite pictures and I can't decide which one to choose!
I thought I'd open it up for public opinion to get some help.

In no particular order:

Berries & Grevillea 1

Grevillea 2 & 3

Bird & Crocus

Rainbow Lorikeet & Koala 1

Koala 2 & Inuvik

Crocus 2 & Fireweed 2

Fireweed 3 & 4

Fireweed 5 & Rainbow Lorikeet 2

In other news we've been getting brief snippets of warmer weather. It was +29C yesterday and now it's back to rainy and cold. We had a bit of wild weather a week or so ago but there doesn't seem to be as much damage as when we had those storms last November.

Temperature: +13C
Sunrise: 6:25am
Sunset: 7:45pm

Back to work

2010-10-10T14:53:00.005+11:00

So here I was getting into a semi-regular posting routine and then I got a full time job and that's pretty much sucked away all my spare time.
I can't complain about getting a job because well, I needed one and it's nice to have the cash. It just sucks that I don't have an endless expanse of free time in front of me (not like I really think I spent it wisely anyway).

On Friday we went to see Paul Dempsey who is the lead singer of the band Something for Kate. We went and saw Paul about a year ago when he played up in Castlemaine (he's put out a solo album and is playing acoustic shows). It was the first time I'd seen him live and was completely blown away. Not every musician sounds good live but Paul does and he is really great onstage/interacting with the audience.

So, after work on Friday Glen and I drove into the city to see him play again. Parking was a nightmare but we managed to cram the car into a spot a few blocks away.

As awesome as the venue is, after a day of standing at work, it sucks to stand for 4+ hours in a giant group of people (especially when a few are drunk and dancing in that giant group).

If anyone is interested, I'd suggest you check out some of his music (and Something for Kate - SFK is a group that Glen introduced me to back in 2004 and instantly loved them). He's played a few shows in the US and is headed back there and is even playing one show in Canada next month.

I definitely wish I would've brought my big camera with me (we were so close!). I was too tired to lug it around and happened to have our point and shoot camera in my bag.

In other news, it's warming up a bit here and we've set the clocks forward an hour. I have all the windows in the apartment open and there's definitely a warm breeze blowing through. Nice!
It's also mango season! yay!

Temperature: +22C
Sunrise: 6:43am
Sunset: 7:32pm

Second Time Around

2010-09-28T17:20:00.000+10:00

There are a lot of fruit that I've had here for the first time and then there are the ones that I've had back home and didn't like because well, eating tropical fruit in a decidedly non-tropical location is a bit of a gamble.

I tried a real mango for the first time in 2007 after having one in 2000ish and thinking they were gross. One thing I will do is re-try foods and I'll try new foods especially at the urging of someone like Glen who knows my tastes so well. Guess what? Mangoes are actually my favourite fruit now! Funny how that happens!

Anyway, this post is actually about the mighty papaya or pawpaw as it's called here (after doing some research, papayas and pawpaws are actually different fruit all together. What makes things confusing -or fun- is that Australians actually call papayas pawpaw even though they aren't actually pawpaw. See what I mean?).

I've had papaya before back home and I've had dried papaya which I don't mind at all. Now that I think about it, I've also had papaya in canned tropical fruit mix. Yuck again. The "fresh" papaya I had back home was could probably be considered in the same category as my first mango tasting. Definitely inedible.

I went into this little experiment thinking it might be the case of the mango. You know what? Not so much. First off, papayas have a very distinct smell. I was trying to decide what it was and it almost smells... Sour? Like garbage? Baby vomit? Anyway, it has a gross smell to start with and it's actually one that is mixed with a nice smell so you think "Oh! That smells so nice... Wait! Ew! What's that other smell?!?!"

As for taste... It kind of has a plain taste with a hint of a taste that could be awesome. It's sort of firm yet soft like a banana with a little bit of juiciness thrown in... I almost thought while I was eating it that it was a lot like eating flavoured dessert tofu. The texture (and a bit of the taste) was quite similar once you chewed it a little. I did notice too that it started tasting better the more you ate.

I think the papaya might be one of those fruits that should be enjoyed with others - like in a fruit salad or maybe a smoothie... Maybe even used in a savory dish.

So now I'm wondering if I have the papaya's profile all wrong? Have I had the misfortune of always buying a terrible one or is it really just one of those "meh" fruits? Or maybe it's sort of like cilantro where certain people taste it differently and either love it or hate it?

(All this talk of trying new fruit - and actually getting around to photographing it as I'm trying it - reminds me a lot of Maggie Mason's Mighty List and trying 1,000 fruits)

Temperature: +10C
Sunrise: 6:01am
Sunset: 6:21pm

Hanging Rock

2010-09-24T08:08:00.000+10:00

Glen and I took a trip to Hanging Rock yesterday. Like most people, I've heard about the movie and knew the basic premise of it so I wasn't really sure what to expect.

Picnics not included. Kind of ominous when the sign says "Experience the Mystery?, no?

It turns out that hanging rock (or "The Hanging Rock") is actually only one small part of the whole area. It turns out that the hanging rock is a large boulder that is suspended between two other boulders. It's kind of cool.

Hanging Rock (sorry for the bad picture of it)

There are all sorts of other interesting rock formations all around (all these rocks make up a small mountain - or well, a mountain by Australian standards). We climbed up to the summit, around through some of the formations and back down and then walked around the base of the whole thing.

Interesting rock formations

View from the summit

We had lunch at the cafe there (great food btw) and saw a bird we've never seen before - the Pied Currawong (unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with my camera to get a picture). The one we saw was likely a female as she had grey on her stomach (and she was pretty big & fluffy). There were tonnes of crimson rosellas around which was good to see since we don't get many of them in our area and we also saw a few kookaburras!

Immature Crimson Rosella

We had a great walk and even though the walk to the summit was a little intense at times, it wasn't too difficult (unlike the You-Yangs where we just gave up). The walk we took around the base of the mountain was great, it was mostly flat and we were the only ones on the trail.

Thankfully we didn't see any snakes!

We were walking along quietly, listening to the birds when we came across this:

I think that's the largest kangaroo I've seen outside the zoo.

There were SO many of them. We counted 24 and there were likely more (there were quite a few with joeys in their pouch).

We had a really great time and were really pleased with the whole area. We bought the Picnic at Hanging Rock DVD in the gift shop and then watched it when we got home.

Lone rock wallaby in the bushes.

Temperature: +9C
Sunrise: 6:07am
Sunset: 6:18pm

One Year

2010-09-22T08:18:00.001+10:00

Today is the one year anniversary of me moving to Australia! I can't believe it's been a year already! There are all sorts of new and interesting things I've done and places I've been to and I've definitely done more entertainment related things in the last year than I did in the whole 6.5 years I lived in the Arctic.

I've enjoyed going to events that I've only seen on TV (The Australian Open), seeing birds I've only read about in books (yellow-tailed black cockatoo) and going to concerts for bands I've only listened to on the radio (ok or CD, but that doesn't sound as good - Pearl Jam).

We've done grown-up things like buying a car, a new bed and a new tv as well as apartment hunting and going on mini-vacations.

I'm enjoying my time here so much and can't wait to see what we get up to in the next year!

A collage of pictures from the last year: Christmas in the summer time, yellow-tailed black cockatoo, Great Ocean Road/Twelve Apostles, papaya, football, apricots from Glen's parent's tree, interesting flora, red rumped parrot, rainbow lorikeets, venus fly trap, emu and kangaroo sign, football, homemade apricot jam, Great Ocean Road/Twelve Apostles, emu in the wild, starfish, kookaburra, feeding a sulfur crested cockatoo in the backyard, Woofer the Bulldogs mascot, homemade pumpkin pie, football, Great Ocean Road/Twelve Apostles, our car, football, us at squeaky beach, koala and baby, quilt for Glen's nephew, the Australian Open, Cape Otway lighthouse, our livingroom, Great Ocean Road, koala.

Temperature: +10C
Sunrise: 6:10am
Sunset: 6:16pm

Difference # 6

2010-09-16T10:53:00.000+10:00

Saving Water & Water Restrictions

Australia has a long history of drought. Because of the lack of available fresh water and the dependency on catchments/reservoirs there are water restrictions and huge media campaigns focused on saving water.

Depending on where you live will depend on how strict the restrictions are. Right now, metropolitan Melbourne is on Stage 2. Around Easter we eased from 3A restrictions to 3 because of the amount of water in the catchments and then while I was away we went to stage 2. When we were here in 2007 there was talk of some towns going as far as checking on each home's usage and if it was over a certain amount, the water flow to the home would be turned down to a point where you wouldn't really be able to use any water in your home (I heard around 2L/min when the typical is 9L/min I think?).
Because of these restrictions, there's no such thing as water fights/slip 'n slides/running through the sprinkler. It's something that "older" Australians (Glen's age and older) talk about with sadness and whimsy to the younger generation (ie: Glen's niece and nephew's age - 5 and 12 - have never had a water fight or used a slip and slide).

People are doing all sorts of things to try to save water and a lot of people (or at least the people I know) keep a close eye on how much water they're using. There's an initiative called Target 155 which has people aim to keep their daily water usage to under 155L/day.
Glen's parents for example have containers in their sink and buckets in their shower and tub. When you wash your hands you let the water flow into the little tub and when that gets full it gets emptied into one of the larger buckets. Once the larger buckets are full, the water either gets used to water plants or (more often) it gets poured into the back of the toilet and the main water to the toilet gets shut off. Another thing a lot of people do is direct the hose for their washing machine out into the garden and water the plants with the washing machine water (it seems most washing machines empty into a laundry sink rather than being permanently hooked up to the main plumbing). A lot of the detergents (all of them?) are marked as being grey water safe

On the news, they have regular catchment updates (especially after any large amount of rain). In June the catchments were up to 35% vs the 26.8% it was in June last year. When we were here in 2007 the catchments were around 17% and there was a serious concern about whether or not we would run out of water (at 17% that was approx. 2 weeks of water).
It seems the water storages are at 45% now and some parts of the state are experiencing flooding. Some catchments in NSW are actually full and overflowing!

It's one interesting thing to think about and something you definitely take for granted in a place like Canada.

Picture from our window of a crazy rainstorm we had in March.

Temperature: +11C
Sunrise: 6:20am
Sunset: 6:11pm

Finals Fever

2010-09-12T11:35:00.002+10:00

September is footy finals month and if your team happens to be one of the lucky ones to make it, it's a pretty exciting time.
Like I've mentioned before, pretty much everyone has a team they barrack for (even if they aren't major fans of the sport).

Our team (The Bulldogs) made it into the finals again this year so we went to the September 5th game (first game of the finals) against Collingwood where we unfortunately lost. Luckily we finished in the top 4 this year, so we have two chances. If you lose the first week, you can come back in the second week to play another game (it's an elimination game from then on).

Western Bulldogs vs Collingwood Sept. 5th 2010
66,545 people in attendance

We also went to the September 11th semi-final game against Sydney where we won!!

Western Bulldogs vs Sydney Swans Sept. 11th, 2010 39,596 people in attendance

There's a very interesting dynamic between supporters and certain team's supporters have certain reputations (I won't go too much into this because it's of course all subjective but if you ask people, they'll have an opinion about which supporters are considered the worst/most intimidating). When you're at a game with 66,000 people and your team is losing (especially if you're playing Collingwood), it's a pretty lonely place. Even yesterday at the Sydney game, when they were winning they were LOUD and it didn't sound like there were a lot of Bulldogs supporters there at all\.

The atmosphere at these finals games is incredible. This is my first time going to finals games (we went to the pre-season NAB cup final earlier in the year which was awesome too but this is even crazier) and you can definitely tell that there's something different about these games. Every time we go to a big game I'm amazed at how many people are there, hearing the roar of the crowd from the other side of the grounds. Incredible. The fact that 66 thousand people all turn up to watch something (there's usually 25 thousand plus at regular season games -- and there's more than one game on per week!) amazes me.

The opening bounce
Western Bulldogs vs Sydney Swans Sept. 11th, 2010

Last night was a real nail-biter so if we play well next week, I'm sure there will be a lot of excitement!

Temperature: +13C
Sunrise: 6:26am
Sunset: 6:08pm

Sneaky Glen and the Awesome Surprises

2010-09-11T09:18:00.000+10:00

Sorry this post is so late. I have no good excuse as to why I've been a bad blogger!

Glen and I have been looking at getting a new bed for a few months now. We've been into the stores and sat on our fair share of beds. We finally picked out the bed we liked and the only thing we had to do was order it. The closer it got to me leaving, it was obvious I wouldn't have a bed before I left on my trip so I hinted to Glen that it would be awesome if he ordered the bed and it was here when I got home. Glen didn't seem to be in a huge hurry to order the bed (he's very practical so he doesn't make decisions like this quickly) and told me more than once not to get my hopes up about a new bed being here and that there wasn't a new bed waiting for me. At one point on my trip he even took the webcam into the bedroom to prove to me that he wasn't fibbing and hiding the bed.

A few days before I flew home, he hinted that he had a surprise for me - not a bed. I couldn't figure out what it would be and asked him if it was a GPS (since he'd hinted at getting one) he cracked up and I assumed the big surprise would be along those lines. I thought that maybe our TV had arrived (our big TV came with a second, smaller TV) or that he'd gone ahead and switched our cell phones over. He had pretty much convinced me that there wasn't a bed here even though my SIL said that he'd better have the bed if he was smart haha.

So I get home, put my bags down and in the kitchen is the island I've been wanting for ages. He made the trip to ikea all by himself - incredible considering he hates going to Ikea. I was stoked because we have practically zero counter space and doing any sort of prep work is annoying. Glen said to me "sorry it's not a bed but it's a good substitute". I totally agreed and then walked towards the back of the apartment to the bathroom. As I walked passed the bedroom I looked in and saw... My brand new bed!!!!
He apparently ordered it the day after I left and it's been here since Monday. Awesome, awesome, awesome. I picked up some king sized pillows while I was away (you can't get them here) so sleeping in a brand new incredibly soft, comfy bed with new pillows is pretty much like heaven.
I've been trying to find a link online for the bed but I can't. It's a King Koil mattress (with box spring) with a pillow top. All I know is that it's soft and awesome.

What a sneaky guy! He was pretty disappointed that I clued in to my birthday present (video camera) so he was pretty proud of himself for being able to keep two surprises top secret.

Temperature: +11C
Sunrise: 6:28am
Sunset: 6:07pm

The Long Journey South

2010-08-27T09:26:00.003+10:00

I'm back home after my fifth equator crossing (the third in a year). As long as the whole journey takes (flying plus travel to/from the airport and waiting for connections - approx. 24hours. Actual flying time between Vancouver and Sydney 13-16 hours) I actually don't mind it too much. You kind of have to get into a groove and have a system.

First of all you have to come to terms with the fact it's going to take as long as it takes and nothing you can do will make time go faster. The quicker you accept that you will be in a plane for at least 13 hours (more if you are flying from further east) the quicker you will be able to do things other than obsess about the minutes.

Research the entertainment options you will have on your plane. Most planes these days have individual seatback TVs - especially on the long flights. This is probably the best idea anyone has ever had. They load them with tonnes of movies, music and sometimes games. Go to the website of the airline you're flying with and check to see if they've posted what movies they'll have while you're flying. I like doing this because then I can reassure myself that I won't be bored stiff. I count all the movies I'd like to watch and make a mental list of the top ones I'd like to see.

Bring other things to do just in case there isn't anything you want to watch. Nintendo DS and games, a book or two, crossword puzzle, portable DVD player with your favourite watch again movie, knitting or other small portable craft project.

Sleep aides. My goal on these long haul flights is to sleep as much as I possibly can. I never travel without my eye mask, ear plugs and some sort of medicine to help me sleep. Some people are snickering at the thought of an eye mask and ear plugs but trust me, you will get a MUCH better sleep with just these two things alone - not having to hear the baby three rows up screaming for 10 hours? AWESOME. I've only taken an Rx sleeping pill on one of my long haul flights and it worked like a charm. Be aware of side effects though - sleep sex might not be so great if it happens in public! So besides that, I use Gravol most times. It lets you get a pretty decent chunk of sleep. I only took one Gravol this last flight and spent a good majority of it napping. A long haul flight isn't the best time to try a new medicine though so I'd suggest using something you're familiar with.

Travel pillow. Make sure you have one of these. My favourite by far is the contour twist pillow. The girl on the commercial doesn't make it look that comfortable but trust me, it's awesome. You can twist it to all sorts of shapes which makes it easy to get it into the perfect position. I usually have it folded up onto one side to lean my head onto - the inflatable ones don't seem to give enough support and can deflate and get sweaty/hot.

Slippers. I bring a pair of slippers or thick socks with me to put on basically as soon as I can. It can get pretty chilly on the plane and it's better than walking around barefoot or in your regular socks.

Snacks with no import restrictions. Pack a few granola bars or other sorts of portable snacks. Be aware of import restrictions in the country you're travelling to and either plan to eat it all or throw it away once you land. You generally won't need the snacks but it makes me feel better knowing that if I get snacky, I have something in my bag.

Order a special meal. On every flight I've been on, people with special meals get theirs first. If you don't like waiting or are worried your preference will be gone (especially if you're stuck at the back of the plane), save the stress and order a special meal. There's all sorts to choose from and generally they're all pretty good. The only downside to this is the dude in front of you may keep his chair reclined while you eat only to put his chair up as soon as he gets his meal (and you're done yours).

A few other things I pack but aren't 100% necessary: A facecloth in a ziploc bag (it's nice to get up and wash your face a few hours before you land and having it in a ziploc means you don't have to cart around a soggy cloth in your bag), toothbrush and toothpaste, brush and elastics (I usually re-do my hair before we land since it's usually a mess after 13+ hours), spare pair or two of undies (firstly, you just never know and secondly, just changing that one piece of clothing makes you feel not so grungy), small cosmetics bag (nail clippers, tweezers, small mirror, pain killers, lip balm, lotion, face wash).

This is how my typical long haul flight shapes up:
First three hours: Watch a movie and eat in-flight meal.
Sleep
Middle 3 hours: Watch a movie and eat in-flight meal.
Sleep
Last 3 hours: Watch a movie and eat in-flight meal.
Land!

So basically, as soon as the first meal is done, I try to sleep until they hand out the next meal and then repeat. On the way back I actually only managed to stay up long enough to watch one full movie. I ended up falling asleep through all the others I started.

So there you go! It's not so bad when you break it down into it's individual components. If you are able to sleep on a plane then you've got your biggest problem solved. It also helps if you don't mind watching movies!

Next post: Sneaky Glen and the awesome surprises.

Temperature: +10C (feels like +7C)
Sunrise: 6:50am
Sunset: 5:54pm

There's No Place Like Home

2010-08-20T11:16:00.007+10:00

Just popping in to say hi. Things have been great here so far and I have just under a week left. My brother did some magic on his router and my wireless works great here (WAY better than at home actually!). We've been fairly busy most days, the first week I was here was spent helping my sister-in-law (!) sort out all the final details for the wedding. She had things mostly under control so we didn't really need to do much. We folded and filled favour boxes though.

We also took a few runs to the next town over to do some last minute shopping and after all the agonizing over finding a dress, they found me a really cute one. I had actually bought a dress before I left but mum wanted me to get a new one (?) so she bought me one. I wasn't sure about it at first but everyone loved it so I must have bad taste or something haha

(Me with my little (!) brother taken by my mum)

The wedding was beautiful. The ceremony was outside at SIL's grandma's and then the reception was at the local yacht club (Yacht Club sounds posh... It was like a nice community hall near the water with boats. "Yacht Club" makes it sounds like it was a big bucks kind of place. Their whole wedding was outrageously affordable and I'm really proud of them for doing it so cheaply. They actually refused to do things like hire a limo because they couldn't justify the cost for the hour or so they needed it. They were perfectly happy to borrow one of the shiny rental cars family had). It was great that a lot of our out-of-town family came and we got to spent time with a lot of them outside the wedding. We have another family wedding this coming weekend so we'll see even more family (this is a very convenient way to get all the visiting out of the way!).

I got to play photographer for part of the day and that was a lot of fun. The photographer that was hired didn't have an assistant so I offered to take the shots of the guys getting ready since the paid for photographer was out getting SIL getting ready shots (and we were over here where the boys were getting ready anyway).
I'm ridiculously proud of a few shots I got and I'd say they're quality enough to fit right in with the rest of the shots from the day (or at least I'm hoping the paid for photographer got some great shots!). I got an incredible shot of my brother's best man (this guy was his best friend growing up and practically like a brother - he calls our mum, mum - and he just happens to be SIL's cousin! SIL didn't know him growing up and it was only about 6-7 years ago they found each other online and have reconnected). Anyway, I might have to post that another day, but it's been getting a lot of attention of facebook.

I've also been trying to get my fill of Canadian things before I go home. I've been really shocked at how easy being back is. The whole driving on the right side of the road thing, going back to having pennies and quarters, French on all the packaging etc. I was expecting to have a bit of culture shock coming back but there hasn't been any. I'm not sure whether I should be happy or sad about this (does it mean I still haven't fully assimilated into Aussie life?). I've done a little bit of driving and besides having to ask if I'm on the proper side of the road and accidentally going for the turn signal on the wrong side of the steering wheel a few times, driving has been remarkably easy and stress-free. Not something I can say for driving down under.
I've had my fill of kraft dinner and a few pizza pops, I've been sampling some of the chocolate bars I left behind and I'm making a list of what I want to take back or more appropriately a list of things that people can send me if they're feeling generous enough to send a care package. My king sized pillows and wide-mouth thermos have been bought. I've been to Canadian tire a few times and I've set foot in the major big box store more than once.
I'm also enjoying being able to wander around this great little town that my brother and SIL call home. It may be full (and I mean FULL) of tourists in the summer but they have so many great little shops, I'm kind of jealous since they only have to walk up and down a few blocks to visit these great stores instead of having them spread across a massive city.

This has turned into a rather long "just popping in" post but I wanted to fill everyone in on how things are going. We're really having a great time and this is the first time it's felt like summer in a LONG time (y'know those lazy summer days during school holidays, the air had a specific smell and feel to it, didn't have any agenda and just did whatever was happening... My favourite time of year).

Temperature: +22C (feels like +29C)
Sunrise: 6:18am
Sunset: 8:08pm

Be Back Soon!

2010-08-03T09:00:00.000+10:00

Just letting everyone know that I'm off to Canada for 3 weeks for my brother's wedding. Not sure if I'll have time to post or not or if my computer will even work on my brother's wifi connection (he has some sort of crazy setting and my laptop is too old to recognize it or something?).

I arrive back in Australia on August 26th.

So! Off to the land of kraft dinner, rice-a-roni, poutine and king sized pillows!

(taken at LAX in 2007 on our way to Melbourne for Glen's sister's wedding)

A bit of knitting!

2010-07-29T09:57:00.004+10:00

The wife of one of our coworkers was expecting a baby a few weeks ago so I decided to knit them something.
I don't have a lot of strictly baby yarn - especially in boy colours. I know a lot of people are fans of bright colours for their babies but I didn't want to go too "out there" in case they were fans of more traditional colours.
I had a bunch of Patons Beehive Baby in white/yellow/green, green and blue. I wasn't sure how much a sweater would take so I decided to use my white/yellow/green because I had quite a few skeins of it.

I made a cute little cabled sweater first but it turned out VERY small. I was worried it wouldn't fit so I quickly knit up a baby surprise jacket. After fussing with the first jacket I didn't really want to make a hat or booties and have them be doll sized so I just skipped them.

I think it turned out well. It's still quite small but apparently this baby is a bit on the small side (two weeks early and the parents are quite small).
I forgot how much I like this pattern! Once you get over the initial confusion, it's pretty straight forward. It only took me a little while to remember all the quirks.

I'm in the process of knitting a bear so we'll see how that turns out!

Temperature: +12C
Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 5:30pm

Feed Me!

2010-07-20T16:23:00.000+10:00

I bought a Venus Fly Trap on my birthday this year (Glen's sister gave me a gift card to the hardware store so I bought plant pots and dirt to replant my other plants and then I bought a little Venus Fly Trap.) I've wanted one for YEARS and every time we went to the hardware store I'd ask Glen if we could get one.

I've been babying this thing because I really want it to survive (I have bad luck with plants - mostly because the cats used to dig them up!). It seems that the dirt for the plants we bought came with free flies (?!) because there seems to be an abundance of little tiny flies that have appeared whenever I've re-potted something. So I've been chasing them around with my VFT. Quite a few times the fly has landed in a trap but hasn't been caught, until today! I didn't actually catch the trapping only the aftermath of it.
Basically, for people who don't know, the traps sit open (or mostly open) until some sort of bug crawls in and triggers the guard hairs. The hairs need to be triggered a certain amount of times before the trap shuts (the speed of this is apparently partially determined by the temperature). Once the trap shuts, the digestive liquids start to flow in and the trap seals.

A trap in the first stages of catching/sealing look a lot like a trap that has accidentally been triggered. What I noticed on the trap that caught the fly is that one side looked kind of puffy near the bottom and then the top looked kind of squeezed together.
Once the trap is sealed the spiky bits start to bend backwards instead of being interlaced. To visualise this better, clasp both hands together with your fingers interlaced but have your fingers sticking up. Now, still keeping your hands together separate your fingers and make a V with them (the V is if you're looking at your hands from the sides) keep the base of your fingers/the top of your hand touching. That's eventually what the trap will look like.

You can see the start of it here. The back part of the trap is still interlaced a bit while the closest part has started separating a bit. That's when I knew for sure that my trap had caught a fly and it hadn't just been triggered by me moving the plant.

This is all very exciting and I'll be paying close attention to what happens over the next few days.

(I think the two traps at the bottom right of the last picture look like deformed/shock traps. I should probably just take them off the plant since they probably won't be able to catch anything... I'll give them a little while longer and see if they start looking better).

Also something funny, about a week and a half after I bought my VFT I had a dream that it turned into Audrey II. Complete with singing. haha

Temperature: +9C
Sunrise: 7:30am
Sunset: 5:23pm

Little Difference #5

2010-07-16T11:34:00.004+10:00

The Damp

This is a specific difference between the Arctic (or even Alberta where I grew up) and here. There are a lot of other damp places in Canada so I'm sure what's going on here happens in places like BC or even Ontario.

Because of not having central heating and only single pane windows, the house gets quite damp in the winter. You wake up in the mornings with most windows fogged over and if you're not careful mould/mildew will start to grow on outside walls and around the windows (the mystery over why the carpet along the walls in the spare room are bleached has been solved).

I've spent the morning scrubbing the bathroom, the windowsills and I've taken the pull-down shades off the windows, sprayed them and have hung them outside.

Living in the Arctic, you would have to purposefully try to grow any sort of mould. You were more likely to find dust (oh the dust!) and cobwebs around your windowsills if you neglected your cleaning. Here, you only have to go a week or two without wiping the windows down and you'll have a lovely science experiment right in your house.

I think I'd gladly take all the other frustrations of expat life over worrying about if there's mould lurking behind the curtains when I open them.

(Sorry, no pictures in this post. I don't think anyone wants to see any pictures of me cleaning!)

Temperature: +12C
Sunrise: 7:32am
Sunset: 5:20pm

Remembering

2010-07-09T10:00:00.004+10:00

Glen's grandpa passed away back in December and because of how things work over here, his parents are just now able to get into the house to properly go through things (I know that sounds weird - basically Glen's family had a certain amount of time after Grandpa passed way to get out anything the family wanted to keep and after that, everything in the house got valued. If there was anything else you wanted you have to pay for it unless it had been deemed to have no value. It's been a really complicated, drawn-out process compounded by the fact that all my stuff was still taking up room at Glen's parent's when they were trying to get stuff out before the valuation started).

So, Glen's parents have been going through things lately and found two old ice cream pails full of shells and they asked if I wanted them and I -of course- said yes. I had no idea what sort of shells would be in these pails or even what sizes there would be but since I love shells, I couldn't resist.

I already have a few small jars of shells on the bookcase and was trying to think what I should do with these. I thought about picking out some of the interesting ones and just putting them on the shelf but then thought they might get broken easily. I also thought of some sort of craft but then I thought the shells might just sit around forever before that happened. I really wanted to do something with them right away so they wouldn't just gather dust. I decided to look for a vase/jar or two and figure out how to display them that way. When we were out yesterday we found two really great vases (I think they're meant for candles actually) at a bargain type store - so they were cheap. I bought some glass pebbles and some marbles then set to work trying to divide the shells evenly and have them displayed nicely (sure you want it to look random but you don't want it to look like the shells were just dumped in).

It took me a few tries to get the arrangement right and after filling both of them once, I dumped them out and tried it again since there was quite a bit of a gap at the top (there's cardboard in the middle!). There is still a bit of a gap but I'm happy with it for now. We also bought a circular metal candle holder thing (the kind that has the spike on it for you to put a larger candle on) and put that at the top and five tealights fit on it. I might adjust the cardboard tubes in the middle and have it so the shells go right to the top without the candles, we'll see.

I really love these and it will be something nice to keep around and to be able to say that all the shells in the two jars are Glen's grandpa's. I really wanted to make sure we only used his shells especially since there are some unusual ones in there (basically ones I've only ever seen in mixes you buy at craft stores). I really love these vases (they have such a great shape!) and I'm thinking we should go back and buy more of them for all sorts of things!

Temperature: +9C
Sunrise: 7:35am
Sunset: 5:16pm

A Little Taste of Home

2010-07-04T10:51:00.007+10:00

There's something great about figuring out how to make a favourite food when the way you usually make it isn't available. Now I can't claim that I worked it out all by myself, I got some help from a friend back home who's parents have moved back to Australia after spending 20ish years in Canada.

Pumpkin pie, mmm! It's not homemade pumpkin pie unless it has stab marks in the middle!

Now, normally most people would buy a can of pumpkin pie mix, frozen pie shells and call it a day (despite the suggestions on the can of pumpkin I ALWAYS added spices, eggs and condensed milk). First of all, canned pumpkin doesn't even exist here. Pumpkin (or what we would call squash in Canada) here is mainly a dinner food that is either roasted, steamed or made into soup. It's generally not made into dessert. Secondly, big orange sugar pumpkins (the kind we make into jack-o-lanterns) don't exist here either. There's all sorts of different varieties beyond butternut, spaghetti and acorn (which I haven't seen here). There's Queensland Blue, Jarrahdale and Kent just to name three (I think those are the three major ones). To top all of that off, frozen pie shells don't exist either (and neither does tenderflake). Frozen pastry comes in sheets. I had to use two sheets for each pie and then fiddle with them and cut them so they fit. Another thing to make this even more interesting, it seems traditional pie pans are hard to find and people have tart pans instead (sloping sides vs straight sides).

So, I had been brainstorming pumpkin pie methods for a few days and finally posted on Facebook that I had been craving pumpkin pie and wasn't sure how to go about making it from scratch. Turns out it was a good idea for me to do that since my friend chimed in with a wealth of information from her mum. Made my search for ingredients a billion times easier and saved me a bit of heartache because I was planning on using butternut squash when a Queensland Blue or Jarrahdale pumpkin is better suited.

So, I sourced all my ingredients and set to work. I baked my giant chunks of pumpkin in the oven on a cookie sheet. I put a loaf pan of water in between the two chunks and covered the whole thing in foil and just baked the pumpkin till it was soft.
Queensland blue pumpkin is a great, dense pumpkin and isn't stringy or watery. Definitely perfect for pies. So after I scooped it all out of the shell, I let it cool and then blended it up with the rest of the ingredients. Simple as that, there was nothing complicated or scary with doing it that way - sure it took longer than just cracking open a can but you don't miss canned pumpkin at all (I mean, if anything the pie tastes better).

The pastry was a little fiddly and if I had more counter space and a rolling pin I would have made my own pastry. I'm not too thrilled with the frozen sheets and they turn out a little hard when they're baked (also, they're not as sweet as ones from home which is typical for a lot of things - Australian's don't like things as sweet as we do).

After letting the pie sit in the fridge overnight (pumpkin pie is 200% improved by sitting overnight in the fridge), I had the first piece this morning and it was the perfect breakfast mmm! I'm pretty well known for eating "weird" things for breakfast (ie: non breakfast foods) but really, there's nothing better (especially after thanksgiving) than a piece of leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast mmmm!

I'm so happy I was able to recreate this little piece of home. I'm taking one of the pies to our regular Sunday family dinner tonight. We'll see what everyone else thinks!

Temperature: +10C
Sunrise: 7:36am
Sunset: 5:13pm

Faces in my food

2010-07-01T08:49:00.000+10:00

There's a brand of cereal that we buy all the time and I don't know if we got a funny box or something but there seems to be an over-abundance of deformed pieces. This isn't like Alpha-Bits where you get a few pointless or deformed letters or even like Lucky Charms where your clover may be missing a leaf. The deformed pieces of this cereal more often or not are little faces.

See?! haha How weird is that? (you can see a normal piece near the bottom of the bowl). Look at all the different expressions! I'm really tempted to take out all the little pieces and do a stop animation project or something.

Would you find it hard to eat a bowl of cereal with little faces in it?

Temperature: +7C
Sunrise: 7:36am
Sunset: 5:11pm

Little Difference #4

2010-06-25T09:26:00.000+10:00

Cheese

It seems there is only one type of cheese here "Tasty Cheese". Australians like their cheese old and sharp. Cheddar cheese here is white instead of orange/yellow* and my favourite type of cheese - marble - doesn't exist. Finding a mild cheddar cheese is pretty difficult and it seems like "harder" block mozza doesn't exist either (which is fine because I prefer softer mozza even though it's tough to grate).
It's weird to go to the store to look for cheddar and then get to the shelf and realise that all the cheese virtually looks the same - white/cream. I've spent many a grocery trips standing in the dairy aisle trying to find the cheese I'm after.

*this cheese isn't specifically labelled as "white cheddar" it's just understood that it's cheddar since other colours don't exist or aren't popular.

It's only in writing this post that I've learned that "Tasty Cheese" just isn't an Australian thing - it's an actual term to describe the age of the cheese (like mild, medium, strong, sharp, extra sharp, mature, old, or vintage, --- tasty falls between strong & sharp. At home I usually bought mild. I'd only get medium if that's the only thing the store had). It kind of cracks me up that the term is "tasty" and most packages have "tasty" in massive letters on the front. I always thought "you silly Australians, you don't have to tell me cheese is yummy!".

Any kind of pre-packaged thing (like side kicks type noodle dishes) that have cheese in it taste different because of the type of cheese that's used. Something I didn't really think about until I bought a package of noodles & cheese, made it and found that it tasted like stinky feet. Kraft dinner isn't popular here either. I bought a box once and again, it tasted weird. They have "EasyMac" but you cook it in the microwave, not on the stove.

I've also found that the "Christmas Cheese" phenomenon only exists at home. "Christmas cheese" is the cheese you buy around Christmas time for cheese platters. It ALWAYS seems to taste better (soft and mild).

I think it goes without saying that most varieties of processed cheese don't exist here or aren't popular. Most people put block cheese on their sandwiches rather than processed slices and I haven't seen cheese whiz or spray cheese anywhere (I bought a jar of "cheese spread" thinking it might be cheese whiz-y but it wasn't).

Temperature: +13C
Sunrise: 7:36am
Sunset: 5:09pm

More adventures in eating weird fruit

2010-06-19T08:46:00.000+10:00

Don't worry, this one didn't come from the sidewalk! While we were at the grocery store the other day I saw a basket of mangosteens and thought for $1.98/ea we'd give them a try!

The outside is a lot like a pomegranate but there's a thick flesh between the outside and the fruit inside (almost like the white stuff on really fresh grapefruit). It was actually a little tricky to cut it so that I got the outside off but didn't cut into the fruit.
The fruit itself is slippery and is kind of like a peeled grape. It tastes kind of... like eating a Johnny Pop-up. It has a slightly sweet fruit-ish taste but when I ate one this morning I couldn't help but think it tasted sort of like eating pop-ups. I think it would make a nice addition to a fruit salad though - a lot easier than trying to take the membrane off oranges (for reference the fruit itself is about the size of a Christmas orange - maybe a touch smaller).

So that's another one off the imaginary list of weird fruit to try!

Temperature: +10C
Sunrise: 7:35am
Sunset: 5:08pm

A Bit of Knitting

2010-06-12T11:04:00.005+10:00

I know I haven't done a lot of posts on knitting and there are a few reasons for it. My craft stuff is still in boxes - I have easy access to it all but it's a royal pain in the arse to dig everything out. I haven't really been in the mood to knit - I spend a lot of time thinking of what I want to knit and planning new projects but a lot of things don't get out of the planning stage. The most recent thing is that my hands have been really cold. I've figured out how to wrap my blanket(s) around me to cover my hands so I can use the computer but I haven't quite worked out something that works with holding knitting needles and yarn. I WAS working in a pair of fingerless mitts but the first one turned out too big so I have to rip it back.

Since it's been so cold, I've been working on (and planning) a series of slippers. I'm planning to make my own basket of "house shoes" for guests when they come over. This is something I first learned about in Germany. The concept of slippers (obviously) isn't new but the concept of having a basket of slippers by the door for guests is. Basically, in a lot of houses, you only heat the room you are in (each room has a radiator or separate thermostat) which makes the rest of the house pretty chilly so guests are offered slippers to keep their feet warm. I've always thought this was a cool idea and even toyed with the idea of buying a house shoe basket when I was in Germany. Here are some examples of a typical basket I found when I did a quick search - 1, 2, 3, 4.
Anyway, so because our apartment is chilly and I'm finding myself 1. wearing my slippers A LOT more than usual and 2. taking a pair of slippers when I go to visit family (like my grandmother does!) and 3. We're a shoes off house (which is not common here) I figured it's a good time to make a basket (it might encourage people to take their shoes off). This is an idea I've been carrying around with me for 8 years!

Firs thing is first though, I had to knit Glen a pair of slippers. He's been asking for a pair for a while. I was working on a thrummed pair but the first one turned out too small. I was going to make a pair of felted clogs but I think the felting part might be difficult. Our hot water tank is TINY and just filling up the washing machine on warm empties it. So I searched and found a pattern that looked quick, easy and most importantly warm. -Click- (ravelry link -- the website the pattern is on is only in PDF - I can link to that if anyone is interested).

I used sized 9 needles and Lion Brand Wool-Ease that's been languishing in my stash since 2006. I wanted a nice thick slipper that would be warm so this seems to fit the bill. I sewed some thick felt onto the bottom so that they'll last longer AND it helps with not being able to feel the seam on the bottom. I think I sewed the bottom seam on the first slipper about 5 times before giving up - no matter how I sewed it, you could feel it.
I encourage people to go to Rav to look at the pattern because despite how my (poorly photographed) slipper looks, they're really cute. I couldn't be bothered stuffing the slippers and posing them nicely. These slippers and definitely a candidate for my house shoe basket - I might actually make a few different kinds of slippers just to keep things interesting.

(and yes, I still haven't finished my February Lady Sweater...)

Temperature: +11C
Sunrise: 7:32am
Sunset: 5:07pm

Little Difference #3

2010-06-10T11:02:00.007+10:00

Food

This little difference is about navigating around the grocery store and other situations when you might need to find, eat or talk about food.

A lot of common foods have different names here.

Tomato sauce = Ketuchup
Biscuit = Cracker & cookie
Dry Biscuit = Cracker
Soft drink = Pop
Mince = Ground Beef
Capsicum = Red/Green pepper
Chips = Fries or potato chips
Hot chips = Fries
Lollies = Candy
Chewy = gum
Lemonade = Sprite/7up/similar

Using the words you're used to is either seen as cute/weird/funny (ie: Pop) or as American (ie: Ketchup).
A lot of people won't do/say something if it's considered American - like hanging Christmas stockings, putting Christmas lights on your house outside, Halloween and using a word like ketchup. This is a bit frustrating because a lot of things I'm used to -as a Canadian- fall under the "acting like/doing something like an American" and we all know how much Canadians love being confused with Americans. While I can appreciate keeping a country's customs and traditions alive and well, I don't see people shunning tea drinking and driving on the left because it's "too British".

Because I'm not ready to start calling everything by their Australian names (ie: Tomato Sauce), the situation I'm in will dictate what word I use. First of all, you're "outed" immediately at the grocery store/similar if you ask for ketchup and secondly I've been in situations where people just don't understand (or pretend not to understand) when you ask for something like green pepper. (Last week I had a girl at Subway repeat "Capsicum?" to me about five times -after I'd said green pepper- until I finally gave up and said capsicum.)
I'm sure in time I'll just be calling things by the Australian names and it will come naturally instead of feeling like an impostor when I ask for "chips".

There's also the issue of navigating the whole range of NEW foods. Things like lamingtons, pavlova, the incredible range of fruit, different kinds of cookies, crackers, flavours of pop, and candy. It's fun to go to the store and try different flavours of things you're used to (like Musk Lifesavers) or different flavours of hard candy (like Barley Sugar).

Finally, there's the issue of familiar products tasting completely different or not existing at all. Most people eat spicy mustard (the mustard I'm used to is labelled as "American Mustard"), mayo tastes different - kind of spicy, pasta sauce has a different more tomato/tinny taste, 2 minute noodles taste different, canned soup flavours are different, cheese is different (I could write a whole post on cheese).
When I get homesick, I crave food from home. It's a bit disappointing to buy say, a jar of pasta sauce only to have it taste COMPLETELY different to what you're expecting. Creamy type salad dressings (namely Ranch) and things made with cheese (kraft dinner) taste completely different. The only place I know of to buy Rice-a-Roni is in an American shop on the other side of the city and a box is probably too expensive for it to become a regular menu item.

Temperature: +12C (feels like: +10C)
Sunrise: 7:31am
Sunset: 5:07pm

Little Difference #2

2010-06-02T18:01:00.006+10:00

The Toilet is in a Separate Room

Most houses and apartments in Australia have the toilet in a separate room from the bathtub/shower and sink (some bathrooms even have a tub AND a stand-up shower!). I'd like to say it's not very common for the toilet to be in the same room as everything else but there's of course exceptions (Glen's brother's apartment is one exception). At home the opposite is true even though more new homes are building "powder rooms" there will usually be another full bathroom somewhere else in the house.

It takes a bit of getting used to not being able to complete 100% of your bathroom needs in one room. Going to a different room to wash my hands just seems weird.

Here is a picture of our toilet room and the bathroom right beside.

Another thing that is taking me a while to get used to is the fact that this little room is literally called "the toilet" and people talk of "having to go to the toilet". Glen thinks I'm crazy but I find all this talk of the toilet (and having to use it) a little rude and maybe a bit too direct. We were taught that we were to ask for "the washroom/restroom" in formal/public situations and the term "the bathroom" was used in less formal occasions. My mum denies this but I distinctly remember her talking to me before I went to school about making sure I asked for the "washroom" and not the "bathroom".

I don't know if I'm 100% sold on the whole idea of the toilet being in a separate room... I can see having a separate toilet room if you already have a full bathroom (toilet included) OR having a toilet room with a sink would also be not too bad. And because I'm having troubles with this whole calling that room the toilet, I've been calling it the "toilet room" which cracks Glen up (calling it the washroom/restroom just gets you strange looks).

Temperature: +13C
Sunrise: 7:27am
Sunset: 5:09pm

Little Differences

2010-05-22T09:45:00.007+10:00

I read a few expat blogs and one blogger specifically does a segment on the little differences between her home country (US) and her new country (Luxembourg). I find this sort of thing endlessly fascinating and have been toying with the idea of doing the same sort of thing.

So in an effort to blog more often, I'm going to occasionally blog about the little differences between Canada and Australia. The thing I keep telling everyone here is that Canada and Australia are actually quite similar BUT there are a few things that pop up occasionally that take me off guard. It's like you'll be cruising along in your daily life doing things how you always do them and then *BAM* something will be completely opposite to what you're expecting. So some of these differences are going to be pretty obvious (ie: driving on the other side of the road) and not so obvious.
I'm not going to present them in any specific order. It's basically going to be as I think about them/photograph them. So without further ado, I present to you:

Little Difference #1:

Most Houses Don't Have Central Heating

(This is something I mentioned in this post so it's a bit of a repeat.)

In an effort to conserve energy it's getting more popular for people in North America not to turn their furnaces on in the autumn until absolutely necessary and then turn it off at the first possible moment come spring. Not having a warm, cosy house in the spring/autumn/winter is the reality for most people here. It seems that only new houses are built with central heating and even then it seems kind of optional. Growing up in Canada and spending the last 6.5 years in the Arctic, not having a furnace just wasn't an option. Not only would it be extremely uncomfortable, it would be downright dangerous (and expensive once your pipes freeze and burst). A lot of time, energy and money goes into keeping our houses warm in North America.
For a lot of people at home, when they're cold, they go and turn the thermostat up. Here, you make a cup of tea or put on (another) sweater.

Glen's parents have a gas radiator type thing in the living room and otherwise, they rely on a space heater (and heat lamps in the bathroom) to take the chill off. Glen's sister has a wood fireplace and in-floor heating that they rarely turn on (it's expensive and takes a long time to really heat up).
We have space heaters and possibly in-floor heating (we have a thermostat on the wall but no vents or radiators... We have no idea what it controls so we haven't bothered checking - also, in-floor heating is expensive).

Our new heater. The only thing standing between me wearing a toque, scarf and mittens in the house.

We've been using a small portable heater in the evenings that didn't really do a great job heating a room the size of our living room - we basically set it up and then sat close to it. We have a portable radiator that doesn't do a very good job either (it makes great heat but doesn't move the heat around so you only have a two foot radius of heat around the thing). After Glen spent the day home by himself (I was working) I think he realised that the two heaters we had weren't adequate and brought home this beauty from work. One of the major pluses of this thing is that it oscillates so not only is it blowing air out towards you, it's blowing air in different directions and circulating it a bit. We've noticed a HUGE difference in the evenings (I'm still drinking multiple cups of tea, wearing sweaters, slippers and watching TV under a blanket BUT I'm not so cold I hurt).
Another thing that's helped is closing the doors to the bathroom/toilet/bedrooms/hallway so we're only really heating up the living room. I'm thinking about getting a tension bar and a set of curtains to hang over the arched doorway that connects the living room to the hallway/kitchen/laundry room.

This whole heating one room at a time/preserving heat is a concept I'm familiar with but never had to put into practice. It's also a bit of an adjustment to waking up to a cold house/showering in a chilly bathroom/etc.

Temperature: +9C
Sunrise: 7:19am
Sunset: 5:14pm

Things you find on your sidewalk...

2010-05-14T16:25:00.005+10:00

Now this could be a variety of mostly unpleasant things but I'm happy to report that I've found something quite awesome sitting on the sidewalk that runs down the side of our building (one way leads to the street, the other way to the carport and in the middle is the door to the building).

It's a Feijoa (or Pineapple Guava/Guavasteen). I've never seen one of these before in my life so imagine my surprise one night when we were walking towards our door and we found a few of these on the sidewalk. Normally I wouldn't pick up random things and bring them in but this looked pretty interesting. I cut it open and smelled it and it smelled pretty good so I set out to figure out what it was before I sampled it (I'm living in a pretty crazy country and it wouldn't have surprised me if I found something poisonous). I called Glen's parents and they had no idea but Google came through for me when I searched for "green skinned fruit" and then looked through pictures until I found something that resembled what I had (I also posted on Facebook and a forum). After a few "It's a Feijoa/Pineapple Guava/Guavasteen!" answers I was reasonably assured and ate some. They are delicious! Sort of like a cross between a concord grape, pear and kiwi. (I'd also like to say I think I'm solidifying myself as the family weirdo with my in-laws. They thought it was HILARIOUS that I'd pick some random fruit off the ground, bring it in, cut it open, decide what it was and eat it. In one way they were surprised and in another... They weren't so much haha).

So since I found the first one, every few days there seems to be a few more on the ground (no idea if other people are picking these up or not) so I've been bringing them in when I find them. I took a few over to Glen's sister's last weekend too.

I find it absolutely insane that something like this is just growing outside our door! There's other examples of random exotic fruit growing around here (back home you were hard pressed to grow anything besides crab apples and choke cherries). I'm devising a plan to get a few of the pomegranates from the tree around the corner (which means I'm working up the courage to knock on their door). Pomegranates!

Temperature: +13C
Sunrise: 7:12am
Sunset: 5:20pm

Day Tripper

2010-05-02T09:38:00.006+10:00

Glen had the day off yesterday so we decided to do a day trip that we've been meaning to go on for a few months now. All the moving and going to IKEA and then Glen getting sick (sinus AND chest infection - yuck!) had kind of stopped us from doing any random day trips/exploring. We've been eying the You Yangs for a while now so we decided to make a day of it and make a stop at the Brisbane Ranges as well.

So we got to the You Yangs around 11am and picked the hike we were going to go on. They were all pretty decent in length (between 3 and 5km) so we decided to pick the one that sounded the least challenging (it was one of the longer ones at 4.5km). Usually the words "gentle loop walk with medium graidents" means that it has some ups and downs but is for the most part flat or slightly undulating. Um. No. I wish I would've taken pictures because it was pretty ridiculous and more like mountain climbing in some spots. The shortest walk was 450 steps to the top of the peak and after climbing 50 of them to start our walk, we knew there was NO way we could do 400 more. INSANE. So we walked/climbed for 45 minutes before turning around and going back. We figured that we had only gotten about a quarter of the way around and we were pretty exhausted.

Once we got back to the car we stopped for some lunch (we picked up Subway before heading out then we packed other snacks and water). On our way out of the park we stopped and took some pictures of the incredible view.

That's Melbourne in the distance - 56km away. I don't know what it is but there's something about the skyline that I love. You can see the city from so many different view points. I've never lived anywhere where you could see the same thing from everywhere. Often when we're driving around, we'll come around a corner and suddenly the skyline will come into view, it's kind of neat.

So, on our way out of the park Glen spotted a Kookaburra so I hopped out of the car and took a few pictures. It's probably the closest I've ever gotten to one. They're SO fluffy!

We made our way to the Brisbane Ranges and I have to say, for a National Park it was SO hard to find! There were hardly any signs and then when we finally saw a sign it was pointing left and right. So we turned right (since we had to travel in that general direction to get home anyway) and could NOT find an entry to the park. We drove around for ages before we turned around and made our way back to the sign then went the other way. We finally found some signs hidden by trees and bushes so we drove in. There were little posts showing where the trails were but there was pretty much no parking. You had to pull of the side of the road and then go for your walk. So we picked a trail (with the promising name "Koala Track") and started out. The trail was more like an old logging road and there wasn't any wildlife - not even birds! So we turned around, got back in the car and came home. I was actually the most excited about the Brisbane Ranges since it seemed to have the most promise for viewing animals.

I'd definitely go back to the You Yangs and explore some of the other areas of the park but I don't think the Brisbane Ranges is the top of my list to take other people to (we're compiling a mental list of cool places to take friends and family when/if they visit).

So after all of that,we drove home and since I had my camera with me, I got to take a picture of one of our favourite views of the city.

This is the view you see once you turn off the freeway and start heading towards home - it's like the "home stretch". We're approx. 10km away from the city centre.

Temperature: +17C
Sunrise: 7:02am
Sunset: 5:32pm

Cold Weather & Comfort Food

2010-04-28T20:38:00.006+10:00

As much as I love summer, I think all the time in the Arctic has made me appreciate the more temperate days where the sun is out yet there's still a bit of a chill in the air. It's probably because days like that - especially in the autumn - were few and far between. In the Arctic we transitioned rapidly from summer to cold and rainy then most years we were quickly thrust into winter with only a day or two of real autumn weather. Those sunny, cool, autumn days in the Arctic were fabulous.
Light quality is something I think about a lot and something that brings back memories of being in certain places. I had an appointment this morning and while walking to the tram at 8:15am I was struck with how much I was reminded of living in Victoria the autumn after I graduated from high school and walking to work in the early morning. The light quality, the coolness in the air, all those sorts of things. It was kind of comforting and familiar. So, it's April and feels very much like September. Weird.
Most evenings when we leave work there's one or two people that immediately comment on how cold it is and I'm always thinking "yeah, it's cold but it's NICE!". The air is fresh and it feels like you can finally breathe again after the stifling heat of the summer.

One of the quirky things about our apartment (and a lot of Australian homes) is that furnaces/ducted heating is a bit of a rare thing. A lot of places have a gas fireplace type thing in the livingroom and then people get by with space heaters in other rooms. The one positive about this is the fact that your gas/electricity bills would be a fraction of what they are in North America (ignoring that you counteract a bit of that if you have A/C). One of the negatives about this is the fact that if it's cold outside you can be reasonably assured that it's cold inside too.
Thankfully, despite my love of all things summer, I love tea, soup, stews and warm, comforting food. Those also happen to be some of my favourite foods to cook.
Glen happens to not really enjoy hot drinks or soup (unless it's of the 2-minute noodle or cup-a-soup variety) so when I'm really craving soup I either have to make two meals or we have to compromise. I generally don't mind cooking something else but I love when I can find something warm and comforting that we both enjoy.

We seem to have hit a winner with risotto. I made it a few times before we came to Australia despite not being able to get arborio rice and knew it was something I could make without a lot of fuss. I've been thinking of making it for a while now and then last weekend I had an amazing risotto at a hotel/pub in the city. I've been craving it since! Risotto has been my go-to menu food here in Australia if there's nothing else I can see on the menu (especially when I want warm food). I've had some pretty terrible ones and then there's been some pretty awesome ones. The worst one had some weird tangy tomato/pasta sauce mixed in. It was so disappointing.

I decided to make a mushroom risotto (swiss brown/cremini and white button) because Glen loves all things mushroom and I've been slowly transitioning into eating more of them (loved them as a kid then suddenly decided I hated them for most of my life and now I've started enjoying them again).
Glen loved the risotto so much yesterday that he eagerly agreed to have it again tonight. I made a few minor adjustments and I have to say that it turned out pretty darn awesome. I'm happy that this is a dish that will likely be in heavy rotation this winter.

Temperature: +15C
Sunrise: 6:58am
Sunset: 5:37pm

I don't think they got the memo...

2010-04-17T11:51:00.006+10:00

As seen at the top of my e-mail today (click to enlarge):

This kind of cracks me up and makes me a little homesick. It's like yahoo is telling me to go home! haha
It's kind of funny that ad showed up because at work on Thursday, some people were printing photos of their trip to Victoria (BC). It was weird to see because a lot of their pictures were of places we either visited/specifically took photos of/specifically noticed (like the giant Commonwealth Games plaque at the Inner Harbour) or they were places I visited/walked past when I lived there. (it's not like I flicked through their photos but if you're standing at the machine when they come out, you happen to see them).

I've managed to knit HALF a row on my sweater since I posted. I'm planning to do a bit more today since I don't have much else to do at the moment (I COULD do the dishes but I'll leave that for a while longer).

Here's another photo of our livingroom now that the TV is in place and there's not so much stuff all over.

It's weird to have so much space. Our livingroom back home was SO cramped. We had Glen's youngest nephew over for a few hours yesterday and we pushed the coffee table up against the bookshelves so he could run around. He had a lot of fun bouncing a rubber ball around the room (and was surprisingly uninterested in all the colourful things on the shelves).

We went to the footy with work last weekend. I had a lot of fun. The atmosphere was CRAZY. There were 71,000 people there (yes, really) and it was SO loud. It's by far the biggest (attendance wise) game I've ever been to.

I don't really follow either of the two teams that we went to see so I got to spend more time people watching - and let me tell you, there were some real characters out there.

There was one guy (pictured above in the striped toque) that was SO into the game and spent a lot of the match on his feet yelling & screaming at the players/umpires. At one point he didn't think he was being heard so he ran down to the front of the boards (when I took the picture) and started yelling from there. haha he was pretty intense. We also had the interesting experience of sitting behind the goals so we had to watch out when the teams kicked the ball (and when people in the crowd thew the ball back).
I went to a Bulldogs game the next day but didn't get any pictures because the bag checker/security woman told me that they'd take my camera away if I had it out... booo... It's not like I even had my (crappy in low light) zoom lens on. I had my 50mm lens which is no better than I regular lens - it doesn't even have zoom. I tried to explain this to the woman but didn't want to push my luck. Apparently only point and shoot cameras are allowed even though my point and shoot camera would've zoomed more AND can take video (which isn't allowed). I suppose I could've taken my camera out once we got to our seats but oh well...

Temperature: +26C
Sunrise: 6:48am
Sunset: 5:51pm

Finally getting around to it...

2010-04-08T17:09:00.005+10:00

Posting pictures of my knitting that is!

So I've been working on the February Lady Sweater. I SHOULD be done by now but moving into our place and being sick on and off for the last month has put a damper on my knitting time.

I think I'm about 1/2 way through the body, maybe a little bit more. Before it went into hibernation, I was really enjoying it because as complicated as it looks, the pattern is easy to memorize AND I can easily read my stitches if I happen to make a mistake (so I can easily tell what row/etc I'm on). I'm not too thrilled with the colour though. We'll see how it looks once it's finished but I'm seriously considering over-dyeing it. I did a few button holes at the top but I'm not too pleased with those either so I might to a button/snap thing... We'll see on that too.

We've made a few trips to IKEA as Glen's schedule has allowed (which I've been enjoying since I LOVE IKEA, Glen not so much) We might be adding another short bookcase in the middle but we'll see about that (kind of depends on whether or not we get a bigger TV).

Things are still pretty messy since I just managed to rearrange everything today. The TV isn't where it's staying, I'm waiting for Glen to get home from work with a longer cable. It's nice to see all my stuff again (or well some of my stuff!). The apartment was smelling strongly of smoked moose hide until I was able to open some windows today.
It's at least looking a little more put together than it was even yesterday!

The clocks were set back an hour last weekend so it's getting dark fairly early and it's starting to get cooler during the day.

Temperature: +19C
Sunrise: 6:40am
Sunset: 6:04pm

Back from the dark ages!

2010-03-17T15:05:00.003+11:00

And by that I mean not having internet!

We're pretty much all moved in to our new place and are slowly getting things hooked up. We borrowed Glen's parent's internet stick thing to use while we saved up enough money to get the internet hooked up properly. This might've lasted a little longer if the internet stick didn't COMPLETELY suck. After about a week I was ready to run it over with the car. The thing was SO slow and unreliable. You pretty much had to stand on your head and hum the hokey-pokey backwards for it to even think of connecting. So yeah, blogging was completely out of the question and so was pretty much most internet browsing.
I think it just might be the area we're in because the stick thing worked fine at Glen's parent's.

So, we've been slowly setting in to life in our own place again, getting used to the neighbourhood and all that sort of thing. We're not totally unpacked yet (minus all the stuff we use on a regular basis). Tomorrow we're going to IKEA to pick up some bookshelves so we can unpack a bit more and at least make the livingroom look decent. We bought a 3-seater couch and two recliner chairs (package deal) a week ago and they were delivered this past Saturday. It's AWESOME to have furniture! (also, first couch/etc that is actually my own and not someone's hand-me-downs that were left in the apartment when they moved).
They have a lot of free-to-air channels here so we don't need to pay for cable TV. AWESOME. In Inuvik you were lucky if you got a fuzzy B&W CBC. (I think we have 22 digital channels but some of them are repeats.)

So besides all that, I've started working at Glen's work on Mondays in their photo centre/cashiering. I'm going to be looking for something on top of that (obviously) but it's nice to have that little bit of extra money coming in (something crazy - casuals get paid WAY more than full time staff - sucks that I'm casual but yay for getting paid a decent amount of money!).

We went to the footy last weekend too and had an AWESOME time. It was the first time that the team Glen follows has been in a final in YEARS (as in Glen has never seen them in a final) and they WON! Woo! It was great! We had a great time screaming/yelling/cheering (Glen lost his voice and I almost did too!). Ahhh so fun.

And yeah! Once we get a bit more done in the house I'll post some more pictures. I've been wanting to post an update for WEEKS now (even just to say our internet sucked) but the site just would NOT load.

Temperature: +29C
Sunrise: 7:20am
Sunset: 7:37pm

More Sports

2010-02-27T13:28:00.004+11:00

We went to our first footy game of the season last night (Bulldogs vs Hawks). It's still just the pre-season but we figured we may as well go (Glen's favourite team was playing his BIL's favourite team so we went with Glen's sister & her family).

There were 17,222 people there.

AFL is THE thing here and most people have a team they say they support even if they aren't really into it (there are of course people that hate it or don't follow it at but it's pretty rare - at least around this family!). There's no way I could explain it properly so here's a quote from answers.com explaining it:

"Variety of football played between two teams of 18 players. The field is oval, 145 – 200 yd (135 – 185 m) long, with four goalposts at each end. A six-point goal is scored when the oval ball is kicked through the two central goalposts. A one-point "behind" is scored when the ball is kicked over the behind line extending between the central and outer goalposts. The game's finest spectacle is the "mark" in which competing players leap, sometimes riding on the back of an opponent, in order to catch the ball directly from the kick of another player. The player making such a catch is awarded a mark, an unhindered kick from behind the spot of the catch."

If that intrigues you, you can read more here . If you think Canadians are passionate about their hockey, Australians (especially Melburnians) are even more passionate about their football (and it can kind of be scary to be sitting around some of those people at the game... A lot of them yell abuse at various players which can be amusing until they start yelling their abuse at you because of the team you support).

3/4 time strategy meeting.

Depending on what Glen's work schedule is like, we'll be going to as many games as we can this season. Should be fun.

And if you're curious the team we support won (yay!).

Temperature: +17C
Sunrise: 7:02am
Sunset: 8:03pm

Good News!

2010-02-25T12:06:00.005+11:00

We got the apartment!

I got a phone call from the real estate company on Tuesday saying that they were reviewing our application and we'd hear back that afternoon or the earliest, the next morning. Well the girl called back a few hours later saying that we had been approved! (how efficient! The last place took AGES to contact us and then SMS'd us to say that our application had been unsuccessful. Which I thought was terrible and impersonal).

We arranged to go for a second viewing since Glen was working when I went and looked at the place. There was INSANE traffic and I was REALLY sick yesterday but we made it (late). Thankfully the girl was able to wait for us. Glen had a look around, asked a few questions, I took a few pictures and we agreed we'd take it. I'm going in tomorrow to sign the lease (and pay the damage deposit and first month's rent) and then we get the keys! It all seems pretty simple and straight forward (compared to the application and waiting process which was STRESSFUL).
Glen has Monday AND Tuesday off so we'll be able to start seriously taking stuff over.

The two bedrooms (We're thinking the first one will be the main bedroom - the closet is bigger)

The kitchen. Super funky tile but I love it.

Livingroom and laundry room

Looking down the hall (from the bedrooms/bathroom) towards the livingroom/kitchen/laundroom and the front door.

Glen's commute to work is going to be a little bit longer but we're close to the train station now and won't have to worry about parking (finding a space or paying) if we want to go into the city. We'll also be in a better area for me to find a job (which is next on the list).

I'm looking forward to getting my things unpacked!!!

Temperature: +21C
Sunrise: 7:00am
Sunset: 8:06pm

Two week sporting events = life suck.

2010-02-23T12:48:00.003+11:00

The past month has been taken up by watching A LOT of sports. First the tennis was on (Australian Open) and now the Olympics and pretty soon the footy will start (we're actually going to a pre-season game on Friday).
We ordered a special package through the cable company and have AWESOME coverage (they're really promoting the winter Olympics over here. A few years ago I doubt we would've gotten more than a highlight reel during the evening news).

Other than that, we've been looking at apartments/houses and just sort of hanging out. The weather is slowly starting to cool down and we're having more days of weather in the mid 20s (Celsius) rather than in the 30s. I'm sure we're in for a few more days of heat (it got pretty hot when we were here in March/April 2007) but I think the "worst" is over.

Glen's dad found a praying mantis is the flowers the other day and brought it in to show us (Glen's niece and nephew were here too). I've never seen one before so it was pretty cool.

So yeah! Life is just sort of chugging along as much as it can. Hopefully I'll have some exciting news about our first place soon (waiting to hear back about a place we applied for yesterday).

Temperature: +20C
Sunrise: 6:58am
Sunset: 8:09pm

Continuing to be Impressed!

2010-01-22T19:11:00.005+11:00

There are a lot of things I love about living here. One of the (many) things is the plant life. I could do posts upon posts about the crazy and insane plants here or how on a hot day the air smells like eucalyptus. But because I don't have a lot of photos showing you all the various plants that have left me going "WOW!" I thought I'd post about the flower I'm currently loving. I have no idea what it's called but I've been staring at it all day since it's right outside the living room window and birds keep coming by (the New Holland Honeyeater specifically --- trying to get a picture but they're shy).

How can you not love something that looks like this?

I really need to spend more time with my 50mm attached to my camera and I need to spend a bit more time with it attached backwards on my camera.

I was just thinking a while ago about how in about 4 weeks my amount of time spent in Australia will have equaled the amount of time I spent in Germany. I've also been thinking about how not homesick I am (which is the complete opposite of how I was in Germany - picture me crying to my mum every week in the phone booth, begging for her to buy me a plane ticket so I could go home -- she didn't). This experience over here is SO different to what my time in Germany was like. I'm doing a lot less than I was in Germany so you'd think I'd be bored or lonely. Nope. I'm SO happy that this experience is turning out differently (at least as far as my sanity is concerned!).

Anyway, I'm still sick but I'm starting to feel a bit better. We had Glen's brother and his brother's fiancee over for dinner last night and had a lot of fun. I've been watching a ridiculous amount of tennis (coverage starts at 11am and goes until 5 then there's an hour break and then it goes until late depending on how the matches go) and that has pretty much been the week!

Temperature: +35C
Sunrise: 6:22am
Sunset: 8:41pm

The Australian Open

2010-01-19T11:01:00.006+11:00

Yesterday Glen and I went went to Day 1 of the Australian Open. We bought tickets to Rod Laver Arena (centre court) ages ago. We had no idea who we'd be seeing since they don't release the schedule until a day or two before but we figured we'd take our chances. We got to see Maria Sharapova (vs Maria Kirilenko) , Kim Clijsters (vs Valerie Tetreault - a Canadian!) and Andy Murray (vs Kevin Anderson).

I've been watching the Australian Open on TV for quite a few years now so it was interesting to be there watching it live. Because of the crappy weather yesterday the roof was closed and it felt like we were watching a night match.

Players warming up.

First up was Maria Sharapova and Maria Kirilenko. It turned out to be a really good - LONG - match. Kirilenko ended up winning (7-6, 3-6, 6-4) which kind of surprised us. Sharapova didn't seem very comfortable the whole time.

Since that match went on for so long, there wasn't much of a break before the Clijsters match started. It was just a bonus that we managed to see a match with a Canadian (since like I said, when we booked the tickets we had no idea who we'd see). We have six females playing singles matches and I've only ever heard of two of them - Tetreault wasn't one of them. Despite that, I still took my Canadian flag and waved it (the only one there!). We were getting a bit discouraged when Tetreault lost the first set 6-0 but she came back in the second and managed a 4-6 loss. So if anyone happened to see that match and saw a Canadian flag, that was us! I didn't really get any good pictures from this match since I was too busy holding the flag lol (the first picture in this post is from Clijsters and Tetreault warming up when we first got there.

After that was Andy Murray and Kevin Anderson. That match played out pretty similarly to the Clijsters match. Unfortunately Anderson didn't really get into it. Murray took the match 6-1, 6-1, 6-2. The funny thing about this match was that since Murray is Scottish, there were all sorts of Scots and Brits there cheering him on - with coordinated songs and outfits. There were four guys wearing shirts (one had an "A" the next an "N" etc) and they'd get up at the changes of ends and sing/chant. Quite amusing.

By the time that was all said and done, it was after 5pm (we got there at 9:30ish). We did a quick walk to some of the other courts and then decided to head back home when it started sprinkling. By the time we got to the tram stop, it was full-on pouring. We got DRENCHED because there were tonnes of people waiting for the tram and we had to miss two before we managed to squeeze on (we were close to not getting on that one as well!). While we were waiting, we were standing next to a guy with a huge golf umbrella and a tram came by, knocked the side of the umbrella and a massive amount of water from the top of his umbrella poured onto me. It was pretty funny - Glen was laughing and two ladies scolded him haha

Glen was just getting over a cold and while we were walking from the train to the car (about 4 blocks) I told Glen that I was pretty sure I'd be sick today and sure enough... I woke up with a cold. Thankfully I have wireless internet (thanks to Glen who figured out the password for his sister's network --- so I'm posting from bed! haha) and the tennis is on. My day is planned!

(P.S. Sorry to any tennis nuts if I messed up the whole game/set/match terminology. I think I got it all straightened out but I might not have. I drive Glen insane by saying "the game" instead of "the match"!!)

Temperature: +17C
Sunrise: 6:19am
Sunset: 8:42pm

Nothing like a little excitement...

2010-01-14T12:20:00.005+11:00

I got up this morning, pulled back the curtains in the bedroom and saw this:

(zoomed and cropped)

Yikes!!!! Actually, whatever it was scurried? slithered? back into the hole and we had to wait for about 20 minutes for it to poke it's head back out. The sound of me opening the curtains and yelling "GLEN!!!!!!!!!!" scared it away haha

So, we sat there and waited and it poked it's head out for a while... We tried to work out how concerned we should be lizard = no concern, snake = MAJOR concern. We rang Glen's dad who is thankfully quite knowledgeable about local wildlife. From our description he told us to call the local council and talk to a snake catcher and that he'd be right over.
Glen rang the snake catcher and they thought we had a lizard on our hands but would be over as soon as he could just to confirm.

As soon as Glen's dad got here knew knew what it was right away... A Blue-tongued skink. *phew* Almost as soon as Glen's dad got here the creature came out of the hole a little more and we saw legs. That's obviously all it took for us to be 100% confident about what it was. (we called the snake catcher back and told him not to worry about coming over).

Nothing like a little excitement to start your day!!

Temperature: +20C
Sunrise: 6:13am
Sunset: 8:44pm

2000-2009 Review

2010-01-04T10:00:00.000+11:00

A lot of blogs are doing their 2000-2009 review so I thought I'd do one of my own.

2000 - I was in grade 11. Went to England with school (band/choir trip).

2001 - Graduated from grade 12 and spent August - December in Victoria BC with my aunt and uncle.

2002 - In June I flew to Germany by myself and spent 40 days there with my stepdad while he did some teaching. Mum joined 10 days after I arrived and we flew home together. We also did a side trip to The Netherlands and got to swim in the North Sea.

Mum and I at a cafe in Germany.

In September I flew back to Germany to begin a study abroad program for the fall semester.

2003 - Arrived home from Germany in February and moved up to Inuvik in April. Lived on my own for the first time (not counting Germany - I had room mates then).

Down at the MacKenzie River it's approx. 11pm

2004 - Started talking to Glen online in March and by November we decided that we liked each other enough to want to meet.

2005 - Got braces.

2006 - Glen flew up to Inuvik in June. My brother and his girlfriend moved up to Inuvik in August.

2007 - Flew to Australia for the first time to be at Glen's sister's wedding. Gained 43lbs from medication (which I've yet to loose... This is the year!! Anyone that says that you'll loose the weight once you're off the meds is lying).

Glen and I at his sister's wedding.

2008 - Turned 25. Got my braces off. Lost my job then got it back again. We started compiling forms for my visa. Joined a sewing group and started playing hockey. Went dog sledding for the first time. Got diagnosed with Crohn's Disease.

2009 - Applied and was granted my Australian visa. Put my cat down. Packed and moved across the world.

It's exciting to be starting 2010 in a new country. When thinking back to this time last year, we weren't even sure if this was going to be possible. We seemed to have made it out the other side and things are looking good!
Let's hope 2010 is a great year!

When Life Hands You Apricots...

2010-01-02T14:36:00.005+11:00

Two days into the new year and I've already crossed off one thing on my "want to do" list. Actually I crossed it off before the new year so I guess I technically fit it in in 2009 but anyway...

I made jam! Real, honest to goodness, poured into hot jars and sealed, JAM!

Glen's parent's have an apricot tree in their driveway that I've been eying. They don't really do much with the apricots besides eat them straight from the tree (Glen's mum doesn't like to cook so adventurous things like jam are out of the question). I've been wanting to learn to can & make jam for a while now and was going to start in Inuvik. Needless to say the first 9-10 months of 2009 were insane and that never happened. When I left Inuvik I stayed with my mum's best friend and helped her make pickles. I mentioned to her how I wanted to learn to do that sort of thing and she gave me her spare copy of the Bernardin Guide to Home Preserving book. (Carol is a great enabler! lol). So after my pickle experience I've been itching to do jam.
I had a bit of a struggle finding jars but managed to find some people that sold them -nearby even! Picked two grocery bags full of apricots, laboured over recipes and techniques (and in the end decided to stick with the Bernardin long-boil method) and then got to work!

The recipe called for 1/4 of the fruit to be slightly under ripe which was perfect. I picked out all the fruit that was edible minus a bit or two that needed to be cut off and went to work (I managed to have enough imperfect looking fruit to do the jam and saved all the nicer ones for people to eat plain).
I stuck to the recipe minus hot processing the jars. I just turned them upside down for 5 minutes then flipped them back the right way and waited for the ping of the jars sealing. (very satisfying!!)
In all, I got 14 jars out of two batches (did the second batch the next day). I've given two jars away so far and I'm in the process of trying to find out if I can send some jars home to family.

If anyone is tempted to make jam, I'd say go for it! It's not as scary as it seems (canning and jam making always held the same mystery and perceived difficulty as making bread). Definitely give yourself some time and room to move around the kitchen and if at all possible, don't do it while it's +36C in a house without air conditioning!

Temperature: +19C
Sunrise: 6:02am
Sunset: 8:46pm

Yes, I Am a Procrastinator!

2009-12-26T11:49:00.008+11:00

"All I have to do is find the disc with photoshop on it..." famous last words.
Um, hi! It's been a while!

Apparently digging through one box and searching through 3 discs of files is too much effort. hah. It took all of about 10 minutes. I've been putting it off and putting it off because it's the season of procrastination! I've been procrastinating about everything lately - like getting my Christmas cards and packages sent, finishing sewing Christmas presents etc. It was particularly bad this year (maybe because it's not -40 and dark?) and I had to force myself to do things that I normally don't mind doing. I hate when I do stuff like that because then I have to rush and get stuff done. It's also bad if you're living with other people and they're constantly asking you how x project or y project is going while you're sitting in front of a movie or taking another nap. Whoops. Planning for Christmas '10 starts now!! ('10 doesn't have the same nice ring to it that '09 [etc] does hmmm...)

So to update...

Paul Dempsey being awesome.

We went back into the city and saw the Myer windows for a second time (I went with Glen's mum, sister and the kids), we drove to Castlemaine to see Paul Dempsey do a solo show (it was AWESOME. I didn't think it was possible to love SFK/Paul Dempsey more than I did and I so do. Can't get enough!), and then had all sorts of family get-togethers for Christmas.

Very strange to be up on Christmas morning when it's light out! These were taken just after 8am.

Speaking of Christmas and get-togethers... It's weird for me to now be a part of a family that has both sides living within driving distance. This seems to be pretty common and makes things like Christmas a logistical nightmare for some families. Thankfully Glen's dad's side does a Christmas thing the week before otherwise I don't know what we'd do! Most people split the day between at least two sides (blended families makes things even more interesting), having breakfast/lunch with one side and then dinner with the other. We actually did meals at 3 different places this year (breakfast at Glen's sister's, lunch here then dinner with Glen's mum's family). Does anyone else do this or do you stick to one side per day? Growing up we went to my Grandma's house on Christmas Day (a few times on Boxing Day) and that was the extent of it.
The traditional turkey dinner is also out here. Dinner was cold meats, seafood and salads. No potatoes, stuffing or steamed veggies in sight! (Truthfully, I'm a bit sad. I love mashed potatoes and stuffing).

Glen looking thrilled to be up so early!

With Christmas came a flurry of sewing and I managed to finish the three quilts that have been hanging over my head for MONTHS. I was awesome and didn't take pictures of two of them and took a very bad, quickly posed picture of the third. I'll try to get over to Glen's sister's and take proper pictures of them on the kid's beds.

Quilt #3 with it's recipient.

We'll be house sitting for Glen's sister for all of January and then after that we'll hopefully be finding our own place. I'm looking forward to unpacking!!

Temperature: +19C
Sunrise: 5:57am
Sunset: 8:44pm

Formatted and Ready to Go!

2009-11-30T12:19:00.004+11:00

Ok! So I bit the bullet and formatted the laptop. By doing that it - of course - solved all our problems. Once a computer gets all full of junk there's really only one way to get it working again.
The main problem was the "virtual memory" which means I didn't have enough RAM for what I
wanted to do. This was kind of a curious problem since I was only running Firefox.
Another curious problem occurred after we formatted and I went to get online... It wouldn't work. Glen set up a wireless network in the house a few days ago so he tried fiddling with that and it still didn't work. We hooked the computer up with the cord and the internet started work. Didn't do us much good when we wanted to be wireless... Anyway, we installed some updates and voilà! It worked! Who knew you needed more than service pack 1 to use wifi (clearly not us)?

Anyway, all I have to do is find my photoshop disc and I'll be ready to do some serious posting.

(I don't know how people can format so often, it takes ages to set everything back up!!)

Temperature:
Sunrise: 5:52am
Sunset: 8:26pm

It's Not That I Don't Have Anything to Say...

2009-11-25T09:03:00.003+11:00

There has been a lot of exciting and fun stuff happening here but there's one problem -- my computer. I installed an update (I suspect flash) which has made my computer run like a snail. Because of that, when I type, the computer starts to lag and then Firefox throws a hissy fit and closes. It's VERY frustrating.

I'm going to format one of these days but I'm lazy. It's also one of my least favourite things to do.

For now I'll give you the list of exciting things and will hopefully follow up with pictures & a real post soon (of course I'm writing this now and the computer is FINE *rolls eyes*)

1. My stuff arrived! YAY! (nothing is missing or broken as far as I can tell)
2. Because of that, there has been knitting - yay!
3. Went to the city to see the Christmas tree and the Myer windows.
4. Got some awesome pictures of a sulphur crested cockatoo in the backyard (and fed him some seeds).
5. The weather here has been OUTRAGEOUSLY hot.

If I can figure out how to do a scheduled post I'd type up a few when the computer's not acting like an ass... Anyone know how to do it?

Temperature: +18C
Sunrise: 5:54am
Sunset: 8:20pm

Weekends Away

2009-11-09T15:19:00.007+11:00

It seems every few weeks Glen gets two (rarely three) days off in a row. We've decided to take advantage of this when we can (especially while I'm not working). This past weekend we decided to go to Wilsons Prom.

The spiky things are the flowering tops of grass trees. The flowering cycle is stimulated by bushfire. Wilsons Prom was affected by the February bushfires which damaged 25,200 hectares (50%) of the park.

Wilsons Prom is the southern most tip of the Australian mainland and the national park covers over 50,500 hectares. Wilsons Prom is a 3-4ish hour drive from Melbourne. We decided to stay in Foster (where we stayed in 2007) which is a nice little town about 45min from the park. We were originally planning on going to Phillip Island but there was some car racing thing going on so we decided to save that for another time.

We arrived mid-afternoon on Saturday and went straight to the beach. Squeaky Beach is probably my favourite beach (so far) for a few reasons. One is the wow factor. It has brilliant white sand and crystal clear water. Growing up, all the beaches I went to were covered with rocks/sticks and had seaweed and gross water. Swimming here can be hit and miss though. There can be strong currents and big waves. We were lucky that the two days we were there the water was pretty reasonable (we enjoy doing more jumping in the waves than actual swimming). We tried to do a bit of swimming at Tidal River on the second day but the water was pretty cold so we got out and went back to Squeaky Beach (otherwise Tidal River is the ideal swimming spot for safety reasons).

The cool thing about Squeaky Beach is the sand is made from rounded grains of quartz and when you walk on it, the grains rub together and squeak (a lot like really cold, packed snow does).

We managed to see some more wildlife on this trip and I got to cross off two more "quintessential Australalian animals" off my list.

We saw emus both days and besides crossing an animal off my mental list, I got to highlight it in my bird book! (I bought a bird book in 2007 and highlight birds I've seen in the wild). It goes without saying that they're HUGE. It was pretty weird to see them lumbering across the road and it's kind of hard to link them as being birds since they are SO massive and don't act like typical birds (y'know, sitting in trees and flying around!).

Can you spot the Emus?

We also managed to spot an echidna on the side of the road. Once it figured out that we had stopped the car and had gotten out it quickly made it's way into the bushes on the side of the road.

We picked a great weekend to go as the weather was fabulous and HOT (all the locals were saying that it was unusal for it to be so nice in November). When we heard the weather forecast we decided we wanted to be somewhere near the water so this trip definitely satisfied our being near the water requirement (we looked into going to a few other places but I think everyone had the same idea we did and we couldn't find anywhere to stay).

In other news, it looks like the weather in general is on the upswing and after weeks of me complaining about the cold (it's cold in the house when you don't have a furnace!) the house is anything but cool today.

Temperature: +34C
Sunrise: 6:05am
Sunset: 8:03pm

Gone to the Birds!

2009-10-28T11:36:00.000+11:00

I think it could easily be said that I love bird watching. This is definitely something I have to thank my mum for. She has a keen eye for birds and always pointed out interesting ones on our walks or drives. A lot of our bird watching was done on our drives to Edmonton (45min north of where I grew up). It's a long stretch of mostly straight highway and a great spot for hawks and occasionally owls. Mum loves all birds but we seemed to do a lot of hawk watching which she seemed to excel at even while behind the wheel (my cousin once commented that she feared mum was spending more time hawk watching than paying attention to the road!).

A lot of die-hard bird enthusiasts might disagree with me when I say that birds in central Alberta are a bit boring. Sure we have blue jays but apart from that and a handfull of other birds, they lack a lot of bright, flashy colour.

Enter Australia. Land of exciting, technicolour birds!

Rainbow Lorikeets, Brimbank Park, Oct 27th 2009

Birds in Australia are for the most part, different. They are bright and of a variety that I'd previously only seen on TV, in zoos or in pet stores. This is what I like to call the "pretend bird" (kangaroos and koalas also qualify as "pretend animals"). That's the kind of bird that as a kid you could never imagine could actually live in the wild somewhere because they were just too awesome.
We had budgies and cockateils as pets growing up. Hi! They are wild here! (they also sell them in pet stores).

Red-rumped Parrot, Brimbank Park, Oct 27th 2009

I mentioned this a few posts ago but we've been trying to get out to the park by the house (google map Brimbank Park) as much as we can. We usually only make it on Glen's days off. Sometimes we'll dart over there after Glen gets off work for a quick walk.
This park is great for bird watching (there are also wallabies and a tonne of bunnies -- bunnies aren't looked upon very favourably here though) which is one reason why we keep going back.

So Glen had the day off yesterday and after going on some other adventures (we drove out to Sunbury) we made our way to the park. The first half of the walk was fairly uneventful. We went a different way than usual (we still haven't walked all the trails!) and mostly saw magpies. Once we hooked up with more familiar trails, we found ourselves in the "Rainbow Lorikeet Area" (ie: the place in the park where there are always TONNES of them).
Rainbow Lorikeets are tricky things to get pictures of. For one, they love to be high up in the trees and they seem to always be sitting in awkward places (photography wise). Behind branches or their favourite - in front of the sun so that they're back-lit. An interesting thing about them is that the colour of their feathers absorbs light instead of reflecting it making it even harder to get a clear picture (you should see how many pictures I have where the tree/etc looks great but the bird is too dark).

So we walked along the trail and stopped every so often to crane our necks to watch the lorikeets and then we saw a kookaburra! It was sitting fairly low in a tree which meant it was a great place to stand and watch it and take pictures.

Kookaburra, Brimbank Park, Oct 27th 2009

This part of the park has a "rabbit proof fence" so I couldn't get much closer (the fence only succeeds in keeping the people out as the rabbits have found ways to get through!). Glen walked a little ways down the trail while I was taking pictures then came to get me to tell me that there were some lorikeets low in a bush/tree and they should be in good picture taking range. Sure enough they were! I took a few pictures and then they flew even closer onto a branch right in front of me! Since I've been after a decent picture of these birds, it was quite a satisfying moment.

Rainbow Lorikeets, Brimbank Park, Oct 27th 2009

After our jaunt through the park we decided to try our luck at finding some Galahs, so we drove out to a place where Glen said they usually hang out but no luck. But the trip wasn't a total bust because we saw a bird that we'd never seen before - the Purple-crowned Lorikeet. We didn't realise what they were until we did a bit of research at home. All we knew was that we'd never seen them before and they were a type of parrot. They were very high up in a tree so I got a few pictures and once we were home, we zoomed (way) in to see if we could get any more identifying marks. The pictures weren't great but it was enough to help us narrow things down and finally make an identification. Exciting!

So that's pretty much what I'm doing in my spare time! Staring up into trees with my camera and bird book. I think the next thing I need is a pair of binoculars for when the birds are too high (an extra 100-200mm zoom wouldn't hurt either... I'm coveting a few lenses!).

Temperature: +19C
Sunrise: 6:18am
Sunset: 7:50pm

Bit of an Update + Pictures!

2009-10-24T10:50:00.001+11:00

I've been here for just over a month now!
I've been doing a lot of hanging out while Glen has been at work. I haven't gotten too adventurous yet though. I'm mostly hanging out at home or with Glen's sister and her kids.

Glen had three days off work a few weeks ago and we took a drive down the Great Ocean Road. The weather was kind of miserable but it was a great drive and great to get away. The highlight of the trip was all the koalas we saw!

We turned off the Great Ocean Road to drive down to the Cape Otway lighthouse and along that road were close to a dozen koalas in the trees. Some had their babies with them as well!

It was really windy at the Twelve Apostles which kept the crowds down but the unfortunate thing was that all the sea spray kept blowing up onto the lens so I have a lot of pictures with water spots on them.

We stayed in Anglesea which is pretty famous for having kangaroos all over their golf course. We drove out and took a look at them (some of them had babies too!). Luckily they were close to the parking lot because you're not allowed to go traipsing through the golf course to look at them (some golf courses back home have walking trails around them).

I got a letter in the mail last week that my stuff was getting close to arriving! In the letter it told me the name of the ship my stuff was on and I'm able to track it! When I checked last week the ship had already made it to New Zealand and as of this morning it has arrived in Melbourne! I don't know how long it takes once the ship is here but I should have my stuff soon!

That's a bit of an update for now! I'm going to try to get better at posting on a regular basis!

Temperature: +16C
Sunrise: 6:23am
Sunset: 7:46pm

Settling In!

2009-10-10T14:54:00.000+11:00

Well, I'm here!
I arrived on the morning of the 22nd of September. Clearing customs and all that sort of thing was a breeze - I arrived on a plane full of New Zealanders so the line up for non-Australians/New Zealanders wasn't very long. From the time the plane landed, it took about 40 minutes to go through customs and get my luggage.

I've been busy doing all the things one needs when they move to a new country:
Opened a bank account
Applied for Medicare (that had to wait until I was in the country for 5 business days)
Switched my driver's license over (no test or anything!)
Applied for a tax file number (like a SIN in Canada)
Got a new phone

Glen got a job just after I left Inuvik so he's been busy working. He had three days off when I first arrived and is getting three days off in a row this week (otherwise I don't think he's had two days off in a row since I got here) so we're going to go stay in Anglesea and drive down the Great Ocean Road.

We haven't done too much otherwise. We're trying to get over to the big park near the house as much as we can (on Glen's day off and if he's only working till 6) to go for walks, we've been bowling and to see a movie. I've been into the city twice (that's what they call the downtown) and yesterday went to a craft expo with Glen's mum.

I'm hoping to get back into regular posting mode soon!

Yellow-tailed black Cockatoo
(photographed in the park by the house)

Temperature: +18C
Sunrise: 6:43am
Sunset: 7:42pm

My Life in 30 Boxes...

2009-08-27T18:45:00.001+10:00

Well, I figured because the blog is actually "From the Arctic to Australia" I should have a post about getting to Australia.

Today the movers came and took my boxes. It's a weird sense of panic and relief to watch those boxes get loaded onto the truck... Will I ever see them (all) again? Will anything be broken? Did I impulse pack and take too much?

Ptarmi and the boxes

Tomorrow (well, technically today) is my last full day in the Arctic. I'm having some definite mixed feelings about this. It's my home and when am I ever going to be back? I've made some friends here and - obviously care about them - especially the residents at work. I've been one of the only people that has been a constant in their life for the last few years. I've definitely come to the point where I need a break in my job though. As much as I care for the residents, it's definitely time for something else.

Anyway! I don't know if I'll be able to update again before I get to Australia so if not, I'll update once I'm there and settled so check back!

Temperature: +5C
Sunrise: 7:01am
Sunset: 10:46pm

Coming Soon!

2009-08-05T06:38:00.001+10:00

I will arrive in Australia on September 22nd, 2009.

Please check back for the next chapter in my adventures!