Our First Christmas Down Under

Yesterday we had a lovely first Christmas Down Under. We went to our friends the Swartzes' house for brunch, then took a car-share van to the beach at Nielsen Park, where we went swimming and had a picnic.

The weather cooperated by not raining that day! It was sunny and warm, but not too hot. The water was still a bit chilly - apparently it will be a few more months until it really warms up - but the beach here is quite pretty and the water is really clear.

Afterwards, we went back to Chez Swartz for home-made egg nog and Boggle. What a great day.

Here's the link to the rest of the photos from the day.

Happy Holidays!

Photo: Paris Victory Ball at the Opéra de Paris in 1946, celebrating the first anniversary of V-E Day; LIFE Magazine.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Christmas trees, both real and artificial, are expensive here. So, the other night we decorated the potted plant our friends the Swartzes gave us for our housewarming.

Luckily we had a power adapter, or we wouldn't have been able to use our American Christmas lights. To be honest, our Xmas plant looks a little funny, but hey, at least it's something!

On Christmas Day, we're going to our friends' house, so I started baking some of the goodies we'll take over: applesauce and cinnamon muffins and lemon yogurt cake.

I think they turned out okay, despite the fact that the oven in our rental apartment is a little wonky, and I had to think in grams/Celsius!

Night at the Races

Last night we went with Jon to the final races at Harold Park in Glebe (Sydney). Harness racing started at the track in 1902, but the sport has been in decline, so the NSW Harness Racing Club sold Harold Park to a developer, who will redevelop the site into a residential area. It was an amusing evening, with great people-watching. However, not sure I'd need to go again to to the races at their new venue...

Christmas Party

Last week we went to the Google Sydney Christmas party. The theme was "Fab 50s," so we dressed up 50s-ish. When we arrived, the waiters were all wearing white t-shirts and blue jeans, there was big illustration of a diner behind the bar, the DJ was playing 50s American music, and they served deviled eggs, hot dogs, mini hamburgers and "smokey" ribs. It was slightly surreal that it was almost all American; it felt like we were in "America Land" at Epcot or something!

Jennifer as a beatnik and Mark as Joe McCarthy, complete with his Blacklist.

Random party scene.

Here's the link to the rest of the photos from the evening.

Happy Date-iversary!

Happy "date-iversary" to my wonderful husband - I love you very much! We started "dating" 15 years ago today. Here's a photo from that era.

Sometimes when I can't believe how long it's been, I feel a little like Jeremy Piven in "Grosse Pointe Blank" when he's in the car screaming "ten years, ten years, TEN...YEARS!" -- minus the professional killing, of course. ;)

Venn Diagram

Haha, sad, but true, over at Indexed. We're having a housewarming party this weekend. I'm going to try not to [INTERSECTION] about it.

First Day of Summer - Time to Put Up Some Christmas Decorations!

Yesterday, 1 December, was the first day of summer here in Australia! It didn't feel like it, though - a storm came in and it was very rainy.

The seasons here are are so wacky, it really doesn't feel like it will be Christmas soon. So, I put up our first Christmas decoration to help me feel festive. Behold, the beautiful felt wreath sewn by my late Grandma Lucile. I love this wreath along with the tree skirt and all the other felt ornaments she made.

And here's a photo of Grandma Lucile, just because.

Cooking Lamb with Jamie

Matthew and I made baked lamb shanks using a Jamie Oliver recipe, and it was pretty easy! Just mix up some sage, rosemary and thyme with butter, cut slits in lamb shanks and stuff in the flavoured butter. Create little foil packets, add carrots, onions and garlic on the bottom and one lamb shank in each packet, pour in some white wine and seal the packets. Bake for 2.5 hours!

Our butcher didn't give us shanks cut quite as pretty as Jamie's photos, but oh well. It tasted good, and wasn't very difficult!

Last Movember Update

Here's the last photo from Movember. M reports it was getting really itchy, and he's glad to shave it off!

Sweet Potato, Yam, Kumara

We recently went to a burger place that had kumara fries, which we were told are sweet potato fries. They were really good! The flesh was yellowish - not regular potato white, but not quite as orange as the sweet potato I'd gotten from the grocery store a few weeks ago.

Apparently what’s a sweet potato vs. what’s a kumara in Australia is just as confusing as what’s a sweet potato vs. what’s a yam in the United States!

Kumara is the Maori and Polynesian word for sweet potato. According to Taste.com.au, kumara is a variety of orange sweet potato grown in New Zealand. However, in Australia one may see any orange sweet potato labeled as kumara, sweet potato or orange sweet potato. That’s not confusing at all! ;)

Ziggy Show

Last night we went to Ziggy, a David Bowie tribute show with a live band and four different performers singing Bowie songs. It was a lot of fun! Their renditions of Under Pressure and Fame were especially good. I can't decide which was my favorite Bowie - they all put a different spin on it.

The State Theatre, which was very pretty inside, were serious about no photos allowed, so I don't have any pics from the show. However, I got dressed up for the event, so here's a pic of my outfit!

Biking at Centennial Park

Yesterday we rode our bikes to Centennial Park, a huge (189 hectares/467 acres) park in Sydney. We biked the Grand Drive loop, which is 3.8 km. It was very pretty - some parts of the ride are in the full sun, but other parts of the road have trees on both sides that grow together in a shady canopy covering the road, which is really nice. We stopped at the pond to check out the huge black swans; some had come up on the grass to look for food.

It's a really pretty park, and it was a fun ride; I'm glad we made our way over there. I'm looking forward to this year's Moonlight Cinema starting up, where they screen movies outdoors at Centennial Park.

Afterwards, we stopped at The Local Taphouse in Darlinghurst, and had some good beer, the Bridge Road Brewers Galaxy IPA (Victoria, Australia) and the BrewDog 5 A.M. Saint amber ale (Scotland). 

They have 20 beers on tap, and a good selection of bottled beers, too. There were empty bottles decorating their picture rail, and we spotted at least two Rogue bottles from Oregon. The friendly bartender asked us where we're from, and when we said Portland, Oregon, he said, "Oh Oregon, Beervana!"

Note on pricing, just because I'm still getting used to how expensive beer is here (even domestic): the half-pints were $6.50 and $7.50 each; if we'd wanted pints, they would have been $11.60 and $13.30 each!

Book Hunting

Today we stopped in Gould's Book Arcade, a huge second-hand book shop nearby, which has tons of used books stacked up everywhere.

Photo from planbooktravel.com.au

We're on a bit of a classic cocktails kick, so we dug through the cookbooks, and actually managed to find a copy of the Savoy Cocktail Book, in good condition, for $14! We felt sneezy and dusty digging through the books, but it's fun if you have time, and can wash your hands pretty soon afterwards!

Movember - Day 18

Movember update - here's the moustache on day 18:

Winos

We are winos. Here's our new liquor cabinet, with recent wine shop purchases, and the wines we brought back from the Hunter Valley:

Movember - Day 7

Movember update - here's the moustache on day 7:

Photos from 3-4 November Wine Tasting in the Hunter Valley

On 3 November, we rented a car with Kate and Stephane and drove to the Hunter Valley to do some wine tasting. Located in New South Wales, the drive was about 2.5 hours. On Wednesday, we went to Keith Tulloch Wine, Brokenwood Wines, McLeish Estate and Tamburlaine Organic Wines.

We checked into our motel, which was right on the Thalgara Estate vineyard in Polkobin, where we ended the lovely afternoon by sitting on the back porch and sharing a bottle of wine while we watched the birds - and a family of kangaroos in the distance. We met up with Stephane's friend, Tracy-Ann, who lives in Sydney, but they met years ago in Liege, Belgium. Then we all went out and had a really nice dinner at Muse Restaurant.

When we woke up the next morning, the kangaroos were closer to our hotel room, and Kate got a great photo.

On Thursday, we went to Mistletoe Wines, Arrowfield Estate and Hungerford Hill before we headed back home. In all, it was a great trip. I think Matthew and I ended up buying three reds (a Shiraz, a sparkling Shiraz and a Pinot Noir), a sparkling rosé, and two dessert wines (a Botrytis Semillon and a Muscat).

Here's the link to the rest of our photos from the wine tasting trip.

Photos from 2 November Visit to Taronga Zoo

On 2 November, M, Kate, Stephane and I went to the Taronga Zoo. My favorites were the giraffes having lunch and the free flight bird show.

Here's a link to the rest of our photos.

Movember Begins

Matthew and his co-workers are taking part in Movember, a charity event where men grown moustaches during the month of November to raise funds and awareness for men’s health.

Here's Matthew's moustache on Day One:

Photos from the Beginning of Kate and Stephane's Visit

Here are some photos from the beginning of Kate and Stephane's visit to Sydney - a trip to the Opera House, and to the Lord Nelson Pub and the Belgian Beer Cafe.

Apartment Update

Just a few pics from the apartment - our artwork collection is now up in the living room, and the dining table and chairs we got from eBay.

Photos from 15 October

I'm a little late posting pics from the show we went to at The Basement on Friday, 15 October - Mulatu Astatke with the Black Jesus Experience. I didn't get many pics, but it was a really fun show.

Considered the father of Ethio-jazz, check out Mulatu Astatke's music on the Ethiopiques compliations and the soundtrack of Jim Jarmusch's 2005 movie Broken Flowers.

The rest of the photos can be seen here.

Driving in Oz for the First Time

This week Matthew joined GoGet, the local car share company, and today we went driving for the first time in Australia!

This morning we got a Ute from GoGet so we could pick up the linen chest and the dining chairs from the two eBay auctions we won. A ute is basically a car-truck, like an El Camino. This one was a little more heavy duty; it had a tray back for hauling.

I forgot to take a photo of the car share one; here's a photo similar to the one M drove today.

Photo from www.used-cars-adelaide.com.au

So, we woke up early and it was raining really heavily! Not ideal, but we'd already made arrangements with the sellers, and the car was reserved, so oh well! First stop before even picking up the Ute, we went to K-Mart and bought a tarp and some tie-downs. Then we picked up the Ute nearby and went for our first drive on the wrong side of the road!

So, first time out, and it's raining, but Matthew was a champ! We allowed plenty of time and arrived about 30 minutes early to the first stop to pick up the cedar chest. Thank goodness we had the tarp to keep our stuff dry, and we only had to stop once to readjust to keep it from flying away. Then we arrived right on time to pick up the dining chairs from seller #2. Finally, we drove back home, unloaded everything at our apartment, and drove the Ute back to its parking spot. Unfortunately, someone had illegally parked in the spot reserved for the car share. So, we had to find somewhere else to park, and then call the car share company to tell them where we had to leave it. A minor annoyance to end the odyssey.

However, overall it was quite a success. It was strange for us that everything was backwards, but Matthew did a great job driving!

And, it's wonderful to have a dining table and chairs now! For the past month, we've been eating all our meals on our laps while sitting on the futon, so it's quite a luxury to sit at the table. ;) Will try to post some pics, once we get everything arranged.

Getting Closer to Fully Furnished

We're getting closer to having the apartment fully furnished! I've been scouring eBay and Gumtree (sorta like Oz's version of Craigslist) like an obsessed madwoman for the past several weeks. We've also gone into lots of vintage shops, but they're generally over our budget.

Soo, we've finally won 3 eBay auctions, in our price range! Missed out on the cool bookcases, but we were successful on the cedar-lined linen chest (Lane brand - came from the United States!), a 1960s square dining table (had to be square to fit into our small space), and a set of teak and black vinyl dining chairs.

The linen chest/blanket box will go by the front door to store our winter coats and also give us something to sit on while we take our shoes off. We've decided to roll Japanese-style and not wear shoes in the apartment. However, we both dislike wobbling on one leg right inside the door, so we're getting something to sit on while we Mr. Rogers it from our outside shoes into our slippers. I may even have to get Matthew a shoe horn on a stick so he can more truly emulate an old Japanese man.

The table is being delivered tomorrow, and we have to rent a truck to go pick up the linen chest and the chairs on Sunday. Yikes, our first time driving on the opposite side of the road!

Hopefully soon we'll have some new pics of the apartment.

P.S. Hours of trolling eBay has convinced me that the most overused and misused descriptors on eBay.com.au are: Eames, Parker, Kartell and Danish. A few Aussies use "mid-century modern", but thankfully not as many as Americans, who seem to tack on MCM to every single auction, even if if it doesn't apply in the least.

Dear Amanda’s Sinuses + Sydney’s Allergens - Can’t We All Just Get Along?

We’ve officially been in Sydney for 2 months and 3 days!

During most of that time, I’ve been having nasal issues. My nose has been irritated, congested or constantly running! My difficulty breathing has even made it into my dreams – I’ve had two separate dreams where I’ve pulled things out of my nose (one dream was mini-marshmallows, and the other was seed pods from some sort of plant!).

Recently, the gunk that’s been draining is irritating my throat and giving me a sore throat and now the itchy, watery eyes have started in, too.

Apparently, there’s something in the Sydney air that doesn’t agree with me, and it’s getting really old. I would like to breathe normally for once!

A Small Success!

Sometimes it's the little things... The shower in our apartment had no shower curtain rod, just a small glass half-wall, as if that's all the previous occupants us ever needed to keep water from going everywhere when they took a shower.

Well, I don't think Matthew and I are particularly splashy, but a lot of water was ending up on the floor, so we wanted to put up the shower curtain we brought with us.

We had to go to 4 different places to find a shower curtain rod. Finally, we took the train to a suburban hardware store, Bunnings, which is about as big as a Home Depot, and there we finally found a rod so we could put up our shower curtain.

Success!

Sometimes it really is the little things (both that drive one crazy, and that make one happy).

Afternoon Tea

Yesterday Alison and I had afternoon tea at The Tea Room on the top floor of the Queen Victoria Building. I hadn't ever had fancy afternoon tea before. It was really fun, and a lovely way to spend an afternoon -- just leisurely drinking tea, talking and eating!

I didn't get very good photos, but here are a few:

Ahhhh, a large cup of coffee!

I'm enjoying my first cup of French press coffee in two months! It's "Obama Blend" coffee from Campos Coffee, made at home in our French press.

I've missed "regular" coffee. Australians seem to only have freeze-dried instant coffee, or else espresso. They seem to disdain brewed coffee, as if everything non-espresso is automatically bad.*

However, espresso drinks were always more of a treat for me than an everyday thing. I really like having a large mug of coffee in the mornings!


*It's funny that there's a coffee siphon on Campos Coffee's website right now, because I get the feeling that most Aussies would think it a crazy contraption, incapable of making "good" coffee.

Our Shipment Has Been Delivered!

The contents of our shipping container was delivered today - hurrah!! The apartment is strewn with boxes, and the US packers appear to have misplaced the screws for our futon. Since we can't put the futon together yet (it was meant to be our sofa for now), we still don't have anywhere to sit in the living room. However, we will be sleeping in our own bed for the first time in two months! Matthew and I said to each other this evening, "I love you and I love this bed." ;)

We can has internets!

Hi friends and family!

Just a quick note to say that we are in the interwebs! Skyping can start soon!

Weekend Update

Last Friday we went out for drinks and dinner with Matthew’s supervisor, Jon, his partner Allison, and her friend Dave. Afterwards, we went to a karaoke place, Ding Dong Dang, which is similar to the ones in Japan, where you rent a private karaoke room and only have to embarrass yourself in front of your friends, not the whole bar! Originally we’d signed up for only 2 hours, but then Jon kept extending the room rental, so we ended up staying out doing karaoke until 3 am! It was a lot of fun. Some of the biggest hits for everyone to sing along to were a little surprising – who knew 4 Non Blondes and Foreigner were such crowd-pleasers? Of course, maybe that had to do with the red wine…

On Saturday, poor Matthew had to go work (he’s started his Wednesday to Saturday work schedule), but he said he enjoyed working on Saturday, as it’s quiet in the office, and he can get a lot of work done. Saturday night, we went with our friends the Swartzes to see a Japanese band called Zeni Geva. I don’t even know how to describe them, sort of noise metal band, but that isn’t even right. Even if metal isn’t my thing, I could appreciate what good musicians they are, and seeing them live was amazing. BTW, the drummer looked like he could be a science teacher - just a regular guy with a mustache, gold-wire rim glasses, a tshirt and Dad jeans. But then he started wailing on the drums and doing this lady-yodel, it was fascinating.

Yesterday (Sunday), we had a lazy day, did a little shopping and then went out to dinner at Mu Mu Grill in Crows Nest, a suburb north of Sydney. Getting there was a bit of a challenge (Sydney Bus System - curse you for being confusing!), but once we were there, it was a nice dinner. Their thing is all grass-fed beef, buying direct from the farmers, etc. We both enjoyed our steaks, and the nice red wine we’d brought, 2008 Henschke Henry’s Seven (yay, BYO).

Oh, by the way, most of the wine here is screw cap, even nice $40 bottles. I heard from a friend that something like 80% of wine in Australia is drunk within 24 hours of purchase. No idea if that's true, but apparently there isn't a lot of cellaring here.

Today (Monday), we had breakfast at café called Citrus, where I got French toast with berries and peaches and a scoop of ice cream on top – delicious! Tonight we’re going out to dinner with some new friends to a local place which has a nice back patio. The weather is warming up; it's really starting to feel like Spring here.

Weekend Update

Friday night Matthew and I went out to dinner with M’s coworker and their team lead, Jon, who is a really nice guy. We went to a good Japanese restaurant, where M was glad to see they have tako yaki on the menu – fried octopus balls. Also, the ruby plum wine was nice, and the prawn roll with avocado was yummy. On the walk home, we spotted an electric heater someone left out on the footpath, and we brought it home, since it was free, and our apartment has no central heat.

Saturday was a lovely sunny day, and we went to the Eveleigh Farmer’s Market, and then to the Glebe Market, which is less food, and more of a "stuff" market, with clothes, jewelry, secondhand books and cds, etc. We wandered down Glebe Point Road, which is the main drag of the suburb of Glebe, and went into Sappho Books, a cool secondhand book shop, which has a café and a nice courtyard out back. We also walked by Restaurant Atelier and looked at their menu. It looks good, can’t wait to try it sometime when we have a bit more cash.

On Sunday, we tried to go to a few vintage furniture stores in Surry Hills. One was really nice, but way over our budget ($7,000 dining sets, etc), and the other one had apparently gone out of business. As we were walking around, we were surprised how much is closed on Sundays. Campos Coffee, Mecca Espresso and Single Origin are all closed on Sundays – where do Sydneysiders get good coffee on a Sunday?!

We ended up in the CBD, and went to JB Hi-Fi and Red Eye Records to check out cds. JB Hi-Fi is similar to a Best Buy, and prides themselves on low prices, and even there, new release cds are $20. Afterwards we had a late lunch in the Food Hall in David Jones, the posh department store. For dessert, I had a profiterole and a raspberry macaron, so good. For dinner, we stopped at Guzman Y Gomez, a Mexican place near our house that’s always crowded. We got chipotle pork quesadillas and a salad with chicken, and both weren’t bad. The tortillas were a little strange, but the food was Mexican-ish, it’s affordable and nearby, so I’m not complaining.

We rented a movie from this tiny place near us called Red Room DVD. They have an indoor space with several browsing kiosks and one external kiosk, which is open 24 hours. You join and get a membership card, which you then swipe at one of the kiosks, browse for a DVD, press Rent, and then go pick it up at the kiosk on the outside of the building. The little elves in the basement load your DVD into the machine and it spits it out right there at the external kiosk. It’s pretty cool.

Matthew was off work today (Monday), as he’s switching to his new schedule, working Wednesday to Saturday. He works 10 hour days, but it will be really nice for him to have 3-day weekends.

Today we had a low-key day, just had breakfast at a new place, Café 2042 (which is the post code for Newtown, our suburb), went to the post office and the library, then went for a walk up to Leichhardt, another suburb near us. It was actually not very exciting once we got there, but it was good to get to know the area some more and always good to go for a long walk together. On the way, we saw a dirty, but nice wringer mop bucket on the side of the footpath, and we grabbed it on the way home. Kinda weird to carry home a dirty bucket, but the building manager sent a cleaning person to our apartment the other day to clean our balcony windows, and she’d suggested this type of bucket and said they’re usually $25-$30, so hey, we’ll take one for free! Apparently I’m becoming quite scavenger of beside the footpath free piles. ;)

As an aside, today is the 23rd anniversary of my father’s death. R.I.P. John K. Morrow - love you always, xoxo.

Our Shipping Container Has Arrived!

Hurrah! Our container arrived at Sydney Port on 15 September, and the port has set the date of 18 September for Crown Relocation to collect the container in preparation for Quarantine inspection.

Let's hope things go smoothly and that we get our stuff soon!

More Aussie to American Dictionary

hoon = a driver or motorcyclist who makes a lot of noise while driving
postie = postman
tradie = tradesman
bikie = biker, motorcycle rider
pushie = push bike = bicycle
chook = chicken; also sometimes a nickname for people whose surname is White, because chickens are white
lift = elevator
light globes = light bulbs
garbage bags = bin bags
mozzies = mosquitoes
footpath = sidewalk
arvo = afternoon
reno = renovation
muso = musician
rockmelon = cantaloupe
mobile = cell phone
shopping trolley = shopping cart
pram = baby stroller
chips = chips - oddly, they don’t say crisps like in Britain; to specify French fries, they say hot chips
sauce = tomato sauce = ketchup
pie = generally a savoury pie, less often a sweet pie
ONO (in classified ads) = Or Nearest Offer = OBO in U.S.
lounge = living room
power point = electrical outlet
doona = duvet
Manchester = a city, but also an Aussie term for bedding, as in the Manchester Department will have sheets (apparently originated because Manchester had so many cotton mills, so they call household linens Manchester)
bottle shop = liquor store/wine shop
hotel = a hotel with sleeping accommodations or sometimes a hotel is just a bar/pub. And in the Aussie spirit of shortening everything, even hotels get nicknames - the Sandringham Hotel is the Sando and the Marlborough Hotel is the Marly.

Weekend update

Matthew and I had a nice weekend. On Friday night, we went to Bloodwood, a wine bar/restaurant in our neighborhood. They were really busy, so we gave them our mobile number and then wandered down King Street, browsing the shop windows. We stopped for a drink at a cute café/bar called BuzzBar, where Matthew had a ruby Manhattan (a ruby uses port instead of sweet vermouth) and I had a glass of rosé, and then the restaurant called to say our table was ready!

Dinner was delicious. They serve small plates, so the waiter suggested about 3 dishes for 2 people. So we had chicken wings, the charcuterie plate, and garlic prawns. Everything was so good, especially the sauce on the prawns - I don’t know what all was in it, but it was quite good.

On Saturday, we went to the University of Sydney (aka Sydney Uni) to check out their gym. It’s close to our apartment, and the public can join, so we went to take a look. It was fine – not amazing, but certainly not bad - a pretty standard gym, plus the people at the front desk were really friendly, and the membership rates aren’t too bad.

Afterwards we walked to the Broadway Shopping Centre to pick up a few more things for the apartment, and got some lunch to go (take away), which we took to Victoria Park and had a nice picnic. We saw the Victoria Park Pool, which is run by the City of Sydney and looked very nice.

Saturday night, we went to our new friend Rob’s birthday dinner at Izote Mexican Restaurant. The Mexican food was actually pretty good. It’s expensive - it’s more "cuisine" here - so I don’t think we’ll find good, cheap Mexican food like we were used to, but oh well. The company at dinner was great; everyone was really friendly. And man, can they drink! Our table went through something like 8 bottles of wine.

Oh that’s another thing to get used to here – a lot of restaurants have BYO licenses, where you can bring your own wine to dinner. Some places it's free, others charge a small corkage fee, but it's usually less than $5 per person. The very fancy restaurants don't usually allow BYO, but a lot of places do, so that's nice. But, we're not in the habit yet of bringing wine whenever we go out, so we were the only people at dinner that didn't bring wine – oops!

After dinner, we went with our friends Jennifer and Mark to go see a rock show at the Annandale Hotel, apparently an institution in the local music scene. We saw an Aussie band called The Mess Hall, and tickets were $25 each! Anyway, the show was okay - a 2-piece band with guitar and drums - pretty rocky, some songs were pretty good, others just okay, but it was fun to see our first show in Australia. Also, thankfully bars here are smoke-free, as in Portland!

This morning (Sunday) we had breakfast at the Deus Café, which is a very interesting place. Deus Ex Machina is a place that takes old motorcycles and bicycles and fixes them up to resell them. They also sell clothing and have a café next door, which isn’t just coffee and pastries, it’s a full-on menu, and the food was really good. I had crepes with lemon custard and strawberries and a side of bacon, and M had poached eggs and toast with a side of salmon.

Another thing to get used to is that some restaurants increase their prices on the weekends by about 10%. Sometimes that’s only a few dollars more, which isn’t a huge deal, but it’s just odd to us, since that we don’t have that surcharge in the States. Also, bacon here is a little different. It seems it's just cured, not smoked. Also there are two different cuts, sometimes it's long strips like in the U.S., which has one name (rasher) and sometimes it's oval-shaped, which has another name (short cut bacon?).

This afternoon we went to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which had a free showing of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 movie "Blow Up." Then we came back to Newtown (our neighborhood) and had dinner at a place called Moo Gourmet Burgers. Our burgers were really good, definitely the best we’ve had so far in Oz. Oh, and generally burgers here are served with lettuce, tomato and a slice of beetroot. Oddly, the beet just comes standard on burgers, no idea why.

Internet Access

Just FYI, we haven't gotten our internet connection set up in our new apartment yet, so our internet access from home will be limited for the next week or so. We have (limited) internet on our mobile phones, but that's it for now.

Shopping Centre

Yesterday I sat on the floor of our new apartment waiting for the rental furniture to be delivered. The relocation company is providing us with "furniture hire" because our shipment was inexplicably delayed by 3 weeks.

Finally they arrived and dropped off a bed with sheets and pillows, a love seat, a coffee table, a few lamps, and box of kitchen goods. After I unpacked the boxes with the linens and kitchen stuff, I realized they forgot to give us the bath towels and all they included in the kitchen box was dishes - they didn't provide the basic kitchen supplies set with pots and pans, etc. So, still more eating out for us for a few more days!

After I made the bed, I decided to walk to the giant shopping centre to buy cleaning supplies. I emptied a small wheeled suitcase and took that with me to haul my stuff back in, since it's 3.4 km round trip.

Who'd have thought finding the right store to buy cleaning supplies would be hard? First I went into Target. It has the same logo as the American one, but apparently it's not the same company - they settled a lawsuit and the Aussie one can still use the red and white target logo, even though they're a different company.

This Aussie Target had some clothes, toys, bedding, some things for the bathroom like shower curtains, kitchen stuff like dishes, toasters, etc and that was about it. They didn't have any cleaning stuff at all, and I don't think they had anything like a Health and Beauty section, either. So, they don't stock as many types of items as American Target.

Next stop, K-Mart. Again, the logo looks the same, but according to this article from Discount Store News, the American company sold its interest in K-Mart Australia in 1978 to Coles, an Aussie grocery store chain.

Sidenote, the grocery store market in Australia, or at least New South Wales, is basically a duopoly. There are a few smaller stores, but by far the majority of one's options for nearby supermarkets are either Coles or Woolworths, generally known as Woolies.

Back to K-Mart, it stocks a larger selection of types of items than Target - they also sell automotive supplies, camping gear, make up, some snack food, etc. However, the cleaning aisle only had laundry detergent (aka washing powder) and bleach. There were no garbage bags, no Windex type cleaners, no regular kitchen sponges (although there were a few scrubber items near the mops and brooms). What the ef?

So, off to Coles. Previously, I'd only been to the Coles Express in the CBD (Central Business District - aka downtown), and I'd never seen any cleaning supplies there. This was the big Coles, though, and they had a whole aisle with tons of different scrubbie sponges, garbage bags, floor cleaners, Windex, dishwasher detergent, etc.

Hooray, I finally found everything I needed. It only took me several hours and having to go to 3 different stores. And then walking 1.7 km home while wheeling a suitcase full of stuff! (Thank goodness all 3 stores were in the same giant shopping centre!)

Our new apartment

Last Friday we signed the lease, and today we picked up the keys to our new apartment! It's a one-bedroom loft apartment in Newtown, a suburb in Sydney's Inner West. It's about a 10 minute walk to the train station and about a 10 minute train ride to the city.

Our shipping container (with all our furniture, the rest of our clothes, etc) is delayed 3 weeks, so the relocation company is getting us some rental furniture for a few weeks. Our temporary accommodation in the Central Business District was nice, but thank goodness we'll be in our own apartment and can stop eating out every night!

Here's the exterior of our building. Our balcony is the one on the top left.


The kitchen is to the right of the front door. Luckily the owner wanted to leave the fridge and the washer and dryer - usually apartments don't come with those and you have to buy your own.


View of the living room from the front door.


View of the living room and balcony from the kitchen.


View from our balcony. The Royal Prince Alfred Hospital is right across the street, so should either of us ever need medical attention (knock on wood), we can limp there.


Looking down the stairs.


The loft bedroom and the bathroom.


Future guests, as you can see, there's not a separate guest bedroom. We tried to look for a 2-bedroom, but the ones in our budget just weren't very nice. So, we'll put you up in the living room. The high ceilings make the apartment seem larger than it is!

Here are the rest of the pics of our new apartment.

Amanda's first birthday in the Southern Hemisphere

My birthday was Sunday 5 September, and it's the first time I've had a birthday in springtime!

On my birthday, we had breakfast at a restaurant called Danks Street Depot, where they're all about slow food, using fresh, local ingredients, etc. It was very yummy!

Afterwards we went to the Marrickville farmer's market and saw our friends play a bit of music there. Mark lived in Ireland before moving to Australia, and he learned to play the Uilleann pipes, the Irish bagpipes. Here's Mark playing the Irish pipes with his friend Chris playing the concertina.


Afterwards, we went to Jennifer and Mark's house and had a lovely time just talking over cocktails, then had dinner with their family.

Then last night (Monday), Matthew took me out to Guillame at Bennelong, a very fancy french restaurant at the Sydney Opera House.


We did the 7-course degustation menu with matching French wines, and it was one of the best meals I've had in my life. Everything so carefully prepared and complimented each other so well. By the end, I was sooo stuffed, though! We were each served our own chocolate souffle, which was a little pillow of yumminess, but I couldn't finish it. Then, they brought us even more desserts - tiny little macarons, truffles, etc. I could barely waddle out the restaurant, thank goodness we could take a taxi home!

The restaurant was dimly lit, so I didn't take many photos, but I couldn't resist taking at least a couple.
Here's the 6th course - deboned rib eye of Wagyu Beef from South Australia with field mushrooms, baby spinach, confit of shallot and merlot sauce and pureed parsnips.


Lots and lots of wine glasses - there were eight wines all together.


My individual chocolate souffle with a spoonful of sour cherry ripple ice cream melting into it and a glass of french dessert wine.


This was the degustation menu:
king salmon sashimi with riesling from Alsace
veloute of globe artichoke with chenin blanc from Loire Valley
seared scallops with chablis from Burgundy
blue eye trevalla fish with a sémillon and sauvignon blend from Bordeaux
braised oxtail with syrah from Rhone Valley
deboned rib eye of Mayura Wagyu beef with red Bordeaux blend
soup of seasonal fruit with an extra white not on the menu!
chocolate souffle with grenache from Roussillon
petits fours with coffee.