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.

Seeing Sydney from the Second Tallest Structure in Australia

On 30 August I went to the observation deck in the Sydney Tower, which is 250 metres (820 feet) above the city. It's pretty touristy, but I really enjoyed it. There are 18 binoculars stationed around the observation deck, and the pamphlet tells you which sights/areas you can see through the numbered binoculars.

Here is the view looking towards the Sydney Opera House (white shells on the water, seen between buildings on the left) and the Royal Botanic Gardens.


Another trip to the grocery store - thought I'd be adventurous and try some weird flavoured chips (they had Ham flavoured, too!). The chicken chips smelled and tasted gross.


Here's a link to the rest of my pics from the day.

A few Aussie birds at the Royal Botanic Gardens

On 31 August I went to the Royal Botanic Gardens and took a free guided tour. The bloke who led the 1.5 hour tour was passionate about plants, and I really enjoyed it - so much that I didn't stop to take many photos.

However, here are two bird videos I took that day:

A pair of sulfur-crested cockatoos screeching at Royal Botanic Gardens.

A white-faced heron at Sydney Harbour. The island seen in the video is Fort Denison, and here's a cool clip about Fort Denison (once called Pinchgut Island) from a 1939 black-and-white newsreel.

Photos from Coogee to Bondi Coastwalk, 29 August

On Sunday 29 August we did the 3 hour coastwalk from Coogee beach to Bondi beach with Jennifer and Mark. It was a great, sunny day, and the beaches here are gorgeous.



Mark, rocking both the hometown pride (Deschutes Brewery), and the new town pride (Akubra Hats).


Here's us at Bondi Beach.


Here are the rest of our pics from the day.