The way it's supposed to be

After that day I wrote about in my last post, you know, where it was 44C in some parts of Sydney? Well, the next day it started to rain and the temperature dropped to about 20C for the next week and a half. It was a dramatic change. My hair went back to its almost-normal self, and not the mess of craziness induced by a combination of heat, humidity, sweat and salt water. It felt great not to have to shower at least twice a day (since I bike to school, I had been living with a fine layer of sweat for what felt like forever). I also wasn't sweeping up sand in our apartment on an almost daily basis, like I was doing after our regular trips to the beach. Despite the break from the heat, I was really missing the sun and the beach.

Finally, this past Wednesday, the sun poked through the clouds and it slowly started to heat up again. Wednesday afternoon, as I was sitting in the post-grad room with one of the other students, we both started shedding layers (because none of the building are temperature-controlled in any way and when it's really hot outside, it's really hot inside), and we both looked at each other in amazement, "I'm sweating here, are you?". We had forgotten what it felt like!

Today, Sunday, was the first day in almost two weeks where the sun looked like it would come out and stay out, as it's supposed to in Sydney. To celebrate, we went to Nielson Park, a harbour beach that we hadn't been to before. It was so great, everything a beach should be:

• beautiful sandy beach,
  
• waves weren't too high,
  
• not too busy,
  
• a kiosk that had good food and reasonably priced snacks,
  
• pretty shells and cool rocks, perfect for beachcombing,
  
• a nice mix of families, young and old people,
  
• and even shark nets.
  

This last one was an added bonus, since Sydney's had a few shark attacks recently AND Vic and I watched Jaws last night.

Here's some pics from our day. Gus and Vic checking out some "ancient ruins" at Nielson Park.


Vic throwing Gus into the water (see that splash? that's Gus). Not the best picture in the world (I should really dig out the manual for my camera!), but if you look closely, you'll spot the shark nets in the background.

Vic and Gus enjoying a paddle pop.

...another paddle pop picture. They were both so funny, I couldn't pick just one.

And, finally a picture of some sailboats for grandpapa's viewing pleasure. There was a regatta going on, so we had a beautiful view of a constant stream of boats sailing by us. This picture also includes the requisite middle-aged man in speedo, that no Sydney beach picture is complete without.

Extreme heat, bushfires and goodbyes

This past weekend was my parents' last weekend in Australia after a 2-month visit. They've eaten vegemite, tim tams, swam in the ocean, drank Australian beer, but they hadn't yet seen a kangaroo or a koala. To correct this problem, we went to the Walkabout Wildlife Park about an hour north of Sydney to see some Australian wildlife. Unfortunately, we picked one of the hottest days of the year (temperatures topped out at about 44C in some parts of Sydney), and it turns out we also picked a location close to one of the many bushfires raging in New South Wales.

We arrived at around 11am, heard a talk about flying foxes, pet some kangaroos, walked around with the emus, then started a little hike into the bush. On our way back, we were urged to hurry back to the Visitor's Center because there was a bushfire only 20km away and they wanted everyone close by in case they had to evacuate.

After returning to the visitor's centre, we were able to enjoy a nice picnic lunch and check out more of the wildlife (a wombat and a talking cockatoo) before heading back to Sydney. Thankfully, the fires didn't make it as far as the park, and the animals are all fine.

Gus, checking out a flying fox.


My mom, checking out an emu.

Gus and Vic, petting a kangaroo.



The kangaroos, trying to keep cool.


On Wednesday, my parents left for Canada. We had such a good visit, it was sad to see them go. For me, the best parts of their visit were:

1. Watching my parents enjoy Sydney culture as much as we do. The proof that they had truly acculturated was seeing my mom drink beer, swim in the ocean and wear a short skirt (for my mom, this means her knees are showing), and my dad defending the word "mate" (I'm not so keen on it). Both my Dad and Vic spent one evening making a case for what a good word it is and discussing how unfortunate it is that we don't have an equivalent word in Canada.

2. Being able to see my parents every day, especially watching Gus strengthen his relationship with his grandparents. In Canada, we were separated by a 6 hour drive, and saw them only 4-6 times a year.

3. Seeing Sydney through new eyes. Because of them, I have a new appreciation for the birds, trees and food. They loved the exotic-looking birds, like the Ibis and rainbow lorakeets that are common in Sydney. After returning from a week spent in New Zealand, my mom's comment was "I like Sydney better, the birds in New Zealand were brown, I can see brown birds every day in Canada". They also enjoyed the fig, olive and huge gum trees that line the streets in Sydney. And, they particularly enjoyed all the fresh fruit and veggies, and the different types of foods you find in the grocery stores here (like self-rising flour, which you don't see much of in Canada, but turns out is awesome for making fluffy, light scones, mmmmm, with cream and jam, mmmm).

Back to School

Cries of joy were heard across Sydney when kids returned to school after a five-week Christmas/Summer holiday this past Wednesday. Well....cries of joy were definitely heard from our apartment. Back to school means back to a predictable routine, which makes everyone in our little family happy. Although I'd love to think of myself as a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda girl, I'm really more of a verging-on-obsessive-compulsive-routine-loving kinda person. And, I think Gus might have inherited a bit of that. Gus was very happy to see his old friends, and the relaxed schedule of the first week helped ease him into school life. No dramas there.

Our other big news is that we finally bought a washing machine. Yay! No more dragging our laundry down to the laundromat on Saturday mornings. When I first started thinking about going back to school after working for 10+ years, I romanticized it, thinking about how simple life was when I was in school long, long time ago. Well, the reality is not quite as romantic as I had imagined. And, doing my laundry at a laundromat is a part of student life that I didn't much enjoy 15-20 years ago, and certainly don't enjoy at this point in my life. I did my first load of laundry using our new washing machine today, and sadly it made me really, really happy.

Here's some pics of Gus wearing his school uniform on his first day of school. In retaliation for all my picture taking, he'll no longer smile happily for the camera, hence the goofy faces.

Happy Australia Day!

I've been reluctant to write anything in my blog this week, because my main topics of discussion involve more complaints about Australia. If you're tired of hearing me complain, just skip the blog this week and check back in next week, when I'm sure everything will have worked itself out.

If you're interested in hearing how my life sucked this past week, then read on.

Complaint #1: It was another effing hot week....which means open windows...which means mosquitoes in our apartment making a meal out of me every night. I'm not even kidding, I haven't slept through the night for more than a week. In an attempt to ward off the mosquitoes, I bought mosquito coils last week. I've been lighting them in our room right before going to bed, and the effect seems to last for a few hours and then they're back biting me at about 2am at which point I light another coil so that I can sleep till 6am, and then they're back again. This coming weekend will definitely be spent finding a better solution, as I'm sure the only thing I'm achieving with the mosquito coils is inducing some kind of early cancerous death for us both.

Complaint #2: Probably as a result of all the open screen-less windows, TWO huntsman spiders made their way into our apartment last week.

To top it off, the big-ish spider in our shower now has a friend. I was willing to overlook his taking up residence in our shower as long as he stuck to his little corner, but now he has a roommate! He's totally getting evicted.

First Huntsman found in our living room:


Second one found on my desk:


The one highlight of the week was a trip to Hunter Valley for Vic and I on Saturday, while my parents looked after Gus. Hunter Valley is the closest wine region about 2 hours north of Sydney, with wineries like Rosemount and others you'd probably recognize (but I can't think of off the top of my head). See the sheen on my face in the pic below? That's because it was 42-freakin degrees on Saturday!




Yesterday was Australia Day. Vic and Gus enjoyed the celebrations downtown while I stayed home and tried to get a bit of a headstart on the week. Gus came home with this 'Ticket of Leave' that dispensed him from 'government work after being tried in London for being bad and arriving in Australia on the ship Piper'. Australia Day sounds much more interesting than Canada Day!


O.K. I admit it, my complaining is partly that complaining-but-really-you're-bragging that people sometimes do (e.g., I can't find any clothes that fit cause I'm just too darn skinny). Although the shine is wearing off Sydney, I'm still loving this country. Come on, how can you beat living 5 minutes from the ocean, with weather forecasts that never include the word "windchill"?

Here's some Aussie music, Josh Pyke singing Make you happy, to help you celebrate Australia Day too.

Trying to unravel the secrets to success

This past week was a much better one for me. It seems my mood is directly related to my productivity on my thesis. The more productive I am, the better my mood. Being productive on a project that is completely self-guided and has a deadline of some time in 2011 is no easy feat, and it's something I'm constantly struggling with. Whenever I have good days or (even better) a good week, I review it carefully to try and figure out the ingredients for a successful week. So far, to-do lists that include even the most mundane tasks written out every morning, breaking things down into small chunks with deadlines, and cappuccinos during the afternoon slump all seem to help, but are no guarantees. Any tips for me? ...send them on!

Enough about my thesis.... Vic and I recently came to the realization that our free babysitters (i.e., my parents) are not going to be here forever, and that we had better go out and enjoy some kid-free time while we can. Saturday night, we went to see a movie under the stars at Centennial Park. It was great, we packed a picnic of Tasmanian double-cream brie, a baguette, olives and a bottle of wine, and we drank and ate while we waited for the movie to start. It may have been the effects of the wine, but we enjoyed our night out so much, we decided to go back to Centennial Park the very next day with Gus and my parents for a picnic in the park.

Sunday, we returned with family in tow, along with prawns, a salad, and more olives, cheese, bread and more wine. After demolishing the food and wine, my mom had to lay down on a picnic blanket to recover from the wine and my dad and I spent some time debating the whole Israel situation. Uncharacteristically, Vic was not interested in joining the debate, so he and Gus kicked the soccer ball around. This is what normal families do, right? We ended the picnic with a walk around the park.

The yummy prawns we ate:


Some of the wildlife we spotted along our walk.

More wildlife, I think maybe it's a parrot? I recently read someone else's blog, and one of their new year's resolutions was to try to worry less and to be as happy as a bird with a french fry. This parrot reminded me of that very lofty resolution.

Gus laughing.

Gus making faces.

Gus getting tired of me snapping pictures of him.

Negotiation Phase

When you move to a new country, there are different phases of adjustment that you go through. First, the honeymoon phase when everything is new and wonderful. Next the negotiation phase, where you start to get annoyed about the differences between your old country and your new country. "This phase is often marked by mood swings caused by minor issues or without apparent reason." This perfectly describes my mood last week.

It was hot, hot, hot. We had to open the windows at night to cool down the apartment. The problem is that there are NO SCREENS ON ANY OF THE WINDOWS!??! What is up with that? In a country with poisonous spiders and huge cockroaches, screens should be mandatory, a legal requirement. But strangely they are not. For two nights in a row, I was eaten alive by mosquitoes. Aargh, I was a huge itchy mess, got very little school or paid work done, and grumbled the whole week about the lack of screens.

To top it off, a big-ish spider has taken up residence in our shower.

When we first moved into this apartment, we found a huntsman spider in the shower. It was pretty threatening-looking to our untrained eyes, and Vic quickly killed it. When we told our Australian co-workers and classmates about how we killed the spider, we got horrified reactions: "What, you killed it?" "They're harmless." "You should let them live, they eat the cockroaches" were the responses we got. After that experience, we resolved to let the spiders be. But, I'm getting really tired of keeping one eye on the spider while I shower, and I'm pretty sure the spider is getting bigger every day. If not euthanized, he may need to be relocated soon...to somewhere outside of our apartment.

Here's some pictures of the wildlife we see every day. A lizard in our apartment building entrance.



A spider that hangs out outside our apartment.


And on a totally different subject, we went to Harry's Cafe de Wheels over the weekend, for meat pie with peas, mashed potatoes and gravy. Harry's is a Sydney institution and the pies are traditional Australian comfort food. It was tasty as far as comfort food goes, but kinda gross at the same time, leaving me with the same feeling I get after a big plate of poutine.

How I spent my summer holidays

December 20th marked the beginning of 2 weeks holidays for all of us. Vic's work and the University both shut down for 2 weeks, and Gus started his 5-week summer holiday.

The first part of our holiday was spent getting ready for Christmas (mostly eating and shopping). After Christmas, we went on a small road trip, driving about an hour south from Sydney to go to Jamberoo (a water park) and the Illawara Fly Tree Top Walk, and staying overnight in Wollongong. It was a beautiful drive back along the Grand Pacific Drive and through the Royal National Park.

For the rest of the holiday, we did a lot of sleeping in, hitting the beach and doing some prep work for the hot summer weather. All three of us are already darker than we usually are at the end of a typical Ottawa summer, and we're only a week into the Sydney summer. Even more disturbing is that I can see myself ageing before my very eyes. Gus was already pretty well protected with his rashie and long board shorts, but Vic and I needed some extra protection. So, I picked up a rashie for Vic, a variety of sunblocks for every purpose (waterproof, perspiration proof, a combo moisterizer/sunblock), and a stylin hat from the Cancer Council shop.

The other summer prep work we did over the holidays was roach-proofing the apartment. The cockroaches here are humongous! And they fly. And there's no screens on the windows. Since we moved in, we've noticed the odd one in the morning in our kitchen, which everyone assured us is normal and inevitable in this climate. But, lately we've noticed them with more regularity. So, we upped the number of roach disks (these black round things that contain roach poison and are ubiquitous in Sydney apartments and houses) in our kitchen, and invested in containers for cereal, rice, etc. Since our efforts last week, we haven't seen one yet. fingers are crossed.

Here are some highlights from the past two weeks:

Eating lotsa pancakes (with REAL maple syrup, of course).


Watching the start of the Sydney to Hobart race (the sailboat with the dark spinnaker is called 'Wild Oats' and won the race in one day and 20 hours).

A beautiful view on our road trip to Illawara.

One of the many, many, many sandcastles built by Vic and Gus over the past two weeks:

The fireworks over the Harbour Bridge, which Vic and I watched from a friend's place who has a good view of the bridge. I admit that these were the family fireworks they put on at 9:00pm. At around 10:30, we headed home and watched the midnight fireworks on TV. Oh yes, we are that old and lame!

One of the many coffees we drank over the holidays. Have I mentioned they have really, really good coffee and a ton of nice cafes in Sydney? There is no such thing as filtered coffee here, it's all espresso-based coffees and they are oh-so-tasty.

Here's the best discovery of the holiday, a coffee called 'affogato' (which my mother says means 'smothered' in italian). It is a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a shot of espresso...pure heaven.

After a mostly relaxing two weeks, we're all a little sad to be going back to school and work tomorrow (with the exception of Gus, who is continuing his holidays for another 3 weeks in a combination of vacation care, hanging out with his grandparents and with one of his school friends).