Bush turkeys, leeches and goannas

We just got back from our first camping trip in Australia. I was pretty nervous about it, likely because of a story my sister told me years ago involving a large bug that crawled into her ear while she was sleeping in a tent in Australia. The bugs here FREAK ME OUT, and I just can't seem to get used to the sheer size and quantity of them. And, based on the size of the cockroaches and spiders that we've seen in our apartment, the thought of what they must be like in the outdoors creeped me out.

It turns out I was needlessly worried. Camping in Australia is similar to camping in Canada, and it felt almost comforting to do something so familiar...sit in camping chairs by the fire, tell stories, let the kids run around like a bunch of crazies. We went with Gus' classmate's family, which was great because Gus was kept entertained the whole time by his school friend and her sister.

There were a couple of differences, no picnic tables on the sites (standard issue in Canadian campsites), an absence of marshmallows and hotdogs for roasting (both are hard to come by in Sydney, and when you do find them, they just don't taste the same), and the campground is self-serve - no rangers in sight. You book ahead of time by phone, then when you get there, you pay by putting your money in an envelope and sliding it into a sort of mailbox-type thing. They also had big gas barbeques every few sites, very handy for cooking up snags for supper.

We went to Dharug National Park, just 1.5 hours northwest of here. The park was beautiful, with a large escarpment as a backdrop. If you look really hard at the bottom of this picture, you'll see Gus with his friend and one of the grown-ups checking out the Hawkesbury river, which ran close to our campsite.

Here's Gus, as we head out on a bushwalk on the first morning we were there.


When we finished our bushwalk, we realized we all had leeches burrowing through our shoes and socks and spent about 10 minutes flicking them off our ankles, feet and shoes. ewwwwww. As luck would have it, I was one of only two of our group of eight that got bitten (is that what it's called?) by a leech. I'm just thankful it wasn't Gus, cause that would have spelled the end of bushwalks for the next few years.



LEECH!!! Ewwww!


We had really hoped to see some wallabies or wombats out in the wild. Vic below, looking for possums in the trees.


Instead, we saw a whole bunch of bush turkeys walking around the campsites and this goanna by the outhouses. This thing was about 3-4 feet long. No kidding! We stayed a good distance away, because our travelling companions informed us that they sometimes mistake people for trees and have been known to try to claw their way up people. They said that you should quickly lie down if you see one running towards you. I'm not sure if they were messing with us, but I'm hoping I'll never have the opportunity to test it out.

D-A-N-A

Capping off a week of high productivity on my thesis (have I mentioned that my mood is contingent on how productive my day/week has been?), we've just finished a really nice weekend. Friday night, I went out to a Canadian-Australian club function. Ah, the comforting sounds of Canadian accents. I can't even begin to tell you how nice it is to have people pronounce my name right the first time I tell them. Here's a typical conversation with an aussie:

random aussie: What's your name again?

me: Dana

random aussie: oh, Deena.

me: no, DANA (in a slow, loud voice)

random aussie: How do you spell that?

me: D-A-N-A

random aussie: so your name is Donna

me: sigh, yes, you can call me Donna.

At the beginning, I kept trying to get them to make that hard 'a' sound in my name, but they often became completely flustered, and would mutter "I'll never get it right". So, I've given up, and I'm now known as Donna by many of my aussie coworkers and acquaintances.

Also this weekend, Gus had a friend sleep over. So we had an exciting Saturday night of pop, chips and kid movies. And Sunday, we did a little prep work for our upcoming camping trip. We are now better equiped than we ever were in Canada after buying up a ton of camping supplies from an Irish couple who just finished a cross-country tour. We've also gotten our big ol' car serviced and picked up a NRMA membership (like CAA) for extra piece of mind, in case our car decides to give up while we're on some remote mountain road. We're all set and very excited for our first camping trip in Australia planned for Easter weekend.

Pics from the weekend:

Chips and jelly beans for the sleepover. Is there a better combination?


This weekend, we also did a little tour of Bare Island Fort, which is in a suburb called La Perouse, and was one of the sites used in Mission Impossible.

The tour was a nice way to spend a sunny afternoon, despite being a little spooky with all these crazy little rooms that soldiers and others lived in thoughout the past two centuries. Here's Vic walking through one of creepy hallways.

For some reason, all our outings seem to involve ice cream?!? Funny how that happens. I'm not sure if you can tell from this badly taken picture (really I should find the manual for this camera), but Gus has the funniest expression in this picture. The kid cracks me up.

Smelling the roses and hugging the trees

Fall is the only season we haven't lived through in Sydney yet, and since it's absolutely my favourite season in Ottawa, I've been curious to see whether the same will be true in Sydney. So far, I can't complain. The heat has settled down, and the blistering 30C+ days are only a memory. These days, the temperatures range anywhere from about 20C to 27C and the nights are nice and cool. But, the leaves are staying bright green and there are some beautiful flowers in bloom right now, making it very hard to remember that it's fall here and winter is coming.

Yesterday, after a lazy morning hanging around the house playing lego (Vic and Gus) and reading the newspaper (me), we drove out to the Botanic Gardens for some ice cream and a little exploring. Every time I go to the gardens, I am in awe of the beauty...hence the picture-heavy posting this week.

The entrance to the Botanic Gardens. Don't you love this sign and its message?

Really tall palm trees.


Gus, exploring the roots of the a huge gum tree.


A warratah, the state's official flower. (a little factoid I just learned today). It's also the name of the local Rugby League team, or is it Rugby Union team....Vic will be so disappointed that I don't know this yet.


Me and Gus and a couple of ice cream cones. Chocolate coconut and caramel macademia. mmmm.


Vic and Gus, goofing around in a cave. (just in case you don't get it - they're pretending to hold the roof up)


Vic and Gus, goofing around in some bamboo.


And lastly, there were a whole bunch of weddings going on while we were there. At this one, there was a polynesian band playing. It was soooo nice. I told Vic that if we ever have a real wedding, I'd like that band to play at our ceremony. If you're reading this, and you're not yet married, and you're looking for a good venue...Sydney in the Botanic Gardens is a beautiful setting, just think about it (you know who you are).


On a completely unrelated note, in the past week I've seen several women wearing harem pants. Really? Harem pants? Is this really a fad we want to bring back? And, is this unique to Sydney, or is this a worldwide phenomenon?

Things that make us laugh

One of our favourite pastimes is making fun of Australians, more specifically the words they use. Yes, I know, completely culturally insensitive. But it hasn't gotten old yet and every week there's something new to amuse us. The other day Gus and I ran out to "Big W" (aussie equivalent of our Zellers or Wal-Mart) with the goal of picking up some craft supplies (we decided we needed to make a sock monkey). Once in Big W, we were wandering around in circles trying to find what we needed until we finally found a staff person and asked where we could find thread and buttons and her reply was: "in the haberdashery section". Haberdashery??? The last time I heard this term was in a Charles Dickens novel. This story later made for a good belly laugh shared with Vic. Vic suggested I should have replied "Yes, govnah", or "Please sir, may I have some more".... please remember we don't get out much and share a small apartment with a 7-year-old.

Some random pictures from this past week:

We've encouraged Gus to try a lot of different extra-curricular activities since we've been here (soccer, swimming, aussie football, rock band, to name a few), but by far his favourite is an art class we recently enrolled him in. Here's a pic of him showing off his latest creations.


Gus was at a sleepover last night so Vic and I enjoyed a night out. We went to "The Spot" (the closest trendy area) and ate tapas at "Spanish Fly" and later went to see the Watchmen (guess whose pick that was).

Vic was totally embarassed that I was snapping pictures of our food in the restaurant, but after lotsa red wine and some port to finish up the meal...he didn't seem to mind so much. Here's us enjoying our dessert: churros with choc dipping sauce accompanied by the nicest tawny port. mmmmm, I'm drooling a bit just thinking about it.


Close-up of the churros and tawny port.

Biscuits for the boys

I made ANZAC biscuits for the first time this past week. They were some of the best cookies I've ever made. The origins of these cookies are a subject of debate but the version that I like best is that the mothers, wives and girlfriends made them for Australian soldiers during the first world war. I think there's something very retro-romantic about a whole bunch of Australian women baking up piles of biscuits for their boys overseas.

There are a ton of different recipes out there. You can find the recipe I followed at this site. (FYI: I used only 1/2 cup of brown sugar and it didn't seem to affect the recipe, and in a separate attempt I tried using less butter, but this version came out a little dry and crumbly.)

Below is a pic of the first batch I made. You'll notice some of them have chocolate on top...that was Gus' brainchild. We called those CANZAC biscuits to reflect the Canadian influence. Shhhh, don't tell any aussies, 'cause they take their ANZAC biscuits seriously (see 'legal issues' in this wikipedia entry). And don't call them cookies either, as this is also a cause for grief (I've been corrected more than once!).

Time for family counselling?

Stuck in Sydney traffic and Vic is getting frustrated with the drivers in front of him:

Gus: When I grow up, my new mom is going to do all the driving.

Me: What?!? What's happening to me? Who's your new mom?

Gus: I can't tell you who my new mom is going to be, because I don't know who I'm going to marry yet.

Me: The person you marry is called your wife, not your new mom.

I'm trying not to dwell too long on how that conversation reflects on Vic and I's relationship. And I shudder to think about the implications for Gus' future girlfriends....


Gus joined the school's rock band and he's learning how to play the drums. He practices for 10 minutes every night, and it's just about the cutest and funniest thing ever. This is a picture of him rocking out to Rush - Tom Sawyer. (If you've noticed that Gus is showing up in pictures without his shirt on more and more, you would be right. We're turning into aussie hillbillies over here. Next week: pictures of Gus and Vic playing banjos on our balcony).


And of course, Rush - playing Tom Sawyer, so it'll be like you were right there with us.

Sydney beaches

I read somewhere that Sydney has over 100 beaches, and it doesn't surprise me one bit. If you drive along the coast, you could literally stop every few minutes for a dip in one of the ocean beaches. The fun part is that each one of them is slightly different than the other, which makes them fun to explore.

Inspired by last week's trip to a new beach, we decided to try out another new beach this weekend. We went to Palm Beach, which is rumoured to be where Sydney's rich and famous hang out. Palm Beach is on the North shore of Sydney (we're in the South East), so it was a bit of hike up the coast to get there. To break up the trip, we stopped along the way at a mini-golf pirate ship (who can resist a mini-golf course on a pirate ship??), stopped again at Vic's current work site - an amazing house on Whale Beach. Gus and I were quite impressed at the views and the sheer size of the house. And then one last stop to pick up some picnic eats.

We had another great beach day, with plenty of swimming, picnic-ing and exploring of rock pools. The area around Palm Beach is quite beautiful, with cliffs and rainforests and beautiful ocean beaches. Sometimes my head spins at the natural beauty that we're surrounded by on a daily basis.

The very next day (Sunday), we heard a report that a boy was attacked by a shark that morning when he was surfing with his dad at Avalon beach, just two beaches down from Palm Beach. Yikes! Although much less dramatic and not requiring surgery, Vic had his own run-in with a sea creature when he got stung by a bluebottle at Maroubra Beach where we went for a quick swim on Sunday. When we first arrived in Sydney, I was talking to an Australian about my spider fears, and he said that it is very unlikely that we'll ever get bitten by a spider, but highly likely that at least one of us will get stung by a bluebottle during our stay here. After seeing what Vic went through, I hope neither Gus or I ever get stung, because Vic assured us that if we did get stung, we would cry like babies.

I ran out of batteries in my camera this weekend, so just a couple of pics for you this week:

Mardi Gras, which we celebrated with pancakes, ice cream and real maple syrup, of course.



My one and only pic of Palm Beach. Beautiful, dontcha think?