Halloween, Aussie-style

Aussies suck at Halloween. There, I said it. They do other things really well (coffee, meat pies, beaches). But Halloween, not so much. It's understandable though. The problem is that it's a relatively new holiday here, having only recently been introduced. And while the kids love it, and embrace it wholeheartedly with great costumes and attempts at trick-or-treating, there are many Australian people my age that have strong negative feelings about it, because it's an "American holiday". Wha?!? Not only is Halloween not a uniquely American holiday, but it has Celtic roots, not American roots. Adding to those difficulties, is the fact that Halloween falls in the Spring, with flowers in full bloom and the sun not setting till almost 8pm. Not the spookiest of settings.

Despite the above challenges, there were a number of houses all decked out and some people really getting into the spirit. We started the night out with a Canadian/American event in The Rocks (a touristy part of Sydney), where we met up with some American friends (Hi Ana!), then off to one of Vic's coworkers who was putting together a Halloween party to give him a few tips on Halloween decorating, got in some trick or treating, then to some Aussie friends' house to end the night with a bbq, of course!

Gus in his bat-boy costume at the Canadian event....at a bar! a very aussie-spin on Halloween!

Pumpkins here are crazy expensive, like $30+. So not surprisingly, we saw some creative alternatives to the pumpkin.

Gus, trick-or-treating. What's that she's fishing out of that bowl with a spoon, you ask?

Hmmm, let's take a closer look...


It's an eyeball! Edible? I'm not sure...and we won't be testing it out, either!

And Gus' haul, which includes a packet of crackers, Easter eggs, a mini cupcake and a handful of cheesies! The last one from a group of young people, sitting around having a drink in their front yard, who offered him a handful of the freshest cheesies evah! How could he resist?

Acclimatized...sorta

Proof that we're finally acclimatized:
1) Yesterday, Saturday, we walked down to the beach. It was another sunny day, not too hot though, around 20C. When we got down to the beach, we were surprised to see people swimming! There was a cool breeze coming off the ocean, and we all gave a big shiver at the thought of getting wet. This time last year, I'm sure we had all been in the water for a couple of swims already.

2) We saw a whale at the beach! It was pretty exciting because we had never seen a whale in our neck of the woods. I watched it play around in the water for a few minutes, before I got tired and moved on to doing something else. IT WAS A WHALE! Looking back at the experience, it felt a little surreal. What kind of life am I living where I've now seen enough whales that I get tired of watching them?

3) On Friday, Vic placed a bet on a horse in this weekend's big race (the Caulfield Cup). Betting and the horse races are two of Australians' favourite things to do (separately and together). In fact, there is a huge race coming up at the beginning of Nov (the Melbourne Cup), and on that day everyone in the state of Victoria has the day off.

But, on the flip side, there are some things we still can't get used to:
1) This past week, Vic ran into a convenience store to pick up some lunch. When the bill for his convenience store sandwich, pop and chips came up to $19, he almost had a fit...but then he remembered that we live Sydney.

2) Yesterday, I got my hair cut in Potts Point - swish 'hood at the other end of the eastern suburbs from us. And I had to ask Vic to drive me there. After more than a year, driving in Sydney still gives me cold sweats. I'm sorta used to driving on the left side now (although I'll still occasionally walk to the passenger's side, or turn on the windshield wipers when I'm trying to turn on the turn signal), but the streets are insane and the drivers are even more insane. It's not uncommon to have 5 streets meet up at an intersection. And to make things worse, once sydneysiders (who are usually quite friendly) get behind a wheel they turn angry. I'm not kidding. I'm not sure that driving in Sydney is something that I'll ever conquer.

p.s., Vic's horse won the race, and now he's planning to use his winnings towards other future bets. Should I be worried?

Vic watching the whale, Gus planning his jump into the sand.

Gobble gobble

This weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada. A time for family, overeating and giving thanks. To stay true to our Canadian roots, we decided to celebrate the day with the Canadian-Australian Club, who hosted a Thanksgiving lunch today.

We ate turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, played some Canadian trivia and met up with some of our Canadian friends. At one point, one of our group pushed away his plate and said 'I can't eat this, the turkey isn't dry, my sister isn't arguing with my mother and there's no couch to nap on after we're done eating...this isn't Thanksgiving". I completely agree - despite the Canadian-Australian Club's best efforts, it wasn't quite the same. This sentiment was echoed when they played Oh Canada at the end of the lunch and we all stood and sang...there were a few teary-eyed people by the anthem's end. It's not easy being on the other side of the world from family and friends. But, we're finding and making our own little community here in Sydney, and in spite of some homesickness on my part, we had a fun time at lunch, especially playing Trivia (if anyone knows Vic - trivia is one of his strengths and his fave activities...there is a ton of useless knowledge stored in that brain of his).

There was even pumpkin pie. ...not sure what's up with the grape and mint leaf though.


Gus had a blast, mostly because of the ice cream they served to the kids, and the colouring contest in which he won a frisbee.



Although I think he may have been given a prize because the judge was worried about what Gus might do if he didn't win...is that a creepy picture or what? I think Gus felt that if he embellished the picture, it might improve his chances for a win - hence the red horns and other added features on that poor girl in the picture.

As an aside, Gus is taking an art class with about 7 other kids - all girls, no boys. It's hilarious, whenever we go pick him up, the girls show us all their pictures of butterflies and rainbows and Gus shows us his pictures of aliens, monsters and mass destruction machines. Yeesh! I often wonder what the teachers must be thinking.


Happy Thanksgiving fellow Canucks! Eat some turkey for us. (warning: don't stare at that last picture for too long, it'll give you nightmares)

Quest for koalas

This weekend was a long weekend here in Australia (it was Labour Day on Monday). To celebrate the long weekend, we headed to Port Macquarie, about 5 hours North up the coast. We are still dying to see koalas or kangaroos in the wild, so we were all pretty excited about checking out 'the Port', as it is said to be prime koala habitat.

Well, this weekend we saw just about everything else but a koala in the wild. On the drive up, we took a little detour down a dirt road to see a 400-year old eucalypt. Along the walking path to see the tree, we spotted a python just hanging out on the boardwalk. It was the strangest thing...when I saw it, my mind instantly tried to make sense of seeing a python just 10 feet away from me. As in, am I in a zoo, or a reptile park, what's going on here?!? It was surreal. Although not poisonous, we (especially Gus and I) gave him lots of room, but Vic got close enough to snap this photo.

The 400-year old eucalypt we had set out to see.

We also took some time to do a guided tour of a subtropical rainforest, where we saw a wallaby. And went on a whale-spotting boat trip, where we saw several whales, including a mom and her calf. And to make up for the fact that we saw plenty of koala-crossing signs but no actual koalas in the wild, we visited a koala hospital.

The wallaby in the rainforest.

One of the injured koalas at the koala hospital. Awwww!


Another of the hospital's koalas up in a tree. Can you spot him? Is it any wonder we haven't seen one yet? They are well camouflaged up there!

One of the elements of this holiday which made it so successful was the kitchen facilities in and outside of our room at the hotel. At our last two mini-holidays, we've been lucky enough to score rooms with mini-fridges, microwaves and outdoor bbqs. This is a godsend with a kid like Gus, for which the term 'picky eater' is an understatement. When we go out for meals, we have to be very specific, like 'he'll have the burger, but with nothing on it, I mean NOTHING on it'. And when the kitchen staff forget and the burger comes out with ketchup on it, then we're stuck with a meal that Gus will not even look at. Grrrrrr. This has made for many a stressful supper out.

Vic and Gus eating supper at the hotel's outdoor kitchen....and Gus and I cleaning up afterwards.


It was a great, great holiday. It's a lot of fun to live in a country where we are also at the same time tourists where everything is new and exciting.

Vic and Gus looking for fossils at one of Port Macquarie's many beautiful beaches.

Fun with Kumquats

OK - I'm warning you right now, this is going to be a lame post. I'm exhausted these days...not sure why, but it may have to do with the birthday party we had for Gus a week ago that involved entertaining 10 kids for 4 hours. I'm still recovering. 10 kids is way too many, and 4 hours is way too long, what was I thinking???

Anyways, you know how people who work in offices might sometimes bring home the odd pen or pencil, or a pad of sticky notes? Well, the other day Vic brought home macademia nuts and kumquats from the worksite. The macademia nuts were yummy, but required several serious blows from a hammer to break them open (making them an instant hit with Gus). And the kumquats were equally entertaining.

Turns out they're really sour.

That thing around Gus' neck is a sling because a couple of weeks ago, he broke his elbow. Well, he may have broken his elbow (the two doctors he saw disagreed on whether there was in fact a break).

Totally unrelated, Gus is the new banana king, thanks to a special delivery from Michelle. Ever since our recent trip to Canada, where his cousins introduced him to this acid-tripped-up youtube video, he can't stop talking about Charlie the banana king. And now he IS the banana king. Thanks Michelle!




The crazy hair that Gus is sporting in the picture above is because until recently he couldn't take the sling off (both doctors agreed on that one), and Gus' barber warned us not to get his hair cut till the sling comes off because the itchiness from the little bits of hair that would inevitably get stuck in this sling would be unbearable. The lack of a haircut combined with Gus' complete and utter lack of interest in a hairbrush have resulted in some really great bedhead.

This coming weekend is a long one, so we're heading up the coast for some fun in the sun in Port Macquarie. Can't wait! I'm planning on lots of sleeping, eating and swimming at the beach.

Spring has sprung

I've now lived through all four seasons in Sydney, and I've decided that Spring is definitely my favourite. The weather is perfect these days. Gorgeous blue skies and not too hot, with temperatures around 20-24C most every day.

Last weekend, we went to the Festival of the Winds (a kite flying festival) at Bondi beach. Bondi is by far the most famous of all Sydney's 100+ beaches. It's a beautiful beach, but man - it is crowded, and parking at Bondi - well the parking situation is exactly what keeps us from going to Bondi more often (that and the fact that we live just down the street from a great beach).

Vic dropped Gus and I off at Speedos (our breakfast destination and also a famed haunt of Hugh Jackman's), and proceeded to spend an ungodly amount of time circling around to find a spot. After finally finding parking, he joined us for breakfast. And although visibly shaking with the traumatic experience of trying to find parking at Bondi beach and pining for a beer to settle his nerves, he decided on a mango smoothie instead. Disappointingly, we did not spot Hugh and after paying a stupidly expensive bill (have I mentioned Sydney is pricey?), we walked down to the beach feeling a little defeated by the whole experience. Thankfully, our time at the festival completely erased the earlier parking, non-Hugh Jackman-spotting and breakfast-paying stress.

Gus made a kite at a kite-making workshop, then spent a good amount of time flying his homemade kite at the beach. Kite-flying is one of those things that I don't think about doing very often, then when I do it, I wonder why I don't fly kites every day. The colourful kites looked amazing against the backdrop of the perfectly blue skies. Afterwards, on our ride back, seeing all the little shops and cafes spilling over with people enjoying the day, Vic said to me (Mom: don't read this next part), it's days like this that make me want to stay in Australia (Mom: if you did read that - don't worry, we're still planning to move back after I'm done my PhD).

thanks to Fl Girl for the beautiful pic (Gus' kite is the green and orange one):

Back on-line!

Wow! So much has happened since we last spoke, I'm not even sure where to start. ...Well, first of all, I can now say, with all certainty, that moving does suck (as per the comment made by anonymous) no matter how few posessions you own and no matter how short the move. Do you know what really sucks? It's those last straggling boxes that you just stuff things into from your 'junk drawer' or from the piles that were lingering on your desk and that you don't really feel like you can toss away but at the same time, they don't really have any obvious place to go in your new home. Those boxes suck, packing them and then unpacking them.

But, we're all settled in now, and loving our new place. It's positively palatial compared to our last apartment and still close to the beach and right across the street from Gus' school. In fact, our view is of the chooks (that's aussie for chickens) that his school recently acquired. (sidenote: isn't Gus' school so amazing? they continue to delight me with their innovative teaching styles. Gus recently reported that if you're really good you get to take an egg home with you and all the kids are very excited about that. How unbelievably sweet is that?)

In other news, I am proud to say that I have been spectacularly productive on my thesis lately: I've acquired the funding that I'll need for my research, submitted one application for ethics approval, drafted up a second one that I'll be submitting at the end of the month; and have gotten support for my research from the three needle and syringe programs in the area where I'll be conducting my survey. In other words, for the past few weeks, I have been winning the battle with my Getting Started Monster (I hate that guy, I fight with him all the time!).

One last thing, remember that post where I wrote about the scary Aussie public health messaging and how they try to scare you into being good? Well, that's nothing compared to this new German ad about the dangers of unprotected sex and HIV. CRAZY!!! Have you seen it yet? I tried to find the video on youtube to show you, but it's been pulled. So here's a link to an alternate site that's showing it. If you follow the link, make sure there aren't any kids around - it's pretty graphic! Apparently, it's causing quite the hubbub in Germany and elsewhere. Understandably.