Everyday Essentials

This posting is dedicated to giving the readers a perspective on the type of house we live in, the vehicles that we drive, and the appliances that we use.

First of all, we will give you an idea of our house. We live in a two story home with a "double lock-up garage" (2-car garage in American english). The house has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and a fenced in backyard. With a few pictures out from home and the purchase of a few things to decorate with, our house now feels like home.

Next, we have significantly downsized vehicles for Angie. We used to have the large SUV ("Beloved" as Angie referred to it) and now we have a small compact car ("Surf" nicknamed by the kids). The challenge with vehicles started with Angie learning to drive my work vehicle which had the turn signal on the right side of the wheel and the wiper control on the left. Shortly after she became accustomed to the new setup, I purchased her a vehicle which had European style controls and put the controls back to the way they were in the US. Other than turning the wipers on a few times while turning, there were no major dramas. The car gets excellent kilometers per liter and is easy to park in tight spots in the car park.

Finally, we wanted to share some of the differences in home appliances. Starting with the laundry. In Australia, they do not vent dryers to the outside. Therefore, it is very common for people to put their dryer in the garage (if you have one at all) in order to keep the lint and humidy level down. Additionally, we hang clothes outside on a small close line connected to our privacy fence. This is a nice way to get the laundry dry as there is rarely rain and the weather is nice...even in the winter.

The other appliance that took some getting used to was the Australian oven. I would compare the oven size to a large microwave and Angie had to get the directions out to understand the new symbols on it...also, the temperatures are listed in Celsius...luckily, so are most direction for meals that we cook. Angie has it figured out, but of course, I ask her what to do every time she asks me to put something in the oven. Hopefully, I will wear her out and she won't ask anymore (just kidding). Finally, we have had quite an adjustment going from a refrigerator with an ice make to now having to make ice. In the early days, when I was filling up the ice trays, Paige asked, "What are those daddy?" I explained with a polite, "Baby, this is how we will now get our ice...we have to make it ourselves." Hope you have enjoyed the pictures and some of the quick stories.

Australian Education

American's here would revolt over the swings in prices of "petrol" (fuel) from day to day. We have watched and consistently petrol prices go up as high as $0.15 per liter ($0.60 per gallon) overnight from Tuesday into Wednesday. They then stay up until about Friday and then start to slowly work their way down to normal Tuesday levels. Needless to say, we get petrol on Tuesday. Did I mention that petrol on Tuesday still costs $4.00 US per gallon. Think about $4.00 per gallon on a regular basis and then they raise it to $4.50 on Wednesday. Also, it is difficult to find pay at the pump so it is common to wait in lines of 2-3 cars on a Tuesday to get petrol. Not the end of the world...just something you have to deal with when you live on an island.

Footy Anyone?

Recently Dan was back in the "States" as they call it here. I just want to say thank you to everyone who sent stuff back with Dan. Also I would also like to thank everyone who has sent us care packages. Some of the kids favorite things that they have recieved have been fruit by the foot, fruit gushers and band-aids. They don't have character band-aids like they do at home. The girls are wild about the Hello Kitty band-aids.

Our favorite pasttime is footy, which is rugby. During soccer season I suppose that would be called footy too. I am still trying to figure it out. We are able to watch rugby from Friday to Monday. Dan and I have our favorite teams already. Unfortunately, the season is coming to an end with playoffs starting soon.

One of Dan's friends at work (Rod McDonald) has a son (Liam) who is in the minor league's of Rugby in Australia. He invited us to go to his son's game so we could experience Rugby up close. The game was very exciting to watch in person...much like American Football but without the pads and non-stop. After the game, we went back to Rod's house for dinner with his family and Christian was able to talk to Liam about the game. Christian thought that it was the coolest thing in the world to talk to a rugby player...so cool that he wanted to get his picture taken with Liam. Liam was nice enough to pull out one of his old rugby balls, sign it, and take a photo with Christian. Since then, there have been quite a few days where Christian carries the rugby ball around and continually wants to play catch. If his build turns out to be anything like Dan's, we can rest assured that he will likely never step foot on the "footy" field or the oval as they call it here.

Australian Education
In addition to going to the game that day, Christian thought that it would be good to introduce the Australian's to tailgating. He noticed that Liam had a pickup with a flatbed on the back, otherwise known as a "Ute". He thought that we should suggest that we take Liam's ute to the game next time and tailgate before the game like we do at the Iowa Hawkeye games. Not a bad idea...amazing that the Australian's (professional drinkers by eastern Iowa standards) did not think of this idea a long time ago. When we mentioned this idea to Liam's parents, they thought we were talking about following a car too close (tailgating)...again, taking terms literally. Enjoy and have a laugh with us.

The Kitty Hawk and Lone Pine Zoo

This was another great weekend for the family. We were all very excited that the Kitty Hawk would be in Brisbane. I know that I, for one, wanted to see it. I meant that we would see a little bit of home(USA). Who knew that we would have to come all the way around the world to see the Kitty Hawk. The traffic was amazing to see this great ship. It was like the Field of Dreams. The Kitty Hawk was suppose to bring a lot of money into the city due to all the sailors visiting and having to get groceries for all the navy men.

After visiting the Kitty Hawk we decided to visit our local zoo (Lone Pine). This is were John Deere tells the people from the US to visit when they come here. It was really cool. Dan decided to get a family pass for us since we plan on having visitors. The kids and I have been since our first visit. One Friday, we were out feeding the kangaroos after school and one little kangaroo couldn't wait for Christian to feed him so he decided to help himself by tearing off the bottom of Christian's feed bag. We really enjoy the kangaroos and koala bears. I have told my Mom about all the really cool birds that they have at Lone Pine. When we went the first time, Dan brought us to all the shows that are put on daily like birds of prey and feeding of animal. Also you will see pictures of the dog on the back of sheep. This was a really fun show to watch. They showed us how the dogs respond to commands and how they will hop up on the back of sheep to get them moving into the pens.

I was really impressed by the way they would feed the birds. With a whistle sound the birds(lorikeets) would come in by the swarms and sit on feeders to eat. They had a big Farris wheel that the birds would also sit on. This thing was so full of birds that the Farris wheel was spinning very quickly. Quite a site to see. I took my turn on feeding the birds. I felt like the Statue of Liberty. You just had to hold your hand up with this lid on a stick and the birds would come to eat the food. I wanted the kids to get to feed the birds also but as they were coming in, Paige had a bird let a little go on her head. That is so like Paige's luck. As you will see in the pictures below I just couldn't let it go. I still laugh at the thought of poor old Paige. Thank goodness she isn't old enough to read this yet she would be so mad at me.

As promised before, I will now give you a little bit of Australian Education. Did you know that Australia is known for making the dual flush toilets. It is a circle on the top of the toilet split in half. One half being lager than the other. Christian informed me what the small one was for and what the larger button was for. I don't think that I have to explain that any further.

Also the bathroom is called the toilet since we are on the subject. Christian said to one of his friends at school that he had to go to the bathroom....his friend told him that they didn't have bathrooms at school only "TOILETS." Bathrooms have a tub and a shower. Now you know folks...we have toilets in public and bathrooms at our house. Enjoy your day, and remember that we send our love to all who are reading this.

School Days, Golden Rule Days

Sorry this has taken me longer to get this next post out. We are very busy with school, you all know how it is . Now that Christian is in grade2, he has homework every night. The first week of school went very well. Paige blended in like she had been there all her life. Christian made friends pretty easily also. The boys are teaching Christian how to play soccer. The boys must have went home and told their parents that they had a new boy in there class who didn't know how to play soccer! We also got the lunches firgured out also...I asked a lot of people at the school what I should bring for the kids to eat. They said to pack whatever I would put in their lunches in America. To make a long story short, Christian ended up eating fruit loops for his lunch. They have Tea (snack) in the morning. Christian ate all of his lunch at tea and only had a snack for his regular lunch. Needless to say, they were starving when I picked them up from school. Now I basically fix 2 lunches. A piece of fruit and a muffin for tea and sandwich with other stuff for lunch. It's amazing how quickly we adapt to the Australian culture of tea times. Morning and afternoon.

The parents are very friendly also. Everyone introduced themselves and many were anxious to get together. One of the Friday's after school we had tea with other parents from school while the kids played. That was fun. It kind of reminded me of my girlfriends back in Arkansas (Ya-Ya). We sat out side and the kids ate pasteries and we had wine, tea, and a lemon lime and bitter. I have no idea what that is, but they really like that drink over here. The following Friday, we were invited to Bailey Meyers' birthday party. This is a boy in Christian's class. It was a lovely party. The children played some games and then went across the street to the park for a little footy (I think they call everything footy....I'm still trying to get that nailed down). In addition, this is a little wild...one man followed me out at school and invited Dan and myself to his 50th birthday party. It was going to be very large with some John Deere dealers there. I told him we had plans. Then he called Dan at home and invited him for Sunday if we couldn't make it on Saturday. However, we didn't go since we already had plans.

The children both had field days here...they called it a "Carnival". I had no idea what it was. I thought they were going on rides for awhile. Paige told me that she was in training. For what, I thought to myself...standing in line for the rides? Actually it was very nice day and I was able to meet some new people.

A few things the kids are both learning is German. Paige can sing a good morning song and Christian knows how to sing Happy Birthay. Every Friday, Christian has an assembly where people get awards and they tell of peoples birthdays and what will be happening at the school. Christian heard about "AusKick"....which is like a camp for learning Australian Football. He is learning how to kick, catch and pass. Paige is picking up the accent very quickly and is correcting us on what we should be saying. I can't say "what" anymore...I have to say pardon.

Since I am spending almost 20 minutes or more in the car (each way to school with the kids) I have a fair bit of time to try and catch up on the lingo. In a future posting, I will try and put up fun facts about Austrailia and lingo that new people should know to help themselves out if they come to visit. We will call this your "Australian Education". Your first bit of Education is called Fairy Bread. This is served at birthday parties or for afternoon tea. It is simply white bread with butter and sprinkles (basically cupcake or cake sprinkles) on top. They call the little ball sprinkles hudreds and thousands. The Austalian's also say and interpret everything very literally. For instance, one time Dan was out to dinner with two people and they were going to share some pizza. He asked for a couple of plates assuming that the waiter would bring three (one for each) but since he said "a couple," only two plates were brought out. You must say what you mean if you want it to turn out correctly.

That's all for now...enjoy some pictures from the kid's "Carnival" as well pictures of tea time.

Christian's field day