Twas 16 "sleeps" before Christmas...Part 1

And the house was all clean.

The guest bedroom was ready,

and luckily no spider was seen...(yet).

I made my way to the airport,

welcome sign in hand. 

And waited eagerly for my parents'

international flight, to land. 

Here they are!

I waited among the crowd of people, all of us holding our welcome signs and mine a joking family nickname. I hadn't seen my parents in 5 months and after a few meals, a few movies, and an ambien they hopped off the plane looking excited and refreshed! We gathered their luggage and I impressed them with my newly acquired left-side of the road driving skills. 

We got going right away to stay on top of the jet lag and started our day with a traditional Australian brunch and took a long walk through the neighborhood and downtown to the market. My parents loved Queen Victoria Market, we tasted cheese and wine (favorite sparkling shiraz) and bought some fruits and veggies.  Jet lag started to kick in on our walk home so we made our way to the much needed gelato, and they were revived! We took the tourist bus around town to give them a feel for the city and some history, mum really likes to learn about history, but she fell asleep. 20 hours traveling, 16 hour time difference, and sugar coma, who wouldn’t?!  When Jaime arrived home from work that evening we ordered pizza from our favorite pizzeria and enjoyed having the excellent company. It was really nice to see my parents after 5 months and a move across the world, they settled into their little guestroom and it was just like home.

We told my parents to take ambien on the flight over so they could sleep a few hours, which they said worked great. Mum was told to take ambien again the first night in Oz to help with adjusting to the time frame. Mum went to get ready for bed and when she came out, she settled in on the couch with me, as we love to sit and chat. At this point I didn’t know she had taken a whole ambien. About 10 minutes into our conversation she appeared to completely and randomly fall asleep mid-sentence. “The dog was runni…ng…and……” her eyes squeezed shut and her head fell slightly forward.  I just watched her for a second thinking she was trying to remember what she was going to say. But when she didn’t say anything else, I started tapping her and saying “mom, mom”.  Nothing. Head forward, glasses on, sitting fully upright, and appearing to be fast asleep. Now again, I didn’t know she had taken an ambien. So I began to get a little worried, although it was so bizarre that I couldn’t stop laughing. Jaime was sitting at the table doing work, watching me as I was laughing and freaking out saying, “I don’t know what happened…she won’t wake up!” Jaime told me to check her pulse, but I was having a hard time focusing. Her pulse was low and her breath barely audible and so I was worried my mind was playing tricks on me. My mum doesn't drink much alcohol and never gets drunk, but if she were ever to pass out I would imagine this is what it would be like.  I am actually having a hard time writing this because I keep laughing. So after some more shaking and calling her name, Jaime came over and applied pressure to her shoulder, like they do to wake people up after surgery, and she groggily lifted her head and let out a really slow “o….o..o…owww.” I said “mum, you just fell asleep mid-sentence are you ok?” and she said “well apparent…….l…y” and boom…she was out again. So again, worried but unable to stop laughing, we concluded that she took the ambien already and that she probably should have just taken a half. I brought out her pillow and blanket and moved her so she was lying semi-upright, but comfortably, as I was still a little worried, so she could dream away her ambien overdose on the couch.

The next day we toured around Melbourne and passed by Federation Square just before Oprah arrived to say hello! So we didn’t see her in person, but she wasn’t far away. We ate lunch at the BEST dumpling place in Chinatown. The great thing about the ethnic food here is that it really is ethnic. In the US we eat “American Chinese food” here, we eat real Chinese food, real Indian food, real Vietnamese food etc…the same things you would eat if you were visiting the particular country. And it is delicious! I had to learn how to eat the dumplings correctly, you put it on your spoon, dip in your soy sauce with pieces of ginger, then you bite off the top of the dumpling, suck out the broth, and then eat the rest. They are so good and so addicting! Yum!

The next day was Saturday and Jaime had the week off, so we woke up early and began our travels. First stop, Christchurch New Zealand.  About a three hour international flight to Christchurch which is on the far east coast of South Island, New Zealand. (NZ is described as North Island and South Island). Christchurch itself was a small city but the biggest city in its region of Canterbury. We had a delicious lunch with the local beer, Monteiths. We had a few hours to check out Christchurch and then we began our drive west for our first night in NZ at a much anticipate (for me) farmstay. 

Warwickz Farm was fabulous! Run by a husband and wife team, (she is a true kiwi and inherited the farm from her family). We stayed in the red barn, which was half guest house, and half their little shop/workroom for all things made from wool or alpaca hair.  

They had tons of alpacas (related to the llama but smaller), two large Arapawa Island pigs with 5 new little piglets, tons of chickens, roosters, ducks, messenger pigeons, doves, sheep, rabbits and guinea pigs, all with a variety of breeds, a donkey and of course Tracey the angora goat. Tracey was born not too long ago from their resident angora goats, she has been raised by Chris since birth and so she basically follows him around like a dog.

Long-haired pig and her piglets (felt like a paintbrush)

Freshly sheared!

Hungry and curious...

Up close and personal!

One of many bunnies!

Beautiful rare-breed chooks

He loves apples!  

I love sheep! 

Perfect Easter bunny

Tracey makes her debut! Playing tag with dad.

That night we were greeted by our hosts with wine and fruit cake and were introduced to some beautiful angora rabbits, with really dirty feet!

The angora bunny has to be brushed for two hours everyday to keep her coat smooth and fluffy. She was soft and so warm, perfect for cuddling on a chilly night.

The next morning, we awoke early to the roosters “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” There were two roosters, one young one old, and so the cock-a-doodle doos always came in twos. One sounded normal while the older one sounded like he had just smoked a pack of cigarettes.

Glamour shot

I walked downstairs to my parents room (still in my pajamas) and found them sitting on the bed fully dressed, suitcases packed, talking and giggling. (This is usually how I found them in the mornings, up and ready to go with bright eyes and big smiles!).  While Jaime and I got ready, Tracey the goat and Chris set-up breakfast and we ate outside our barn right in the middle of the farm.

Chris and his helper...
This was right before Tracey licked Jaime's cereal bowl.

Breakfast on the farm

After breakfast they took us on a thorough tour of the farm and we met and learned about all the animals. They had some really great stories such as a random finding of a hedgehog family in some chopped wood, a self-made incubator for a special breed of chick eggs when the power went out after the recent earthquake, and a wool shedding sheep that gave Chris such a run around while he was trying to hold him that the whole wool coat came off in one piece in his hands and the sheep kept running. I was really excited to stay at the farm because I really wanted to hug or even shear a sheep. But the sheep were SO dirty that I opted for a hello wave instead. The farm was delightful, we all enjoyed seeing and petting the animals. Jaime was especially good, he didn’t have pets growing up and so he is not too sure about how he feels about animals, but he always ends up enjoying himself and the animals loved him! Chris grabbed a piglet for us to pet and this pig was squealing like a madpig, he was not happy but Chris didn’t put him down, just let him squeal and squeal, but then he passed off to Jaime the hypnotist and immediately that pig looked up at Jaime and went to sleep in his arms. Amazing! He also bonded nicely with Tracey, which definitely helps my case for getting a goat someday (zone permitting!).

Squealing Piglet!

Ah...warm and safe.

Best Buds!

To be Continued while we lure Tracey into our luggage...

Tis the Holiday Season to 'envisage' being Australian.

During my last two weeks of work at the National Stroke Foundation, I trained their new permanent hire to manage the helpline (turned in my headset) and was put on project work. The supervisor gave me and a seasoned employee, Sally, several tasks to work on and basically I wrote up drafts and Sally would edit them before we sent them on to the supervisor. In discussion, Sally often used the word, "envisaged" sounded like "en-viz-u-jed" i.e. "I thought we envisaged sending the survey out nationally." She used it unnaturally often. At one point, Sally was dictating and I was typing, she of course used 'envisaged' (never 'envisage' always 'envisa-jed') in a sentence, and I naturally wrote 'envision' since I figured that that was what she actually meant. When the draft was finished and she returned it to me with edits, she changed my 'envision' to her 'envisaged' and it came back underlined and highlighted three times by the computer editor. So, I got curious and did some research. Turns out envisage and envision may or may not be synonymous, depending on where you are looking.  The actual definitions are very similar with just very subtle differences between the two. On one forum (oddly, there was a whole discussion about this, you really can find anything on the internet) someone mentioned "envision means that we see something happening in our mind's eye, but envisage means that we can conceive of it happening but don't necessarily see it." I thought this was such a strange word to use if this was the case. Although, this conclusion doesn't match the actual definition. The Grammarist stated that both words mean to visualize, the difference is what is being visualized. Envisage is to contemplate or consider something real, while when you envision something, it is usually hypothetical, imaginary, or removed from reality. I often notice subtle differences in language/word-use and spelling, but this one I had to investigate, it just sounded so funny every time Sally said it I thought for sure she was mental.  But 'envisage' is a real word, with possibly more opportunity to be used than 'envision' if our interpretation is correct...but who knows! Give it a try and let me know how it goes. :)


A few weeks ago, Jaime went to New Zealand for a weekend conference. It was our first weekend apart since we have been in Oz. The weirdest thing was actually driving him to the airport, on the right side of the car and on the left side of the road, so he could take an easy flight to 'New Zealand'. Ya know, the usual weekend trip. While he was gone I spent one day at a BBQ in the park with some friends on one of the first sunny days we had had in awhile. The next day I had one free movie pass so I decided to go see Harry Potter on a Sunday afternoon. I went to the big theater in the center of town which is a chain and most of the theater chains here we discovered do assigned seating when you buy your ticket. The first time Jaime and I went we thought it was so strange we had assigned seats. When we got to our row someone was sitting in one of 'our' seats. Since the theater was huge...and empty...we didn't ask them to move, we just moved down a bit and sat in some other seats. As more people started arriving we realized quickly that this assigned seating thing didn't seem like the best idea, as there always seemed to be people in the wrong seats. Then you have to make a decision, do you ask people to move out of your seats when you are in a huge movie theater (where people aren't really used to having assigned seats) or do you just sit somewhere else. If you sit somewhere else then it becomes a chain reaction...if you happen to be sitting in someone's seat do they ask you to move or sit elsewhere and if you do move then you are bound to be in someone else's seat. Its quite the issue as you can tell. :) 
So I got my ticket for the movie and told the guy I had no seat preference so he just gave me a seat. When I got to my row there were two young kids, one of course, in my seat. Again, the theater was huge and empty so I just sat at the end of the row. Do I ask to two little kids to move only to continue to be pushed around the theater or do I sit in a random seat and try my luck while waiting in suspense until atleast 10 minutes after the movie starts? So, I just sit at the end of the row and now, I just have to sit and anxiously wait for someone to ask me to move. Sure enough a man with 4 kids came running up the aisle and stopped at my row...so I got up and moved to the other end of the row. I watched everyone around me run into the same problem. The whole row in front of me got all mixed up each time a new couple arrived due to one person stating that she didn't know there were assigned seats. Two rows behind me two guys made 4 people move only to find out they were in the wrong row themselves and the four people didn't really need to move. But when they figured out what row they were supposed to be in...oops, I had to move...again. This time I picked an obscure outside row corner spot that no one would pick and...success! I was allowed to stay in my seat and the movie was really good...someone tell me what happens to Harry in the end!...Mendy...Karen...anyone! (Jk, you've held out this long...I guess I'll have to wait for the next one and another assigned seat...oh the suspense!)


A quote from Jaime's work, "They don't call us the nation of holidays for nothing!" This my friends, is no joke. Aussies do enjoy a good holiday even if it is randomly dedicated and randomly placed. And I certainly agree with this perspective. Aussies are very good at working to live and enjoy life and in no way do they live to work. As Christmas approached, business owners started hanging signs that read Closed: 24th December - 4th Jan. Even the friendly couple at are local cafe were preparing for a nice two week holiday. Non-profits like my old job at the stroke foundation closed for the whole week after Christmas, you couldn't work even if you wanted to. And if you didn't work at a place that closed down, it was ok because you got plenty of holiday time. Christmas was on a Saturday and then Australia celebrates Boxing Day the day after Christmas. This holiday originated from the British, in the old days Boxing Day was the day for the servants to take the day off to celebrate with their families and to receive any new or re-boxed gifts from their masters. For Australians its just an extra day to wrap up the Christmas holiday and make your way home...unless it is this year. This year since Christmas was on a Saturday, Monday became the national holiday off of work (we did that in the US too) but then because Sunday was Boxing Day, Tuesday became the weekday Boxing Day public holiday. New Years Day was on Saturday and so, like the US, Monday was New Years Day holiday and in New Zealand they got Monday for New Years Day holiday and Tuesday for "Day after New Years Day" holiday. No joke. This was serious holiday time, which was nice for everyone. Jaime had a really light week at work, since no one was around, and so we had a lot of time to relax and enjoy the warm weather (finally!).  This was a church sign my parents and I saw when they were visiting, two days before Christmas. Even the church says it all. 

My parents came to visit for two weeks in December and we had a fabulous time! Will fill you in on the details in my next blog. We had a little Christmas dinner a few days before while my parents were here and then they left on the 23rd. So Jaime and I decided to escape for the weekend for a quiet Christmas at the beach. We headed toward the Great Ocean Road and stayed in a little resort town called Lorne, about 2 hours South of Melbourne. It was great timing because everyone that lived there left to see family and then everyone who vacations there came on Boxing Day when we were leaving. On Christmas eve, there were not alot of food options, we grabbed a cheese pizza and played each other in Buck Hunter and Speedway games. Jaime always gets perfect sites in buck hunter...I usually only hit the turkeys running across the screen during the bonus round. We stayed in a sweet little cottage attached to a house on an isolated street where we could look for koalas and kangaroos. How often do you stay in a populated area where you can look for koalas right outside your window! We didn't see any that night but we did hear some birds that sounded unnaturally like monkeys in the jungle. Christmas morning we went to a little Anglican church (most churches here are Anglican/Episcopal) so similar enough to catholic. There were about 30 people in this tiny church and this was probably the most amount of people in the church ever. I realized this when communion got a little crazy. There was not much organization as to which rows were getting up so eventually just one side of the church was going row by row, but soon the other side decided to join in. Instead of making two rows down the aisle, we made one, and so as people returned to their seats, the lined weaved from right to left, right, to left, to let people by. I was trying so hard not to laugh but Jaime's commentary behind me was cracking me up as we stepped from side to side. We made it back to our seats, sang my favorite Christmas carols and were handed a candy cane on the way out. We went back to our little cottage, made breakfast, opened our gifts (from each other and some special packages from Jaime's parents), skyped our families, made sure my parents were recovering from jet lag, and went to the beach. We had a really nice Christmas and drove back to Melbourne on Boxing Day and passed lines of traffic waiting to get into Lorne.  


New years eve everyone looks forward to the rooftop fireworks. Jaime and I went to a late dinner and headed down to southbank by the river to watch the fireworks. The fireworks go off at midnight from strategic large building rooftops around the city so there are many options for viewing areas. The best part is that you could literally turn around in a circle and see fireworks the whole way around. It was really really cool and a great way to ring in our new year far away from home. And we were second in the world, which was really cool too! (Second to New Zealand which is 2 hours ahead of Australia). The paper the next day reported that there were 450,000 people within Melbourne CBD on new year's eve for the fireworks. I have never seen so many Australians in one place! Happily, amongst our 450,000 temporary friends, we said a bittersweet goodbye to an amazing 2010 and looked forward to a new and exciting 2011! 


Rooftop fireworks 2011!

Me and just a few of our 450,000 friends. 

We wish you all a Healthy and Happy 2011! 


Love,
The Kraus Haus in Australia 

"100% Pure Adrenaline" all week! Day 2-7

After eating breakfast at the local Port Fairy diner we continued on our way.  A short drive outside of Port Fairy we left Victoria and crossed the border into South Australia. We were no longer on the Great Ocean Road but we continued to travel along the same coastal highway. We had a four hour drive to our next stop, a sweet little seaside town that used to be SA's most important ports for exporting wool, called Robe. Along the way we had a lot to see...the southern most tip of SA is known as the limestone coast and also forms part of the largest volcanic plain in Australia.  Upon arrival to Mt. Gambier we explored the blue lake that formed in the crater of an extinct volcano (and is actually the town's drinking water). Our timing was great since the water is a perfectly vibrant blue from November to March and then it becomes steel grey from April throughout the winter months (due to temperature and calcium carbonate...chemistry...etc).

We explored one of many giant sinkholes that have been turned into gardens...

And were absolutely amazed inside Tantanoola cave. This cave was randomly discovered years ago by a young boy chasing a rabbit down a hole. A walkway was built but the cave has otherwise been left completely untouched and remains in its most natural state. The large pillars are formed as a result of the stalactites and the stalagmites growing into each other from the ceiling and the cave floor. Really cool.

We then proceeded on to the Coonawarra wine valley, one of the top wine regions in Australia, for some afternoon tastings. We chose a few off the mark vineyards, tasted some really great wines and stocked up for the rest of the trip and made our way to Robe. The next day we drove a pretty solid 5 hours to Cape Jervis to catch the ferry to Kangaroo Island. We drove through farmland, beautiful countryside, mountains, and even rainforest, while passing through small town after small town, some which literally took 30 seconds to drive thru. We took the car ferry across the Murray River into Wellington, which runs  all day and all night as there is no other way to get to Wellington from the highway.

We arrived at Cape Jervis and took the 45 minute ferry ride across the ocean to Kangaroo Island. KI is a story in itself. The island is HUGE and takes you ruggedly back to nature with a population of 4200 and three main towns. The main highway stretches from the ferry to each main town so that there is one solid road around the whole island. The rest of the roads were unsealed, meaning lots of dirt and rocks. Once the sun begins to set, the roads are full of kangaroos (native to KI these roos are smaller than the usual roos you see on the mainland), possums, koalas, and all sorts of other wildlife. Jaime had a good eye and spotted each roo from far away so he could slow down in case they wanted to jump into the road. He also spotted a Goanna, which looks like an iguana but is native to KI and rarely ever seen!

Being the third largest island in Australia, it takes a few hours to drive from east to west coast, but it took us the whole day with all the things to see along the way. We started at a honey farm where we tried all sorts of honey and learned all about the bees. I knew bees were smart, but I guess I didn't know how smart...they are pretty amazing! Next we visited seal beach where we walked down to the beach and watched the local sea colony bask in the sun. Our traveling has been extra special since most animals have their babies in Spring and so we have seen a lot of little ones, including a rambunctious seal pup jumping all over his mum.

We drove on and rented a sandboard to take on the dunes of Little Sahara. Jaime was an immediate pro and headed right up to the largest dune, which I must say was quite a surprising climb! Cait and I had a few tumbles but made it down a few of the smaller dunes. We drove even further to Flinders Chase National Park where we walked along the remarkable rocks, remarkably formed by wind and water over time, and checked out Admirals Arch, a natural bridge made from rock, beautiful at sunset, and will eventually collapse into the sea.

We planned on continuing on the highway to head back to the east coast so we could see the whole island and eat dinner in the smallest of the three towns. About 20 minutes away from Parndana and dinner, driving in the darkness, I had just mentioned that because KI is so big,  it always feels like we are the only people on the island, and one minute later, the car starts slowing down. Cait and I asked Jaime what he was doing, but he wasn't doing it...the car was stopping all by itself and we pulled over onto the side. The car wouldn't start and we were officially broken down! We figured we probably wouldn't see another car for awhile, but one came along eventually and stopped. Luckily, Jaime signed us up for RACV, which is Australia's version of AAA, and although we were in the middle of nowhere, they were able to locate us and send help! The town where help was coming from was the town we were staying in about an hour away. So we climbed back into our car and waited, Cait and I giggled and played games on our cell phones to lighten the mood as we were going to be fine, and the best part...no predators on this island! So even though it was completely pitch black outside in the middle of nowhere, we didn't have to worry, there were no bears, wolves, or lions on this island, just kangaroos and koalas roaring at our windows.

So we made it back to our hotel safe and sound. The next day we found out it was the fuel pump and they would have to fly one in from Adelaide and it wouldn't arrive until the next day. We were supposed to catch the ferry that afternoon but changed our plans to stay for one possibly two nights depending on when the car could be fixed. So we rented a car for the day, one with 4WD drive so we could explore some of the hidden beaches on the unsealed roads. We visited a lavender farm, ate fish and chips at a tiny little restaurant on the northern coast with nothing else for miles. We checked out Stokes Bay, which ranks as one of my most favorite beaches (and as you can tell, I've seen alot of beaches!). We had to walk along a little path that weaved in and out of rocks and caves and just when you think you are getting anywhere, you emerge onto a beautiful beach. The best part about this beach is the natural rock pool that is so shallow you can see all the marine life and wade and swim in warm water heated by the sun. It was definitely worth the long, bumpy drive to get there.

We worked our way back to Parndana to check out the places we didn't get to see the night before. As we were walking into the only bar/restaurant, Cait heard what sounded like a baby crying. She and Jaime looked in a car and sure enough there was a baby, crying in his car seat with window cracked. We went inside and Cait and I told the bartender about the crying baby and she said ok and immediately walked outside to get the mom (she knew who it was right away). Then a stocky, rugged woman came in with her drink and asked the bartender in a deep voice "Who told!" and the bartender immediately pointed to Cait and I. We just looked at her, wide-eyed, but the woman proceeded to smile, chug her drink, slam the empty glass on the bar and walk out.  !!! speechless. But still able to whip Jaime's butt in a game of pool. (He was thoroughly suprised I could play). Because I won the first game we had to play best 2 out of 3 for championship rights, and on the third game we were both down to the eight ball and I fudged so Jaime became champion, for now. :)

We spent the night at a little family-run motel, where we made friends with the owner and felt very welcomed. They were able to fix the car quickly in the am and we headed to the port to try to catch an early ferry back to the mainland. We missed a stop in Murray River due to the extended stay on KI so we drove 5 hours directly to Dunalan Cottage a farmstay in Bordertown, named for its location on the border of South Australia and Victoria. We stayed in a sweet little cottage and in the am we made breakfast with farm fresh eggs and milk. We made friends with farm dog and even fed the chooks our breakfast scraps! Although I thought it was a little weird that chickens eat eggshells. The next day we drove the rest of the way home along the inland route, passing through the Grampian mountains and small towns all with their own character and reason that they were put on the map.

We saw so much stuff in just one week...nature at its best, wild animals, smart bees, remarkable rocks, a baby left in a car, a broken down car, lots of pizza, new and old wine, and eggshell eating chooks. We had a great trip and an even better time, just being together, on the road.

A Truly Great Ocean Road Trip "100% Pure Adrenaline"-Day 1

Ok all you roadies, if you are like me and love a good road trip, then you've taken in every breathtaking cliffside vista point and lost yourself in the magnificence of the redwoods along US 1/PCH, you've gotten your kicks on just pieces of the once Route 66, you've driven through the sweet little coastal towns of Maine in the fall when the highway was lined with leaves of every color, you've taken on Alligator Alley in the everglades, you've rolled along the green hills while exploring every loch in Scotland (no monster yet), and you've held on for dear life on the Autobahn, just to name a few. Well, no roadtrippers checklist would be complete without thoughtfully winding your way through the Great Ocean Road in Australia.

The Great Ocean Road is a 243 km/151 mile stretch along the south-eastern coast of Australia, within Victoria. Back in November Jaime and I took my sister-in-law Caitlin on a week-long holiday road trip! We left Melbourne early saturday am and planned to drive the Great Ocean Road (which can be done comfortably in two days) and continue on along the coast to South Australia, ferry over to Kangaroo Island, and drive home on the inland Dukes Highway for a night at the farm.

The road begins almost an hour south of Melbourne in a popular little surf town called Torquay, where Jaime found one of two new loves of his life...the Rip Curl Headquarters! 

Now, being married to a surfer, I have been in just about every Rip Curl from east to west USA and am now working my way across Australia. But here was the mother of all Rip Curls. It was Saturday, so it was closed, but as the Aussies say, we ticked another box of our list! Rip Curl Headquarters-"Tick". We all did a little shopping and found out too late that there was a HUGE Rip Curl outlet on the street just behind the main road. Next time. 

We proceeded just outside Torquay to Jaime's second new love, the famous Bells Beach.  Famous for a few reasons, 1-it is the site of the Rip Curl Pro, held every Easter and known internationally as one of the top surfing competitions. Only the best at this competition and often only the best surfers are out practicing at Bells due to its strong rips and rocky sides.  And 2- Bells Beach was the final scene in Point Break where Patrick Swayze goes to surf the 30 year storm. Patrick pleads to be set free to surf the monstrous waves, his life spent waiting for this moment, and as he paddles out to sea, the ever-so talented Keanu Reeves gives his famous line, expertly quoted by my husband, "He's not coming back." The rest of the trip I just kept repeating the famous quote, "100% Pure Adrenaline!" just as my eldest brother did throughout my entire childhood. 

The next few hours of the drive took us through several little coastal towns as we winded along the cliffs with vast blue ocean on one side while next thing you know you are in a forest and pulling over to take a picture of our first wild koala snoozing in a eucalyptus tree! He was super cute. 

As we drove on we became a little further from the coast and that was when you can appreciate the beautiful contrast of bright blue sea leading into bright green rolling hills. It was pretty amazing. 

As you drive through the bush, always watching for kangaroos, you approach a well-known highlight of the Great Ocean Road. The Twelve Apostles are randomly huge rock formations, formed by erosion along the limestone coast, sitting in none other but the Southern Ocean (the 5th ocean no one ever remembers).  We arrived as the sun was beginning to set and it really seemed to be the perfect time of day for viewing these oddly magnificent rocks that used to be 12 but are actually now, only 6! I can't even begin to tell you how often I am reminded of the amazing powers of mother nature during my travels here in Australia. Whether exploring natural sites or learning about the discovery and settlement of this vast continent just over a hundred years ago, mother nature is constantly making her statements. 

We were on the road for about 8 hours on our first day, the drive is not that long, but we took our time and stopped often to enjoy the sights and check out each town, but we were very glad to roll into our first hotel in Port Fairy. Port Fairy is a must-stop according to all the travel tips due to its location and charm. Well, we arrived into this sleepy town at the "late hour" of 8:00 pm and were told by the hotel owner (who was locking up for the night) that finding dinner was going to be a long shot. Some places were closing up, but the three restaurants that were open were pretty full, I think the entire Port Fairy population was in those restaurants, and we luckily found a table at a bustling Thai restaurant. We popped open our first bottle of wine (happily BYOB most places in Oz) and celebrated the first stop on our trip. We finished dinner around 9 pm and as we wandered outside it was so dark and so quiet. As we walked down the street toward our hotel, we began to hear what sounded like music faintly in the distance. We kept walking and soon enough found the only little bar in the sleepy town of Port Fairy. The music came from a cover band called Rose and Paul who were playing none other than beloved American tunes while a small group of locals danced in the small space in front of the mic.  We immediately joined in on the fun, singing and dancing to a little bit of home! I tried to make a few requests, but they had a set playlist and were still in the process of learning Bon Jovi. 

That first night on the road...you always sleep well. :) 

Check out more Great Ocean Road Trip pics.

 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2085722&id=1608184181&l=9b0faac830

And, trying out my flip videos! Koala and Port Fairy's famous Rose and Paul. 

Mishaps with the Metric System

First, let me start off by saying what an AWESOME basketball game my team had last week! We were down most of the game and trailing 17-10 in the last 8 minutes. It usually takes us a good half to figure out our best strategy. During a quick time-out we strategized again and in those last 8 minutes we put the pressure on, came back and took the lead 17-18! In the last 10 seconds the other team had the ball and was going in for an easy two-pointer. We were putting so much pressure on that our player fouled her, but stopped the basket. The other team only made 1 foul shot so the game was a draw. (No overtime in women's intramurals I guess?). Awesome comeback for us and disappointment for the other team to draw when they had been leading the whole time. And, I made my second basket of the season!!! Now, second basket is big, considering I've only played five games and just started shooting a few games ago, and both were 3 pointers! (Jaime was super impressed!) This is what they sounded like.....Swish.....Swish. Yeah! I love it when my teammates say, "Top shot Ash!" :)

Jaime reminded me early in November that one night I invited a whole group of people from the hospital over for American Thanksgiving. It sounded like a great idea at the time! Everyone was so excited because being from everywhere else but America, they knew that Thanksgiving was all about eating good food all day but had never experienced it. So the party was on! We had a guest list of 10 (which of course ended up growing a little) and we planned our menu.  My Mumster (which she has recently named herself after I started calling her "mum" like they do here) sent me all of her recipes and I began to make a list of ingredients. I was a little worried because I've always been Mumster's assistant for holiday cooking and never the mum. :) My first order of business...canned pumpkin, based on my food experiences here thus far...I just had this feeling this would be difficult to find and too late to have them shipped for home. Now, Aussies LOVE their pumpkin. They eat it in everything, they bake it, roast it, steam it, and put it in salads, sandwiches, and soup. But pumpkin pie??? They just don't do it.
I began my search with Google. A yanks down under forum gave me a few stores to try. I asked a girl at work and she had no idea what I was talking about until we got on the same page and I learned that the correct term was "Tinned pumpkin" and "No way would we sell tinned pumpkin!" This became a pretty rowdy subject and no matter who I mentioned the tinned pumpkin issue to, I always always got a hearty laugh...."Tinned pumpkin!?? No! hahahahahhahahaha." I often had to explain that in America, no one eats pumpkin like they do here. I had no idea how to even cook one. After my potential stores were unsuccessful, I began to google how to make a homemade pumpkin pie. I borrowed a hand-held blender, found myself a little sieve, and bought three pre-cut halves of butternut pumpkin to make my pumpkin puree. I put the baked pumpkin through the sieve several extra times to get all the water out so I didn't have a watery pie. Puree looked successful, but I sieved it so many times that it didn't look like much was left, but I put it away to save for the pie.

 

I couldn't find any frozen or pre-made pie crusts at the store, so we had a bakery make them for us (J's idea! Brilliant!).  By a stroke of luck, Thursday (Thanksgiving Day at home) I was talking to a few girls at work about my pumpkin pie and this one girl said she lived right next to a USA Food store out in one of the suburbs and would gladly find me some "Tinned pumpkin." She brought it in the next day, just in time for some pie-making! phew! 

So Jaime was the sous chef and I was acting mumster and we got to work. I made three pumpkin pies, 2 canned and one with my homemade pumpkin puree. My home-made one ended up being a little fussy, since I didn't have enough pumpkin, it was thin and cooked funny, so I kept that one for me. BUT, it tasted exactly like my canned pumpkin pies which came out spectacular! People said things like, of course you should make a pumpkin pie with fresh pumpkin, don't you want a fresh pie? Well, truth is, they taste exactly the same and that tinned pumpkin is SO worth it. :)

Thanksgiving dinner consisted of a little 6 pound turkey (which my family found comical when I showed it to them on skype...they also don't sell turkeys here except at Christmas and then they run about $80), a little turkey roast stuffed with cranberry and stuffing, green bean casserole, candied yams (which had limited marshmallows since the package only came with pink and white marshmallow mix, and the pink ones were strawberry flavored, lol), gravy, tomato salad, cheese ring, rolls, and mumster's make ahead mashed potatoes...

Now, you always want to make sure you have plenty of mashed potatoes. So I lugged home 7 pounds of potatoes (talk about super bag lady) and Jaime expertly peeled them. Throughout this whole cooking ordeal, I was constantly coming back to my computer to work out conversions from grams and ml to cups and ounces, C to F, etc. I was doing this so much that some things I just started to estimate. I just figured that the marks on the butter package were tablespoons, just like home, and I was getting "too good" and too busy for conversions. We mashed and mixed the potatoes and drizzled alot of butter on top while following the recipe. It did seem like alot of butter, but we figured it would sink in overnight. The next day, Jaime and I had to plan out our cooking strategy since the oven is the size of a toy box. The potatoes went in and when they came out, they were dripping with butter, like massive pools of butter. I called mumster right away to find out what to do and she calmly said, "Just pour it off." Right! So he tipped the pan while I held in the potatoes and we poured and scraped butter off the top several times. It looked much better. I did a quick mixing while they were hot so they could soak up a little more butter and within seconds...they turned yellow. So now we had a huge pan full of yellow mashed potatoes. When people arrived they crowded around looking at the food and kept asking if they were scrambled eggs. That's how yellow they were!! And I just replied, "Well...I had a little mishap with the metric system." It got a good laugh.

Our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of one Australian and people from Holland, Portugal, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, New Zealand, Canada, and Malaysia. They all tried a little of everything, including the yellow potatoes, and most went back for seconds. Dessert was a hit with the pumpkin pies, a kentucky derby pie (which looked nothing like mum's, but luckily tasted just about the same and ended up going home with a very happy guest), and a beautiful strawberry sponge cake that someone made.  It turned out to be a really nice day and we were so thankful to have such a wonderful group of friends to celebrate ours and their first Thanksgiving! 

On Sunday, Jaime and I had movie day, and I literally could not move from the couch. I was exhausted! It was well worth it...but from here on out, holiday cooking will still be at Mumsters or pot-luck! :)

In my recovery stuper on Sunday, Jaime showed me the quick converter right on the desktop of his mac, which definitely would have made life easier. Then I would have known that:
1 tablespoon of butter weighs 14.19 grams and I wouldn't have used the 50 gram markings on the butter label as tablespoons. 


oops! :)


Happy Thanksgiving! 


I am thankful for all of you! (and that butter tastes so good!)

Faster Me Beauty! Faster!

I cheered on my horse in a little Irish pub as we watched the "Race that stops the nation". Melbourne Cup is one of 4 horse races during Spring Carnival week in Melbourne and the Melbourne Cup is THE race! And actually a national public holiday. I entered the sweep at work and my beautiful horse, Javite, from New Zealand, hung in till that final straight-away, when Americain, stunning in red, white and blue came up from behind to win it all!
So Spring Carnival week in Melbourne can only be described as, simply amazing, with all sorts of meanings. There are 4 races during the week, each sponsored by a big company. The week starts off with Derby Day on Saturday, followed by Melbourne Cup on Tuesday, Oaks Day sponsored by Crown on Thursday, and Emirates Stakes the following weekend. Everyone is not only totally psyched about betting on their favorite horses but even more excited about the Fashion. Extreme fashion has completely taken over this event and it is a time for elegance and extravagance. The main attractions are the women's hats or fascinators (ornaments for your hair) and matching dress/ensemble all the way to your shoes, purse, and jewelry. Each day has its designated dress day (i.e. black/white classic, subtle colors, extravant colors, etc.) and every woman is carefully and beautifully dressed. The men wear suits, vintage and modern, and the occasional top hat. It is really serious business! Each race day is packed with people sitting in the stands or camped out on the lawns leading right up to the track with blankets, chairs, and coolers full of beer and spirits. (The boys really love their premixed Rum and Cola in the can, while the girls drink champagne). Each day is all about fun, fashion, drinking, betting, and cheering during the incremental horse races throughout the day, and this goes on all week!
Since we are only here for a year, Jaime and I try to do everything we can and so going to some of the races was a definite must. I had so much fun trying on a billion hats! I tried on everything from the little flower clip to the $2,000 brim hat. It was amazing that I could actually wear something huge on my head and it was completely normal. Jaime had to work during the week and my sister-in-law Caitlin was arriving from China on Melbourne Cup day so we decided to go to the first race of the week, Derby Day. I picked out my little fascinator and carefully placed it on my head. I wore my classic black and white dress with my purple ashmina and Jaime looked great in his proclaimed "sporty suit". And we were off to the races! The weather predicted rain, which it started to sprinkle by the time we got our start to the day. It then proceeded to pour steady buckets and buckets of rain throughout the rest of the day.

Now, on a side note, apparently the weather here is completely abnormal, no matter what happens, such as monsooning for a full day without stop, abnormally cold days in November, everyone always says..."It's never like this." I am starting to get a little skeptical about this whole "really hot summer" thing.  The weather is better described as...Spring...kinda...ah,Summer...No, Winter, No...wait...Monsoon!...ok...Summer? (shrug).

We were told over and over again that last year Derby Day was "roasting hot". But this year, while wearing my cute little hat, the 10 year drought finally came to an end.

Here we are wet.

Here is everyone else...wet.

Jaime and I stuck it out, we had a beer and a "gourmet" hot dog, and cheered on a few races. It wasn't the total feel of what the day is usually like, but the racecourse was beautiful and the horses were powerful, and we got the general idea.

Then we got ready for our first guest! Jaime's sister, Caitlin, arrived on Tuesday, Melbourne Cup Day, and we were so excited to pick her up! The next few days were a whirlwind of activities. I was so excited to have a companion to run around with during the day that each night Cait and I came home exhausted! On Wednesday, Jaime got out of work early and we drove an hour and a half south of Melbourne to Phillip Island. This is where you get to see the most amazing show, the absolute best one I have ever seen. The Penguin Parade. You walk along the boardwalk to your viewing area where you sit and look out onto the beach. Then you wait until the sun just goes down, and then you see it. All these little native penguins, only 3 inches tall full-grown, they are going home from a day of fishing at sea. They first have to cross the open beach before they get into the brush and make their journey to their little dug-out homes. They wait until sundown to ensure all the predators have gone to sleep before they are exposed as they run across the open beach. Then as they waddle down the path, we got up from our viewing area and followed them as they were alongside the boardwalk. They were absolutely amazing. They usually stayed in groups, some stopped to rest or preen their feathers, some were mating, some were fighting, and some came home to feed their babies. We could watch them for hours. The coolest part was that they didn't even care that we were there. They just went about their routine walking alongside or under the boardwalk, some even made their way out to the parking lot! Jaime mentioned that it was almost like a zoo in reverse as we were maintained on this man-made boardwalk while viewing them in their completely natural habitat and their normal daily life. It was so cool. So come visit me, and I take you!

The next day Cait and I went out to find her a fascinator for her hair so that we could get all dressed up for Oaks Day. We got all dolled up, put some funky things on our heads, and we were off! This day was beautiful, a little chilly, but sunny and nice and we had a great day checking out the fashion, drinking our champagne on the lawn, and cheering for our favorite horses right up by the track.

Cait and I in our fascinators!

 The Lawn leading up to the track at Flemington Racecourse.

C'mon #2!

Just another day at the Races.

Bite the hook, the fish will.

Ouuuuuuch! You would think I have never handled paper before...I just got my twentieth paper cut! Since I started my desk job, I have been surrounded by paper. Single paper, stacks of paper, pamphlets, brochures, big envelopes, small envelopes. I've been doing alot of paper handling and I tell ya what...these little things hurt! Last week, a woman called up and wanted to thank the lady who sent her the Christmas cards that we offer at the Stroke Foundation (so people can send them out). She wanted to see what they looked like, but she didn't end up wanting them. She said, "Look, (everyone says 'look' here when they start a sentence), Look, they are really pretty with the white snow everywhere and everything, but I would like to send out cards that look like Christmas here in Australia." A flash of dry and barren outback with a Christmas tree crossed my mind. Isn't it funny that even in a place that celebrates Christmas in the hotness of Summer and has only one or two places on the whole continent that may see snow (Southern Alps), they still associate the holiday with everything covered in white snow.

Well, speaking of snow, we didn't get any here in Melbourne, but we might as well have. This is the city of "Four seasons in a day" and they aren't kidding. It's cold and windy, then hot, then raining, then hot, then cold in a matter of a few hours. We have started to get some really nice Spring days, but by no means consistently. So Jaime and I were looking very forward to our first trip to Queensland! We decided to start our exploring with the Gold Coast which begins at the border of New South Wales and Queensland and heads North to Brisbane through many small little surf towns. We stayed in a beautiful little apartment in Coolangatta, southernmost town of Gold Coast and just over the border of Tweeds Head NSW. It was awesome. We had a great balcony with a beautiful view of the Pacific and the high-rises of Surfer's Paradise in the far distance across the water. It felt so great to breathe the warm, salty air. We had plenty of cute shops and places to eat within walking distance and driving up the coast was a straight shot taking you through all the little towns each one just minutes after the other. They all have their own beach and Surf Lifesaving Club named after their town. These clubs are local hangouts for members and anyone with food, drinks, events, and pokies (slots), to raise funds to support the lifesaving programs that employs the much needed lifeguards and specialty training for new lifeguards. As you may remember in my scary Australian animal blog, this is a highly respected and intense job, not only for saving people from the ocean predators but also frequent victims of the rip-tide. So, J and I tried to stop into as many as we could just to check them out and help the cause. :) The beaches were quiet and relaxing all the way up to Surfer's Paradise, which all of a sudden looks like a small Miami. Lots of high-rise hotels, shopping strips, and activity all around. During university holiday, this place apparently becomes similar to Daytona Beach at night. We grabbed a bite to eat at Pancakes in Paradise (?) and headed back to our beautiful, non-high-rise beach in "Coolie".

The next morning we drove south about 45 minutes to Byron Bay in NSW. This came highly recommended by all of our friends who have been to Australia. And it was awesome. We were told it used to be populated by hippies and while it still has this overwhelming hippie vibe, apparently it is becoming more "yuppie". In any case, the beaches were beautiful and we got a little sun, walked around and grabbed a beer with the locals at the open-air beach bar. We checked out The Pass (high surfing area) and Surfer's Lookout, and then climbed our way up stairs the length of 4 football fields (Jaime's estimate to get me to go) and took our picture at the "Most Easternly Point of Australia". There we were. Two little people at the eastern tip of a huge continent looking out into nothing but vast blue ocean. If we were in a movie, this would be the end where they would pull back and we would get smaller and smaller while the ocean and world around us became bigger and bigger. That's what it felt like. But here the adventure continues...

The next morning we woke up at 5:00 am Queensland time and drove 6 minutes down the road, where it miraculously became 6:00 am just over the border of NSW. QLD decided that they don't do DST. And we boarded our fishing boat for our half day at sea. I was very excited for our deep-sea fishing excursion, however, it was cold and windy and so incredibly rocky, that I was a little seasick and over the whole thing after fishing for an hour. I kept eating so that my stomach always had something to gnaw on and if I was sitting and holding my rod then I was fine. So I remained functional, but Jaime still baited all my hooks. :) The other lady on the boat kept going to the bathroom to quietly throw up and one of the younger boys couldn't eat bc his stomach was upset, but he remained functional too. Anyway, I caught a little blue mackarel at our first stopping point, which I was super excited about. They called it a "slimy" and instead of it being a prize, and my dinner, it went into the live bait box. However, it did tempt the best catch of the day! My mighty fisherman husband caught a HUGE King fish! This fish was a runner and Jaime expertly wore him out and reeled him in. It was awesome! Once on the boat, after the initial awe, I was switching from video camera to regular camera and as I came out from the hold I made it just in time to see the captain whack the fish with a bat. I was already woozy and I almost fainted.
I guess you can't have a gigantic fish flopping around a boat. Jaime comforted me with physiological "fish don't feel pain" education. Anyway, Jaime's fish was the prize and at the end of the trip everyone took home a 1/4 of the fish. We invited one of Jaime's friends from high school (randomly currently living on the Gold Coast) and we had a fish feast. It was delicious and literally from the ocean to my plate!

We took a late flight out on Monday and had a wonderful day. I read in the sun with my new little beach hat. Jaime rented a board and caught a few waves for his first surfing day in Australia. We toured around and went to the wildlife sanctuary where we finally got up close and personal with some of the "Australian Icons." We saw so many koalas! They were super cute eating, climbing around or just sitting on random branches of the tree, what should have been awkwardly, but was quite comfy for them. We watched them for quite awhile, they look exactly like the stuffed animals. So if you have seen a stuffed animal koala, just imagine its alive, because they really do look exactly the same. Except for one, that as we walked away, I told Jaime "That one looks like Yoda."

We also got to see a Tasmanian devil, which btw, does not look anything like the cartoon character. They are actually a little bit cute, like small, black dogs. The bad news is though, that these little devils are endangered and are being killed off by a terrible plague, Tasmanian Devil facial tumor, that is spreading rapidly through the population. It began somehow due to pesticides on the vegetation they have been eating and it is just terrible. They are trying to contain as many as possible in order to protect them from the disease and keep the population alive. We then saw a Huge saltwater crocodile but we didn't spend much time there, but I didn't feel bad for not liking them because there was a girl trying to take a picture with a huge smile on her face, saying "look over here, look this way, c'mon." You would think she was looking at and calling to a furry little kitten and not a monstrous man-eating reptile. So, we left the crocodile canoodling to her and moved on to something a little more cuddly.  Finally some quality time with the Roos! Once Jaime realized he was allowed to go in the kangaroo hang-out he was gone. There were kangaroos and wallabys hopping around and lying in the sun. I must admit we were a little timid at first. Random children were just running up to them and petting them and feeding them but it took us a little while to get close. A RN from Jaime's hospital told us that in the wild kangaroos defend themselves by leaning back on their tail and using their claws to rip up their attacker. But I figured these guys were declawed. The rules sign said to be sure to crouch down to their level when feeding them, so I would do one of those sit down and inch closer and closer. We were being ridiculous and once we settled in, we were feeding and enjoying our kangaroo friends. Some even had a little joey in their pouch and you would see a head or foot peek out every now and then. It was fun to be up-close and I am sure this is the first kangaroo meeting of many.

We didn't want to leave the beach, but it was a great trip and we still have plenty more of the Queensland coast to explore.

Arrived home sun-kissed and rejuvenated, we did.