Royal Melbourne Show

Yesterday we took Tanya's 6 year old stepbrother Patrick to the Royal Melbourne Show. This is not so much a show as a huge fair that they set up annually for only 10 days. The size and popularity of this annual event begs the question, why only ten days? Happily this coincides with a week of school vacation, so there were numerous teenagers dressed in questionable outfits (not to mention hairdos) considering the outside temperature, lining up for the fairground roller coasters and haunted houses. We had a great time with Patrick! There were lots of rides and attractions for the younger kids too. Some of the highlights - and lowlights - were a dramatic face painting of Spiderman, the circus presentation, learning how to juggle, watching a live sheep give birth (?! - we fielded some questions after that), petting baby animals, finding myself as the only adult on a child roller coaster, watching a contest that we could only gather was a cow beauty pageant, admiring the sheep dogs herding, the log chopping contest, fairy floss (cotton candy) and lots of rides. Patrick had so much fun and on occasion, a very educational experience. At the end of the day is a mad rush for the show bag pavilion. Show bags are basically giant goody bags that you need to purchase as a momento of your time at the Royal Melbourne Show. Needless to say, we were exhausted after the day and in complete awe of people who attempted this day with more than one child in tow. I was definitely missing my nieces and nephews though and knew this was something they would all love. Well, minus the sheep giving birth thing. And speaking of, happy birthday to my youngest nephew and godson Ryan who's 3 today! With the time difference, he's 3 here anyway!

Sausage rolls

It's been a week of adjustments and figuring out how things work. You can imagine that when Tanya was showing me how to turn the oven on, I was quite horrified to learn that you needed to crawl INTO the oven head first with a lit match, while keeping one hand on the gas release button. I kept imagining her coming home from work and I'd be eyebrowless with a new receding hairline. I was mentioning my hesitation at climbing into the oven with a match to Tanya's friend Mel who subsequently bought me a loooong gas lighter so I could give it a try at more of an arms length away. Needless to say, it's not something I've attempted yet. But I am getting quite skillfull at hanging clothes on the clothesline. Now you may think this would be simple, but there's definitely an art to it. Think about it! All your wash on display for people to see? So you learn how to strategically hide the undies behind a bed sheet and things like that. Australia is very environmentally conscious so most people don't have clothes dryers, or use them sparingly - something I hadn't even considered before! There's also been a draught for a few years so everyone is on water restrictions. So that means you watch the amount of water you use for absolutely everything from brushing your teeth to washing dishes. You kind of just wait until the dishes pile up to a decent amount so you can fill the sink with soapy water and do them all at one time instead of using more water doing them along the way. Also, there's really no rinsing of the dishes once they've been washed in the sink full of soapy water. That's the thing I'm having the hardest time getting used to and I can't imagine how their dishes and glasses don't have the soap residue taste, but honestly they don't!

This week Tanya taught me how to make a really popular Australian snack - sausage rolls! When I was in New Zealand two years ago, we were given sausage rolls after a white water rafting trip and when I asked what they were and that I'd never had them before, about 20 heads whipped around with their mouths hanging open. Course it would've been funnier if their mouths hadn't been full of sausage roll at that moment. The time had come to learn how to make them instead of just enjoying them. We rolled up our sleeves and dived right in and I must say, the end result was delicious. Tanya uses her mother's recipe and it's famous among her friends. We brought them to a party we went to on Saturday night and she didn't even make it through half the crowd before all 50 of them were gone. I think we'll find more excuses to make them soon enough and I'll definitely be bringing the recipe home with me!

And finally, happy birthday to my little brother Cullen who's celebrating the best way he can imagine - at the Bears game!

Aussie Rules

After 20+ hours on a plane, I've made it to Australia and shockingly with all my luggage, despite having to disassemble my large suitcase in LA in front of a rather large group of future plane mates. My lovely friend Tanya was kind enough to pick me up and make me feel right at home in her place. She helped me sort out an Australian mobile and internet at her house in about 24 hours, and that helped with feeling a bit more settled. So no rest for the wicked apparently! I've been out all 3 nights I've been here, and we managed to score tickets to the Aussie Rules semi-final match at the very cool MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). The Kangaroos took on Hawthorne and I learned that Aussie Rules is a tough game to watch, let alone to play. But it's such an exciting sport and after approximately 3,000 questions to Tanya's very patient brother and cousin, I seemed to be getting the hang of it. I believe the patience of the boys was mostly due to the fact that their team (the Kangaroos) stayed in the lead the whole game and ended up winning in the end, so this was followed by much celebration. This week is about getting over the jet lag, learning more slang, and looking for a job. For now, back to Australian Idol reruns....