Another day, another new beach!

Another sunny day, another new beach to explore :)
This weekend we checked out the famous Bondi Beach. It is famous for a 1938 freak storm that dragged over 200 beachgoers out to sea (all but 5 were saved). More recently I think it is famous for being a tourist haven and recommended in all the Let's Go Australia guidebooks. Walking around the beach I heard about 6 different languages - none of them Australian English. The place is a backpackers paradise....nice but not worthy of leaving our beach town and driving an hour across the city to get there.
On the positive side of the trip we had a cocktail at the swanky Iceberg's bar- high above the ocean pool (check it out http://www.icebergs.com.au/) carved out of the rocky cliff. Nate liked the swinging wicker chairs. Overall, nice view-worth the pricey drink.
Check out the photos of Bondi

Our poor tired little girl (passed out in the car on the way home)- it was another hard day at the beach.

We finished the weekend at the zoo checking out the new seal area and show. Check out the video from the sky tram ride above the zoo. I'm telling you these animals have the best view in town.

Oh yeah - you blend!!!!

Great movie scene- My Cousin Vinny- Marisa Tomei & Joe Pesci -true Brooklyn New Yorkers arrive in SMALL town Alabama. Marisa Tomei (in a very tight leather/spandex sparkly cat-suit like outfit) asks if they have good Chinese food there (yeah right), and then after being insulted delivers a great retort of "Oh yeah, you blend".

At times that is how you feel as an expat. Sticking out like an Aussie impostor. Of course we have the advantage of somewhat speaking the language; although folks still look at you oddly for your vocab choices. But you don't feel local- you have to pause to convert how many pounds of turkey you want from the guy at the deli counter in milligrams, you need to look the other way when crossing the street, and then there are those heavy coins to get straight (not to mention that you end up carrying around a 10 pound wallet).

Transition update:

We still have no rental house but have been enjoying our vagabond experience of camping out at the office apartment. It is such a great location- we are started to get used to (spoiled) that we are in the thick of all the action. Being homeless of sorts doesn't seem to phase the kids (ok I'm talking about Nate since Reese doesn't pick up on much of anything). Of course he would be with living in a prison cell if his Cars collection was there to play with. According to Nate we are now ok to live in Australia after discovering that they sell the Car movie cars here (at a nice premium of course).

Warning to any locals reading this, please stay clear of the left sidewalks. We have purchased a car (at the cost of a small condo in Seattle; so I guess we could always live in the car). Michael has quickly adapted to driving on the left and has already learned a set of new favorite shortcuts (to the annoyance of our built in navigation system). I, on the other hand, am not 100% comfortable behind the wheel and am still prone to drifting to the left. Today upon returning to our garage was told- "well done, good improvement....only one near collision on the round about"- I guess that is progress ;)

A typical day in Manly

Greetings from Australia. Things are good here. Despite no permanent house we are starting to feel settled. Nate doesn't start school until Jan - I am working on finding him some activities/ classes so we both don't go crazy. In the meantime we've been enjoying the beautiful weather and exploring Manly. We spend a lot of time on the Corso - a pedestrian only wide street with shops and fountains (if you know Miami think Lincoln Road), the beach, and at Ocean World. Nate and Reese love playing and running through the fountains at the corso- we often return home (only a block away) soaking wet. The water frolicking typically occurs in swim trunks but has also taken place fully dressed and in a spidey costume. You can guess the odd looks (and envious looks from other kids) we get. Why not- it is all good fun.

Yesterday we went to OceanWorld (we go so often I think they are starting to recognize us). We sat through the "Dangerous Australian Animal Show". There are so many deadly animals to choose from but they kept it to an hour review. We are talking about a country that celebrates their countdown of "the most deadly snake" like we do Letterman's daily top 10. They passed around the chart topper -"fierce snake". While it was in a cage I didn't feel that safe- the cage was a thin plastic thing you would buy at a toy store for your kid's ant farm. This little guy (who looks a bland, non-threatening sand color) in one bit has enough poisonous venom to kill you 36 times over. A bit excessive no? They say that no one has died from the fierce- to which Michael sarcastically replied - how do we know- there might be lot of undiscovered dead bodies in the dessert. After being scared out of my wits by the fierce we were passed the funnel web spider- a local critter found in Sydney in garages, backyards, etc. I quickly lost any interested in becoming a local gardener. The big finale was when they brought around a baby crocodile for everyone to pet. Obviously there is a different standard for lawsuits and zoo liability than in the US- I can't imagine the Seattle zoo passing these deadly guys around to small children. Check out our crocodile hunter :)

Nate turns 4

Nathan recently celebrated his 4th birthday. Unfortunately we weren't organized enough to give the kid a proper party before we left town. Not that he is wanting for anything especially new toys. Still mom guilt kicked in. Don't feel too bad for the little man...as he ended up getting to celebrate for two days. It is nice to live on the other side of the international date line- you get to celebrate on your Australian birthday and your US birthday.

We asked what he wanted to do for his birthday....the surprising answer....go see the Sydney Opera house. How could you turn down that request? So off we went. We loaded up on the ferry and spent a great evening by the opera house. We weren't able to go inside (no events that night) but that didn't seem to phase him- he was delighted all the same. Got to love pure child joy and an easy going attitude. We had a lovely fancy dinner with the opera house in the backdrop. Better than most of my birthdays. I hope he remembers it.

Nate got a new scooter for his birthday. He started off a bit timid but has already (only a couple of weeks later) is a scooting champ. He announced that he did his first "trick" yesterday. Not Tony Hawk quite yet- his trick was to lift up his leg for a millisecond. Still it was progress. We get him all padded up and hit the beach board walk on a regular basis. It is a pretty common thing to do here....tons of little tykes flying past you with no fear.

Check him out....