Season's Greetings!

Sam the holiday elf

Happy holidays to all our avid blog readers (our 2 subscribers know who they are) and first time visitors. Sorry for the non-traditional holiday letter. I enjoyed creating our past holiday letters but printing and mailing from overseas presented complications.

I hope you all weathered this tumultuous year. 2008 certainly had some big events- global markets crashing, a new US president (so happy to be done with campaign ads), and our move to Australia. OK so, so it wasn't a major enough event to warrant a news report on CNN but it was our big story of the year.

Hopefully we reached out to all of you but in case we missed you here is the brief recap: we had an opportunity through Michael's work to move to Sydney and we jumped on it. We've been here since September and so far we're loving the experience. The kids have handling the move like champions. Every once in a while Nate will say that he wants to return to Seattle (usually for very interesting reasons like he misses the supermarket). For those who may be wondering-Sam our 5 year old black lab is here with us. He probably had the hardest move of anyone (definitely the most expensive) and after a month of quarantine is out and eager to mark every tree in every park in Sydney.

We've started to explore some of Sydney neighborhoods and even took a couple of vacations. Check back on the blog every once and while for stories of our adventures. Of course the frequency of blog postings may slow if I am able to find a full time job :)

Hopefully 2009 will bring economic stability or maybe even a rebound??? (we can hope at least). Enjoy your holidays and best wishes for a healthy and happy New Year. Please stay in touch and think about a vacation down under.

fondly,

Mimi, Michael, Reese and Nate

Turkey Day 2008

our feast

Sunday November 30th, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving on a Sunday? Did the holiday change days you ask. No, but here in Sydney Thursday (Thursday in the US is actually Friday here) was an ordinary work day- not a national holiday. Our fellow Seattlite ex-pat friends invited us to a Thanksgiving feast.

Thanksgiving is one of may favorite holidays- right up there with Halloween. When else do I spend weeks combing the web for new recipes, become glued to food network (OK so that happens a lot), spend hundreds of hours cooking and cleaning, actually set the table just for a dinner that everyone inhales in about 20 minutes. Note that I said dinner- as in 6 pm. I am not a huge fan of the 3:00 Thanksgiving meal....this is usually a big debate at our house as Michael is a fan of of the Thanksgiving supper (he claims it is because then he gets a leftovers meal later that same day).

Any way, I love Thanksgiving and was sad not to be hosting as we had for the last 8 years or so. What would Thanksgiving be without some traditions- football, waking up earlier to get the bird in the oven (trying not to drop the bird), Michael's famous stuffing, the Macy's parade, etc... So we may not have hosted but some of our traditions continue. Thanks to the magic of Slingbox we were able to watch both the Macy's parade and football.

All this week we searched in vain for corn muffin mix (or any similar product-corn bread, corn meal, etc...crap anything other than canned corn would have worked). You see corn bread is the secret ingredient for Michael's stuffing recipe. After a dozen calls, hours of web searching, and going to every local supermarket- no luck. Is it too much to ask for a box of Jiffy. Australia sometimes feels so much like the US that you're surprised when you can't find common US items (like corn bread, mini marshmallows, etc). I did come across an ex-pat internet supermarket that would ship me some but they are located in Melbourne and I needed it same day. (I might have to splurge and buy a box of Captain Crunch for Michael & Nate). In the end I think our stuffing came out just fine- tasted good to me at least. Overall a decent result given our sparse kitchen - consisting of 2 pots, 1 knife, no peelers, etc. I did manage to cut myself within the first 2 minutes of chopping...it isn't Thanksgiving unless there is bloodshed (perhaps a subliminal homage to the suffering of the early settlers and Indians :))
Since we weren't hosting we were able to enjoy our day and not spend it all cooped up in our tiny kitchen. We spent the morning walking to one of my favorite spots - Shelly Beach. Beach? - well it was 80 degrees outside. It is odd celebrating fall/winter holidays without falling leaves, chilly brisk evenings and wearing sweaters. Christmas/Hanukkah will be even stranger as it might be 90+.

Manly beach walk

our destination Shelly Beach

Hope you enjoyed a great holiday filled with laughter, a bit of chaos and great food!

Great Barrier Reef

Sorry for the absence of blog entries….but we were out of town. We’ve just returned from a fantastic vacation to the barrier reef- Whitsunday Islands. We spent 10 nights on Day Dream Island (nice name huh) and Hamilton Island. It was extremely restful- thanks in part to our ratio of three adults to two kids (thanks Jen for joining) yet full of fun and activities. Day Dream (just a 2 hour of flight from Sydney) is extremely small with just one hotel on the island and you can walk from one end to the other in 10 minutes. They had a cool reef lagoon with tropical fish and small sharks. Nate was able to participate in the morning fish feeding- he fed a baramundi and touched a ray. Our daily routine consisted of buffet breakfast, morning nap, pool time, lunch, nap, dinner & hot tubbing (plus lots of drinking)....much like the koalas all we really did was eat and sleep. It is still hard to get used to the wild life of Australia -even on this small island the lorikeets, cockatoos, and kangaroos roamed free and weren't scared of the tourists at all. Check out the video below of Reese and Nate following the kangaroos.

After Day Dream we took the ferry back to Hamilton island....a much larger island- it takes you 15 minutes from end to end via golf buggy. Nate truly enjoyed his role as designated driver and by the end of week was seated in the driver seat by himself steering all alone (you can imagine the look of the on coming tourist drivers- pure horror). Feeling a bit more motivated and energetic we did more on Hamilton- hugging a koala (only allowable in Queensland), renting a tiny catamaran boat off the beach, snorkeling & diving at Reefworld (a floating station at the edge of the reef- with diving, snorkeling and a small mini submarine) and renting a bare boat and sailing to the famous whitehaven beach. There was still a lot of lounging at the pool - they had a cool swim up bar with a good happy hour. Side note, new favorite drink- Summer Love- 1/3 strawberry liquor, 1/3 vodka, splash of OJ and splash of champagne (I recommend going heavier on the champagne)- yummy!!!!! Sorry- back to stories...where was I? Oh yes, pool time. Reese is a water girl- she loved the pool. And Nate the seal (self selected nickname) learned to float and swim with no vest. With a mask and snorkel he was invincible. We'd throw one of his cars in the deep end and he would swim to search for it.

All and all a wonderful time was had by all. Too many pictures to post to the entry- but here is a link to our album http://picasaweb.google.com/northshorerentals/WhitsundayIslandsVacation

Nate at Reef World

Hugging- no pooping on my head this timesailing fun- (this picture is the only time I wasn't clinging to mom)

evening sunsets at the top of the island-tons of bats flying

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays so I must admit that I was a little bummed that it really isn't a celebrated holiday here in Australia. It is gaining in popularity but aside from some drunk partiers and girls looking to dress up as slutty pirates, slutty police officer, slutty princesses (you get the point- it is 80 degrees so bare costumes work well) there wasn't much activity. We searched and searched but the only kid friendly activity was a lame holiday party thrown by the library and a bit of trick or treating in the ex-pat neighborhood. Of course we didn't let that stop us. After all Nate has been dressing up in his spidey costume practicing since July. But when we got to the actual day he changed his mind and decided that he wanted to dress up as the dog from Shaun the Sheep, his new favorite show.
If you haven't seen Shaun -check it out this site http://www.shaunthesheep.com/ - you can download episodes- they are only ~10 minutes each. I am not sure who laughs more and is the bigger fan -Michael or Nate. So with only a few hours to shop and create a costume out of nothing we set off on a search for required pieces - clipboard, dog nose, collar, etc. Check out the photo- I think we did a pretty good job. The rest of the family printed off sheep masks and went as Nate's flock.
Pure joy and happiness can only describe his glow at his doggie look. He was giddy hopping and blowing his whistle down the corso. He and Reese enjoyed just watching the other kids at the lame party - choosing not to participate in any of games. And our shy boy gave up on trick or treating which required talking and asking for candy (I guess I am happy with the fact that he didn't want to talk to strangers) after receiving 1 lollipop.
So much for this Halloween. Hope you all had a great time.

Bitzer the sheep watch dog

Hunter Valley

Now that we've been living in Australia for over a month (we're locals now :)) we decided to take our first out of town trip. We headed North about 2 hours to Hunter Valley to see the wine country- http://www.winecountry.com.au/ . What's not to like about a weekend in wine country- warm weather, pony rides, rolling hills and stunning valleys, gourmet restaurants and then of course there is the wine. Hunter Valley is known for their Semillon and Shiraz (which is quickly becoming a new favorite). I was expecting rustic (wine making out of the barn) but most of the wineries looked like they could have been in Napa/Sonoma. We did visit one winery that Michael had been referred to - apparently we are only the third visitor in 10 years (literally we drove up to the man's house). We were met with warm hospitality-between us and the owner we polished off a bottle- so much for a small tasting at 11am.
Too many wineries and not enough days- we'll need to return ;)

Beautiful valley view:

Nate's first pony ride:

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 ;)