More Aussie-isms

I am sure people are just over me with my wonder and awe at the Aussie vocabulary.  But, I want to be sure I document all that I can so that years from now, I can go back and remember parts of this experience that I've forgotten.


Perhaps my best teacher is Brynn.  She doesn't have the history that we do with the American vocabulary so there is no big transition for her.  For example, yesterday we were shopping for camping equipment for Jackson.  Brynn carries over a flashlight to Jackson and says "Here's a torch for you".  Yes, she's right - torch is the word here.  (I'll get  back to the camping trip later).


Biscuits :  To me a biscuit is a warm buttery concoction that is best served with hot sausage gravy on the top.  Let me assure you that there is nowhere to get that around here.  I've looked.  My butt thanks me for it, but then they do sell a lot of Cadbury here so it's probably a trade off.  Anyicantstayontrackway, a biscuit here is a cookie.  So a biscuit and gravy would be kind of ewww (shocking that I can say that given my love of cookies AND gravy, but that's just bad).  Although they do sell chips (fries) and gravy here.  I haven't tried it, but it doesn't look too bad.


Arvo: The afternoon. 


Whinge, Whingy:  Whine, whiny.  I know nothing of this.  BAHAHAHA.


Hospital:  There is no "the" in front of this word when using it in a sentence.  "She is in hospital" etc.  On that note, the EMS people are called "ambos". 


Ta:  Thanks.  Love this one.  I am seriously starting to use it.  (Insert millionth eyeroll from Jackson here)


Boing boing:  it's a SLINKY!  


Sorted: Taken care of.  Jeff: Have you been shopping for new shoes?  Caroline: It's sorted.


Organised (with an s): Planned.  Essentially means the same, but I haven't heard the word "planned" used at all.


Diary: Everyone has a diary!  It's the calendar you keep with you at ALL times so that you can check it on the spot to give the appearance that you are extremely organized (with a z, the American version with the American meaning). 


Chook:  A chicken.  


On the chook note, there is a great kids book here called "There was an old bloke who swallowed a chook".  Since I'm a book fiend, I am forcing my children to become book fiends as well, whether they like it or not, dammit. 
So I've made a mission of finding all of the Aussie kids books I can.  There are some really good ones.

Oh yes, that picture reminds me that mosquitoes are called "mozzies".  Brynn just had to explain that to Jeff a couple of days ago.  


More to come I'm sure.....

The learning curve

If you want to learn a thing or two about yourself - take yourself out of your comfort zone.  It's an eye opening experience, and it ain't always pretty.
I like to think that I have learned immensely from this experience, from the cultural climate to the natural beauties of this place.  But I wasn't expecting to learn about myself - I'm 40 after all, I should know myself by now, right?  So naive.


First, I think I grossly underestimated the impact of moving to another country, and one so far away from home.  My immediate reaction to the possibility of moving to Australia was YES!  YES!  YES!  It's gorgeous!  It's cosmopolitan!  It's beachy!  The accent...ohhhhhhhh the accent!  YES YES YES!   Well, it is gorgeous, that is for sure.  It's cosmopolitan as well - the city is amazing.  As for the accent, I'm sad to say that I don't notice it anymore.  So much, that I heard a little girl at the swim school talking to her mom, and I thought they were American.  And then I realized that they were Australian, but I've become so accustomed to their accent that it just sounded normal to me.  Side note - Australians LOVE American accents.  I have so many people tell me that they love my accent, and I always reply with the fact that we love Australian accents..and they always repond with "eww!  no!  we sound terrible."  It's like the gorgeous skinny girl who complains that she is fat...except that we love the Australians, but not the whiny skinny girl.


Anyway, I have adjusted.  Jeff has adjusted.  My kids have adjusted.  They have friends, they go to birthday parties and playdates, they have favorite restaurants here, and they use lots of Aussie-isms.  Jackson hates this, and complains, but hasn't yet realized that when he critiques us on the use of such words or phrases, we then kick into overdrive using as many as possible.  Hollie is the master at this, and she knows HEAPS (see, there it is) of expressions.  


But it wasn't without bumps!  


Learning to drive on the wrong side of the road...Flashback to "Oh NO, oh NO, I went the wrong way and I have to drive on Pacific Highway.  OH NO OH NO..." etc etc...that was with poor Jackson in the car with me.  I did make it through Pacific though, although I still hate it, but because of traffic now.


Undoing my learned driving etiquette..Jeff still doesn't have this one down yet.  When someone puts on their blinker to move into your lane, you let them.  If someone is turning from a road that meets the one you are on, you let them go in front of you.  I have never, not one time, waited for more than one or two cars to get over after turning on my signal.  It makes driving much less stressful when you know that if you are in the wrong lane and need to quickly get over - you can without any horns, yelling, finger lifting etc.  


Shopping...well I've said it all before.  Different brands, prices that feel exorbitant, different styles.  With that said, I will not, not ever, not ever EVER, wear those cutoff denim panties, err..shorts...


And most significantly, being friendless in a new place.  Wow, that is a big one.  It is a very isolating thing, and I learned that I am not naturally one to create opportunities to meet people.  I also found that people are not as friendly as what I am accustomed to, and it felt very cold for a while.  At the school functions at Hollie's school, there was some small talk but very little else.  And then, just like it always seems to go, there was a mom who went out of her way to introduce me to the others, to invite me to things, to give me tons of info on where to go for this and that.  At the same time, I started to make some friends through some of Brynn's activities and preschool.  


Now something occurs to me that I never anticipated.  I am really going to miss these people when I come home.  I may never see them again!  Coming here, I knew that I'd see my friends and family again since this is not permanent, but I never once thought about leaving here and going home, and what that would mean.  I'll just move on off of that topic because it feels depressing and all this rain is just making it dreary enough as it is.
But, let me just say one more thing - I found someone who likes to shop more than me, and it turns out that we have the same taste in almost everything.  And all this time, I thought it was Jeff that was my soul mate.


With this move, I realize that there are some things that are good to have in your life toolbox when you make a move like this.  Most importantly, I realized that I feel pretty good about who I am, but I'm also still learning and developing myself.  But hey - that's okay - even at 40.  

So anyway..

I know I've been MIA for a day or two - but I'm back!


The holidays were straight up crazy chaos wonderful with the kids being out of school.  


During the holidays:  


Jackson traveled home to see Paul - alone!   I promised not to embarrass him at the airport, and  I am proud to say that I didn't break down like a wailing maniac until he went through security and I was out of his sight.  After that, it was a full on fountain fest, where I felt like the worst mother in the world for sending my kid across the world on a plane alone.  Once he landed, I was able to breathe again, and he said the traveling was pretty uneventful.  From there, he had a great time visiting with Paul and Becky.  


We had family in town!  Jackson came back home, along with my parents, Joe, and the boys.  For the occasion, we rented a "people mover" - a monster van that seats 12 people.  It actually wasn't too hard to drive, but it was a bitch to park.  It served it's purpose well, allowing all of us to go together, rather than taking 2 cars or the train.    The following week, my father in law arrived.  We did a lot of things with everyone here - we saw all the famous sights, and then some.  One of the best comments of the visit:   The boys went to Bondi and saw a lot of topless girls.  Cam, my 10 year old nephew, said it was the "breast day ever".  


I feel like I have to expand on one day in particular.  We decided to visit the Blue Mountains.  They are just outside of Sydney and there are some spectacular views there.  We went, we drove around and saw the sights, and we had a late lunch.  Brynn threw up in the street just after (details).  We then got back in the van, and Jeff started to drive around, looking for "some off the beaten path" action.  Now this is where I start to get nervous.  Jeff has ideas - really out of the box ideas - sometimes.  (Flashback to the time when we were considering buying a new house back in Raleigh, and he thought  we could empty out the current house to make it marketable by storing our things at the new house in a rusted 18 wheeler trailer that he found on Craigslist for 80 dollars, in the driveway of the new house).  But anyway - he take off in search of the great outback, the things you won't see on "one of those tours". 


 It is important to note here that we have had major amounts of rain this summer, to the degree of flooding.  


So we start down a dirt road, and I'll say this - the views were second to none.  Gorgeous.  It's one of those views that you just can't capture with a camera.    A little while into the drive, we saw kangaroos and wallabies.  We did not see any houses or people.  A little while later, we saw more kangaroos and wallabies. The road was wet and there were some big puddles, and I thought we were going to get stuck for sure. I kept wondering how we were going to get my mom down this big ass mountain in her wheelchair.  Anyway -  We still saw no houses or people.  Two hours in, we had no GPS signal, no cell phone reception, and had STILL NOT SEEN ANY PEOPLE.  Now, my idea of adventure is going to a new hair stylist, so I was feeling very uncomfortable at this point.  Jeff wouldn't even look at me, knowing I was fuming (and carsick!).  And finally,we ran into a paved road, and picked up a GPS signal again, and we were able to get home.  Phewwwwwwww.


The time with our families went by too fast.  Hopefully we'll make home at some point this year!

The 6th day of Christmas...

Wait..is that right?  I suddenly don't understand the days of Christmas.  Is it days leading up to, or after?  Sometimes I amaze myself at the amount of knowledge that I do not possess.  My kids ask me questions all the time that I don't know the answers to...All I can say is, thank goodness for Google.  


And once again, thank you Google.  Again, you do not disappoint:

While these verses are what most of us associate with the "Twelve Days of Christmas," the phrase refers to an actual 12-day period. The 12 days of Christmas, in fa­ct, are the days from Dec. 25, celebrated as the birth of Jesus Christ, to the Epiphany, celebrated on Jan. 6 as the day when the manifestation of Christ's glory was realized.


Whew, now I can move on.


We have been slowly but steadily getting ready for Christmas.  We are headed to the Central Coast on Saturday and will stay there until the following Thursday.  I've never travelled for Christmas since having children, so packing up the car should be interesting.  Hollie and Jeff like to bring along everything they own, so we usually battle on any trip when it comes to what we are taking / have space for.  


We spent the day yesterday with the family of one of Hollie's friends.  They have a holiday home at one of the Central Coast beaches, and invited us there.  We had lunch at the cafe just three doors down from their house, and the kids played on the playground across the street while we waited for food, and then chatted afterward.  I love that they were especially cautious with their five year old boy, since it's always good for a completely-psychotic-level-paranoid-mother to see other parents who are cautious (maybe not to my level, but any will do).   


Side note:  I don't think I've mentioned BYO yet.  In the restaurants (generally called cafes here), you may bring wine or beer with you, and the staff will hold it, refrigerate, etc.  We had champagne at lunch.  Champagne seems to be preferred over white wine, from what I can tell.  

Anyway, the kids played and swam, and it was a really nice day.  The drive was gorgeous, with lots of mountains and beautiful views.  

Is it just me or does this sound like a Denny's breakfast plate?

And Hollie managed to bring home a little something-something.  

That's right.  My child, who is afraid of all animals...brought home a jellyfish.  Isn't that nice.

It's a Charlie Brown Christmas (Tree)

I managed to find a tree within Jeff's budget - I spent $27 on the tree.  Side note: That is approximately equal in cost to 1.5 packs of cigarettes here, but since I'm a good wife (hey, I cook at least once per week) , I won't say that to my husband.   So, on to our Charlie Brown tree....quite pitiful , really.  It's not very full and it's not very tall.  But - it's a tree that we can put all of our ornaments on.


Here we go, from the ugly beginning....Wow, it looks even worse in this picture than I thought it did!  


Jackson is putting the first ornament on.

I am not much of a sentimental person.  My mom and sister think I'm missing some gene because they are extremely sentimental.  I have a box of things that my kids have made me, and things that they may want to see one day.  And, I keep a box for each of my kids (and one for Jeff) that I write quick notes in and drop in (usually one liners - Jax, you made me so proud today...Hollie, you told your class that you saw a penis at the nude beach we walked past today...).  But that's about as sentimental as I go normally.


Anyway,  the point is this.  I'm not sentimental about most things, but I am very sentimental about Christmas ornaments.  The kids pick one out each year, and we add it to the tree.  So every year, when we get the ornament box out, the kids ask "where are mine?  oh that's it!  remember I got this one because..."  It's a fun time, when we all find our favorites, as well as the ones we've forgotten we had, and remember when we got them.  You can pretty well look at our tree and tell who each ornament belongs to..


Sparkly shoes, boots, and hats..that'd be me.  Jeff continues to ask each year if he can hang beer cans and newport boxes on it, and I continue to tell him no.


And here's Hollie hanging her first one this year..

And of course, our Brynn Boo, who was singing Aussie Jingle Bells throughout...

She was mesmerized by the tree, and continued with decorating all night, even after the others had stopped.

And so, here it is..our first tree here...

Maybe not the biggest or most beautiful..but it's filled with lots of memories and love.  

The most wonderful time of the year..........

I am having my annual "Oh shit, it's December and I have not done a thing for Christmas" moment.  We have no tree and no wreath, but this all changes today.  I am headed out in a bit to shop for the perfect tree and trimmings.  And by that, I mean a plastic tree that is under $100 and a tinsel wreath from the Hot Dollar.  Okay, I said that for my husband's benefit.  I know that we should not spend a lot on a tree since we already have one at home.  However, I love a gorgeous Christmas tree.  Flashback to my mom wanting to stop at the Christmas House in July and Kim and I whining noooooooooooo, please noooooooo........And now Kim and I both love Christmas decorations.  Hmmm...maybe if I say "let's stop by the Chase" to Jeff enough, he'll start to like it eventually?  (The Chase is a shopping mall that is filled with designer stores, with the exception of Kmart.  And on a Kmart note - anyone ever noticed how every Kmart smells the same?  It's not a stink smell, just a smell..anyway, they smell the same here!)


So, I am decorating my house today, and this weekend we make ornaments.  Hollie is going to invite her friends from the street (her "friends" are teenage girls, but they love Hollie so I guess that counts) to come make ornaments with her.    I am thinking we'll make some of these - love them, and they will be easy for the girls.  

Instructions here:
http://www.marthastewart.com/268828/button-wreath-ornament

And for the first time, we won't be home for Christmas.  We won't be home in America, or home in Sydney.  We've decided to take the kids on a Christmas vacation (I'm hearing my sister say "shitters full" as I write this).  


We are going to Umina Beach, about an hour and a half from Sydney. We'll  be  in straight up chill mode for the week.  We are staying a place with lots of kid activities for the girls, and a huge  BMX park for Jax.  Fun, fun, fun.  


Off to get our tree!