Getting Settled

Sunday, September 12, 2010 7:50 PM Posted by Mimi and Joe
Well, I am finally settling down for a much needed break from laundry and trying to catch up on my online life.  Ever since our stuff showed up on Wednesday, I have been going with all cylinders.  Most nights I have been rolling into bed past midnight - trying to fit the last bit of organizing/cleaning/moving in before our poor neighbors complain.  If I were smart, I would probably try to go a bit slower and prolong this Christmas feeling; but my need for order is winning.

The stuff showed up Wednesday morning - after everything was carried up, the guys started stripping all the wrappings off the furniture and pictures - it was like mayhem for about 15 minutes and somewhere in these piles of packing material was the hardware for our black desk.  I didn't realize that till later, of course....

After they left, I basically skipped around the apartment for a half hour taking pictures of boxes (yea, I ended up deleting them - they were very boring) and looking at our unwrapped photos.

I decided to formulate a plan...  There were several things I wanted to accomplish before Joe got home from work - I wanted to put together his desk and set up his computers for him and I also wanted to have a place where we could sit down and have dinner together.  So, I began; but at first it just looked like I was making the mess much much worse!  It was difficult unpacking the monitors and hard drives.  They were all really heavy, double boxed and wrapped in three layers of packing material; but I persisted and got the whole thing set-up.  Of course, I didn't actually run any of the wires or plug anything in as I had no idea what type of cables or anything to use. 
It would have been a disaster, and besides, Joe thinks stuff like that is fun so I left the wiring for him.  The desk turned out rather nicely though - The office definitely has room for a couple book shelves as well so that should help with giving us some storage options later on down the road.

So, before we left the states, we decided to invest in a patio set from Ikea - it was flat packed so it wouldn't take up much room in the crate and it was really cheap. 
So, the set consists of two chairs, a two seater bench and a table... after we got our apartment (with no balcony and no outdoor space) we decided that we would just sell it once we got it.  However, considering we don't have a dining room table or couch, we opted in favour of setting all of it up and using it as temporary furniture.  I put the patio set together and then started unpacking my kitchen stuff.  It was absolutely incredible to open each little carefully wrapped bundle.  It was the longest Christmas that I have ever had - a Christmas that lasted for days! 

It went this way:

Me: (unwrap, unwrap, unwrap) Oh look - it's a mug!
Me: (unwrap, unwrap, unwrap) Oh look - it's a pan lid!
Me: (unwrap, unwrap, unwrap) Oh look - it's a wine glass!

You get the idea...  There was only one casualty and I am not letting myself get upset about it for two reasons - firstly, there could have been multiple broken items and secondly, it could have been something truly meaningful and sentimental.

That's about all I got done on Wednesday... it was enough though - I was so sore and tired by bed time!  It didn't help that I was sick already so my resident Rock Star gave me a back rub and a foot rub for all of my hard work...

Thursday was the perfect day for staying in and getting some serious work done... It was crummy and rainy outside - not super cold, just dreary and drizzly.  I got a bit artsy-fartsy with my camera and took these two pictures out our big picture window.  I focused on the skyline for the first one and on the window for the second - just some cool perspectives. 
I haven't really been using my camera as much here since I have to cart it around in my purse/backpack - it's much easier to use my phone; but my phone can't do cool things like this!

Anyway - Thursday, I decided to concentrate on getting the kitchen set up completely.  I had already decided weeks ago where I wanted all of my stuff to go once it got here (yes, I spent A LOT of time fantasizing about having more than two mugs and two glasses) so it was just a matter of getting it set up in a pretty way. 


Well, I guess it doesn't really matter how things look inside the cupboards; but there is a set of open shelves in the corner of our kitchen that I had earmarked as a great place to put glasses and mugs.  Since it is so highly visible I wanted to make sure that I really set it up right - plus, I can't reach the top shelf without a step-stool so I wanted to make sure that all the the types of glasses were accessible.  I think it ended up looking rather "cafe-like".  Once that was done the rest of the kitchen seemed to fall into place pretty easily.  Jen and Theresa - your pieces of art got pride of place as they rightfully deserved!
I got all of the rest of the kitchen done - including setting up a step-down converter on top of the microwave to plug the espresso maker into.  What that also means is that whenever I want to use my crock-pot, mixer or food processor from the States; I can just set them up on that counter, plug them into the converter and then go to town!  It was quite exciting that night to make dinner (Lamb Tikka Masala) in my beautiful kitchen with all of my things around me.  Using a pan larger than a cereal bowl was also a great experience!


Well, I'll post a bit more tomorrow and include some more pictures - I am afraid if I don't stop now then I never will...  Besides, the laundry calls...



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Before I Fall Asleep On My Feet

Thursday, September 9, 2010 10:24 AM Posted by Mimi and Joe
So, I was trying to write this post last night in bed on my Telstra T-Hub (BTW, I highly recommend clicking on this link and watching the intro just for the sake of hearing someone say "Great Steaming Haggis" - just trust me)  when it turned off because the battery was dead.  That was my fault as I had used it earlier to order Thai food and I didn't put it back on it's cradle.  Anyway, I was too tired to get back up, get the laptop and start over.  I have good reason for being tired; but it's sort of a long story... Oh, and it requires me being a bit personal -hope you don't mind...

So, I realized on Monday night that I was getting a UTI...  Ugh - enough said...  Luckily I had asked my Dr. to write me a prescription for an antibiotic to bring to Australia with me in case one of us got sick before we got settled and found Drs here.  So, Tuesday morning I started on some Amoxicillin and started feeling better.  I woke up Wednesday morning (yesterday) to feed the cats (see previous post for that explanation) and realized that my body was screaming out for more sleep.  So, after Joe left for work, I crawled back into bed and set my alarm for ten when I had a Skype date with my bestest Meaghan. 

Antibiotics always give me very vivid crazy dreams - so, there I was... dreaming about being on a ferry that was doing donuts under the Sydney Harbour Bridge while wearing false teeth that I had gotten from Christina Aguilara (yeah, I know....) when the buzzer started ringing.  I jumped out of bed - completely discombobulated, and ran to answer it.  The poor guy had to explain him self to me a couple times; but I suddenly understood - he was from the moving company and they had our stuff downstairs!  Ha ha!!  Victory! 

So, these two very nice men carried all of our stuff  in while I stood at the door with our packing list and checked all of the boxes off as they came in. The only boxes that had the "Passed Quarantine" tape on them were the two boxes of our shoes.  So, much joy ensued....  I set up Joe's office and computer stuff first because I love him and he is wonderful to me - it was my way of returning the favour.

Let me just say, getting our stuff has been one of the happiest moments thus far on our journey here...  There were things that I had forgotten about, things that made me cry a little when I saw them and things that made me want to jump up and down with joy!

Well, this was supposed to be a short little update post so I am going to stop writing so I can keep unpacking.  I have a ton of photos still of the zoo and of the unpacking process so I will be posting all of that stuff shortly.  I hope you'll forgive me though, I have a box of dryer sheets and American deodorant that is calling my name!

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Weekend Wrap-Up

Monday, September 6, 2010 9:42 AM Posted by Mimi and Joe
I've had some thoughts tumbling around inside this big empty head of mine for the past week.  As most of you will have inferred from my last post, I've been thinking far too much recently.  I feel sufficiently recovered this week thanks to all of the other wonderful ex-pat friends and fellow bloggers that flooded me with support (thanks ladies)....  Ah yes, also shout-outs to my sisters, Meaghan, my fabulously understanding husband and the vast quantities of bourbon that I ingested on Friday night.

So, with my new positive outlook on life, I am going to skip the blog entry that I had planned about how hard it is to be an American in another country and to always feel like you are being judged and looked to as the representative of your entire nation; and I am going to concentrate on something that will continue to build on my positivity.  But, if you are interested in knowing exactly how I (and many other American ex-pats) am feeling about this topic, I strongly suggest you navigate yourself to this post that C. in Oz wrote on her blog this week.  It sums it up perfectly - so perfectly in fact that she deserves beer and chicken salted chips for writing it.

I am going to the world famous Taronga Zoo thanks to Kim and her generously offered guest pass.  Please look for a posting about this in the near future with many pictures of animals!

Other things that I have been doing/thinking about:

I am refinishing the Armoire that Joe and I trash-picked (from this post) and it is nearing end stages.  I decided to take off the polyurethane, give it a light sand and then paint it an slightly antique white.  I'll keep you updated...

We are feeding the neighbors cats this weekend as they are on their last holiday before their baby is born.  The cats are cute; but the experience has definitely cemented for me the idea that all animals should do their business outside.

Joe is calling the moving company this morning with threats of violence and dismemberment (not really, I made the dismemberment part up) if our stuff is not delivered tomorrow.  Sigh....  I am cautiously optimistic...

We went to a place called The Counter which is a U.S burger joint complete with real milkshakes, REAL KETCHUP and some incredible burgers.  This was our second time out with an ex-pat couple that we met last weekend.  They are epic and filled with awesome (the burgers and the couple)...  It is a testament to how good the burgers were that I completely forgot to take a picture of anything while we were there.  Anywho, the way The Counter works is that they give you a menu on which you can build your own perfect burger by checking the appropriate boxes.  So, you choose what type of meat, type of bun or salad, your toppings etc... right down to mayo and pickles. I got a grilled pineapple ring on my burger and it was very reminiscent of Ruby Tuesdays.  I know where we will be going from now on when we are craving a taste of America!




We also stopped by a book fair on the way back to the car - There wasn't anything that really jumped out at us; but they did have boxes of "Quirk" which were old illustrations from advertisements and books. There were several that I found that would have been stunning framed and hanging in a nursery.  On our way out, we spotted a book that merited a picture...  I hope I don't make anyone too angry with my insensitivity.  I'm not actually making fun of Schizophrenia as I know it is a serious and devastating disease - I am making fun of publishers who don't try hard enough to find appropriate names for their books....

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Honesty

Thursday, September 2, 2010 11:07 PM Posted by Mimi and Joe
Well, it's been a long and eventful week.  At this point I am weighing the good and bad together and trying to decide which one is winning right now.  I guess the nice thing is that the week isn't over and that we have some fun things planned for the weekend.

I'm finally admitting to myself tonight that I am a little depressed.  Depression is a bit funny for me - it's never very deep and it's easy for me to get out of; but I don't notice it when it's happening...  It's always several days after the fact when I can get enough clarity to look backwards and say "Oh! - that's what I've been feeling!"  I'm sick of not having much to do.  Inactivity seems to be my arch-nemesis.  As of Saturday we will have been without our things for three months; and I am really starting to miss not being able to look at all of the things that mean home to me.

I once read somewhere that there are two types of people - those who will only feel at home in a specific geographic location and those who can live anywhere as long as they are surrounded by the things that mean home to them.  I think there are many more categories than those two; but as a broad description and as an illustration to my point they work just fine.  I fall into the latter category - there are things that I own that mean home to me in a big way.  I moved a lot in my late teen/early twenties years and it never seemed to bother me as long as I had those things that were a touch point to my life.

When I think of our crate and the things that are inside of it, my first mental picture is of the belongings I inherited from my parents - My mother's spice rack, a set of their wedding china, a cushion made out of one of my Dad's flannel shirts, my Mom's sewing machine...

Next I think about the things that have meaning for me regarding Joe and our life together - our framed photos from Hocking Hills, our wedding albums, our books....

I need those things to feel completely at home here as opposed to the sort-of at home I am feeling now.  Really, it's not about possessions.... We have almost nothing here; but Joe is the biggest thing in my life that means home to me - so, wherever he is is home to me.

I've also been feeling a bit homesick the last few nights - not in a weepy sort of way... Not even any longing to go back to the States really.  More of a general regret.  That I wasn't closer to people before I left or that I didn't appreciate the time with them as much as I should have when I had it.  It's hard to think that there will be two more babies born into the family in the next couple of months that I won't be able to see/hold/cuddle.  I think about everyone every day - really, I do. I'm just afraid sometimes that they aren't doing the same and that they will end up forgetting me.

See - Inactivity makes my brain go round and round and round..... never a good thing.
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Friday Morning

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 12:38 AM Posted by Mimi and Joe
Friday morning I had plans to meet up with a fellow blogger for coffee.  If coffee went well, our next stop was going to be the Sydney Harbour Bridge Pylon Lookout.  I was quite excited to be going up on the bridge on foot as I had driven across it several times when we first arrived and it was not an experience I remember with fondness!

Coffee was a resounding success so we headed up the Argyle Stairs to cross Cumberland and head up even more stairs to the bridge proper.  Really, come to think of it - the days adventures focused primarily around stairs. 
Once on the bridge we were assaulted by wind, traffic noise, bright sunlight and one of the most distracting views I have ever seen.  Half way to the ferry that morning I realized that I had left my camera at home. Turning back to get it would have meant missing my ferry and showing up to coffee a half hour late so I resigned myself to using my phone as my camera.  I suppose it's a good thing I forgot my camera - I managed to take 84 pictures with my phone...  Imagine how many I could have taken with a zoom option!  I was a bit bummed that it was so hard to see our apartment from the bridge - it's such a huge landmark right there in our window everyday that I forgot that it would be very hard to pick out our place from the other end.  I was able to locate it though; but it's impossible to see it in these photos. Sorry.... I digress (this happens quite a bit).

We went into the pylon and climbed several flights of stairs in order to give our nine dollars fifty to a very nice man at the information desk. I always think of Bill Bryson when I am paying an entrance fee to a museum - he is always quite vocal in his books about how much a rip-off most tourist museums are; and he frequently puts his money where his mouth is by leaving without seeing anything.  I was a bit taken aback at the price tag for this one; but, then again, I am taken aback by the price tag of most things in this city.  The museum employee told us that the best way to complete the tour was to climb all the way to the top and then work our way down. 

Well, after about six flights of stairs we were ready to take a little break and look at some exhibits.  They were pretty run of the mill; but did offer a lot of historical information in the way of old photos and maps.  One of my favourite photos was this one of people streaming across the bridge at it's inauguration. The bridge is staggering even today in its design and it's sheer heft and presence.   I can only imagine how incredible it would have been for the residents of Sydney when it was finally completed.  It must have been such a proud day for these lucky people to have been some of the first people to walk across.

At this point we were sufficiently recovered enough to tackle the four or so more flights of stairs to the lookout at the top of the pylon.  Well....  let's just say that I would have paid much more than $9.50 to spend some time up there with that view! We stayed outside on the 360 degree lookout for close to a half hour and this is where I took roughly 76 of my 84 photos of the day. From that high, you could actually see the silhouettes of the Blue Mountains ever so faintly in the West.  Plus, you could see...  Well, I'll just let you see for yourself!






If you look closely at that last photo you will see one of the bridge climb tours filing back down from the arch.  I think I could have stayed up there all day and waited for the sunset just to get some more photos; but we were windblown and getting hungry. 

When we finally tore ourselves away from the view and headed back down the gazillion stairs (much easier going down) we had to the make the decision to go forward across the bridge or return back to the Rocks.  As neither of us had ever walked across the bridge we decided to just keep walking and then figure out some lunch options once we got to Kirribilli.  The walk across the bridge was nice but much shorter than I was expecting. 

Once in Kirribilli, we found a great little cafe and ordered lunch.  I got fish and chips and they were delicious in the way that food is when you have been trekking around and standing in the wind for a time.  There was a very intense seagull that was trying to use Jedi mind tricks to get our food; but we resisted.  The chips at this place were so good - they were seasoned with chicken salt as opposed to regular salt.  I was sure I wasn't going to like it; but it ended up being the best part.  My fellow blogger and I were eating chips based on the greatest chicken salt to surface area ratio.

After lunch, we decided to head back into the city.  We were faced with some difficult choices: Ferry, Bus, Train or Foot.  Wisely, we chose the ferry because there is just no better way to see the Opera House up close.  Plus, it's a boat - and it's cool.  We walked down to the North Sydney ferry wharf and sat on a bench. It was weird looking across Neutral Bay right into my windows.  It made me realize that if anyone on this side of the bay had binoculars they would be able to see quite a bit of what goes on in our place.  So, I think I am going to be a bit more careful about pulling the shades at night!

We took the next ferry back to the Quay and parted ways; but there are already plans afoot for another date to introduce our menfolk and drink a bunch of beer.  Maybe I can smuggle a shaker of chicken salt into the bar for our chips?

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The Second Half of a Busy Day

Monday, August 30, 2010 1:00 AM Posted by Mimi and Joe
Friday was very eventful - I met a fellow Yankee and blogger Friday morning for coffee and a museum tour which extended past those activities into lunch, a walk and a ferry ride.

I want to write a longer and better post about that later as I have a bunch of gorgeous pictures to share...

Friday night Joe and I went out.  We had drinks at a pub across from his office while we just sort of settled into "relax" mode and then we set out to find the burger place that had been closed in this post.  They were open, I had brought a bottle of wine (incidentally really really yum - Catching Thieves Sem/Sav Blanc from the Margaret River Valley) and the burger menu looked fairly "normal" so we settled in.  I got my burger with bacon, cheese and caramelized (more mush than onion and more boiled than caramelized) onion.  It wasn't bad; but it wasn't Swenson's.  I always forget that "bacon" here is not the "bacon" I am used to.  So, once I peeled the two slices of ham off my burger it started to improve.  The only thing missing was ketchup; and not the "ta-mah-toe sauce" that is the standard fare here.  I would kill for some real Heinz 57 ketchup.

I know, I know - that Heinz 57 ketchup is sold in the grocery stores here; but it is totally not the same thing.  The ketchup here is darker, more watery and tastes like ketchup that is just starting to go bad - this strange sharp, spicy tang at the end (and not in a good way).  But, for all my whingeing, we had a lovely dinner for a reasonable price and I was too happy being out with my husband to be annoyed by the mother that was letting her sons play tip (tag) in the doorway of the restaurant, right behind me.

It was a beautiful night - hard to capture in film; but as I was walking to Joe's office, dusk was starting to fall in Hyde Park while the sun was still reflecting on St. Mary's.  It was stunning to look at; but didn't come across in the photo as dramatic as it had looked in real life.  After dinner, we walked from Darlinghurst back over to the St. James station to catch a train back to the Quay.  We cut in front of St. Mary's again and it was lit up so beautifully that I had to snap another shot. 
My phone certainly paid for itself on this outing - you'll see what I mean in my next post (mentioned earlier above) when I share all my lovely photos from the Bridge Observatory Deck.  My only regret for the day was not bringing my camera and having to rely on my phone.

Oh, and I saw a guy at the burger place who was drinking a Bundaberg Ginger Beer which reminded me that I needed to try one too.  So, I drank one today and it was epically delicious - a spicier and more robust tasting "ginger ale".  I am thinking that my new favourite drink will soon become Maker Mark and ginger beer!




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In Case You Need A Reason

Friday, August 27, 2010 12:41 AM Posted by Mimi and Joe
If anyone was looking for a reason to visit me in Sydney with my nieces in tow - I present this store for consideration:

FairyLand!






I so want to be 5 again...
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