A familiar face

Driscoll's is in America!! But the strawberries were from Mexico, I think. They were very tasty. I wouldn't have picked it, given that in Australia I've always been under the impression that they were a family owned company. Oh well.

Good packing decisions

When I think of it, I hope to communicate little things that were genius to pack. 

Number 1 - muck mat for the baby. Gives him his own little personal lino floor in a world of cream carpet. This one has a road on it, so it could be doubled as a car track, if you were energetic enough to clean it off every day and fish it out from under the table. Ours gets shaken out every week or so, and wiped down every time he spills a cup of milk (three so far).

Picture postcard

It snowed again!! Just a little snow, but still enough to turn the place into some sort of Christmas scene (there are holly trees here! with red berries on!). Later on, when the sun came out, we walked around the neighbourhood hearing the fresh powder crunch under our boots, and seeing the sun sparkle on the snow. The locals are sick of it, but we're not.

Ice cubes

Opened our freezer on Sunday to find ice cubes cascading out. The baby lost it, thinking we were breaking china on the floor... The lesson learned was not to accidentally flip the ice cube making facility on when packing away the groceries. We had taken out the ice cube catcher to get more space, so it had been quietly making ice cubes for a day and a half and just spitting them out into the freezer. Sort of puts me in mind of gremlins or something like that.

Without advertising...

Without advertising, how to choose your stain remover spray?! Seriously, the cleaning aisle just looks a jumble, the names are all foreign and it was a matter of more random choice based on (probably) colour, name, price etc. Very interesting realisation! This experience is not limited to cleaning stuff. Have to watch more TV...
ps - We went with 'Zout' in the middle here. The other washing liquids were in the apartment when we came, so we're using them.

What am I?

No photo, just a comment. Got called a 'guest' in Toys R Us today. Seems to me to be the most stupid of euphemisms...why can't I just be a customer?

Sausage attempt

Attempt at sausages - "Dinner Beef Franks". They got bigger when cooked (and then went super wrinkly on the plate)?! and they were very salty....I'm not sure that they're meant to be grilled, but that is how I did it. We will continue to try to find sausages! 

Fresh Buttery Taste Spread

Yes, as promised, Fresh Buttery Taste Spread...I think there is some sort of honesty in advertising here, as some of the product names are a bit ridiculous...We think this is margarine. It is a bit creamier than our margarine at home.

ANZAC biscuits

First cooking! What percentage of Australians move overseas then madly make ANZAC biscuits I wonder? Our problems - we could only find sweetened desiccated coconut, I forgot to buy butter (so we used buttery tasting spread - not joking about the name, I'll put that in next...) and we mixed in a large pot, as I couldn't find a bowl. But we still made them!

Icicles

The snow melts during the day, but at night fall, the melt turns to ice, which created these beautiful icicles. Light dusting of snow overnight, but I think it is the last. Constant dripping all around now!

Nappies

Apologies to all non parents out there... The Huggies nappies are unisex here. Unisex!! So what is it with Huggies' big campaign in Australia about little boys and girls being different and requiring differently weighted nappies? Hmmm.
Oh yeah, and when your eyes are crusted with sleep and your little prince/princess has done their nappy in, no use looking for the picture on the front to guide placement. They've put pictures on both front and back. Thanks Huggies.

Snow!

Your location: Somewhere cold and foreign
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: You have two days to get sufficiently settled in to deal with an unusually large snow storm (for the area, not in general).
The specifics: social security office attended, home phone connected, food bought, car hired, warm enough clothes for everyone (your special challenge will be gloves).
Your reward: Snow! Making snowmen with salad servers for arms! Sliding down hills on cardboard! Digging with snow shovels!
And the snow still lingers three days later...

Flying with children

Babies on aeroplanes... as good and as bad as expected. The hardest thing was having access to more movies and TV than I've seen in the last year - and not being able to watch any of it, except Peppa Pig (of which there was one episode). The easiest thing was watching a two year old entertain themselves with post-it notes.

New Beginnings

So, this is how it goes. 

I realised I could write far more than anyone had time to read. 

I realised that I'm not completely comfortable with the whole blogging your entire life for all the world to see, and also, that making an invitation only blog was more difficult than I realised. 

So I thought I'd be really original and do a photo a day with a small comment. I know now, after a little research, that this is not original, but I still think it is a good idea. 

The aim of this, (after this long post!!) is to just document the little (and the big) things that I notice in this new life. 

Those we know and love will get more detailed newsletters (you know us!). 

Those who are interested can track my little project and we'll just see how it all goes.