Thanksgiving in Summer

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. No matter your religion or citizenship, if you live in the US you’re celebrating Turkey Day on a Thursday late in November. If you see someone on the street that day you are safe to wish them a happy holiday. Smiles abound and by the end of the day you’re fat and happy (and often tipsy on wine!) =)

Living in Australia, the locals obviously do not celebrate this US holiday (I think it might be the only holiday they DON’T celebrate!) I’m happy to say that many of my co-workers wished me a Happy Thanksgiving but I really missed the smell of blueberry muffins and sausage cooking (for the stuffing) in the morning. Not to mention the Macy’s Day Parade. I did leave work a bit early and promptly turned on the Christmas music as I walked in the door. I baked a pumpkin pie (do you know how hard it is to find canned pumpkin in Australia?! I finally found it but spent $10 for a single can!!) We had a nice meal - rotisserie chicken (no time to cook a turkey!), green bean casserole, peas, corn, and David’s famous mashed potatoes. It was a great meal. Perfect for the two of us.

We continued the celebration with some friends on Saturday. We fried a turkey (yes, they’re from Georgia!) and enjoyed a feast! The sweet potato casserole was AWESOME! I’ve got to get the recipe =)

David and I visited the Botanical Gardens this weekend and saw the flying foxes! They look like bats but they’re not nocturnal. Check out the pics!

Happy Turkey Day to all!

~LAA =)

Laser Skirmish!

Go figure - David’s company has a social club that plans monthly events. We have a blast every time we attend! This month was laser tag - if you haven’t played it’s totally worth your time. It’s surprisingly fun just like Whirlyball in Atlanta (http://www.whirlyballatlanta.com/)

David and I were on opposite teams - needless to say we purposefully sought each other out during the competition to shoot each other. If only I had a recording of the shrieks and laughter as we ran around tagging each other - SO funny!

Here’s a fun pic of the group outing!

~LAA =)

Farewell Dupree

What a lovely visit we had with Dirk! We miss having him around! “Dupree” as he’ll be named henceforth was a wonderful houseguest. He, as we expected, educated us on the interesting things to do in Sydney - how funny that it takes a friend visiting from the other side of the world to tell us about how wonderful the city is where we live. =) Here’s a great pic of David and Dirk on his last night in town.

~LAA =)

Master Chef 3

I'm excited to say we hosted our first real dinner party this weekend! We had 11 people over for “Master Chef 3.” The theme was Thai food and each couple brought a course for the challenge. It was great fun - yummy food, lots of wine, Thai-tinis (ask me for the recipe sometime!) and a few rousing games of Celebrity (unfortunately the guys won!!). How wonderful that we finally have our stuff so we have the provisions to host that many people! Let alone a table big enough to fit all of them. I was in heaven. :) The people in the picture starting on the left and going clockwise: Jaclyn (“Jacs”), Dirk (“Dupree”), Amanda, Pete, Janine, me, Niels, Gretchen, Kyle, and Sam. David is (conveniently) taking the picture. Every one of us is an American/ex-pat with the exception of Amanda and Sam!

David found his own heaven on Sunday when we finally went for a dive with our own gear! There were 5 of us who went down to Shelley Beach, just a stone’s throw away from our house. We saw a shark in the process of giving birth (!!) a few woebegones, and some large blue grouper (or maybe they were some kind of wrasse?). It was a little chilly but nice to be back in the water. David was beside himself to have such a lovely day. I’ve come to learn that David and I both truly love hosting - I prefer it above water and David prefers it below ;)

~LAA

The Flies Kept me Running this Morning

It’s officially black fly season in Manly. HOW ANNOYING! I feel like I need a switch to keep them away sometimes! I suppose it’s good for me because every time I slowed down or took a break to do some lunges or squats I was forced to get running again just to keep the flies off me! YUCK! I hope this season doesn’t last long! The good news is when there’s a sea breeze they tend to stay away. I’ll have to experiment with fly-free location along my running route in the next week or two.

Part of the magic of Sydney is that during the same time that the flies come out, the Jacaranda Trees are in full bloom. Check out how beautiful they are! Covered in violet flowers, they remind me of purple cherry blossom trees and they’re EVERYWHERE!

~LAA

You, Me and Dupree

We’ve officially named our guest room “Dupree’s Room” inspired by the movie after Dirk Brown (one of David’s close friends and groomsman in our wedding) commented on how he never wanted to leave our humble abode. Dirk arrived on Friday and will be staying with us while exploring Sydney for the next couple of weeks. We’re happy to have Dupree stay for a while! It’s so gratifying to have friends travel from the other side of the world to see us and experience our new home!

Dirk has already been subject to a small dinner party and now he’ll be deep in the thick of living with us while we entertain as we have 11 people over for a dinner party on Saturday! The theme is “Master Chef – Thai Night.” We’ve taken to having cooking competitions with some friends – this is round three and everyone is taking a course. We’re making curried apricot pork – a real winner in this household. Hopefully it will hold up to our Master Chef friends’ expectations! 

We went to see Jeff Dunham at the State Theatre in Sydney last night (www.jeffdunham.com and www.statetheatre.com.au ) If you’ve never experienced Jeff Dunham you have to check him out – he is SOO funny! We were rolling for most of the night! Even knowing most of his jokes (because the CD’s were already released in the US before we left – it’s all new to the Aussies!) we still laughed hysterically. The State Theatre was really interesting in itself – it reminded us both of The Fox in Atlanta but it seemed to be a little better cared for. Ornate wall decorations, art and elaborate ceilings were the main focus, along side the interesting architecture. There’s a grand sweeping horseshoe shaped staircase in the main lobby – so beautiful!

Manly hosted a surfing festival this weekend. I was originally really excited to attend because I know so little about surfing but after watching a couple of events I can see why I’ve never been sucked into the sport – how boring to watch! You stand there for 20 minute intervals waiting for the 3-4 surfers in the heat find their perfect wave and do some tricks for all of about 5 seconds. I guess perfect waves are few and far between! It was cool to have a new experience but I think I’ll stick to below water sports ;)

Here are some updated pics of our apartment now that our stuff has arrived!

~LAA

Back in the Land of Oz

It’s been a long few weeks of travel and a hiatus from our “normal” life but I’m happy to say David and I are back in the land of Oz. An untimely death, a beautiful wedding, our stuff arriving (finally) and crossing too many time zones to count has made for a very emotional 2 months.

First let me pay tribute to my beloved StepFather, Jim Gilson. He may have loved this blog more than anyone I know. I hope you have the World Wide Web in heaven, Jim. I’m sure you’re keeping up with things from up there. You are incredibly missed. We love you very much.

Although I’m so sad to have left the US (we miss or amazing family and friends terribly) there are two big reasons I’m happy we’re back in Oz after a long journey. The first is being able to sleep in our OWN BED again. How gratifying to feel the familiar softness of the sheets and hear the sounds of our neighborhood through the open window.

The second is my run on Sunday morning. Due to the jet lag we will feel for the next week or so, I was wide awake at 4:30am. I stayed in bed for an hour or more trying to allow the sun ample time to come up and then I got up to go for an early morning run. The weather was perfect, the water was like glass and all I could hear was the pounding of my feet hitting the ground, birds singing their tunes, the water crashing on the rocks next to me and an occasional “Good morning” from a passing stranger. It was wonderfully peaceful.

Like I mentioned earlier, our stuff finally arrived! It took 4 months to the day. I’m happy to say every bit of the 57 (yes 57) boxes of stuff have found a place somewhere in a nook or cranny of our modest apartment. I really didn’t think it would be possible, but just like with a dishwasher, it takes a woman’s touch to get everything squeezed in. Poor David took on the task of unwrapping (he’s SHOCKED at the amount of kitchen stuff we have. Seriously, every family needs 3 sets of measuring cups, right?) and I took on the time consuming task of finding homes for all of it. The only thing left are the pictures. Those of you who know me well know that this will be my favorite part. Gotta love a decorating project!

The great news about our stuff arriving is that we’re going to be ready to host our first stay-with-us guest this weekend! Dirk Brown, one of David’s close friends and a groomsman in our wedding will be arriving for a couple of weeks on Friday. We’re very excited to start our 8 month stint of at least one set of guests every month. We were serious when we offered our home to our brave family and friends willing to cross the big pond to come for a visit. Word to the wise - the time slots for a visit and free place to stay are starting to run out so please let us know if you plan to visit in the next year and a half and we’ll let you know what the social calendar looks like ;)

It’s time for me to find my running shoes and hit the pavement again. The birds are calling and the breeze is cool. Enjoy this fine day!

~LAA :)