Floundering husband

Today as we were sitting in traffic, slowly dying from 30 degree heat, I asked Colin if he's ever been attracted to a female belonging to any other culture/race/ethnicity. He thought about it for a moment and said, "Nope, I'm more of a plain Jane kind of guy." Then smiled at me and patted my leg.

I stared at him while he thought about his own words. He then proceeded to call me his exotic caucasian lady, etc... It was funny.

E.

My first year is done!

The exam period was intense however as it was all packed into two weeks so there wasn’t much waiting around which in turn made it go by quickly. I’ve come to the conclusion that 12:30 exams are much worse then 9:00 am exams as you sit around all morning waiting, doubting your understanding and knowledge of the material. I suppose it’s been three weeks now since I’ve had some time to relax. Evelyn’s ecstatic as she can now come home and not see a room of guys talking jargon and bouncing balls over the obstacles that scattered our living room for about three weeks. We had a good set up though. The couches were moved back, the plinth set up in the middle of the room, targets on walls, tape on the floor, chairs set up everywhere, a white board covered with a faded marker (they all ran out), one guy on the couch acting as assessor while another was a patient and the last working hard at covering all the aspects of a random issue drawn from a hat.

Drew pressed hard for a new nickname: “Webster” as he tried to memorize every definition possible but Pickles was solidified last night as he proceeded to down his second cup of pickle juice in what appears to be two weeks.

Over the exam period Mike pulled the plug on the x-box, which must have been hard cause his cousin sent him two new games. I guess he’s been waiting for them, for quite some time and they came about three weeks ago. He was strong and didn’t give into the temptation to plug the machine in. Drew however, brought his Wii back with him from the states. He needed two cords to allow us to play it here, so he ordered them online. Mike had Drew thinking that the cords had arrived for two days and was hidden in his room, until Drew found his package on the front porch. I’m pretty sure we played Mario kart that night, so much for no video games.

At home we all had study outfits. Drew wore a sweet pair of shorts his mom made him. They are very bright and have faces all over them. I wore shorts with knee high striped socks and a white T. and mike wore a pair of pants Drew’s mom also made which are literal clown pants. They puff out at the bottom and are striped and diamond checkered rainbow colors. He also put on a tight black punisher shirt that he picked up for Halloween. Mike made a dollar by wearing his outfit to our first exam. There were a lot of double takes as people walked by. However, he lost the dollar because he made us memorize something that Drew and I didn't think would be on the test and bet us that it would be.

Now it’s summer time. Weird.

Quote of the Day Oct. 22: “The first day I was here they said zed joint and I had no idea what they were talking about. What’s a zed? I knew I was in for a treat.” Drew McLaughlin

C.

Jacaranda

Colin has 3 more exams this week and I'm so excited for them to be over. I'm also excited for December 10th because I will be off work for 1 whole month. I don't know how our bank account will feel about it, but I'm hoping it will be understanding and gracious. heh...

In the last few weeks it's been getting pretty nice outside, we've been hitting the low to mid 20's and it's been super nice. It's been so warm that we've also been experiencing lots of thunder and lightening, including a tremendous lightening storm a week ago that was magnificent to watch. However, Friday, Saturday and Sunday the temperature and humidity SKYROCKETED. The boys attempted to study but were mostly just trying to stay awake. Cooking in the kitchen was painful, but fortunately we really only ate 1 meal a day + lots of snacks. I leave for work at 7am and I actually had the a/c going on my drive this morning. But at about 10am it started raining, and continued to do so for 7 hours. It is now blissfully cool and I can return to my normal routine of eating and sleeping in peace.

This last month has brought out lots of beautiful flowers, and my new favorite Aussie flower is from a tree called "Jacaranda". It's like a purple Australian version of our Cherry blossom tree. They're EVERYWHERE. Except in our yard.

Hope you're all well and enjoying your sweet sweet snow. I can't believe I won't touch any for over another year.

E.

Pickles

Today we received a package brought over by my brother and sister-in-law's friend, Ardelle. She was passing through Sydney on her way to Melbourne, so she "muled" a package from home. Colin went to the airport to meet her. I've been thinking about this package for a long time. Mostly because it contains a lot of sugary items, but also because it was something familiar from home that was thoughtfully picked out by loved ones. All day at work I couldn't wait to come home so I could rip into it and snack!

There was also a flash drive with tv shows and pictures on it! As well as a bag of turkish delights that Colin had already retrieved from the pile of goodies.

What a treat to come home to. Thanks family.

You might remember, dear reader, that we made a formal complaint regarding our previous landlord who neglected to give us our damage deposit back. We received a notice today informing us that both parties neglected to show up to the hearing which took place yesterday at 10:10am. We will have to inform them that we didn't receive notice in the first place, because we would have loved to be there. Fortunately Sachin didn't make an appearance from India. Then we really would have looked foolish.

The boys are in full study mode. I tried to take pictures of them last night but they stopped what they were doing as soon as I brought out the camera. Our living room looks pretty funny at the moment. There are tables set up to roll balls on, towels on coffee tables, tape all over the floor, stuff taped to the walls, laundry clips scattered, and the plinth is set up right in the middle of it all. 3 is a nice number to have for studying. 1 will be the patient, another the practitioner, and a third to critique. I made them a rhubarb-strawberry meringue pie last night because Drew had never tasted rhubarb before. I messed it up so it wasn't a very good first impression. While the pie was baking we got Drew to drink a cup of dill pickle juice for $2. It was super gross. Mike said that Drew wouldn't get the money if he threw up, so he kept it down. His new nickname is Pickles but I'm not sure if it'll stick.

We just booked tickets to go to the great barrier reef in December. I'm pretty excited! We're flying to Cairns, Queensland from Dec 16-21. I couldn't wait to tell everyone at work where we were going and after I did they looked at me like I was crazy. My boss' brother was in the room and he said, "Queensland is more of a winter vacation spot." Oops! So if the crocodiles, jellyfish, and sharks don't get me, then surely the heat will. I'm still looking forward to it but I'll make sure to book a hotel with a pool. Or at least a sprinkler.

We've been getting quite a few moths in our house lately, which explains why most of the used furniture in Sydney smells like moth balls. Yuck. Last night however, the mother of all moths was in our bedroom. I thought it was a giant spider at first. Colin killed it with a broom but was never able to locate the body. Later in the evening I was cleaning up our room, and when I was throwing my damp charcoal colored shirt into the laundry I was suddenly attacked by the angry queen moth. I screamed and ran out of the room. The boys again tried to exterminate it but it took refuge in the light fixture dangling from our 10 foot ceiling. About an hour later I went back into our room and could finally see the moth sitting on the edge of the fixture. It took Colin another 5 minutes of chasing the moth around the room but Colin eventually won. I have never seen an insect fight so hard for it's life, it actually made me feel bad.

Well I've got to go and eat some chocolate.

g'night! (that's the opposite of g'day)

E.

Round 2

Exams! I don’t remember ever being worried about exams two weeks before they begin, I’m not worried this time around either. However, they are two weeks away and I have a heightened sense of their arrival. Today will be productive as soon as I’m kicked off the computer by my lovely wife who undoubtedly will enjoy a TV show or movie, while I stair at a piece of paper. This time around I was lucky enough to not have two exams on one day. Instead I think I have one everyday for two weeks excluding the weekend. Well I’m off to enjoy some reading. I’m pretty sure studying stories are coming your way. Be excited!

C.

Todays reflections

Colin and I went grocery shopping last night. I always finish every shopping trip with a walk down the frozen foods aisle to see if my favorite ice cream is on sale. To my surprise, it WAS last night. I asked Colin which one we should buy: Vanilla, Chocolate, Raspberry white chocolate, Cookie dough, or Macadamia Supreme. We decided to choose macadamia because it sounded really adult. I'm eating it right now and it's very tasty, but in a grown up way.

Every once in a while I notice that packaging here is only in English and I feel like I'm a traitor to my bilingual mother land.

Our microwave has a button that says "microwave" and you have to press that button before any other button to get it to work. You would think that the mere act of pressing any button would be sufficient evidence of my desire to use the appliance, but maybe Australia just doesn't have that kind of technology yet.

I killed an insect at work today. I have no idea what it was, but it looked like a cross between an ant/ear wig/scorpion. While I was exterminating it the smell of chocolate infiltrated my nostrils. I assumed this was the bug's defense mechanism and it was trying to poison me with some weird chocolate gas that came out of it's body. Much like the Octopus. After killing it, I asked my boss what kind of unusual Australian insect farts poison chocolate. He did not know, so instead made fun of me! I also couldn't find it online when I got home, so I can now conclude, without a doubt, that I'm an idiot.

2 hours ago, Colin and I went to back to our local camping store to exchange the grill we bought. They had a fancier one come on sale, so we decided to make an upgrade. (I didn't tell them that we took it on a camping trip, but only as decoration). So we walked into the store holding the grill and a receipt. The girl at the desk said that we had to leave the grill at the counter but I didn't understand why I couldn't hold it. I would never buy a jacket at a store and then leave it at the front counter every time I went back there to shop. That's silly. So I looked at the girl with a confused expression and she said, "You can't walk around the store with merchandise." But this WASN'T merchandise, I OWNED it. I was in an arguing mood but Colin looked at me like I was crazy, so I submitted. Fortunately, when we were exchanging the grills, I managed to unintentionally and briefly make her life difficult because I had bought the first grill on my Canadian mastercard that expired the next day. I think that's probably why I bought it, one last hurrah on the old plastic. She had to call her manager over and he had to explain to her that she didn't actually have to put money back on to the credit card because we were purchasing a more expensive model. SUCKA!

We're thinking of attempting 'Camping- the sequel' this weekend. I couldn't decide if I wanted to write that or not.

Decided!

E.

Thanksgiving

What a day. I’m generally ecstatic about get togethers of any sort, however, thanksgiving is a time where food is showcased and people come together sharing in a warm thankful experience. I don’t know if there’s a word that outdoes ecstatic so I’m going to say I’m ecstatic, ecstatic, about thanksgiving. Just a side note, it was a thanksgiving dinner at Evelyn’s parents place 6 years ago now where are love first started to build (I asked her to be my girlfriend).

In preparation for this event, which was held at our place, Evelyn set the date and invited all the North Americans; though no one from the states came we had a total of 13 Canadians around our two tables. We had to special order a turkey from the third butcher we went to and it took 4 days to come in. I’ve never actually roasted a turkey. To start we don’t have a roasting pan. Luckily Evelyn was given a gift certificate for a couple stores from her boss. We found a beautiful roasting pan that will be used many time in the next year because roasts are fantastic! So is gravy mmmmm. Well to get things started we pre-heated the oven I pulled the skin back from the breast and poured melted butter down the literal chest of the turkey along with some fresh sage and thyme. The turkey was placed in the oven for 20 minutes at a very high temp (450 or 475 F) for 20 minutes supposedly sealing in the succulent juices then the temperature is lowed to 120 C – Sorry, I don’t think properly any more now that I live here. Celsius and Fahrenheit sort of merge and I do things in both. Well after that was all set, ready to cook for a good 3 hours we continued getting ready for the dinner. I started making some stuffing while a friend was also making a butternut soup. The kitchen was fairly busy and definitely tight. Some time later about 30 minutes before people are supposed to arrive Mike looks over at me and says “isn’t that supposed to be flipped up?” He was referring to the ridiculous on switch for our oven. Someone’s body had somehow pushed it down and the turkey thermometer read 60 C when it should have read 87 C. Oops. Thanksgiving dinner’s supposed to be late anyways so people are extra hungry.

ON:

OFF:

It was a potluck and no one disappointed. We had so much rich delicious food our eyes smitten, persuaded our bodies to consume too much. After dinner people tryptophaned out on the couches, helped with the dishes, or tried to walk the dinner off by pacing from room to room=me. It was a success, dessert came out at least an hour later and most people managed to finish off there plate of chocolate cheesecake, fruit salad, and walnut cake with baked pears on top.

It was a day to remember, how blessed we all are. Canadians living in Australia have it good.

Lastly, Evelyn decided to start making the cheesecake late Saturday night because we had gone “camping” Friday and Saturday. So she got it all ready, drove over to Willy and Jenna’s at 12 am to pick up some more cream cheese, put the cake in the oven around 1:30 am set her alarm for 2:30 am to take it out. Went to sleep and woke up at about 6:30 in utter shock realizing she had turned the alarm off while sleeping. The cheesecake may have been a little less moist then it would have been, yet was still wonderful and put people over the top as they enjoyed it.

C.