Shopping for the Side

If entry to to Australia were based on sports knowledge and enthusiasm, I'd still be sitting at the airport. I respect sports, and athletes, but for some reason our family was never very much into physical activities. As kids, we learned how to hit, thrown and swoosh various balls, but it didn't catch on, somehow. Here, in Australia, kids learn early how to play, which team to cheer for, and what sports events are commensurate to national holidays.

Yesterday was the AFL Grand Final, and I did my duty and went shopping, leaving the guys to more sports-like activities such as the Men's Footy Breakfast.

I rang my sister-in-law Linda and we headed out for the largest shopping centre in the known universe, Doncaster Shoppingtown, where you look at the signs and little green or red lights in the parking garage to determine whether you have to walk for most of the day or only part of the morning to get to the nearest doors. That's just outside the mall. Once your inside, you need a compass and map to navigate.

Linda is the best person to shop with not only because she is really thoughtful and helpful, and also knows where all the stores are, but keeps asking if you want to do a little more shopping, no matter what her own schedule is like that day. Consequently, I've discovered that the other good reason for my staying away from this Shoppingtown is not just the need for a search party to find me, but because I seem to be unable to stop spending money until all of my shopping bags are full.

After picking up some essential, and non-essential items, and then a few more non-essential items, and having no more empty shopping bags, we headed home. I managed to watch the post-game to learn who won match.

Weather Watching and Dirt

Last night I was watching the weather - in the kitchen. Not mine, fortunately (no black clouds lately), but at our radio club. We meet in the old barn of building which spent most of it's life as a Boy Scout Meeting Centre, and insulation is not it's strong point. It was built in a time when scary, lung-damaging asbestos was used in the roof, and needless to say the holes in the shiny material way over our heads do not inspire me.

Due to it's cold and drafty nature, there is a cloud formation phenomenon every time the tea kettles are left on in the kitchen. Through the pass-through one watches as swirls of clouds slowly thicken and dance near ceiling. I'm waiting for it to start raining in there one evening.

We did have a spot of real rain today, followed by intermittent sunshine and cloud cover. I took advantage of the dry periods and went down to dig over our tiny little vegetable patch. We're assuming the vegetables will do well, because the weeds and grass haven't had any problems. I also had to go dig up the compost pile (also overgrown with weeds) and transport fresh dirt to the little enclosure. 45 minutes later I'd managed to turn everything, dig in some compost, and pull the wire fencing back around to keep the dirt safe from rabbits. When your 40-something, fat, and unfit, it really is hard work. I'm hoping any rabbits who were watching the spectacle will either be so compassionate or so amused that they'll leave the garden alone.

Week Nights

It's been just over week since I last updated the blog. I promised my sister-in-law, Coleen, that I'd try to be more frequent, especially as we both know people who are recuperating and need some cheering up! I had a bit of writers block since nothing notable happened. Or, at least if it did, I failed to notice it.

Well, that's not entirely true, we've had friends over during the past week, gone out, come home, generally enjoyable passtimes. Just nothing I could really make fun of.

Some serious winds are blowing again, but this time they are warm spring winds, which after eight nights are still carrying the strong perfumes of local flowers. I remember smelling (and tasting) the honeysuckle flowers growing up in New Jersey; but to be honest, I don't remember the scents of the flowers in the spring - although Spring itself had a delightful smell. New Jersey flowers have to present themselves as tough, not girly, because if they don't the flowers from New York come and beat them up.

The other notable thing I didn't notice is that we've also just marked our 2 year anniversary in Oz, so I'm sure there's a few of you out there looking for some good Aussie jokes to tell me. (What do you call a pair of Aussies who forgets their 2 year anniversary? Really, I'm not sure - tell me.) I have to admit, Australia still seems a bit foreign to me at times, when I'm not stuck in the "home-to-work-I-didn't-see-that-giant-drop-bear" routine. The trees, the weather, Christmas in summer, the strange marsupials waiting to mug unsuspecting tourists... Andrew tells me one day, without realising it, I'll get used the "reversed" seasons, the lack of the New York Yankees, and the velcro on the soles of my shoes. Just kidding. We use magnets.

Sausages and the Scents of Spring

I burned the snags a bit tonight. For an easy option meal, we occasionally like to break out the snags (sausages), but as it is just the first few days of spring, it's still not quite light enough to break out the BBQ to cook dinner on. This is where my wonderful stove comes in. Iit has a grilling function -- well, several: regular, fan for a rotisserie effect, and eco for smaller portions.

This works very well, although you are instructed to prop the oven open on the first notch for grilling, unless you use fan grill. Even with the fan grill, when you open the oven door, lots of smoke tends to come out. This is why we replaced the missing doors in the kitchen. Ideally, you open the window, close the doors, turn on the overhead fan and smoke stays away from the smoke detector outside the bedroom. Unless of course you totally forget the whole bit about closing doors and opening windows, which I did.

So then comes my favourite dinner-time ritual of sprinting to the back door, yelling apologies to Andrew who is in the lounge, and vigorously waving the door back and forth to push fresh, non-smoky air towards the screaming detector. Fortunately this works quite well, and I only had to do it twice tonight.

As a consequence, we had all the doors and windows open after dinner to fumigate the house. One side benefit was that as the smoke dissipated, the wonderful scent of rain and spring flowers filled the air, borne on the wings of mozzies. Spring has come to Melbourne.