Things we miss in Canada

Other than our friends, the thing we are missing most is the Dundas shops!
Particularly we miss Picone's, the Horn of Plenty, the cheese shop (whatever it is really called), the tea shop, Cumbrae's, and Taylor's tea rooms.

Things that we are finding hard to get here that were easy to get there
Kale (apparently they used to try and sell it, but no one really liked it)
Salsa (there is one brand in the supermarket and some expensive fresh one's in the deli section)
Good Tortillas (although we can get other flat breads that are better for toasted sandwiches)
Hemp seeds (the kind you eat, not plant to smoke! I may have to try and order them online)
Sausages that have more spices than just salt.

Also, it's really nice to have shops where people KNOW you, at least by sight. So if you see any of the folks from these shops please say "Hi" from us!

On the up side, we can really easily get nice Asian veggies at our local fruit shop, plus lots of lovely fruit, and we can get hormone free grain fed chicken which is NOT the same as the organic stuff (costs mid-price, people in the shops in Canada had never heard of it).

Now I KNOW that it is possible to get some of these things in Australia, we just have to find the right shop. The mega mall near us doesn't have quite the range. When we lived in Belconnen, Canberra, there was a place at the markets called Eco Meats that sold the yummiest Kangaroo sausages... Mmm skippy... we can't get THAT in Canada!

Still, if we could find a brunch local like Taylor's we would be very happy!

Margaret's Music Certificate at UNSW

Hi!

Some quick photos of me and Rachel with my Aunt Margaret, my Grandma Stella and my Uncle Stephen with friends and family at the John Clancy Auditorium where Margaret received her AMusA in singing. That's a big deal! It's one of the highest awards you can get in your instrument (in this case voice), and she already has one in piano as well.

They came down from Moree (which is a day and a half to two day's drive) for the occasion. Margaret is easy to spot with the scholar's robes, Gran has the red and white shirt, and Steve is the guy who isn't me.

From let to right: Anita, Leonie, Eileen, Steve, me, Margaret, Stella, Kathy (behind Stella), and Rachel. Eileen's sister Kathleen is taking the photo I think (we scanned these in from printed photos Margaret sent in the mail).

Names

Hey.

So we're trying to think of names for people. There are lots of really great names out there like Norelle, Sharelle, Cherise, Kevin, Gavin, Bevan and so on.

We think there aren't enough good names out there and we should add a few new ones.

How about Bavin for a boy's name? Can also be spelled Bavon.

Or Caveron? Maybe with a K?

Beveridge sounds like a good girl's name.

Gablin for a guy? Perhaps Gammin.

I think Gavrilon would also work.

Tell us if you've heard a really great name lately that you think more people should use.

Lane Cove National Park

Hi there!

So we're getting more settled in our new place in Macquarie Park. We have a dining table now so we don't have to use computers on the floor. We also have wireless so we can both connect to internet at the same time (wow progress!) A couch is going to be delivered some time in March. Our belongings from Canada still haven't arrived which is starting to worry us, but hopefully it's just Australian customs being slow/thorough.

My job is good. Really hard actually, in the technical sense. I don't recall being as mentally taxed for quite some time - the HWDSB job required quite a lot of political manoeuvring to get stuff done, but the maths was dead simple. I'm kinda glad to not have to worry so much about the politics any more - when you're surrounded by others officers of the same profession (in my case statistics), you don't have to work so hard just to keep people convinced that your point of view is relevant. You can actually spend time getting stuff done instead.

Anyway, this post was actually meant to be more about our backyard. Our "friends" have visited a few more times...

...as well as other neighbours who visited this morning. They are making a killing with all the litle lizards and skinks around...

(they were about 3 metres away in these shots, and the one at the top was eyeing me suspiciously and trying to decide if I was a serious threat). A bit after this, three of them roosted on another branch nearby and did their maniacal laugh all together. Very nice!

Other wildlife is a little more scary:

These are orb spiders. They're supposedly not dangerous (as opposed to say a funnelweb spider whose bite can kill you), but orb spiders build these great big webs between two trees that it's really easy to walk into accidentally. The main web lines are this weird yellow colour and they're really strong - like guy ropes. I got as close as I dared to this guy - their body is maybe as big as your little finger up to the first knuckle.

Mike and Jan visited with another car-load of our junk (which they kindly stored for us while we were in Canada) and we had a walk around down toward the river. It's a nice spot, but pretty hard to get around. You have to do some bush bashing (no, nothing to do with the American presidency).

The weather has cooled off a lot. Summer seems to have passed us by mostly, thanks to La Nina. Still, I'm told that Sydney does really great winters, in terms of mildness.

We're going to see the Chemical Brothers at the Sydney Exhibition Centre on Friday coming up, and we've heard that Air are coming to the Sydney Opera House in April. So we're making the most of living in Australia's biggest city. Yay!

--

This post was brought to you by Mr Random with cheese.

Grants and Rants

Hi everyone!

Just to let you know I AM still alive, but I have been busy writing a grant. That goes in on Monday so I should become more sociable again. :)

In other news I would just like to say don't ever ever use DHL as a courier because the are the most useless people in the world!
We had problems with them in Canada so I almost didn't use them again, but foolishly I thought it might be different here. BUT NO!
They apparently tried to deliver it when I was HERE, and there was no little note left. AND they have no phone numbers on the web. So I sent a little message through their web site asking them to give me contact details for the local people. The guy was very apologetic, but didn't give me any phone number. So I tried to stay home a little later today, and missed them by an hour! Again NO NOTE, but they did leave a phone number so I range them up. They were very NICE, but said it was their policy only to make two delivery. AND WHERE THE HELL IS THE NOTE?? Lumpy thinks they are trying to deliver to the wrong place (despite having our address correct). It's true we are a little hard to find, but a two different sets of delivery people as well as Australia post manged to find us. In short, THEY SUCK.

Ok, I'm done now. Back to the grant. :P

Wildlife

So it seems that we've moved into some sort of bird sanctuary.

These are rainbow lorikeets and I don't believe I've ever seen them so tame. Someone around here must be feeding them regularly. They showed up at our balcony this afternoon and more or less demanded to be fed something. Rachel has a grape which one particularly bold lorikeet is eating out of her hand here.

Our new place is really cool! It backs onto the Lane Cove National Park - which is part of the reason why the wildlife is right on top of us. We've also seen and heard the kookaburras:

and currawongs

and other wildlife...

all from our living room balcony.

Wot? No more grapes?

Bye!

B

A quick update

Hi there

We still don't have internet at home yet, so just a quick one...

I've started at work at the Sydney ABS office and all's well. Rachel started at Macquarie Uni too. We're just in that inbetween stage where we are living in a mostly unfurnished house, and we're slowly acquiring things. Our new futon arrived on Friday so at least we've got something comfortable to sleep on (we had been sleeping on spare matresses that Rachel's folks brought up from Canberra - and may I say how much easier it is to do this when parents are within driving distance!).

We should get the net within the next week or two - Telstra just have to send us the new ADSL modem.

Anyway, now we're going shopping for a couch! It will be better when there's somewhere other than the carpet to sit on!

At least we have a great view over the Lane Cove National Park - we could hear the kookaburas laughing last night which was good!

Bye!