Balmoral Burn

    What sounds like a fun way to spend a Sunday?  Of course, run up Sydney's steepest street, on which we happen to live.  (Don't ask why we always end up at the bottom of the hill, or "downstairs" as our neighbors call our house in NC!) 

    The Humpty Dumpty Foundation raises money to buy equipment for pediatric units in hospitals in Australia.  The Balmoral Burn is a fundraising race straight up 440 meters of hellish asphalt; it even gets steeper in the last 100 meters!  I don't enjoy walking the dog up it, much less running it. But, there are plenty of folks game for some physical punishment for a good cause.  There were numerous events including Elite, Kids under 12, No Burn (walkers), and Owner and Pet.  Chris ran with one of the Accenture teams in the Corporate Relay event.  We all enjoyed watching the spectacle.



Looking up the race course (the picture doesn't begin to do justice to the steepness). 



Finish line



Mia found a good perch atop the rubbish bin holder.





Jackson was banished to the front walk after growling and snapping at a couple of dogs.  Don't know what's up with him.  Pitiful face though.



Vivid

     For the past few years, Sydney has promoted a festival of lights called Vivid Sydney.  There are numerous light sculptures and installations around the city, but the biggest draw is the illumination of the Opera House sails each evening.  The light projections constantly change and were rather mesmerizing.  With the sun setting early these days, at about 5 PM, this was a pleasant way to end a short autumn day.

    FYI - For any locals, we stayed for the Fire Dance, a "performance of dancing flames choreographed to music."  It was kinda neat, but literally was over in 2-3 minutes.  Just one song of dancing flames.  Maybe it gets too hot...

Of All the Words...

Sam was working on his math homework yesterday.

S: "Mom, I need a rubber.  Do you know if we have one of those big, white rubbers?"

R: "Uh, (pause to stop myself from laughing) yeah, there should be one with the other school supply stuff."

S: "Thanks."

R: "Hey, I think we should use the American word for that.  I'm for keeping on calling it an eraser."

S: "Why?  Everyone else here calls them rubbers."

M: "Yeah, Mom, they're made of rubber so it makes sense."

R: "Well, they erase so it makes sense to call it an eraser too." 

S: "I like rubber. I'm going to call it that."


I guess this one will figure itself out in time.  But really, of all the Aussie words to adopt...

Snorkeling over "Thanksgiving"

    We realized that in our now upside down world, this week in late Autumn was like Thanksgiving week in the Northern Hemisphere.  We have yet to "reset" our seasons and months and so we have to continually perform a mental switcheroo so that things make some sort of sense.

    With temperatures in the 70's over the weekend, we decided to try out our snorkeling gear so that the kids can get used to it before we head to the Great Barrier Reef in July.  On Saturday we headed to Shelly Beach, a protected beach in Manly that is known as a good, easy spot for snorkeling.  The water has cooled down to about 66 degrees, but it was manageable with wetsuits.  The kids quickly figured out the snorkel gear and we did get to see some interesting marine life.  These are a couple of the animals we saw, but not my photos.



Blue grouper




Eastern Fiddler Ray



   We also found lots of sea glass on the beach, not something we've found before on any beach. 

    Sunday we enjoyed brunch with fellow Chapel Hill expats and tried out the snorkeling at Balmoral.  There were even more varieties of fish, right in our "backyard." 

Frog girl



Mia and friend go for a paddle board ride.



     

Recent controlled burning west of Sydney has resulted in hazy days and rerouted air traffic.




All too frequently, I'm up to see the sunrise. 



     No turkey and dressing, but we did enjoy a "Thanksgiving" meal.  We celebrated our anniversary with some fine dining at Bathers Pavillion.  Definitely worth a splurge!

Lunch Lady

   There is no cafeteria at the kids' school, but there is a canteen.  Run by volunteer parents, the canteen offers breakfast, snack and lunch fare daily.  When my funny guy husband heard that I was starting to volunteer in the canteen, I was quickly serenaded, via mobile (Aussies don't say cell phone) phone, via YouTube, by Adam Sandler's Lunch Lady Land song.  Hmmph.

    In the mornings, the canteen has freshly made chocolate chip and M&M muffins, hot chocolate, raisin toast and fruit for sale.  Want to guess how many times per week Mia asks for a chocolate muffin?  At recess, there is warm garlic bread, just-made basmati rice with soy sauce and various other snacks available.  Lunch options include sandwiches made to order (including Vegemite of course), macaroni and cheese, sausage rolls, and daily specials like sushi and chicken schnitzel sandwiches.  They offer healthy options like freshly cut veggies and fruit, but then also Oreos, licorice, and even popsicles.




Warm garlic bread ready for recess.



Students place their orders on a paper bag and submit the $ inside it.

      Follow-up:   One bag had an order for a musk stick on it.  I didn't know this was an item available at the canteen, as it's not on the menu.  Anyhow, I asked my fellow canteen ladies about it and was told "Oh, yeah, that's an Aussie thing."  I was encouraged to try it, so I did.  As I'm biting into it, one lady says "It's definitely an acquired taste.  I think it's awful and it stays with you forever."  Thanks.  It was pretty bad; tasted like eating laundry detergent with sugar added.  Nothing a little chocolate wouldn't fix though!  Apparently they also make musk flavored Lifesavers, available in Australia and New Zealand.

   So, I didn't have to wear a hairnet and I didn't serve any "slop, slop, sloppy joes" but I did serve up some meat pies "with a little slice of love."

** We have the ability to send emails when new posts are added to 10 addresses.  Let us know if you're interested and if we can, we'll set it up.

The "Gloriest Place"

    Sam was on the phone with his 6 year-old cousin in Utah recently and was trying to explain to her where we were living now.  He explained about the Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, the North and South Heads and then Balmoral Beach.  Finally, he just said, "You know, it's the gloriest place." 

     Our weekend outings certainly back up that claim.  Sam's Saturday morning soccer game was at an area of Mosman called George's Heights.  From the soccer field, you can look across the Harbour to the Eastern Suburbs and further to Bondi Beach and the Pacific in one direction and across Balmoral and up Middle Harbour in the other. After the game, we walked over for a snack at a great little cafe and then took in the views. 

Sam pays careful attention to the game during his stint as goalie.



Shot Cafe at George's Heights.  This area is an old army base base that now houses businesses, studios, etc.

 

View of the entrance to Sydney Harbor from Shot cafe.  Nice!

     This view from the house is of the North Head, the dramatic cliffs at the entrance to Sydney Harbor.

 We look at it all the time so we went over to walk around a bit over the weekend.  More lousy scenery, as usual! :-)





Mia with home, Balmoral Beach, way behind her in the background.



A closer shot of Balmoral from the North Head (love the zoom lens).  You can see our steep street heading straight up the hill just to the right of the large white building (Bathers Pavillion) on the beach. 



  Other stuff we've been up to  -

    Mia has started swimming at a different swim club.  For a number of reasons, we all think this pool may end up being a better fit.  It's hard to keep starting over, but we think this is worth it.  She has started picking up an Aussie accent when she's around Australians.  It lasts a while when she gets home from school and then fades out.  Funny!   A boy at school gave her a "loveheart" (they don't just say heart for the shape) necklace with her name on it.  She proclaimed that "He can like me, but I'm ten. I'm not ready to be a girlfriend."  Whew! 

The loveheart necklace.

Happy for hours this way! (that's an AFL ball, by the way)

He's finally getting some front teeth again!

   Chris has been spending the weeks in Melbourne, then flying back for the weekends.  He's still training a bit for the Balmoral Burn, a race straight up our street that takes place in less than 2 weeks.  Unfortunately, he hurt his knee recently, so between that and long hours at work, he's not too hopeful for a quick time. Combine that with the good food of Melbourne (he said tonight he just had his favorite Italian food since leaving the U.S.), and he's not feeling too fit.  His company is a sponsor of the event and they had a professional PT (personal trainer, not physio) make the trek over from Bondi (apparently it's a big deal for Bondi people to come across "the Bridge", especially to the decidedly un-Bondi-esque Lower North Shore with its SUV driving Mums).  Chris said their time trial up the street was so tiring, his arms went numb.  What fun!

    Sydney, and a lot of Australia, has had a stretch of chilly weather, much colder than normal we're told.  It even snowed in the mountains.

Chris thinks  this is one of the Victorian "ski fields" with the season's first snow as seen from his plane this morning

  Apparently the highs in the low 60's and lows in the upper 40's is typical winter weather here, not fall (or autumn as it's known here...maybe because gum trees are evergreen so they don't really know what it means for leaves to fall).  When the thermometer in our bedroom dipped into the 50's during the day, we knew it was time to take action.  Construction here is not known for insulation and we were feeling it!  The house does technically have electric heat but it's expensive and doesn't reach about half the house.  Chris calls the damp cold inside (which is colder and wetter than outside) "Florida cold."  I won't write what I call it.  We were given a lead on some heaters for sale, by the previous tenants no less.  They lived in "our" house for 3 years (formerly of Minnesota) and thought it felt "like camping " without the heaters.  I agree!!  Only in the last ten years have Australians started using double pane windows, weather stripping, etc. in construction.  Since they moved to a beautiful new house with those construction novelties, we bought their toasty natural gas "bayonet" heater.  It's almost like having the fireplace on at home!

So, now we are much more comfy in the "gloriest place."

   



This and That... and a Request

    We knew we wanted an easy way to provide our family and friends with updates on our adventures, frustrations and joys while here.  Having read our good friends' blog from their summer in Oz two years ago, we liked the format and took the plunge in December.  Thank goodness Blogger is generally easy to use!  The kids ask for things to be mentioned, or not mentioned, and suggest photos, etc.  Most times I'm writing but Chris occasionally takes a turn at the keyboard.  We're all participating and all eagerly looking for feedback.  We love getting comments because it makes us feel connected to the folks for whom we're writing/posting and missing!  So, here's the request: if you're reading, PLEASE send us some feedback occasionally.

    A couple of questions - Should we link it to email so that you get an email when we post something new?  Any ideas of things you wonder about that we haven't addressed? 

    Some things here are notable and humorous to us but not worthy of an entire post so we thought we'd run through some of them -

• New Aussie word learned this week: stickybeaking (being nosy, a busybody)
• Aussie pronunciation of asphalt = ash-felt   (Sam picked this up from his teacher and we had an interesting time trying to figure it out)
• We rarely hear Australians use the words spouse or husband/wife.  It's usually "partner," for both  married or unmarried couples.
• Some words are spelled differently and take some getting used to:

It looks to me like some 1st graders got the sign making equipment!

•  Mia's tips to me (unsolicited) on how I can look more like an Aussie mum: (1) get longer, blond, straight hair worn in a ponytail (2) wear more bright colors (3) wear more spaghetti straps
• Even common birds can pose a danger:



I love the part about holding a branch over your head or wearing big hat with glasses on backwards so they won't attack.  Very helpful.

• Mia's classmates have asked her: "Do they have Glee in the States?"  "Do you have a pistol at home?" "Do you see celebrities a lot?"  
• Saw this in the confectionery (candy) section of grocery store

 I can't imagine what these taste like. I thought musk was a scent, not a flavor! Maybe I'll get curious enough to try them.

•  Even common greetings are occasionally different.  "How are you going" being the most common rather than "How are you doing" or "How is it going."  When we think about it, none seem more "correct" than the others, it's just different.

Like so much here, just different enough to keep us on our toes!



A Bargain

    We found one!  Amazing.  On Sundays, called Family Fun Days by the Royal Transportation Authority, Sydneysiders can ride the ferries, buses, etc. all day for $2.50 per person.  After a week full of rain, the skies were clear on Sunday so we headed off to explore some more for the grand transportation price of $10.
     First up, we took the bus from the corner to the Mosman ferry wharf, then across the Harbor to Circular Quay.  From there, we walked to the Royal Botanic Gardens and spent a couple of hours checking out the grounds.  The views are outstanding, as is frequently the case in Sydney, and we saw some new creatures along the way.



View from the Mosman Ferry

These are the huge bats, called Flying Foxes, that fly around after dark when we're out walking the dog.  There were thousands of them hanging from the trees, chattering.  Dare I say this one almost looks cute?

Cool tropical "flowers" made from recycled trash bags.

Eels live in this pond not far from the Harbor.  They sometimes eat ducklings, but the ducks eat the baby eels too.  This one was clearly used to being fed, as he appeared every time we got near the water's edge.  Not cute.

These Sacred Ibises are common around Sydney and seem to adapt well to life in city parks.

Mia didn't think this subject matter was worthy of a statue!

Rainbow Lorikeets are everywhere.

View from the east side of the Opera House across Farm Cove.

    Back home, there was a bit of wildlife worth checking out too.  The cockatoos, normally a very loud bird, were INCREDIBLY loud on Saturday morning.  There was a group of 10-20 screeching non-stop.  Turns out they were really distressed about a possum and her baby up in a fig tree next to the beach.  The birds had their wings fanned out, crests raised and were basically surrounding the possum screaming at it.  Eventually the possum and baby moved out on a limb, dropped out of the tree and ran for it.  The birds followed, swooping and screaming.  We have seen these posssums on the fence and railings in the back yard at night, but never in the day.  I don't know what was freaking the birds out so much, but they stopped when the possum ran under a car.  Wildlife control was called to pick them up.

 I think this baby is getting a little big to be hitching a ride!  These Common Ringtail Possums are much nicer loooking than those awful North American Possums.

    There has been one benefit from all the rain - rainbows.  We've seen numerous ones but this full one across the water was really neat.