Elsja Down Under

Swine Flu April 28, 2009

I’d like to share with you my feelings on infected ham snot.

I am not afraid of the swine flu. It’s the flu. I haven’t gotten any sort of flu in over 6 years and I don’t plan on getting this pig  disease either.

Yet another reason I don’t care to eat swine.

Seriously though, why do people freak out so much? People die of the REGULAR flu every year. Mexican hospitals are clearly not up to par with health standards since they are the only country to report any deaths (for now). But seriously… people get flus every year. No more reason to worry about this particular one, right?

I’ll tell you what I AM afraid of…

This porky virus causing people to freak out like they did with SARS which would therefore cause flights to cancel which would therefore cause problems for Amanda and Stephen when they fly here next week!

Sleepwalking Dogs April 27, 2009

I FINALLY upgraded to the newest version of wordpress and that means I can FINALLY upload videos again. YAY. Thanks so much to my techy savior Emanuel for helping me get my blog back into the 21st century.

So in honor of my ability to post videos again after oh so long, I thought I’d post this one that I found on another American Expat’s blog. She had this video listed under a post with a collection of videos that make her laugh out loud. Well, I’m always skeptical of those kinds of claims. Andrew always thinks something is wrong with me because I don’t laugh at jokes on The Simpsons. I told him “just because something is funny, doesn’t mean I have to laugh OUT LOUD.” Sometimes I simply just smile, or laugh in my head.

Anyways… this one DID make me laugh. And I think if it doesn’t make you laugh, there’s something wrong with you.

Why are my feet so tasty? April 25, 2009

Seriously…

Why must my feet and legs taste so delicious. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been attacked by mosquitoes (Aussie translation: mozzies) on my feet. What is it that attracts them to that one particular area of my body? Sure I’ll get one on my arm or back from time to time, but 90% of the bites I get are located from my calves down. I just did a little Google research and discovered that mosquitoes are attracted to stinky, smelly feet. Hmm… I didn’t think my feet stunk that bad!! And really, that doesn’t explain why I still get bites after taking baths at night.

While I’m on the topic of these foul creatures, I have a few other questions.

Why must they always bite in the exact area where my flip flops (Aussie translation: thongs) rub against as I walk?

How do mosquitos even find my legs and feet when they are curled up under my butt when I’m on the couch completely covered by a blanket?

Since when do mosquito bites hurt? One of the latest from last night bit me on the bottom of my right foot, right in the middle of the arch. I couldn’t even walk for awhile without pain. It was stinging and burning and hot. Whatever happened to the simple itch?

What is a mosquito’s purpose in life? No really, I’m serious. I know spiders are ugly but they kill other unwanted bugs. Bees sting but they help pollinate. What the hell do mosquitoes do other cause agony and spread disease?

While doing my Google research, I founds some really helpful tips for repelling mosquitos on THIS SITE. Some of them were pretty funny so I thought I’d share in case any of you have a problem with these feet biting demon bugs like I do!

Eat garlic. Mosquitoes (and vampires) dislike the natural skin secretion caused by garlic. If you don’t mind like smelling like a Pizza Hut bread stick, a daily dose of 1,500 mg of fresh garlic or a 15 mg capsule will do the trick.

Attract bats. Some say that one small, brown bat can catch 600 mosquitoes per hour. Build or buy yourself a bat house.

Drink tonic water, with or without gin, vodka or other choices of spirits.

Vinegar. If you don’t mind smelling like a pickle, rub vinegar on yourself.

Hmm… eating garlic breadsticks and drinking vodka tonics doesn’t sound so bad!

Birthdays and Earth Days April 21, 2009

First of all, happy happy birthday to my dad

Secondly… Happy Earth Day for tomorrow. I really don’t celebrate Darth Day. How does one celebrate anyways? Pick up trash/rubbish? Plant a tree? I do think we planted trees when I was a kid in elemenatry school. Maybe I should learn to be more earthy… but until I do, let’s just celebrate with some funnies, shall we?

 

 

 

 

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Mmmmmuffins

Last week one of Andrew’s friends told me he wanted to bake. Yes, a boy… a pilot boy wanted to bake! Since Andrew would probably NEVER want to bake with me, I jumped at the chance to bake something.

So when I asked this boy what he might want to bake he blurted out the following:

“Muffins! Maybe blueberry muffins… NO, how about white chocolate raspberry muffins?”

A man who knows exactly what he wants!

So I went home and did what I do best… googled. I typed in “white chocolate raspberry muffins” and this was the first link I clicked on: Exclusively Food. I read a bunch of the comments and it seemed like these were some pretty damn good muffins. So I texted Andrew’s friend, let him know I had a recipe and we set up a baking date.

These muffins were a little TOO easy to make. Not that it’s a bad thing, but our big baking adventure turned into a 15 minute session. Oh well, we can always bake more later right?

So the result?

YUMMMMMMUFFINS! They are so very delicious and so very bad for me. I definitely recommend them if you like this kind of thing. And really, who DOESN’T like this kind of thing??

Here’s a not so pretty picture of the little bites of heaven. Too bad I don’t have a fancy camera and good lighting to take photos with.

Mint April 20, 2009

I discovered an awesome new website yesterday.

MINT

It’s a cool site where you can add all of your checking and savings accounts, credit cards, student loans, car loans, investments and property info as well as track your spending and budget all in ONE place. It’s sweet!! I just linked up all my accounts and there they all are… right on one page.

The interface is pretty clean and easy to use- check it out below (don’t mind all the orange lines where my account totals would be). It imports all your transaction data and gives you cool charts to track spending and allows you to create custom budgets. You can set up notifications to let you know when payments clear, when you go over budget, etc.

My only gripe is that I can’t link up any of my aussie accounts. So, in all reality- this site does me little good since all my purchases and bills are paid here; however, since it is such a cool site, I thought I’d write about it for any people in the US who may be looking for some cool (and free) financial/budgeting software.

 

Also, I found this other site- THRIVE. It is a very similar concept and actually looks a bit cooler to me- but once I discovered that I couldn’t link my Aussie accounts there either, I didn’t even bother joining.

Hopefully one day they will add the ability to link to international banks and then I will be very, very happy!

Tips for American Visitors April 19, 2009

I’m writing this post mainly for my friend Amanda who will be visiting in a few weeks (yay) but I figured some others might get some benefit from it as well. I’ve compiled a list of tips and helpful things to know for your first visit to Australia.

1. “Hotels” are not usually real hotels. They are bars or pubs. So when you see “Mosman Hotel, The Clock Hotel, Cremorne hotel”, etc… they aren’t places to sleep, they are places to drink.

2. Lemonade is not lemonade. Lemonade here is Sprite or 7 Up. You can’t really find what we think of as lemonade in many places , but if you do ever find it- it will be called “traditional or real lemonade.”

3. When you order a drink at a bar, it comes with one shot. NEVER any more than exactly one shot of alcohol. If you want more, you order a double- and pay double!

4. Entrees ARE actually Entrees. And by this I mean they come before your main course, as they should. Entrees in the US ARE the main course, but in the rest of the world, entree means appetizer or starter. So don’t order an entree and expect it to be big enough to fill you up!

5. Don’t tip. It is not the common practice here and many people actually get mad if you tip because they don’t want tipping to become the norm. If enough people start tipping, it WILL become the norm and then it will be expected. For now, you only tip if you really want to because of great service (which as my last post noted, is rare).

6. “Ta” means thank you. Because yes, some people are so lazy that even saying “thanks” uses too much energy

7. A “dunny” is a toilet. And on that note, when you need to find a bathroom, ask for the toilet, not the bathroom. It sounds tacky, but that’s just what people say here.

8. “Pash” means make-out. While this doesn’t seem like a helpful hint for visitors, it has been something that I’ve needed to explain to the last few Americans who visited.

9. If you’re by yourself, get into the front seat of the cab. I still don’t do this- but Andrew said it seems kind of rude to get in the back if you are all alone.

10. Ask for your bill at the end of the meal, otherwise you may never get it!

11. “Light beer” is not light on calories, it’s light on alcohol. If you order light beer to watch your figure, it won’t help. You’ll just be heavier and less boozy.

12. TONS of restaurants are B.Y.O. so you can bring your own bottles of wine… which is a HUGE reason that we end up drinking so much.

13. Nobody says “McDonalds.” It’s Maccas.

14. Chicken Salad sandwiches are not the typical chicken salad you would get in the US (with mayo and celery and stuff). When you order a chicken salad sandwich or turkey salad sandwich it means chicken WITH salad. And by “salad” I mean lettuce, tomato and other typical fixings that come on a burger/sandwich.

15. People will say “How you going?” and you will be totally confused. Your mind will try to comprehend if they are saying “how are you DOING?” or “Where are you GOING?” So… just say “good.”

16. Don’t try to say “G’day.” Americans always sound ridiculous when they attempt to say it.

17. Coffee is different, but I don’t drink it, so I can’t really give tips here. Maybe someone else can chime in on this one.

Anyone else have any handy tips or hints they’d like to share??

Love / Don’t Love – Down Under April 14, 2009

I actually got my first ever (and possibly only) blog request! I’ve been asked to post about the top 10 things I love and don’t love about Australia, so… here it goes. I don’t know if I can come up with 10 each at the moment- so I’m just going to post about as much that comes to mind as possible. I know I’ve posted some of this at other times, but think of it as a re-cap! Everyone loves a good re-cap!

Things I don’t love so much (in no particular order):

Shopping carts/trolleys. They have a mind of their own. They are impossible to steer. While I’m on the topic of shopping trolleys, I also find that the aisles in grocery stores seem to be a lot smaller here. I find myself in grocery traffic jams WAY more frequently and people just don’t seem to have the courtesy to move out of the way. They park their cart right next to another cart without considering the fact that people can’t squeeze through them. Let me tell you, my road rage is just as prevalant in the shops as it is on the streets!

Customer service. It blows! Servers in restaurants don’t work for tips, so they really don’t make any effort to keep the customer happy.

The cost of everything. From Coke to ketchup to clothes to alcohol- everything costs more! Well, ketchup doesn’t ALWAYS cost more, but seriously- some restaurants make you pay 30-50 cents for a little container of the stuff! At home I could get half a bag of ketchup at In & Out for free! There are NO free refills and you could pay up to 4 bucks for a TINY bottle of Coke, I’m not even talking about the big ones. Cans can sometimes cost 3 bucks. Such a freaking joke! And then there is the cost of drinks in bars… 9 bucks for a drink with one lousy shot of alcohol? You end up spending $50 bucks to achieve the same level of booziness that $25 would get you in the states. Did I mention the cost of the tolls on the roads here? Ugh don’t get me started on that. P.S. can you believe that “booziness” didn’t get flagged in spellcheck. Is that really a word??

Weather. Ok in all fairness, it HAS gotten better this year. The first year I was here the summer was CRAP! And coming from California, I’ve been a bit spoiled in the weather department, so I have really high standards. I wasn’t too disappointed this year so hopefully this won’t stay on my “don’t love” list for much longer!

Holidays. People don’t get nearly as into the holidays here that they do at home (maybe with the exception of Easter). Christmas is less festive, hardly anybody puts up lights in my area. Halloween isn’t big at all, and if you try to celebrate, you risk being yelled at by some Aussies because it’s a stupid American holiday. I happen to know a few Aussies who would LOVE to adopt Halloween into the Aussie culture… it’s FUN! And then there’s the simple fact that Thanksgiving just doesn’t exist here… oh how I miss Thanksgiving. 

Building quality. It seems as if most apartments here don’t come with screens. So, if you open your windows, you allow bugs (and lizards in my case) to enter your apartment at their leisure. Many have thin cheap windows that allow EVERY tiny noise to flow through. Annoying. Walls are brick or cement and it makes nailing anything into them nearly impossible. Annoying. Shower doors don’t go all the way across so water leaks out all over the floor… you get my drift. Ok- maybe this is just MY apartment, but I’ve heard the same from many other Americans who live here as well, so I think it’s a common feeling we all have.

Parking. This country doesn’t believe in parking lots. I really don’t like having to park down giant hills to get to where I need to go. And I REALLY don’t like having to pay $5 per hour to park at the bottom of a giant hill to get to where I need to go. I miss my big, easy parking lots.

The Internet and Cell phone plans. Both suck. Both are expensive. The internet is slow, has download caps and drops out all the time. Cell phone plans still pay by the minute! Both of these things are so behind the times!! Time for a technology update!!

The postal service. While I must say- my letters DO arrive VERY quickly, I really really don’t like that my packages are NEVER delivered. Evidently the couriers are too lazy to walk up the stairs in my building to deliver anything that doesn’t fit in the box. So instead, they leave little cards saying we weren’t home when they tried to deliver. Clearly these are bullshit since I am ALWAYS home since I work from home. This was especially annoying when I had a broken foot and was DEFINITELY always home. And this isn’t just a problem for us, we hear it’s VERY common here. Also… I don’t like that mail doesn’t come on Saturdays and I can’t mail a letter by putting it in my mailbox, I actually have to find a big red postal box to drop it into.

So now for the good stuff…things I DO love:

The location. I love that I have the beach and city both so close by! I can walk to the beach in 15 minutes (drive in about 3) and lay out or rent a kayak or have a picnic. I can get to the city in about 20 minutes by bus (less time if we’re driving). It’s the best of both worlds. The harbour is beautiful, the Hunter Valley only a few hours away and a 10-20 minute drive takes us to so many awesome bars and restaurants with great views and atmosphere. Plus my apartment has a few little shops right across the street- a grocer, fruit and veg shop, tailor, dry cleaner, chemist, deli and pizza shop! While they all seem a bit overpriced, it makes it very convenient when I forget an important item for dinner.

Public transport. I love that I can just hop on a bus and get where I need to go. The city is super accessible from busses near my house. I don’t use trains all that much, but when I do- those are just as convenient.

The scenery. There are SO many beautiful beaches and walks and picturesque areas around Sydney. Of course there are beautiful areas in California too, but usually they involved a long drive to get to them. Here we can drive or take a ferry to places 30 minutes away and you feel like you’ve been whisked away to a tropical island or some rainforest or something. It’s just beautiful. I REALLY need to get out and explore more!!! I definitely haven’t taken advantage of all that Sydney has to offer.

Thai food. Thai food has quickly become my favorite cuisine ever since moving to Australia. I never even knew I liked it until I came here and now there is SO much Thai all around and it makes me very happy.

Air quality. I really can’t prove this one, but I can say that my allergies and headaches have subsided a lot since I moved here. The lower amounts of headaches could just be because I’m happier… who knows? I do know that while I still do have issues from time to time, my allergies don’t bother me nearly as much as they did back home.

Wine. Ok, I loved wine back in CA, but I love it so much more here. Part of that is because I really enjoy having dinner with Andrew and sipping a glass or two on our balcony. Part of it is because I LOVE that it is SUPER cheap to order cases of wine online (one of the only things here that possibly IS cheaper than the states).

Internet banking. Seriously, the banking world here is miles ahead of internet banking in the states. It is SO easy to transfer ANYONE money regardless of their bank.

Sales tax (GST). Ok, I don’t like the tax itself, but I do like how it works. It’s just built right into the price so if something says $10.00, that’s what you will pay. There’s no guesswork involved when adding up bills at restaurants! So much easier!

Birds. I love the birds that come and visit me every day. It’s like having a nearly free pet without the commitment. If we want to leave for 3 weeks, we can and since the birds are wild, they can find food in other places… or at least on our neighbors’ balconies. They are so beautiful and entertaining to watch and feed. I also love the kookaburras. I used to hate them because they woke me up at 5am every day, but now they don’t. Now they just always provide me with a little chuckle every time they start “laughing” like monkeys. The cockatoos are beautiful as well, and so tame! Although I could do without listening to their loud screeching! 

Ooook… I’m sure I could keep going and going forever if I let myself, but this blog has to end at some point. Hopefully this has been of some interest to a few of you and possibly a way to cure boredom for a few others!

Bird Wars April 11, 2009

As a rule, our birdies typically don’t like other birds. But lately, they’ve been living in peace with a few Myna birds that have been frequenting the balcony. They used to chase the Mynas away and scream at them in their squaky squak voice, but lately… not so much. I’m really happy they have put their differences aside and decided to live in harmony because they’ve got a good system going. Our birdies will come and devour the grapes I feed them but they leave a huge mess of their unwanted scraps. Well, now the Mynas swoop in and clean up these scraps. Win win for everyone (if only they cleaned up the bird crap that’s all over the balcony as well)!!

Well the other day, there were some VERY unwelcome visitors. A couple of other lorikeets stopped by. It was actually pretty exciting. I heard a bit of a commotion outside and went to the door to see not 2, but 4 beautiful lorikeets. Well, I may have liked it- but our birdies sure didn’t and they told those new ones off big time! They chased them onto another balcony, screamed at them, and pretty much tried to swoop attack them! Well, the 2 new birds weren’t happy with being chased away so they came back. And the fighting started all over again. This went on for about 5 minutes. To top it all off, new birdy #1 flew to the nearby tree that you can see in this picture to escape the wrath of our little feathered friends. Well, even that wasn’t good enough and the boy birdy flew down and chased the other out of the tree!

Seriously… how mean are they? I mean it’s great that they are getting along after their past lovers’ quarrels and I’m glad they are now getting along with the Mynas… but they’ve still got some serious anger management to deal with!

UGH April 9, 2009

I just accidently deleted the last 10 comments or so that you guys have left. Some I hadn’t even read yet. I was trying to clean out junk and I clicked the wrong checkbox! So annoyed. So, if you’ve left a comment in the last few days- please feel free to leave it again since I didn’t even have a chance to read most of the ones that were deleted! Sad.

1 Year of 101 April 4, 2009

So this is the 1 year mark of the start of my 101 in 1001 days goal list. If you don’t know what I’m talking about… Read MY LIST. So seeing as how one year has passed, I thought I’d give a little update on where I am with my list and where I’m going. Some of my goals have been a big success, some little successes and some just flat out need to be changed. I don’t feel right just changing my goals midway; however, it’s already evident that I just will not be accomplishing some that required consistent monthly work. So I’ve decided that rather than letting those spots go to waste for things I cannot achieve, I’ll cross them off, donate $5 to charity for each one I’ve failed at and add some new ones. Note to self: monthly goals are NOT easy to keep up with!

So what HAVE I accomplished?

• 4. Get a massage with Andrew
• 5. Create a “101 things that  make me happy” list
• 6. Read 10 books. Technically I’ve got a few hundred pages of my 9th book- but that will be finished this month so I’m marking that off as done! Haven’t blogged about this yet, so this will count as my blog post for this goal. Here’s a list of the books I read: Eat Pray Love, The Last Lecture, Not Without my Sister, Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, Body Surfing, Why We Suck, The Host.
• 13. Complete a list of 20 tasks I’ve already accomplished that I am proud of
• 23. Get in touch with someone I haven’t talked to in years
• 25. Plant a chili pepper plant (I’ve done this twice now)
• 31. Research presidential candidates
• 32. Vote in the 2008 election
• 33. Do the Harbour Bridge climb
• 40. Go kayaking
• 45. Add 3 new board games to our collection
• 46. Watch the fireworks over Sydney Harbour on New Year’s Eve
• 48. Save at least $5000- here’s another one I haven’t blogged about, because I didn’t realized I reached this goal until compiling this list! woohoo!
• 51. Create a master “packing list”
• 56. Fly business class
• 62. Take a Spanish class
• 69. Clean out all the old stuff I don’t want from my itunes (although I should probably do this again)
• 72. Buy a Wii
• 73. Buy new pillows for the bed
• 74. Buy a dehumidifier to help alleviate mold/allergy problems
• 80. Write down my recipe for chili
• 84. Make Sangria
• 87. Buy a “how-to” cooking book and read it cover to cover
• 90. Become a resident in Australia
• 94. Go through old clothes and donate things I don’t wear (another thing I never blogged about… so consider it blogged)!
• 99. Buy a filing system and organize all paperwork
• 100. Create a special calendar to track all my tasks

Here are the ones I’ll be changing and donating to charity for.

• 16. Write at least 1 email to friends/family each month. Ok, so I WAS doing this and I was doing it well! But I hardly ever got responses back. It’s pretty hard to stay motivated to write to people EVERY month when I don’t get much response. So this one is going away.
• 17. Talk to my niece and nephew on the webcam once per month. It’s sad because I do want to do this- but I realize my goals cant really be dependent on other people’s schedules. It’s hard to find a good time to talk to the kids let alone to schedule a call with them on the computer.
• 36. Go on at least one planned date each month with Andrew. This one is just too hard to track. We go out to dinner and stuff, but I wouldn’t always call it a date. We don’t really plan “dates” that often, so sadly, this one is going.
• 68. Read the Aussie citizenship book a few times. This I just have no interest in. At least not now. I’m not even eligible for citizenship for at least 4 years- so I’ll think about this later.
• 91. Get an Aussie driver’s license. This one is just not possible. I either have to be a permanent resident or I have to be in the country 6 months (without leaving). Seeing as how I go home often, it looks like I won’t be able to get a license for a long time!
• 97. Buy fresh flowers once a month. Like number 16, this one started out well but just fizzled from there. I still want to do this, but I won’t freak if I don’t- so this one is getting replaced!

So that’s 30 bucks that I need to donate to charity and 6 more goals that I need to come up with fairly quickly. Oh, and I’m still looking for people to help me reach #11- get 5 people to create a list. I think I only know of 2 or 3 that did initially… so let me know if you do!

April Showers April 3, 2009

There’s that old saying “April showers bring May flowers, blah blah.” Well… in Australia, April showers don’t bring flowers. Because May comes right before the start of winter and everyone knows the prettiest flowers typically come in Spring and Summer.

ANNNYWAYS…

So if April Showers don’t bring May flowers in Australia, what DO they bring?

They bring Amanda and Stephen!!!

I’m so very happy that my friend Amanda decided to come on a spur of the moment trip to Australia with her boyfriend whom I’m very excited to meet for the very first time! And they’re coming in less than a month!

I like to send my friends and family back home nice little emails from time to time pointing out how totally cheap it is to fly to Australia at the moment. Unfortunately, most people just say “wow that’s a great deal” and then move on with their life. Oh well, I know “VERY CHEAP” is still not cheap enough for everyone. Understandable. Except for good ol’ Amanda. She actually did realize that this IS a great time to come and she did something about it!! Way to take initiative!! She sent me her itinerary today and she’ll be here from May 3rd through May 10th. It is a short trip, but it’s SO much better than no trip at all.

Now I have more itineraries to plan, and conveniently since my parents were just here I have lots of ideas!

WiiFit Revitalized April 1, 2009

I slacked off a bit on my WiiFit action when my parents were here and I haven’t REALLY gotten back into it. Sure I’ve done my 10 minutes of hula hoop here and there, but my 30 minute per day workouts became a thing of the past.

Until today.

I realized that my WiiFit can be so much more fun when I turn down the volume and crank up the new music I downloaded off of Itunes last week.

I also learned that the “free step” can be fun! Wii tells you to stay on beat or else your steps won’t be counted. Well the beat is just way too slow… boring. I don’t see how it can be beneficial stepping on a board 2 inches off the ground at a slow pace. SO I said screw the beat, I’m just going to step in time with some Flo Rida and M.I.A. And guess what? The Wii lies! It DOES count your steps even if you go way faster than you’re supposed to.

So I felt good after my 47 minute cardio work out. Even running in place for 26 minutes was fun when I had some tunes to run to. I just kinda turned it into a WiiFit run/step/shake/dance session. I’m pretty sure I got a lot more out of it with the addition of some music.

I also felt good after drinking 3 liters of water today. I figured April would be a good month to start #1 from my 101 list- Drink at least 2 liters of water every day for a month. The whole peeing every 10 minutes thing isn’t so fun- but I can tolerate it I suppose. It’s for my health, right? But WHY am I still thirsty?

So If I combine the revitalized WiiFit sessions with my 2 liters of water, 2-3 sessions of yoga that I’ve been doing every week and top that off with a trip to the gym here and there do you think it will counter the effects of the half a large pizza that I ate tonight?