Prewashing Fabric

April 2, 2011

When fabric comes with prewash instructions, suggesting you hang the fabric to dry, and to not tumble dry, it's probably a good idea to follow those instructions.

Even if you think it'd be a better idea to tumble dry because it's faster.

Especially if you're new to this fabric/sewing thing.

Case in point:

Whoops!

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I was up at the crack of dawn this morning with Caleb. Not wanting to wake up the other boys, I got a little bored. I wanted to embrace the early morning sunshine and the fresh air that comes with it. It was a beautiful day.

Ever since we moved here, I've been fighting my urges to fling the sliding doors wide open in fear of bugs and other creatures making their way in. But bugs and creatures will find their way in if they want to. A doctor told me so*.

So I abandoned my fears of bugs entering our home, flung those doors wide open and welcomed the cool morning breeze in.

It was so refreshing and beautiful. Caleb loved it.

But even that wasn't enough. Being on the balcony wasn't enough. So for the first time since landing in Australia, I put my running shoes on, put Caleb in a carrier and took a walk around the block.


* * * * * * *

Before I left for my walk, a fly flew in.

I quickly re-evaluated my leap into Australian-ness and closed all the sliding doors. I mean, you can only take things so far before they get out of hand.

* * * * * * *

We met up with Rani and Philip at South Bank today. While we were talking, I mentioned that geckos have been entering our home and I have no clue how. All our doors have been closed (well, until today...) and it's not like we have insects that they can feast on inside.

*Philip mentioned that windows and sliding door tracks here tend to have a bit of a gap to prevent air pressure build-up in case of cyclones or things of the like. Good to know!

* * * * * * *

Throughout dinner, I heard the fly that had entered earlier today buzzing around us. But I couldn't see it. Then after dinner, I saw it fly into Daddy's Dungeon. I had to put an end to this annoyance.

I went in, closed the door behind me and yelled to the boys not to open the door. There was work to be done.

It was me versus the fly.

I quickly closed the mirrored closet doors so I could have an even better view of the room.

I pushed the chairs in so I could get around the room faster.

With a rolled up magazine in one hand, I watched the fly as he buzzed around. He knew I was coming.

I missed a few times, then finally swatted him down mid-air. As it lay on the ground, I prepared to give it another swat but was distracted by a voice calling from the other side of the door. Andrew suggested that we trade positions and that he go after the fly and I hold Caleb. But I refused. I let the fly in... I would get rid of it.

Refocusing, I watched the fly buzz around again. Then, it landed on the mirrored sliding door. I knew I had it.

With one solid whack, I hit the fly! And all my courage instantly disappeared and I ran out of the room screaming and jumping around because the fly had gotten squished on the glass in a nasty wet mess and the mix of adrenaline and victory was too much for me to handle.

Gross. Gross. Gross. Gross. Gross. But I got it!

Australia - What I've Learned (Part 2)

March 31, 2011

This is an on-going series documenting things I discover while in this country. Interesting facts, cultural differences, little quirks. It's all here.

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If you know anything about Andrew and I, it's that we like to eat. This is likely contributing to our ever-growing waist but that's another issue for another day. A long, long time from now.

Anyway, over the past couple of years we've gotten quite used to the idea of "all-you-can-eat". (Again. Ever-growing waist - something we're not talking about.)

We've fallen in love with AYCE sushi. We enjoy buffets. We look forward to wing nights.

It's not that we like to eat copious amounts of food to stuff ourselves silly. We just like to have variety, to feel satisfied at the end of the meal and get it all for a good value.

Unfortunately, we've quickly discovered that the Australians don't quite feel the same way about eating food in large portions. Well, at least not at a decent price. I suppose you could very well walk into whatever restaurant you want and eat as much as you want, but your wallet won't be looking so hot by the end of it.

We've found that most places will serve dishes that are slightly smaller than what we're used to, for almost double the price.

Another thing to note is that most restaurants won't stay open much later than 8pm, even on weekends. There are a handful that will stay open a little later but I've yet to find any that are open past midnight (you know, for late-night snacks?) besides McDonald's.

For those two reasons, I have been pushed to learn how to cook more food because having pasta every night just isn't going to cut it.

* * * * * * *

More in the series:
Australia - What I've Learned (Part 1)

The Parklands, South Bank

March 22, 2011

After Andrew emerged from his dungeon on Friday, we were faced with a little dilemma. What were we going to do with our free time? Andrew could finally take a break from his studying and we had no plans for the next day, other than a quick appointment at Mazda in the morning.

It's been a while since we've had free time.

A long while.

We couldn't just let this opportunity pass us by. Some quick decisions were made an soon, we found ourselves at Stanley Street Plaza in South Bank, aka my new favourite place to hang out.

We probably would have discovered this hot spot sooner but after the floods destroyed the "main" attraction (Streets Beach), I figured we could just go check it out when everything was all fixed up.


But when Andrew asked what I wanted to do, I just wanted to go out and do something. I didn't want to just go out and eat, which is what our "going out" has turned into. So I did a quick search and found that the South Bank Lifestyle Markets were open on Friday nights.

I love wandering around open-air markets. But that night, I wasn't too interested in going to the markets. I just wanted to go out and be in the night air. The markets just meant that places would be open.


When we emerged from the underground parking, I felt so. free.

We were free to do what ever we wanted.

We could go in any direction and it would be the right one.


The temperature was perfect. The streets were filled with people but not crowded. Nathan loved being free to roam the walkways a couple steps ahead of us. Caleb enjoyed being in the carrier.


It was a beautiful night.

Just Do The Hokey Pokey

March 9, 2011

Transitioning to life in Australia has been a pretty slow process. A lot of little things take a long time to finish. Many times there's so much redundant paperwork involved I get paper cuts just thinking about it.

But here's the latest bit. I saw it while catching up with the news.

I'm sure every government has had its fair share of embarrassing moments but is it normal for these embarrassing moments to be freely aired as part of the evening news?

Australia - What I've Learned (Part 1)

March 7, 2011

This will be an on-going series documenting things I discover while in this country. Interesting facts, cultural differences, little quirks. It's all here.

* * * * * * *

There are some very obvious differences between living here and living in Toronto. Let's start with those.

We drive on opposite sides of the road.
It's one of the first challenges we had to deal with. I had to mentally prepare myself for this change before we arrived in Brisbane and even then, I was extra cautious when I sat behind the wheel.

For the first little while, we had to constantly watch the lines on the road to make sure we were still on the correct side. We were signalling with our windshield wipers and when we checked our mirrors, we weren't really sure what we were looking at. We've gotten a lot better over the past couple months and the tight, winding, hilly roads aren't as much of a challenge as they used to be. Even the round-abouts aren't quite as intimidating.

Everything closes quite early here.
This has been quite a big change for us. I had gotten used to waiting for Andrew to run the errands after work while I watch the boys but that's no longer possible seeing as how everywhere is closed by the time he finishes class around 5pm. Luckily, grocery stores are usually open until 9pm but long gone are the conveniences of 24-hour grocery stores, or malls open until 9pm every night, or big box stores open until 10pm every night. Even restaurants are often closed by 8pm.

However, there is late-night shopping on Thursday nights where most places are open until 9pm. That's the one night we all get to go out together, even if it's just for a walk around the mall (aka shopping centre).

The weather. It's just not the same.
Perhaps we came at the "wrong" time, but changing from a cold climate to a subtropical one isn't very easy. Sure, it's great when it's the dead of winter (in Canada) and you fly down to the Dominican for a week or something, but it's entirely different when you move. A couple outfits for the warmer weather isn't enough. And you're definitely not going to be walking around in your swim suit all day.

We've had to add putting sunscreen on into our morning routines and everywhere we go, we're looking for ways to stay out of the sun. We're rotating through what's left of our warm-weather clothing from our Canadian summer and bringing along an extra sweater so we don't freeze in the strong air-conditioning. We've also gotten to enjoy some warm and breezy afternoons and bright sun-shiney days. Even their stormy, rainy days are spectacular - listening to heavy rain fall is quite calming.

Puff Pastry Pizza

February 16, 2011

I never ate at Domino's back home. But the first time we had our friends over for dinner here in Brisbane, they both suggested we order in from Domino's. And since they were here before me, they would know best. You don't argue with the locals.

So we started ordering and my friend, Semele, suggested the "square puff crust". I had no idea what that meant but it sounded alright so we gave it a try.


Let me just say, this may just be my favourite crust ever. It's like eating a pizza and a croissant at the same time. So flaky. So savoury. Delicious.