Thanksgiving In Australia

Its Thanksgiving time again, and I am living in a country that could care less about this American Holiday. The Question is how does one celebrate Thanksgiving with out the family, and all the trimmings that come along with the typical American tradition?

This year I will be cooking my first turkey in Australia. I set out looking for this turkey only to realize turkey is not a popular food item at this time of year in Australia. Being an American I am use to the super markets being stuffed to the gills with turkeys, stuffing, and canned pumpkin this time of year. So you can imagine it came as quite a shock to only find something called "Turkey Hind Quarter" in the freezer section of the super market. (there where no fresh ones available). Turkey Hind Quarter comes in an odd shape. I have yet to unwrap the "Hind Quarter"but I am guessing it is the ass end of the turkey with some breast, I am deducing this by its odd shape. So when the Turkey has thawed and I can unwrap it, it will be interesting to see just what Turkey parts come with "Turkey Hind Quarter".

Another Thanksgiving food issue I am facing is the lack of canned pumpkin in Australia. Australians like their Pumpkin fresh and they eat it all year. Mostly roasted in the oven, or made into soup. For this you would want to use fresh pumpkin. (I once made pumpkin soup out of the canned stuff in the USA, and it was disgusting, you can ask my humble parents who had to suffer through it.) But for pumpkin pie, I want canned pumpkin, mainly for the convenience, but also because I have no idea how to make it with fresh pumpkin, there are so many different kinds of pumpkins to choose from, and I do not want to be disappointed with a disgusting pumpkin pie because I used butternut pumpkin instead of buttercup pumpkin. So the pumpkin pie is off the menu until the super market starts carrying canned pumpkin!

Another important element of Thanksgiving is spending time with friends and family. This holiday, like Christmas is always a sad one for me and I am sure for many others who are far away from home. I will be spending it with Graham, and luckily this year my Mother In Law Karen, who is visiting Perth from Sydney. But I still miss my Mom and Dad, and all of our friends back in the good old US of A.

I remember my girlfriends once making the comment (when we where kids), "Mary isn't your Thanksgiving boring with only you and your Mom and Dad?" I never once thought it was boring. They all had large families, with other children, while it was just me and Mom and Dad at home. But just like them our small family had our own traditions on Thanksgiving. Our Thanksgiving would start out with Mom in the kitchen. Some years she would make Dad and I Waffles.. Yumm.. Grandma's buttermilk recipe. Then Mom and I would turn on the Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC, I always had to see the old Tom Turkey float or Thanksgiving could not begin. Dad always busy ed himself in his ham radio room until late morning when he and I would break out the Christmas lights, then he would spend the rest of the afternoon testing the strands and changing the bulbs and I would start hanging the lights out in front of the house. Dad and I where always a good team hanging the outdoor lights. Mom would come out to give us some artistic direction when she needed a break from all the preparations going on in the kitchen for our Thanksgiving Dinner. Late afternoon would find the three of us sitting around the big dining room table full of our favorite treats, Turkey, Sweet Potatoes with marsh mellows on top, Mashed Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, and always a pumpkin pie, and a selection of other yummy sweets! Though we where a small family, it was always still filled with the love, joy, and thankfulness all other "larger"family gatherings experience.

I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Gee I wish I could be at home, but do not worry I will spread the spirit of Thanksgiving to everyone I meet today!

Flies Flies Everywhere

Recently I have been getting to know the Australian Bush Fly Musca Vetustissima ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musca_vetustissima )on a more intimate level. This relationship with the fly was not one I started, you see the fly sought me out and began this intimate and annoying relationship. It started with just one fly, then that fly told his friends and soon enough I was a common fly watering hole.

I use the term watering hole because this particular type of fly loves to feast upon human mucus. That means this pesky little fly loves to swarm your eyes, mouth, ears, and nose. If you have not had the joy to meet these annoying insects let me be the first to introduce you.

Words that describe the Australian Bush Fly include: Annoying, Creative, Pesky, Freeloader, Quick, Strong Willed, Icky, Vexatious, Nosey, Irritating, Revolting. I could think of many more.

These flys are not like the flys at home in North America. Not even close. Although they do not bite they are constantly with you, swarming your face. When they are not flying at your eyes and mouth like suicide bombers they are riding peacefully on your back, shoulders or arms. During my weekly work outs in the park I have to put up with them crawling through my hair.. Have you ever felt fly legs crawling along your scalp while its friends assault your ears... lets just say its unpleasant..

After being annoyed by these horrid flys all week, I started to do some research on them. I wanted to find out just where they were all coming from. This is what I learned. The Australian Bush Fly breeds and lays its eggs in Animal Dung... yes thats right.. poo..

Just where all this poo is laying about in the city of Perth I would like to know so someone could clean it up and burn it. Just one cow patty can be a birthing place to thousands of flies. This fact deeply disturbed me. Now when I am being assaulted by flys I can happily think about their birth place and feel even better.

Realizing researching these awful flys was making me more depressed so I stopped.

I really do hope these flys go away. But I hear they just get worse as the summer goes on. I will keep you posted on the situation.

(Note to Family and Friends: I do not mean to detour you from visiting me in Perth, but do keep in mind there seems to be a fly problem) Oh and bug spray just makes them worse.

Weekend Trip to Pemberton WA

Pemberton Fun!

This month Graham and I rented a car and took and long weekend trip south of Perth to Pemberton. Its a small Aussie town about 20ks from the coast. The area is known for its wine and large forests of Karri Trees ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_diversicolor ). In the black and white picture above you can see Graham fishing, and then you can see just how tall the Karri trees can grow!

The purpose of this trip was to try the trout fishing in the area. Trout is not a native fish to Australia and has to be stocked to rivers and dams for fishermen to enjoy. Only a few area's in Australia have trout fishing and Pemberton is one of them. We took our fly fishing gear and headed out looking for trout in the rivers and dams of Pemberton but came up empty handed. Graham swears he "saw"some trout, but sadly I did not. Graham caught the only fish on the trip but it was a Red Perch, and he had to quietly kill it as Red Perch are a invasive species of fish that are killing off local fish populations, it is illegal to put them back into the water. (I guess trout don't count, but I am sure they do not help the local fish populations either.)

With the fishing at a loss we decided to try the goodies on offer at the local wineries. We went to a few locals and bought a few bottles. The standout of the group of wineries we visited was The Wine and Truffle Company (http://wineandtruffle.com.au/). We tried the wines and had an amazing lunch stuffed full of truffle delights. Oh my goodness this was the best meal I have had in a long long time. I am dieing to go back! Check out the website, the truffle business is interesting, and it seems that The Wine and Truffle Company in WA are quickly becoming a big hit internationally as a source of truffles. When the next truffle harvest is on Graham and I hope to go back and meet and truffle hunting dogs and learn more about the process of growing and finding truffles!

While in Pemberton we stayed at cabin nestled in the big Karri Forest. The bird life around our cabin was amazing. Lots of colorful birds both big and small. We had some bird seed at the cabin and where able to feed the birds morning and night for a bit of fun! One bird in the picture above was a little more friendly then the rest. He had no problems flying up onto your shoulder for a feed of some bird seed. He was a little to tame for a wild bird but it was fun having a little bird friend to play with! He would walk right up to the door of our cabin and wait for you to come out and feed him. He was a cheeky little birdy.

One odd thing I wanted to report on in this blog was a strange place we visited on our drive down to Pemberton. Now if anyone has ever been on a road trip with me you know that I have a smallish bladder.. Not too small. I am better then some ladies I know, but yet I am unable to hold it for 12 hours as Graham would like me too. So as we drove down to Pemberton we had to call into a small town for a bathroom brake.

Most touristy towns in Australia have Information Centres in the centre of town. These normally have bathrooms. So we found ourselves a place called the Bridgetown Information Centre. I walked in and asked the kindly older lady behind the information desk where the bathroom was located. She replied "Through the museum at the back" I started through the town museum, full of baby scales, old bottles, a dentists chair, and a fully functional marionette theatre, complete with a marionette band, to the back of the museum. In the back I found no bathroom, but I did find what must be the largest collection of glued together and mounted jigsaw puzzles in the world. It was a huge room full of jigsaw puzzles hanging on the walls, and laying on tables. I had never seen so many solved jigsaw puzzles. Nor had it ever dawned on me that someone might assemble and collect so many of these puzzles. This space was actually used by the community frequently, by school groups, and I am sure a fair number of senior citizens. I did eventually find the bathrooms. Not in the place I was told they would be, but I will always remember Bridgetown WA for its fondness of the jigsaw puzzle!

That about raps it up for our trip to Pemberton. It was a good weekend away, and I feel I am getting to know the state of Western Australia a little better.

Its the people you miss...

So Far Away

Recently I came to realize I have been stricken with a condition I am naming "So Far Away Syndrome".

I have been so lucky to live in many places over the years of my life. I have lived in 3 citys I can confidently call home. Indianapolis, Indiana; Boise, Idaho; and Sydney, Australia. Its great living in new places. It makes your life exciting and interesting. But for all the good that comes out of living in new and different places, there is a hidden darker side. In all of these citys I have made life long good friends. I have a few of these people pictured, but not nearly all of them. I love all of these people for their unique personalities, and for their friendship! I have meet these people in all of the places I have lived but then like a the changing tide I move away... again.. and I have to leave those people behind and hope I can keep in touch, and visit often. This has gotten harder the more I move around. I now miss people in 3 citys all over the world. And it seems I keep moving further away from those people.... I guess I will eventually make it around the world and then I should get closer to some of these citys and people I love.

The worst part of "So Far Away Syndrome"is that I miss people in too many places and I know I will never be able to have all those friends in my life at one time. I can't have my friends in Boise and Sydney and Indy all in one place. No matter where I go I will still miss someone. The guilt of missing big events in my friends lives is really overwhelming sometimes. This year I have missed weddings and births of new babies. I want to go to all of these events so badly. To cope I have been drinking an extra glass of wine and having quite tears on the train. I find this helps release the guilty feelings.

So if your reading this and you find you have been drinking more then normal, and have been having those extra teary moments on public transport. You may be in danger of "So Far Away Syndrome". Please if you find you are suffering from this let me know and maybe we can work on building a contraption (something like a time machine but without the time travel) so we can travel to all the people and places we love in a snap of a finger. "Beam me up Scotty".

Life in Perth

Perth, Australia

So the move to Perth was pretty nuts, we first went to my cousin's house in Mandurah, a hour drive south of Perth city. It was a good place to start out, and we got to spend a few days walking along the beach, getting use to a new place.

Graham quickly started school in April, and I started working with my cousin. That job turned into a permanent one in May, and now I am the Events Coordinator at a Seniors Centre. Its a good job, pretty easy, and lots of fun. We have lunch in our day centre for seniors everyday, we pick them up and take them home again. On Tuesdays we got out on outings. I plan these and we do all kinds of things, sometimes we have party's, or we go sight seeing or see museums. We do crafts as well. I often get to take in a movie and get paid for it, I love a job where I get to eat popcorn slurp a soda and watch a movie!

At the end of May we moved into an apartment just across the river from the city; In a small community called South Perth. Its a nice place to live, tree lined streets, and close to the river walking track. We have a two bedroom apartment, and it has a front patio that is shaded and has a small garden. Its nice to sit out there and get some fresh air. The only thing I do not like about the apartment is that the carpet is so old that if I watered it regularly I bet I could grow some of the best magic mushrooms this city has ever seen. Just Kidding, but the carpet is yucky. But beggars can't be choosers. In Australia housing is a big problem, there is not enough to go around, so I am happy to have a place of our own.

Kit cat seems to like his new home, he is not a out door kitty at his new home. He seems to be okay with that though, he has been in his new home four months now with out an escape attempt. I feel bad he does not have a back yard to eat grass and sun himself in but I guess thats okay. He gets lots of attention and kitty treats to make up for it! Plus Graham and I hope to have a farm in the future (long way off). We plan to have a cat door so he can come and go as he pleases. But he maybe so old by the time we get around to it he might be happier just to lay in bed all day.

The winter in Perth is really wet.. rain all the time... I am serious. I think its worse then the north western coast of the USA. But its funny, because I hear it only rains in the winter and then the spring comes and it stops raining till next winter. Everyone keeps telling me how hot the summers are so I guess I will find out shortly. But for now I am just happy that its not raining any more.

Okay I better go. I just found a bee in my office, and I better catch it and put it outside before my co-workers see it and freak out.

More soon.

1/9 A David St. Earlwood, Sydney NSW

Remembering Our Earlwood Home

We moved into our home in Earlwood in February of 2007 and moved out in March of 2009. We spent two years there. This is just some of the highlights.

We had lots of visitors to our home in Earlwood

First to visit was Laura Mott from Greenfield Indiana. Laura is a long time friend of mine, she came all by herself and stayed in our guest room for 6 days. I took her on a fun filled tour of Sydney, and my Mum In-Law Karen even took us to some great winery's south of Sydney where Laura got to see the real Australian Bush!

My Mom and Dad, Hank and Pat, came to visit us in November of 2007. We had them for almost 3 weeks. We took them all over Sydney and even spent a week up North in South West Rocks with Graham's Nan and Pa. In our Earlwood home Mom and Dad enjoyed sitting out on our deck over looking the park and bush land, and every night could watch as 5,000 bats came flying over the house as the sun went down. That was pretty cool. Mom helped me organize our front garden and our back "grotto"where I could hang out our washing. Dad even fixed up the cloths air-er in the back for me with new rope. It was a great visit, and I was sad to see them go home.

In May of 2008 we had Sarah and Kurtis visit from Indianapolis, Indiana. Sarah and Kurtis are long time friends. I went to High school with Kurtis, and I met Sarah in college. Little did Sarah know Kurtis brought along an engagement ring on their trip to visit us. Kurtis gave Graham and I the ring for safe keeping until the time was right. Boy where we nervous hauling that ring around Sydney. We took Sarah and Kurtis to the Hunter Valley for a few nights of wine tasting, on a walk in the Bush Kurtis popped the question and Sarah said yes!! They where married in June of 2009. We had a great time with these two, and where so sad to see them go!!

In September of 2008 my Mom, Pat, came out for a visit on her own. She stayed almost a month. We had a great time with Mom. We went to Canberra to see the spring flower show with Karen my Mum in-law and had a good girls get away. We took the train down and had fun seeing the roo's jumping along with the train and the baby lambs out in the fields with their Mothers. Mom got to see our normal life from day to day. I took her to see my favorite place in New Town, the Cat Protection Society of NSW (http://www.catprotection.org.au/) and had fun meeting all the cats looking for homes. We also did what Mom and I do best, and that is shopping and sight seeing together. I loved having her with us!!

Life at Home

Our little home in Earlwood was an apartment built on the ground floor of a house, so the top floor was another apartment. Our apartment was 2 bedrooms, One BIG, one tiny, a small living room, a long kitchen with a huge amount of counter space, and only a couple of cabinets above, and no drawers. There was also no oven but we did have a small potable toaster oven, and hot plate. Some how I made it work with a hot plate and toaster oven. We did have a large back deck and a cozy front garden. The apartment was on a battle axe property, which means in our case that the house was built on a cliff face, we had great views of the valley, parks, and bush land bellow us, but we also had 89 steps down to the property and thats correct 89 steps back up to the street! It was beautiful though, green trees and bush land all around. Our back yard was bush land, we did not go back there because there where lots of Red Belly Black Snakes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-bellied_Black_Snake) living back there. Actually the big hill we lived on was the site of the first in depth study of the snakes mating habits, and it was still a popular spot with the snakes. We never worried about them getting into the house though..

We had lots of wild visitors though, many BIG spiders. I am talking HUGE. Like the size of a tennis ball. Graham would catch them and put them back outside. By the time we moved out I was catching them too. All of witch where piousness, and if they did not kill you, they would warrant a trip to hospital. We used the jar technique to catch them. http://www.wikihow.com/Catch-a-Spider

Last summer (usa winter) we had a lizard make a nice home for itself under our book case in the living room. I tried to shoo him out many times, but he was happy there. He would sneak in and out from under the back door. Often if I was in another room I would hear nails running on the hard floors, at first it freaked me out, but soon it was normal, it was just our lizard house mate coming and going. After we got our cat he still did not move out, and the cat did not mind having him in the book case. The cat would just sit and watch.

One of my favorite memories of creatures in our home was in the Spring (usa fall) of 2008 we had the bogong moths (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogong_moth) swarm into Sydney. We had lots of big glass sliding doors in the apartment and big windows. I would get in the morning as the sun was coming up and look out the windows to see these big brown moths swarming at our windows. I think they could see the reflection of the sky in the glass and thought they where flying away...... like birds do.... It went on every morning for a few weeks, and then they where gone.

We also had a possum and her baby that loved to steal de-thawing meat off the back porch. In the warm summer evenings the possum would climb down from off the roof onto the deck (with baby on her back) and scamper away into the night. It was great, we got to see her baby grow up and soon we had two possums to watch. They did not seem afraid of us, or our cat, the cat loved to watch them and would get so excited to see the possums!! We always knew the possum was on the back deck because the cat would run from room to room to watch!

In June of 2008 Graham let me get a cat. FINALLY. I had been donating my time at the Cat Protection Society, and saw Kit Cat come in. He stole my heart right away. I got the okay from the land lord and it was a deal. Kit got a new home with us! He is a silly boy, it took him a while to warm up to us. But will now sit on our laps and cuddle. He loves his food, although he does not like human food. He likes his food in pellet form, but will take a lick or two of milk if you offer. Kit loves to eat spider webs but leaves the spider. I have never seen him go after anything (hunting style) he will watch bugs and other animals, but is not a killer. He seems to make friends with other animals easily, and loves dogs!

Extra's

• Mary started her own business called Wolfla Stage and Events


• Graham got a job working with 3M and made lots of friends there.


• Mary made some new friends in Sydney. Her good Buddy Melinda!


• Graham and Mary took up fly fishing, and took a few trips to fish in the Snowy Mountains.


• Graham took up the hobby of radio controlled airplanes, but it was short lived.


• Graham became a active member of the Wolli Creek Preservation Society ( http://www.wollicreek.org.au/) Mary and Graham planted hundreds of plants in the park bellow their house with this group, and came to love all the members!!


• Mary spent time learning to garden, thanks to her Mom.

Goodbye Earlwood

In January of 2009 Graham made up his mind and decide to give Medical School a try. But that meant up rooting and moving to Australia's western coast to Perth. So on the last day of April in 2009 we packed up the house put everything on a sea container and shipped it to Perth. We flew with the cat, and Debi (Mary's cousin) and her husband Keith welcomed us to Perth. It was sad leaving Sydney as we had many friends and family we where going to miss. But when opportunities come, one must take them and not look back for too long. For a last goodbye to our home we canoed down the Cooks river and wolli creek that flows past our old home on the cliff side. It was a fitting goodbye!

The Big Move USA To Australia

In October of 2006 Graham and I moved from Indianapolis Indiana to Sydney Australia. It was a hard move. Arriving in Sydney we had a great 3 weeks celebrating our Australian wedding put on by my mother in-law Karen. We where married on the beach in Wollongong, and had a reception at Mount Kia over looking Wollongong and the ocean. It was a wonderful time, my parents and girlfriends Ann and Lindy came out for the event.

After the wedding settled down, we went to live with Andrew our good friend in the city. Andrew was great to put up with us. During our time at Andrews we worked on getting my immigration matters fixed up, and I became a temporary resident of Australia. Graham found work in the city, and I got my first Stage Management job at NIDA. It was an interesting time. I also met my and befriended my first Australian Cat (in the picture, the cat lived on Andrew's street) Aussie cats are huge. Big boned, but that means there is more kitty to love!

From Andrew's apartment we moved in with Graham's Nan, Marj. Marj and I where quick friends, she loved having us at home with her, and we loved her home cooked meals!! While at Marj's we finally found an apartment in Earlwood (Feb 2007) it took a long time to find a place. After a few happy months with Marj we moved out into our own place. It took us 3 rain filled days to move in, (although we did not have much to move, a thank you to Karen and Stuart). It took so long because our home in Earlwood was 89 steps down to the apartment!!

So that was how we started out in Australia.