Food Glorious Food

More Cowbell

Um, actually I meant to say...more snow, whoo-hoo! We may get 6 inches or more tomorrow night. As the stupid blonde chick said in the airport, BOO YEAH!

The Gold

So I think I've babbled on about the old girl scout song before ( I bloody hated the girl scouts by the way ), but these are some of the golds. It's great to catch up with old friends:)

Spoilt for Choice

I'm seriously taking advantage of the deals here. Would you believe the above bottle of beer was only $1.50! I don't think I'll ever clothes shop in Australia again. As long as I come home every couple of years or less, I'll just stock up here. I've gotten 4 pairs of work trousers, 5 tops, 3 pairs of shoes, 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of King sized pillowcases and a set of pillow protectors, various toiletry type items from Walmart, some candy for the family, and probably some other things I can't remember at the moment, all for under $400! And, it's going to snow again tonight. It couldn't get better;)

I Don't Belong Here Anymore

Of all the travelling and living abroad I've done over the past few years, this is my first time home that I feel like I've changed to the point where I really don't fit in here anymore. Aside from turning the windshield wipers on when I intend to signal a turn, I can tell I've changed, a lot. There is an anonymity with people here, a distance, that I used to appreciate. Now it just makes me feel like people don't care about each other. People here seem to have a little bubble around them, aside from the immigrants, who I feel more of a connection with, even at the fast food places and shopping centers. Genuine friendliness is few and far between. I'm a walking novelty, as everyone wants to talk to me about the bushfires and anything else Australian (or Kiwi, as it's close enough right). I don't think I could ever live here again, yet at the same time, I'm still learning to live in Oz and don't fully fit in there yet. Oh well, at least I had some proper nachos today;)

Snow and Shopping

Ok so my friends think I'm nuts for being excited enough to jump up and down over the snow, but it is gorgeous and I hope it snows lots more (I may be sorry I said that later). I'm off to the mall in a few to take part in shopping session #2, wondering if my confusion will be any less this time.

Reverse Culture Shock

Welcome to the world of American sized portions (that is the giant cookie above). And everything is severely cheap too. It's like I died and went to Christmas heaven;) I'm too tired to write a proper post. Been sleeping at night but not enough because my clock is off. More later...

In Praise of Hot Weather

Well, I am now thinking that this whole thing has been interesting, almost to the point of enjoyment, so getting a/c could be a couple of years off, rather than next year. Our weekends lately have generally focused on either the house or Steve's cars (meaning himself working on the cars or spending all day on the sofa 'researching' car stuff). This weekend we really had no choice but to get out of the house. We spent about 6 hours at the mall Saturday. I don't think my friends and I even spent that much time at the mall when I was 13. Sunday afternoon we went to the local pool for about 3 hours. Steve's lived in the neighborhood for 12+ years and this was his first time. There are 3 pools and a waterslide (the latter costs extra so we didn't do it this time around). Two of the pools are actually covered over with pergola-type coverings and there is plenty of lawn space to chill out, much of it in shade. They even have bbqs! And this is no American-style pool...there is splashing, jumping in, and kiddies have all kinds of floaty toys. It was pretty cool.

Etsa Hot Day

Yes well it looks as though we're going to have extreme temperatures here for the next week. Hubs and I plan to take some time out tomorrow to go hang out at the shopping centre. My biggest concerns are power outages and fires at the moment (side note: if you are not from or living in Australia you may not understand the blog title, but...wait for it...), so while ETSA is shutting off power for short periods of time on purpose, we have our fingers crossed we don't lose power overnight as some people have over the past few days. I'm especially concerned about the two weeks worth of leftovers I have carefully packaged up for hubs for the time I am away in the US...curries, chicken dishes, lamb and beef stews will go off if we have more than a couple of hours without power, in this heat. And of course, the fish would most certainly kick the bucket. We did have a burst water main down the street yesterday, but no big uncontrollable fires as of yet. On the one hand, some wind is good at night to get a bit of slightly cooler air in, but if there's a fire, it's a huge hazard. Send my leftovers and fishies your positive vibes please!

My Eyeballs are Sweating, and Other Adelaide Heat Wave Factoids

• It is 45.5C today, which is about 115F. The inside of my house was 98F when I got home from work


• Today was the hottest day in Adelaide in 108 years.


• The trains weren't running this afternoon. It is so hot the tracks are buckling.


• The buses (most of them anyway) have no a/c, so on the way home from work today it really felt as though my eyeballs were sweating, with hot air blowing in my face from the windows and vents.


• Our fish are in distress. I don't like the fish tank, but I am fond of 'little yellow fish', so I hope he makes it. Have put one of the evaporative fans in the dining room, as it's much hotter in there.


• Thank god we got new light blocking curtains for our main rooms; I don't know how Steve has made it here for 12 years without.