Boredom Breeds Baking

I have been spoiled being able to paint outside. Granted I have to beware of a little puppy who is constantly trying to jump up and bite my brushes but I am used to animal involvement in the making of art. I don't think a have ever produced a piece that didn't have cat hair glued into it. This morning I woke up to dreary weather and couldn't get motivated to work on my collage. I puttered around a bit then had the urge to bake something. I took fruit inventory coming up with a piece of watermelon, one orange, two pomegranates, three apples and a box of apricots. I pilfered thru Mick and Bec's stuff a little and came up with three more apples....apple and apricot pie it is.

I haven't made a pie since I was in elementary school and I think then I used a ready made crust. I started looking around for recipes and found one that highly recommended using vodka instead of water. I went rummaging thru the liquor cabinet but to no avail. I did find some butterscotch schnapps and thought it might come in handy. I have never seen dark brown butterscotch schnapps before but it smelled really good.

There were lots and lots of variations of crusts so I just kind of made a combination of a few. Here is my recommendation for the day. Make sure you have all the ingredients you need BEFORE you throw half of them in a bowl. I forgot about shortening. I don't know why I couldn't just use all butter for the crust but every recipe was babbling on about shortening. Well if mama's little baby loves it I could figure out how to make something like it. I never really knew what that can of CRISCO we had growing up contained and now I am glad. Up with transfats!! Using vegetable as a substitute was suggested on one website. I thought back to my disastrous attempt at making taramasalata. Who knew you had to use a specific type of fish roe? I did remember the olive oil thickening up pretty easily. After whipping some oil for about ten minutes with no results I remembered I had added white bread to make the live oil thick. I didn't think that would work out well in this case so I followed other instructions which said just mix oil and butter together. I know! I know! This can't be good!!! I am going vegetable shopping tomorrow!! But I did forge on and the dough for the crust seemed to come out ok. I chopped up the apples with the skin on and no this is not sheer laziness. I like skin on fruit and vegetables even in pies and salads. This is where the booze came in. Butterscotch goes well with apple so I used some to soak the apples in. I also added sugar and the apricots.

This is when I realized I had one other small problem....no pie pans. Once again, when you cook make sure you everything you need BEFORE you start. I went looking around in the cabinets but couldn't find anything. I did find one good critic. Even if my pie was a disaster, Rassie sure did like the left over dough on my hands.

So, my search produced nothing close to a pie shaped pan. The best I could come up with was a casserole dish. Apple and apricot pie casserole, Yay! I didn't make enough dough to cover the bottom of the and put a layer across the top so I made some crumble with macadamia nuts, brown sugar and more butterscotch schnapps.

Now I just have to bake it and see how it turns out.

One Hour Later.....Success!!! Matt likes my apple and apricot casserole anyway.

There is a Fruit Bat in my Char Kway Teow

Baba House Malaysian Restaurant is one of many Malaysian restaurants in Melbourne but they make a fantastic Char Kway Teow (translated "fried flat noodles"). This noodle concoction has a great sweet, smokey flavor with oodles of seafood. The only restaurant I know of in Chicago that serves this delicious dish is Penang in Chinatown. It's pretty common here and relatively cheap. This may not be the best thing for the perpetual dieters of the world (myself included) because the fat content is relatively high. It was considered a poor man's meal and mostly sold or "hawked"on the streets of Malaysia by the same men who collected the seafood that went in the dish. I was looking up recipes and it looks a bit complicated to make but if any of you are game here is a link. http://www.malaysianfood.net/recipes/recipecharkwayteow.htm

We went out to Fitzroy Gardens to feed the possums...yes I love the possums. There weren't too many out last night. Only four or five came down from the trees and they were all pretty skittish. The big guy who likes to sit in Matt's lap couldn't be bothered with our raisin bread. Other inhabitants were out in plenty, the grey-headed flying foxes (a type of fruit bat) were flying around everywhere. These are some pretty large bats. They can have a wing span of up to six feet. They live in communes or "camps" of up to 200,000 and some studies suggest they favor eating the eucalyptus blossom making them major pollinators of eucalyptus. I loved watching them fly around over my head.

Hooray for Mail Order (Step 2 for La Soiree)

Oh happy day!!!! My paints arrived!!! Now I can continue on with my La Soiree piece. So watercolor is the next step in making my little creations. This always looks the most muddled and is usually when I want to abandon a piece all together especially one that is going to need alot of collage. This piece will need ALOT of collage. This means you probably won't see a "Step 3" posting for another 7 years or so but one can't rush these things. I start to get a headache after hours of putting tiny little pieces of paper into place anyways. Lots of collage equals lots of Excedrin and I can't find any place that sells Excedrin in Australia.

Urban Legands

Is this mermaid for real?? My new addiction is a web site on urban legends. Hours can go by hitting the random button and reading lots of fun if not all together useful information.

http://www.snopes.com/

A Day in the Gardens

Dromkeen Museum in Riddells Creek used to be the home of Joyce and Court Oldmeadow and the freight center of their educational bookshop. They began collecting original artwork and manuscripts of Australia's children's literature. The homestead with their collection has been turned into a museum, sculpture garden and place for author/illustrators to come share their work with children and their families. The daughter of Joyce and Court Oldmeadow helps keep her parents legacy alive as the Director of Dromkeen.

We went up to take a look and had a lovely day with Matt's family. His niece and nephew are adorable. Here they are with the Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek. Bunyips are popular creatures from Australian folklore living in lakes and billabongs. I say folklore but there may some truth to the bunyip according to In search of prehistoric animals; Do giant extinct creatures still exist? by Karl Shuker "Although no documented physical evidence of bunyips has been found, it has been suggested by cryptozoologists that tales of bunyips could be Aboriginal memories of the Diprotodon, or other extinct Australian megafauna which became extinct some 50,000 years ago." This particular bunyip was the main character in one of Matt's favorite childhood books. After leaving Berkley's Creek he becomes unsure of who he is. When a scientist tells him bunyips are a myth he begins to doubt own existence. Very existential.

We looked around at various illustrations. There were some in shadow boxes that were pretty cool. In the back there were coloring sheets for the kids based on the illustrations of Graeme Base. This author/ illustrator always reminds me of my wonderful friend and fabulous designer Nan Zabriskie. She gave me two of Mr. Base's books after our first show working together at Chicago Children's Theatre. She is a huge fan understandably since his books are beautiful. His illustrations are unbelievably vibrant and detailed. I never knew he was Australian. This illustration is from The Sign of the Seahorse.

My favorite things at Dromkeen were the peacocks wandering around on the grounds. They were beautiful. There was a mommy peacock walking around with her growing chicks. They weren't scared of people at all, well except when the little kids chased them. I think any sensible bird would be scared of a screaming, grabbing three year old. Most of the males (the extra pretty ones) were perched up on the roof.

When the sun started going down Matt and I headed to the Botanical Gardens for the moonlight cinema. The gardens there are positively gorgeous. I kept thinking about how much my brother, Dennis would love them. There is an awesome arid garden full of cool looking cactus type plants. I want to go back and explore more in the daytime but we had a date with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. We set up a picnic amidst a couple hundred other movie goers. Of course the rest rooms were five hundred miles away and I had to embarrass myself on a venture to find them.

Just as some background, I had an incredible professor of entomology at University of Florida named Dr. Hall. He taught an insect field biology course that I took one summer to fulfill a dreaded science credit. His enthusiasm was infectious and I loved his wardrobe. He would take us students out to a field complete with khaki shorts, knee high socks, safari hat, bug net and some "dung" borrowed from the pigs at the agriculture school. We made dung beetle traps and lured ant-lion larvae out of their sand burrows with long pieces of grass. For the first time in my life I had an interest in science. We made our own bug collections. I have cherished mine for the past 12 years. I relinquished it to the care of my sister since I didn't think Australian customs would be to pleased with me carting in a bunch of dead insects. My point is thanks to Dr. Hall I fell in love with bugs.

I used to walk from the train stop to the hotel for work everyday and along the way there was a wall that was popular with spiders. On the other side of the side walk there was a large hedge popular with caterpillars. Every once in a while I would find one of these caterpillar crawling dangerously close to the waiting web of a hungry spider. Even though nature prevails in the end I always felt compelled to save the caterpillar returning the fuzzy worm to the nearest obliging branch of the shrub. Naturally I would apologize to the spider. All of this seemed perfectly normal to me until one day two ladies were out by the wall smoking as I was making an apology to the waiting spider. As I touched the arachnid's back with my nail and gave my regrets for removing her possible lunch I looked up to find the two ladies, cigarettes dangling from their lips, looking at me like a two headed monster. Is talking to a spider while giving it a little pat on the back not normal behavior?

When I was heading back from the restrooms to the picnic area in the Botanical Gardens the sound of crickets began to increase. The main source of the noise was coming just off the path. As I leaned my head down it was like the grass was screaming at me the cricket chorus was so loud. Naturally I was down on my hands and knees digging around seeing if I could find one. I had all ten fingers wiggling around in the grass until I got the uncanny feeling someone was staring at me. Hmmmmm....maybe this wasn't people do at the moonlight cinema. I was torn between my crazy need to see one of these noise makers and wanting not to appear completely insane. I caved to normality and walked back over to where Matt was waiting.

The movie was wonderful. I am a sucker for Casablanca. I have seen the movie countless times and it always gets to me. I love the scene where the German officers are singing about "The Fatherland" and Victor Laszlo makes the band play the French national anthem. I always, always cry in this scene. It helps that France's anthem is the best national anthem ever. Almost every line in this movie has become a catch phrase. So as Bogart says, here's looking at you kid.

Oscars

I was disappointed yesterday because I didn't think the Oscars were on network TV here. They actually were and I stayed up late to watch the replay last night. Watching them made me miss my sister Judy and my friend, Chris Hamm. No one I know loves the Oscars more than those two. For myself however, the older I get the more watching awards shows plays at my insecurities. I start to feel like I haven't accomplished anything and get irritated with myself, feeling lazy and stuff....silly. I was ecstatic that Marion Cotillard won. I thought she was perfect, absolutely perfect.

As for Best Picture, I hated No Country for Old Men. I normally love the Cohen brothers stuff but I couldn't get into this one. For those of you that haven't seen it here is my synopsis.

Boring, boring, boring, a bunch of dead guys, someone does something REALLY stupid because in order for this movie to work someone has to do something really stupid, boring, psycho killer on the loose, boring, does this movie have a point, oh wait....no no, everything just ends abruptly.

It was also really good to see so many new, "unknowns" win. I loved JUNO so I thought it was great former exotic dancer, Diablo Cody, took home an Oscar. The best moment for sure was when John Stewart brought Marketa Irglova, co-winner for Best Song, back out on stage after being cut off by the orchestra before saying her thanks yous. I was so glad he did because her speech helped to quell my own pouty self-criticism.

"The fact that we're standing here tonight, the fact that we're able to hold this, it's just proof that no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible, and, you know, fair play to those who dare to dream, and don't give up. This song was written from the perspective of hope, and hope, at the end of the day, connects us all, no matter how different we are."

The Academy has yet to officially ask for my opinion but since I didn't watch the Oscars with a group of people at Chris' house I thought I would put my two-cents in here.

All Made With Food

Matt sent this to me in a email. It's a lovely little scene and completely edible. I don't know who made it but I thought it was very pretty and ingenious.

Chevapi and the NutBush Dance

Matt and I were driving down Stud Road in Dandenong to go look at some Balinese furniture when we spotted a huge sign for burek and chevapi. Matt and I quickly swung around the block to head back to the little take-away spot in a strip mall. I was introduced to Bosnian food by my friend Osman and chevapi with lepinja bread became one of my most favorite things. The lady that ran this shop was very sweet and made everything to order by herself. The chevapi was FANTASTIC!! She even gave Matt some sour cherry burek to try.

We wandered around Fitzroy, a neighborhood I love. There is a great craft market on Saturdays that has lots of handmade clothes, pillows and jewelry. These girls were walking around handing out pamphlets. I figured they were advertising a circus but really the pamphlets were for a local gym. This is a pretty fancy way to advertise a workout.

We were invited to a 40th birthday for Al's good friend Paul in Sunbury. Paul is a really nice guy and it was very sweet for him and his girlfriend Amanda to invite Matt and me. Al was the DJ and we had a great time dancing around. At home we have the standard "party" songs. There is always The Electric Slide, The Cha-Cha, and if you are really lucky The Chicken Dance. Here they dance The Bus Stop which isn't too different from The Electric Slide. One I had never seen before was to Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits. There are a few we have in common like The Macarena and The Time Warp. Cheryl knew every single dance and for her first big night out after becoming a new mommy she was more than happy to dance them all.

No Paint makes CB a dull girl

Oh the trials and tribulations of packing. I have managed to "misplace" (I refuse to say lose hoping desperately they are in a box somewhere) all of my watercolors. BOOOOOO!!!! I have at least five pieces drawn out and ready to paint which proves a bit difficult when there is nothing to paint them with. I will take this "opportunity" (isn't that a positive twist) to document my painting/collage process. People often ask what order I work in so I will show you here. The first piece I want to work on is my take on La Soiree, a show Matt took me too a few months ago. This is the piece in all of it's bare pencil glory. Next step is the watercolor which is ordered and hopefully on the way. Perfect time for me to work on my patience. PLEASE HURRY WITH MY PAINT MR. PAINT MAN!!!!

The Proper Use of Paper

Workplace Agreements have been a hot subject since I came to Australia last June. Most working people didn't seem too happy about these individual plans. I am certainly not an expert but they sounded a little fishy to me. Individuals could have many rights, privileges and wages readjusted or taken away by their employers and nothing was sounding too fair. Being in a strong union for ten years these "agreements" honestly made me cringe. If Kevin Rudd standing up to say "I am sorry" to the Stolen Generation wasn't enough to make me love him what he is doing this week certainly is. According to The Melbourne Herald Sun "At a Canberra factory yesterday the PM and Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard sent tens of thousands of glossy WorkChoice pamphlets to be pulped and made into toilet paper". That is one way of letting the opposition know what the new Prime Minister thought of their Workplace Agreements. Toilet Paper!!! I Love The Politics in Australia!

Cochon de Vol

Cooper got a flying pig from Uncle Matt. He did the only sensible thing to do when one gets a flying pig...he ate it.

Under the Wings

Matt and I went on the hunt to see some kangaroos the other night. There are paddocks behind the airport that they usually hang out around just after sunset. I guess they didn't want to see me because we were in a completely kangaroo free zone. He took me to another interesting spot. There is a a parking lots just on the edge of the Tullamarine Airport runway. There were tons of people out watching the planes land. Families and puppy lovestruck teenagers were out. Many people arrived complete with folding chairs to enjoy the views of massive planes flying right over their heads. You can find people out every night enjoying the planes so much so that the ice cream truck parks there and seems to do a pretty good business. We even ran into a girl from our salsa class. As scared as I get inside a plane sitting under them didn't really bother me at all. Crazy!

Facing the Fear

Some work colleagues of Matt's were in town from California over the weekend. They wanted to see some animals so we went to the Melbourne Zoo. Part of the zoo was fantastic like the elephant area which was all set up like an Indonesian village. My favorite by far was the butterfly garden. There were hundreds of butterflies flitting around and landing on people. The Australian animal section was a little weaker than all the other animal sanctuaries I have been to in this country but there were some very cute sleeping wombats and a busy, itchy platypus.

We went walking around downtown stopping in Federation Square to sample a few beers. It was almost 100 degrees outside so a stop in the shade was very necessary. The city was bustling to say the least with a "green" fair, alfresco dining, street performers including musicians and acrobats. We started making our way down beside the river towards The Eureka Tower. I started sweating and it had little to do with the heat outside.

The Eureka Tower is Melbourne's tallest building with an observation deck on the 88th floor. This is nothing new to me. I have been to the Signature Lounge of the John Hancock building in Chicago numerous times and that is on 96th floor. The problem was a little contraption named The Edge. I have seen this tourist attraction on a travel show and just shook my head saying to myself "not me, never me". The Edge is virtually a cube that is motorized and slides out from the side the of the building until it projects out 3 meters. Here is the clincher, this moving box is made of glass. Yay! I started to get really scared reading all the warnings while Matt was buying the tickets. It was recommended that anyone who has a fear of heights should not participate....Ok then! I am out! But I wanted to face the fear so I kept reading. By purchasing our tickets we were also agreeing to no litigious action in case of injury or death. By this point I was pretty much convinced I was going to die anyway so I couldn't do much by the way of seeing a lawyer unless my spirit was going to haunt one. The Eureka people gave me a bracelet with my ticket which read I SURVIVED THE EDGE, so they obviously didn't think I was going to die I just needed to send this message to rest of my body. As we got in line my heart was throbbing and even though the AC had the observation deck quite cool I was perspiring profusely especially on my face. I had the strangest sensation like I was crying from my eyebrows as pools of sweat gathered over my eyelids. Then before I knew it I was in the cube with the door closed behind me. There was shaking and grinding while the cube moves away from the side of the building. The glass was clouded while the box was in motion and I would have been perfectly happy for it to remain that way but alas this was not to be. SWOOSH and the glass is clear. 300 meters (almost 1000 feet) above Melbourne and I could look straight down and see it all, WOO-HOO!!! I had to get gently coaxed to back of the cube for our group picture never able to completely let go of the pole I had a death grip on. So obviously since I am writing this I did not in fact die and now that the experience is over I guess it was pretty cool to see a city from this vantage point. I just don't think I would do it again.

Drew Bickford

I like this guys work. He has a piece entitled "Penny Dreadful". I have wanted to name a puppy Penny Dreadful. http://www.pinkfit.net/

Saint Valentine's Day

I came across an article about some super conservative Hindus in India protesting St. Valentine's Day and in turn western promiscuity. "We are deadly against Valentine's Day," said Sapan Dutta, a regional leader of the hard-line Shiv Sena group. "We are for civilized love and affection." The protests didn't curtail hundreds of New Delhi couples dressing all in red in a show of favor for the holiday. I never equated Valentines with promiscuous behavior. I always equated it with Hallmark sticking it to the single gal with all the gigantic boxes of ruffle covered chocolates and red sparkly cards that I only got from other girlfriends for fun. Or being a Chicago girl for the last ten years one of Al Capone's biggest ordered bloodbaths the St Valentine's Day Massacre. Of course last year I embraced Valentines in all it's cheesy glory for my first heart covered holiday with Matty...awwwwwwww!

All this hullabaloo in India made me curious about the origins of Valentines Day and the true intentions behind the holiday.

There are many different stories claiming the beginning of Valentines day. There were at least three "Saint Valentines" who are all said to be martyred on February 14. The most popular St. Valentine(Valentinus presb. m. Romae) was Roman and was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity. He died on February 14, 269 A.D., the same day that had been devoted to love lotteries. Legend also says that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it "From Your Valentine". There is another legend that this Saint Valentine fell out of favor with Claudius II who had outlawed marriage saying bachelors made better soldiers. Against the Emperors orders Saint Valentine continued to perform the sacred act of marriage ending in his beheading.

The ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility festival was celebrated on February 15 in honor of Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. The Luperci, an order of priest would get together in a cave supposedly inhabited by the she-wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus. Two goats and a dog would be sacrificed. The goat skin would be cut into strips then given to young boys who would run naked thru the town slapping women and crops with the goat's hide. While this may sound like an unpleasant happening the woman were said to relish the playful slaps believing they were made more fertile by this interaction. All of the single women would place their names in an urn to be drawn out by the city bachelors, pairing each couple for the year. Many of these pairings resulted in marriage. The early church saw this as unchristian and some Roman priests began to switch out names of single girls for names of saints. Pope Gelasius I (492-496) is credited with completely abolishing Lupercalia in favor of St. Valentine's Day.

We can thank Geoffrey Chaucer for turning Valentine's day into a day of romantic love. His poem 1381 Parlement of Foules is the first recorded reference that this is a special day for lovers.

"For this was on St. Valentine's Day, When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate"

Things snow balled from there. Hand made cards, chocolates, flowers, all of these things became common place throughout Europe. In the States however Valentines day did not really take off until the 1850s, when Esther A. Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts began mass-producing Valentine's Day cards creating the largest card market in America. 25% of all greeting card sales are for Valentines. So now that my curiosity has been satisfied, Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Night Market

Kevin Rudd's apology to Australia's "Stolen Generation" seemed to be well received yesterday. The news was even on CNN and FOXNEWS at home. If you missed it here is a clip. http://youtube.com/watch?v=xeneua1GZk4om/watch?v=xeneua1GZk4

I thought it was a very admirable thing to do, acknowledging that a wrong choice was made by the government. Who knows what it means to the people who were actually effected but hopefully it is a step in the right direction.

Matt and I went down to the Vic Market for the Night Market. There was a festival like atmosphere with tons of food stalls from every ethnicity imaginable. Huge pans of Spanish paella, bratwursts, Ethiopian dishes and french donuts. There was an African drumming group which played out front even when the rain started. All types of artists were selling there paintings and crafts. I bought some earrings made from pressed Australian flowers. There were booths set up with activities for kids like giant pads of paper they could paint on.

After the market we went down towards Fitzroy Gardens to participate in one of my favorite activities, feeding the possums.

There was a bit of a challenge in finding something to feed them. We stopped at a 7-11 to get this fruit bread they like. All I could find was regular bread so I decided to ask the guy at the counter. The conversation went something like this. Me-"do you have raisin bread?" Him-"increase price." Me-"ok" and then we stared at each other while I waited for him to go get the raisin bread which would be more expensive than the regular bread. I tried again. Me-"do you have raisin bread?" Him-"increase price, yes." blink, blink, more smiling and staring. Me-"ok then, I will just take the regular bread." Him- "increase price, yes." I left sans fruit bread and very confused. I related the conversation to Matt who just laughed. The prices of bread have gone up so he must have thought I was making a comment on the price "raising" not understood I was asking for "raisin". Sheesh!!!! I was happily successful in my quest for "raising" bread at the next 7-11 and we were off to visit with the possums. Some of the little guys are very friendly. This big fellow here eventually crawled right on up in Matt's lap. He wasn't scared at all, Matt on the other hand looked a tad nervous. I love the possums.

The Search for Bubble Tea

Colleen Rush took me to Tank Noodles on Argyle for the first time a few years ago for a lovely selection of Vietnamese Pho(noodle soup) and delicious tidbits. Having always been a fan of Thai Iced Tea I decided to try Tank's version. I ignorantly made fun of the gigantic straw and dove right in only to be surprised when a huge gelatinous bead flew into my mouth. "Swallow it", was Colleens advice upon seeing the very surprised look on my face. HEAVEN!!!! Thai Iced Tea blended and filled with large tapioca balls. I have been an addict ever since. I was determined to find bubble tea here in Melbourne assuming it couldn't be too hard considering the vast Asian population in Australia. Matt suggested we take a drive down to Springvale, a predominantly Vietnamese neighborhood with a less than stellar reputation, there has been some clashing between the Vietnamese and the newly immigrated Sudanese. I loved it!!! Springvale is Argyle times 100. As far as vegetable shopping goes we hit the mother load. Grocery shopping in most of Melbourne is EXPENSIVE! but Springvale is stupid cheap. I was happily snapping up bags of spices and beans for a dollar a piece. GOOD STUFF! More importantly bubble tea was everywhere. We got ours from a very expressive, cheerful man possibly made more hyper due to some chemical enhancement. There just happened to be a noticeable ring of white powder around the inside of his nostril...hmmmmmm. Either way he was very friendly and I got my bubble tea. YAY! We toured around buying bits and pieces of fish and veggies. I even got a recipe for bitter melon from one of the ladies working in the shop. I was also able to find okra which no Australian I know has ever eaten. Regardless of the dodgy reputation I thought Springvale was fantastic with everything for sale from fabric to kitchenwares and the people couldn't have been nicer.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day in Australian history. Kevin Rudd, the new prime minister, is scheduled to apologise to Australia's Aboriginal population more specifically those referred to as The Stolen Generation. "The Stolen Generation (or Stolen Generations) is a term used to describe the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, usually of mixed descent who were forcibly removed from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions, under various state acts of parliament, denying the rights of parents and making all Aboriginal children wards of the state, between approximately 1869 and (officially) 1969. The policy typically involved the removal of children into internment camps, orphanages and other institutions." I will let you know how this goes tomorrow. As a little extra, if my spelling is abysmal the spell check is flubbing up on blogger. I never was one of those kids in line to win a spelling bee.

Renaming the Blog

Well, I am back in Australia so thought
I would get back to blogging. I really wanted to keep it up in Chicago but since I was back to work both at the hotel and the symphony AND my life was turning upside down I didn't have much time. So...the new name. I wanted to get rid of the "blogspot" in the name and I wanted the title to encompass more than just being in Australia. The inspiration came from one of my girlfriends who I don't remember life without. I am lucky that way. A few of my closest friends have been my friends for as long as I have been conscience of being alive. One Cara Bowyer inspired the new name. We were emailing back and forth the last time I was Down Under. I had emailed her my news of being engaged to Matt and thoughts about possibly moving back to Jacksonville one day. Cara's response "I feel like I could look out my window and see the pigs flying by." So there you go. Piggys Flying! An homage to all the things I never thought I would think about doing much less actually do.

I am happy to be back here but I have realised I was being a bit naive thinking it would be an easy transition. I just knew this would be just like my extended vacation but the truth of the massive change I have made has been creeping up on me. I know I will be happy here...just have to have my transitional freak out. I certainly had one when I moved from Florida to Chicago and I fell hard in love with Chicago.

I got to spend the day with Cheryl and Cooper the other day. He is wonderfully cute and smiley. It always makes me a happy camper to be around a happy baby. The first time I heard Jack laugh hysterically was one of the most incredible sounds I have ever heard. Baby laughing and smiling is the best!

Matt had always wanted to check out a Balinese restaurant called Warung Agus in North Melbourne. I am certainly glad he decided to check it out with me. Yummy yum yum!

Peanut sauce over chicken satay and lemon grass pork with cracklin. Big Yay for the Balinese. I can't wait to go up there for our honeymoon. We are looking at living in North Melbourne after we get married so it is nice to check out some places in the neighborhood. There are a few cute looking galleries and coffee houses that I want to explore.

So while I am still getting over the jet lag and trying to figure out my new life here on the opposite side of the world I do have a new little friend to keep me company. Mick and Bec got a new member of the family. This is Rassie ( short for Jack Rascal) and he is lovely. We sit outside in the hammock and read books. I am going to go outside for a walk since it is a fantastic 80 degrees outside! Sorry everyone in Chicago.