Real Maple Syrup and Tasty Cheese

I went to the grocery store Monday, like I do most Mondays. As I grabbed a bottle of the only brand of real maple syrup this store carries, a Canadian import, I had to pause and consider whether that 1 cup of syrup was truly worth $7AUD. The pause was very brief. Real maple syrup is a "must have" in our household. We've become maple syrup snobs.

It is quite amazing to me that we can be living so far away from home and still be able to supply the particulars of our culinary preferences. Really, we can find most of the food items we routinely used back in A2, even some of the more unusual ones, though admittedly with fewer brand choices and a higher price tag attached. We can even find the imported goods we relied on back in the States, Dutch cheese and drop candy, as well as Italian parmesan, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. There are a few exceptions, of course. We were warned before we left that chili powder here is really just powdered chili peppers, not the blend of spices that we're accustomed to calling "chili powder." Also, decaf coffee, a daily consumable in our house, is available in so few brands (only 1 at our local grocery) and at such a high price, that David brought back 4 packages of his favorite brand when he went to the States on a business trip earlier this month. Other food items he brought back: 2 bottles of chili powder and a box of baking soda. There's a general murmur in this home that baking soda here causes a "soapy" taste in baked goods. . . .

Then there are the new foods which we've happily discovered here. Besides giving us a chuckle the first time we saw it in the store next to the "extra tasty cheese" brands, "tasty cheese" has become a household staple. (Tasty cheese is sharp cheddar.) The same is true for McVitties digestive biscuits, which I believe are also available in the USA. Cordials, Anzac cookies, and Sharp crackers are popular snacks with the kids. David and I appreciate the numerous bakeries sprinkled throughout the city and our nearby green grocer who sells consistently good fruits and vegetables for great prices. Though we haven't gotten into the ubiquitous sausages, we have succumbed to lamb steaks thrown on the barbie. Oh, yum!

I wonder if we'll be Australian tasty cheese snobs when we return to the USA?

Home, Sweet Ozland Home!

Ah, it worked. A few photos of our house here. Those are grapevines draped across the back patio. We do eat outside regularly

Hello from Ozland!

Hello! This is my first time to ever officially "blog," so hang with me as I learn the ropes. I know, I know; I am getting a late start. That way, you'll have no doubt that it is really me writing this, in case you were in doubt. However, it is true that we're almost halfway through our adventure at this point, so I have some catch up entries to write.

I think I'll start with our living arrangements. We have settled in here pretty well. We're really enjoying our rental house. It is about half the size of our A2 house with 3 bedrooms, 1 shower, wood floors, high ceilings, and closer quarters with neighbors. The furnishings are sparse; we bought a few used items from the friend of a friend here and a couple things from IKEA. The girls have to share a room, which I think they like as they have shoved their beds together to make one big bed in the middle of the room. We're also negotiating life with just 1 car. David occasionally braves the buses here. We enjoy being able to walk more in the course of our day-to-day lives. The girls walk to and from their school, 1 km. 1 way, and there is a shopping area about 7 minutes walk the other direction. I've joined Curves to keep up with some work outs, and that is a 5 minute walk.

One thing we've learned from this scaled back lifestyle is that we don't need all our "stuff" to be happy. We are really enjoying this minimalist lifestyle. There's somthing to be said for having fewer belongings to care for and being able to vacuum your entire house in 20 minutes. The greatest drawback of this living arrangement is the closer quarters with neighbors. We have a tap dancer to the south of us with a propensity to leave the windows open and a small sometimes yappy dog to the north. We're getting used to these noises now, and compared to the spontaneous and rather inelegant squawking of passing cockatoos, they're nothing. However, David and I do wonder just what neighbors can hear of our arguments, not that we ever argue. . . .

To come: In order to provide a more accurate picture of life here in Adelaide, Australia, the following topics will need to be addressed: driving in Adelaide, attempts to get a cup of decaf coffee at Adelaide coffee shops, spider encounters, reflections on exactly what constitutes this language"English," the Anglican church we're attending here, kids' transitioning to schools, our 2 week trip to New Zealand. . . . So, stay tuned. ..