Figuring things out

Hello folks,

Well, we are in week 3 (I think) of living in Oz and I feel like we are figuring some things out. We have learned our way around the area and even ventured outside of town to a conference for our church. There are a lot of Polynesian people here and for me that is fun because I have always loved the Polynesian people. Back when we lived in the DFW area of Texas, I was friends with lots of Tongans and I love how warm and kind they are to others. They are a beautiful people.

When I was at church a few weeks ago at a church about 45 minutes away from here near Sydney, I would guess over 50% of the people there Polynesian. It was a beautiful sight. One of the things that I thought was really interesting was the use of the formal lava lavas that the Polynesian men wear. Now, I have seen lava lava skirts for men many times in the past, but they were usually very casual attire. I didn't realize that they had formal lava lavas for church, weddings, etc. Basically, it is a nice suit but instead of suit pants, they wear lava lavas or long sarong type skirts that are traditional dress. My husband tells me they also have leather ones for more formal occasions. I was able to get a picture but it is not great, but I wanted to share it with you in case you had never seen one either.

In the second picture, notice the steering wheel on the right side of the car...we are still getting used to that. It is a little weird as a passenger and a driver, to adjust to because you have a totally different sense of where you are on the road. I haven't driven yet but my hubby is quite the seasoned driver now. My time is coming, school starts next week and we will be moving further away from my son's school so we will need to drive him to school most days, which means I better get used to the steering wheel and the other side of the road!

To give you an idea of the incline on the mountain that I walk to one of the bus stops, I took this video, it is a 7 minute walk up the mountain to the school and then probably a 10 or 11 minute walk down to the bus stop.

And actually, there are some much steeper inclines in the neighborhood next door...it makes San Francisco look flat! I admit that taking the bus through those neighborhoods is a little exciting.

And then this thing was sitting on the counter in the kitchen...Aussies call it a kitchen bench instead of a kitchen counter. I asked what you do with it and my friend said "Oh, these are great, you can make anything in it."

Okay...well that didn't help any but google to the rescue! It is a Flavorwave Turbo...basically it is a self contained convection oven. So, we decided to give it a go and made a roast and veggies. We were semi-successful. The veggies needed to be cooked a little longer and actually the roast probably did too. but we followed the directions and it wasn't so bad.

When it is on, it lights up every once in a while...looking very halloween-ish.


We have only used it once and I am not hurrying out to buy one yet. I think I will buy a slow cooker first...I love slow cookers!

Cooking hasn't been too difficult, I just have to convert from Celsius to Farenheit on the oven and such and I admit that I cook just about everything somewhere near 180 degrees Celsius because that is what the first recipe I cooked called for. It is about 350 F. So, when I cook, I just figure in my head if I need above or below 180C and adjust from there. (Highly scientific, I know.)

Happy cooking and Happy weekend!