Bevys: The hotties and the coldies

Howdy all! Welcome to a special Saturday Afternoon edition of Aggies in Oz.

I wanted to share a little bit about something that is near and dear to my heart, beverages.

I like them hot, I like them cold.
I like them fizzy, I like them bold.
I like bevys I do, I do.
I like bevys, how 'bout you?

Here is a short list, by no means all inclusive. Some of them can be had both hot or cold. Buen provecho.

The Hotties:

Hot Chocolate - This is a very common occurrence, year round here in Oz. Mostly in the pre-packaged form but overall very similar to what you might find in the US.

Tea - Gasp you say! My tea of choice is Red or Rooibos Tea. It comes from South Africa and is made of the bark of the Rooibos bush. I introduced it to some of my coworkers when I worked at Transit and the only difference they found from their regular tea was that it did not give them the jitters nor dry their mouth out. Hot I like it with sugar and a little milk. Cold I find an 8 oz cup of very hot tea mixes great in a 32 oz cup full of ice. Sweeten or not. That is the conundrum.

Coffee - My coffee of choice, as was the case with my tea, is not really coffee at all. Here the brand is called ECCO. It is a powder of malted barley and roasted chicory and rye. For the history buffs in the audience, yes it is the same stuff the Russian Army drank when they ran out of real coffee while fighting the Germans in WWII. I like mine with sugar and milk. If I could find Irish Cream flavored creamer I would be in heaven.

The Coldies:

Mountain Dew - Also known as the nectar of the Gods. I first had Dew when I was 3 or 4 living on a dairy in Greeley, Colorado. I shall never forget the feel of the green glass bottle and the taste of the sweet goodness that is Mountain Dew. Here in Australia there is a slight change to the recipe. First there is no caffeine. Secondly, orange juice plays a prominent role. Overall very little difference in taste and still oh so yummy.

Pepsi Max - basically the same as in the US except it is the Diet Pepsi of Australia. It still has ginseng and all the other stuff but is zero calories. Still yuck and I usually follow Randy of the Redwoods' advice to "Just Say Whoa!"

Kirk's Original Club Soda Lemon Squash - or just Lemon Squash. It is lemonade mixed with club soda rather than water. Not too sour, not too sweet. I love it.

Bickford's Ginger Beer - I am currently drinking the flavoured cordial version. It comes in a glass bottle resembling a single malt scotch whiskey. The directions say to mix it 1 part cordial to 4 parts water or soda. I personally like the ratio of 1 to 5.

Pashiona - This is another Kirk's concoction. It is similar to the lemon squash as it is passion fruit-ade mixed with club soda. Quite good with a chicken schnitzel burger topped with a piece of pineapple.

Sunkist/Fanta Orange - I list both names because, well, they taste the same here in Australia. Orange juice plays an important role in both recipes and unlike in the US, the Sunkist has no caffeine. All in all rip roarin' good fun.

To paraphrase an old Irish saying: May the glass rise up to meet you. Sliante.

Really far from home

Howdy folks,

It is the close of Friday here in Oz, another beautiful Autumn day. High around 62 and low around high 40s/low 50s F and sunny most the day. We spent much of the morning running errands and picking up odds and ends that you don't really think about until you need it. For instance, my husband needed an Allen wrench...not something we thought to bring with us and with the way we packed, we probably wouldn't have had room in our luggage even for that small of an item! So, we went to Bunnings, the Aussie version of Home Depot with a fairly similar feel and layout except they are blue and red instead of orange. Then we went to Best and Less and picked up some items for my son's winter uniform at school, nothing too exciting but things that needed to be done.

There are things that remind me often of just how far away from home I am. For instance, my university at home, good old Texas A&M University, had locked me out of my account so I needed to get my password reset. However, you had to call in to to do that so I emailed them and asked if there was any other way since I was overseas. They said no problem, we can call you or we can skype, just tell us when to call between 8am-6pm Central daylight time. So, I figured that we would have to do it early in the morning, so they called me at 7:00 am my time which was 4:00pm their time. We are 17 hours ahead of Texas time and when I think about that, it seems really far away. It is weird to be living in the future. When it is not daylight savings, we are only 15 hours away because daylight savings and seasons are opposite here. So, in April when Texas "Springs forward", in May in Australia they "Fall back". To me, that 2 hour difference between 15 and 17 hours makes a difference, because now I need to call home before 1pm so I don't wake people up, but during the other part of the year, I have until 3pm.

Also, when you look at the airfare costs, you quickly realize how far away we really are from home. I haven't found a flight that is cheaper than $1,400 per person for the days we need to travel, and when there are 3 of you, that adds up really fast. Plus, we typically buy trip insurance for really big trips, so that is another $200 at least. So, basically we are looking at close to $4,000 for a trip home...yikes! That is steep! So, we have sadly decided to postpone our trip home in July and try to go later in the year. That is a bummer.

It is also hard to be away from family and friends and miss big events. I have missed birthdays and other things that I normally would always be at and that is a bit sad. However, I don't want you to think that I am depressed or homesick. Honestly, we really love living here and we have made some really good friends. Back home, to be honest, I didn't feel like I had that many close friends. I have lots of friends, but only a small number of really close friends. The reason is because I always had wonderful family members around to love me and take care of me whenever I needed it...I was spoiled! I didn't really need friends as much because I had my family. Now that I am away from them, we have made some really close friends here that we love and it has been great to branch out in that way and to meet new people from all over the world. I was probably a little too self centered at home too, here I try to be friendly and look for small ways that I can assist people and be their friend because I need my friends here...they are my family! I think in Texas I was a really lazy friend and probably neglected my friends some because I had other people to keep me busy. Sorry Texas friends! I have learned a lot since I have been here and I feel like I am a better person for it...at least I hope so.

We have had our struggles with moving here and still trying to sell our house and getting settled and getting Aaron a job, etc., etc, etc...and we are still struggling in many ways HOWEVER...I feel very blessed to be here and we are really glad we are here. We feel we were led here through much prayer and thinking and that this is where we need to be and we are just holding to our faith that it will all work out. And I know that it will somehow, it may not be the way we had intended, but it will probably work out better in many ways and maybe not what we expected in others...but overall, we are still really glad to be here and really happy here.

You know how sometimes you just get in a rut? I think we were in a rut in our lives and just weren't really motivated to get out of it, but moving to Australia has changed that. We are more adventuresome, we eat healthier here because it costs the same as eating junk food, and we are leading more active lifestyles in general. Aaron has lost somewhere between 40-50 pounds since we have arrived and I feel like I have lost some as well. Aaron weighed himself the other day but the scale was in stones, so he doesn't know the exact weight he has lost. One stone is equal to about 14 pounds, so if the scale was correct, he has lost 50 pounds, which is great! We also lead less stressful lives in general. Australia just doesn't have the hustle and bustle stress that I always felt in the US. In fact, full time work is 36 hours a week, so they tend to work less as well and I honestly think they seem happier in general. It is a good life here in Australia and we hope you will come visit! It truly is an amazing place!

With love from way over here....

Heather

How to speak Australian #1

Hello from the beautiful land of Oz!

We are in Autumn and the weather has been really beautiful. Highs in the 60s F, lows in the 40-50s F at night. It is a little weird to be heading into the end of May and have such nice temperatures when in Texas, they are already starting to sweat with the heat and drought conditions. I hope that the heat in Texas now does not mean for a sweltering July and August.

We have also finished the first term of the school year and are just beyond a couple of weeks into the second term, the next 2 week break starts July 1st. The college (or uni as they call it here) term is also coming to an end, we have one more week of class, then a dead week for studying, then finals. Then there is about a 2 week break and the Spring term starts at the end of July.

This post is going to be geared towards a few things I have learned about speaking Australian. This will be an on-going series as we learn more and more each week. I will try to give you the American version and the Aussie version and some context if it is needed.

American Version Aussie version

Hello G'day (they really do say it!)

How ya doing? How ya going?

Good for you Good on ya

Apostrophe Inverted comma (I admit it took me a while to figure that out)

Thanks or Thank you Ta (remember I said Aussies shorten everything)

Kindergarten Kindy

See ya later Cheers

Breakfast brekkie

Burger King Hungry Jacks (Same company, different name)

Muffin with chocolate in the middle Mud muffin (available at McDonalds)

McDonalds/Mickey D's Maccas (slang for McDonalds)

Excited/Interested Keen (example "We are really keen to see how ya go" would be the Aussie version of "We are really excited to see what happens")

Truck Ute (as in utility vehicle, but generally more like an El Camino than a truck)

GM Car Holden

Festival Fete

Raffle Chocolate Wheel (has nothing to do with chocolate...so deceiving!)

Markers Texters (pronounced Textas)

Erasers Rubber

renovation reno

air conditioner air con (although most houses do not have central a/c or heat

Dryers clotheslines (most Aussies use clothes lines, not dryers)

dishwasher The name of the person doing the dishes, most houses do not have dish washers (at least from what I can tell)

faucet a tap

doorbell Aussies houses just don't have them, it is very rare and the one place that had one, didn't work!

apartment flat

downtown CBD Central business district

learned learnt

Dollar Store Cheap Shop or Reject Shop, except everything is far more than a dollar

Kool Aid (kinda) Cordial (It is a liquid concentrate that you add water to, they don't have kool aid here unless you want to pay $18 for a small cannister)

Lemonade Lemon Squash (it is so good!)

Sprite lemonade

It can take a while to get used to their verbiage and their accent but I can understand almost everything now. I can also understand the British and Irish accents better now too since they are very similar and there are lots of Brits here too. Much of the language is a carry over of the British, but the Aussies are lazy in their speech (their words, not mine) and tend to shorten words, cut them off, and they don't really pronounce their Rs. Rs are pronounces with an a sound, like my name Heather sounds more like Heath-ah.

It's a lovely accent and it is fun to learn all their ways of saying things. There will be much more to come!

Heather

Fascinated with fascinators

It seems that with the Royal Wedding, most of the world has now been introduced to the world of fascinators! I would not be real surprised if they now became a bit of a fashion in the states since Kate was seen in fascinators for a few events before the wedding.

You may wonder...what exactly is a fascinator? This is the definition from http://www.designerfascinators.com

"A fascinator is an extravagant accessory adorning the head/hair and is becoming the popular alternative to wearing hats to formal occasions. These elaborate headpieces can be found in a variety of shapes and colours and are generally made out of a combination of feathers, beads, flowers and netting"

My understanding from asking my British friends is that the difference between a hat and fascinator is that a hat has a brim and a fascinator does not. You may also be wondering how in the world some of those are staying on people's heads? There are probably a few techniques with bobby pins and such but my fascinator has a head band.

My very first fascinator...

And I admit that I just love this thing. These are not things you see worn every day, generally they are worn at the horse races (similar to the Kentucky Derby) and at fancy events. However, they are easy to find around here, I just bought mine at the mall at an accessory store that carries all sorts of jewelry and such.

I also have this one, it is a new one I just got...I was given this one to wear for the royal wedding party. It also stays on via a headband.

Here is my friend Kiri and I wearing our fascinators for Easter. Her's is a little pink mesh kind of top hat that is so darling and mine is the first one I have shown above with the polka dotted netting.

And here it is on...for some reason I cannot find the original of this picture so I can properly turn it...so forgive me for posting this silly sideways shot but I wanted you to see a good shot of it on.

I think they are fun and add that extra oomph to your outfit. I admit that I sat and watched the Royal wedding festivities here with my Aussie friend and her very British mother and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was fun to have some Royal fans there to tell me about the people and talk about the different dress styles from other weddings. Since I live here in the beautiful land of Oz, we fall under the British Monarchy and are subjects of the Queen of England, so it gave it even more meaning to watch the wedding.

To go along with our fancy theme, I brought scones (remember it is pronounced like rhymes with gone NOT cone) and white truffle cup cakes with fancy decorations on top. It was a lovely affair from beginning to end.

However, I must say, if you are going to wear a fascinator, I suggest you stay away from this one!

Go find you a fascinator to wear today!!

Heather