V - Aussie Essentials

I moved! Yay! My new address is: 1/50 Epping Road, Lane Cove NSW 2066. For those of you who want to mail me some wholesome American love - I would prefer it in unmarked boxes containing Velveeta cheese, Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise and Hot Buffalo Sauce! But seriously, I moved and seriously you cant mail it to me, because Australia is really strict with receiving any food products into the country… they’ll take it from me rinse it out the contents and send me the box with an informative pamphlet that will have a list of things that aren’t allowed into the country… L

So yeah, I moved. I have a sweet pad about 10 minutes North of the CBD - Central Business District… Sydney is pretty small and I just live a bit north of it. So, I probably mentioned before that there are tons of tunnels all thorough out Sydney! It’s the way to go. I spend over half my drive to work in a tunnel. And they’re building MORE! Right undernethe my newly rented flat on Epping road.. The digging isn’t just any digging.. but digging though rock about 35 meters under ground… and it vibrates.. and it grinds… and it’s at all hours of the night and day. You really need to psych yourself up for sleep too. The way I do it is just think that it’s one bad thunderstorm in town… and well, there’s just a lot of thunder! So, I’m hoping by the end of next week, the Doozers will stop their digging. (For those of you who weren’t familiar with the term “Doozers” - they’re hardworking little green men who spend their days under ground building intricate Doozer constructions and then the Fraggles eat the Doozer buildings because they’re tasty.)

Starstruck.
You know how you can see Venus or Mars only at Dusk? Well, you can see them here all the time! They’re right there up in the sky. None of this waking up at 4am to see stars ease their way up into the sky… oh no… it’s right there at around 9pm! And, you can also check out the Souther Cross. That’s pretty cool. Orion also makes a special guest appearance but he’s upside down. I know a few of you are thinking… just turn right side up, but I don’t think you understand… he’s really upside down no matter how much you turn your body!

The BBQ. You cant get much more Aussie than having a BBQ… or maybe throwing a kangaroo steak on the Barbie… I don’t know of any other country in the world that eats it’s national symbol… I’ve actually had both the Kangaroo and Emu. It was about a year ago while on an Eco tour though the Mangroves down in what’s called Margaret River. For those of you who are affluent wine drinkers, you’ll know that some of the absolute best Australian Wine comes from Margaret River. Anyway… while on my Eco tour, we stopped for a gourmet lunch. I had no idea that a gourmet lunch meant Australian home grown grubs, Kangaroo and Emu. Yeah, so um… I had to put the grub spread nicely on my toast with some Roo and Emu. Let’s just say, the longer I chewed, the bigger the piece got. I haven’t been able to eat Skippy or Big Bird since.

Oh yeah, and this weekend we had a BBQ…. Somehow I was poisoned. Poisoned enough to puke that next morning. Yuck.

Footified - Looks like I’ve given up what we all know as “football” for what Aussies call “footie.” Basically it’s a bunch buff guys, missing a few teeth (think NHL), running around on a field for a couple of hours throwing a ball around… It can be quite exciting… cause one guy will take the other guy down - they’ll do whatever it takes… pickin the guy up.. throwin him down… takin him out at the knees…. Doesn’t matter… oh yeah, and they don’t wear any protection. It’s actually a lot easier to watch than American football. They don’t stop… well, okay, I’ll take that back. They’ll stop for a break in-between half’s… and then it’s back to the game… full on tackle… They even have their own cheerleaders. Today is the first time I’ve seen cheerleaders at a game… it’s pretty cool… and frankly, the only reason why I’m watching it right now is because it’s the only thing I can get in clear on the television… (just as a reminder.. there’s 5 channels - one shows porn)

I’ve tried a few ‘American’ food items since being here in Australia and I gotta tell you, I’ve been let down every time. The ‘hot dog’ for example: In the United States… the hot dog comes in a nice pink, fleshy color… it tastes like a hot dog.. it’s good… it’s wholesome… and totally American. Well, Aussies have taken the hot dog and have ruined the idea of it. It’s red. No, really, it’s red. Think crayon red. I said to myself… ‘yeah, that’s cool, I’ll try it anyway.. how can they screw up a hot dog?’ So, while at Ikea picking up necessary living essentials, as one does, I opt for the hotdog and drink combo for 3 dollars… I was feelin pretty hungry and Ikea has yet to fail me.. so I bravely, asked for the red hot dog and drink combo… The nice man handed it to me… and I dressed it up with all the American essentials - ketchup, known here in Australia as tomato sauce and mustard known only to Australians as “American mustard.” I juiced it all up and was ready for the bite…

Crunch…. Ketchup - check… mustard - check… hot… dog… what’s that nasty after taste? Oh dear god, get it out of my mouth… so okay, the hot dog isn’t the best thing to sample while in Oz. Frankly, I’m going to stay away from the red dog of death. I can’t really describe it, but it tastes nasty. I’ve had a lot of hot dogs in my time.. and have sampled them all across the United States - New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia - you name it. None of those hot dogs were as nasty as this one. I even made the fatal mistake of sampling yet another Aussie dog… oh dear god, it gets worse the more you sample… so for those fellow travellers - be wary of the dogs you eat…. Where ever you are…


Consumption Junction - I cant believe how much tea and coffee I have consumed since being here. First, Coffee is a part of Australian Daily life. I’m not talking getting one whole litre of iced coffee from the *bucks on your way to work, but more like, sitting down outside at a nice café and people watching. They even give you real mugs to drink out of… not some flimsy piece of paper to drink out of… this is the real deal. I’ve gotten into the rhythm of slowing down, something I never did in the US, and take a break from it all sitting at a café just talking about the weather.

Tea on the other hand, I’ve been drinking a lot of that too. Chai - something I wouldn’t touch in the US… and I have also been sampling some other flavours and types. For instance, I am currently drinking Cranberry, Raspberry and Strawberry tea. Oh man, talk about taste! I squeeze in a bit of honey and I’m set! The cool part with the tea is, you can buy it in small enough containers (like the smalls come in packs of 10) so if you don’t like it, you don’t have a bunch of tea sitting in a bag on your desk and begging people to drink it.

You don’t nuke your water here… you have a kettle… and their kettles are self-warming… none of this turning on the stove for a bit of warm water business! It takes about a minute for your water to be boiling hot enough to grab all the flavours out of the tea to make your drink perfect!

All washed up - I went down to the shops today and just went wandering. I found the most incredible aquatics centre that I have ever seen. There’s an indoor 25 meter pool, a bunch of Jacuzzi’s, water pretty much everywhere… small pools, large pools and an outdoor 50 meter pool… and just to seal my membership there, It over looks Sydney - perfect for a movie. I can understand why Australia produces such strong swimmers… they have incredible public facilities. When I swam for a private team in the US, we didn’t have anything like this facility. It’s amazing.
I also hit up the local fitness club. It is no Bally’s. It’s small, which I expected, has three floors and is a bit pricey. So, I’m going to hold out on the gym for now…. But the aquatics centre has my money!


Well, I guess that’s all I have for this two week addition. It has been a bit boring and I didn’t want to bore you with stupid stuff… so instead, it’s random stuff I’ve bored you with this time. J Hopefully I’ll have better material next week.. Until then…

T.

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