Great Barrier Reef - Hayman

We just returned from another fabulous holiday. I highly recommend a vacation to Hayman Island. It was wonderful, from the yacht that picked us up in Hamilton Island at the airport (and offered champagne when we boarded! Fancy!) to our arrival at the resort (we never saw or touched our bags from the flight to our rooms and there is no check in needed - just straight to the room). It was cool but warm for winter. We enjoyed snorkeling on the reef, seeing gorgeous sea life and coral. Truly a once in a lifetime experience. Oh, and if you go to Hayman, we loved the Pool rooms. Every room has its own steps leading into the pool. Watch out for the birds. They are crazy and will fight whoever they can to get your food.

Leaving Soon

I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since we got to Sydney. So much has happened – Avery has grown up from a tiny infant to a toddler, we made a new baby while we were here (due Nov 22), we have traveled to New Zealand, Fiji, and other parts of Australia, and we have made many friends that we will be sad to leave. Our last day here will be July 30. There are many people, places and things that I miss about America and have made me homesick while we have been here, but there are also many things about Oz that I will try my best to take with me or won’t be able to because they just don’t exist in USA. By the way, I have had this written for nearly a week, but our internet has been down. Cannot wait to have Wifi again!!!

Here are a few:

The word “breaky” for breakfast

The Coffee

The way it’s much more socially accepted to bring your baby wherever you go, whether it’s out to dinner, wine tasting, etc.

Taking advantage of nice weather and spending lots of time outside, but always remembering hats and sunscreen (they are very conscious of the sun here because it’s so strong)

Family as all-important: this POV is apparent through the 1 year+ maternity leave, the gov’t mandated policy that employers must be flexible with work schedules with parents once they return to work after baby, the beautiful parents rooms with flat-screen TVs, and the playgrounds that are everywhere and very inventive, just to name a few. I also see parents playing with their children everywhere.

Mother’s Groups: organized by the government, they are determined by your suburb and baby’s birth date. Since Mat Leave is a year, I had great friends to do things with while I took a year off.

The gorgeous beach we live next to that I have tried not to take for granted. During the Summer, I took Avery to the grass right behind the beach and played almost every day. During the Autumn, I have been walking in the early mornings with my friend Kiera and our bubs.

The luxury Australia afforded me of being able to stay home with my daughter for her first year of life

And here are a few things I have missed about the US:
Family and Friends
Swedish fish (couldn’t believe IKEA didn’t have them)

Everything’s cheaper and there’s more to choose from

Central Air and Heat

I will have a car again

Normal shopping carts that don’t have crazy wheels that are hard to control

Mexican Food

In N Out Burger

Root Beer (well these last two are pregnancy cravings and they’re not available here)

A nice “home” – where we lived in Oz was the most wonderful location, but never felt like home without our dog, family nearby and our “stuff” that has been in storage. It felt very temporary.

High Speed Internet (Hallelujah!)

Cable TV!

Celebrity gossip mags (they don’t mean much when you don’t know the celebs)

Cheap pedicures

Christmas and Thanksgiving in Fall & Winter

NC Beaches

No commercials for the Ah Bra (hopefully) – these are on nonstop in Australia

Fiji Holiday

We returned recently for a lovely holiday in Fiji. It was the perfect family vacation, and I highly recommend it. The Fijans love kids and are very affectionate toward them. Avery was wary of all of the kisses from strangers, but I thought it was very sweet. We spent most of our time in Savusavu at the Jean Michel Cousteau Resort, and I cannot recommend this enough for a family vacation, especially one with young kids. There are designated "Adults Only" areas, then there are "Family Areas" and then there is the Bula Club, where kids spend time with their nannies, family or Bula Buddies (older kids). There are water slides, trampolines, zip lines - a kids paradise. The nanny is included in the all-inclusive price (one per kid for babies or Bula Buddies are assigned a few kids per), and are available 8am to 9pm. Unfortunately for us, Avery just became really clingy and had major separation anxiety - likely because she and I have never been apart much. But she had a great time when we were out of sight and mind. And it was so nice to be able to really relax - dinners and snorkeling for just my husband and me. But then we still spent lots of time with Avery too - still did family meals, played at the Bula Club and swam in the family pool. Now we're just trying to figure out how we can get back from the US. I don't think Fiji is marketed there as a family destination like it is here in Oz - likely because the travel is long with little ones. Hopefully in 5 years we will be back again. I don't know if we will be able to find anything like it anywhere else in the world.

So American

A few weeks ago, I was shopping at the grocery store and saw a guy. I did a double-take, trying to determine what it was about him that looked... different. Then I heard him speak and he was American. I realized what I noticed was his "American-ness." It sounds weird, I know, and something I would not have thought about. It was the way he was dressed, styled his hair, carried himself. Hard to describe I guess.

Fast forward a few weeks. Jeff, Avery and I were at the playground near our house and we heard a little girl say this to her dad after we let them take over the seesaw, "That man was so American wasn't he Dad?" So I wonder, is being so American a bad thing to the Aussies? I wonder if what they see as being American-looking is the same thing I saw in the store. Food for thought.

Not Your Average Cup Of Joe

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this before, but as our year here comes closer to it's end, I start to think about what my life will be like minus the coffee in Sydney. "Coffee" is actually espresso - nothing like your Starbucks variety. Every cafe has an espresso machine, and you cannot buy a cup of "coffee." It's a latte, cappuccino, or if you want to feel more like a local, order a flat white, short black or a long black. A flat white is in my eyes identical to a latte (although technically it's got more or less foam or something like that as barrista's have explained in the past but everyone seems to make them slightly different anyway) and a long black is similar to an Americano. A short black is espresso.


The currency here has a coin for $1 and a coin for $2, so it's easy to use these for a nice flat white, and not feel guilty. Since I live in Manly, the coffee around here is what I know, and I have searched high and low for the "best" coffee in our area. After seeing the discussion on Mainly Manly (highly recommend if you're thinking of living here or in the Northern Beaches), I tried Troubadour and Barefoot and now it's hard to decide which is better (that was the debate on the forum). I think Troubadour wins it for me and both were better than the other places I was trying around town. And Barefoot has a place next door with killer macaroons. Before these, Bacino was my favorite.

I'm thinking when I return to the states, I will need to either figure out a way to open my own coffee shop, and bring an Aussie barrista with me, OR search high and low for a good coffee place in Orange County. I'll likely be searching for a long, long time.

Check out this photo from Troubadour. We loved how the shot glass (sparkling water served to cleanse the palate! I tell you they are serious about coffee here) was from Barney's Beanery in Hollywood.

I Miss My DVR

I probably spend way too much time on this blog discussing cable and internet or lack thereof, but today, while the rain is pouring down, and many parts of Australia are flooded, I would give anything for a DVR with my favorite shows on it. Instead me and Avery (who has a terrible cold and I am still on the mend) are watching ABC Kids nonstop. Please let this rain stop.

Oh and last night when Jeff went to fire up the BBQ, a mouse was in there taking shelter from the rain! You can't make these things up. They only happen in Oz...

Update On Liebster Award

This post is a bit overdue, but I have so many excuses. My sister was visiting, the internet is crap here, and now I am sick for the millionth time this year - wondering if me getting sick has anything to do with being in Oz? Hmm. So I apparently won this Liebster Award. Everyone who gets nominated is a winner. I have to say I love the premise behind the award because it's very grassroots. It's a way to recognize all the smaller, less-known but still important blogs out there. And in turn, a "winner" must nominate more blogs they like. Now I need to do some research because truth be told I was following a lot of blogs before moving to Oz and having limited internet data usage. Now I really only follow a few that friends have because I have to save my precious data for skyping with family so they can see our daughter grow. So I am tabling the nominations, however, on a side note and in a stream of consciousness flow, I want to tell expats out there that I highly recommend you set up a Google Voice account before you leave your country. It will allow you to call or text people from your home country on their cell phones for free. They can also leave you a voicemail or text that you will get via email. We use this often and it saves on data if you have the issue we have of limited data.