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.

Blue Mountains Getaway

My sister Lisa visited last week, and we planned a sort of last-minute weekend trip to the Blue Mountains. My husband was kind enough to let us leave him with the baby (my first time leaving her overnight!). We needed something that we could drive to from Sydney, and the Blue Mountains were perfect. It took about 2 hours with little traffic and once we got there we stayed at Lilianfels. We had read mixed reviews on Trip Advisor, so we were pleasantly surprised at how incredible the service and rooms were. It had "old world charm" as my sister would describe it. We had a nice dinner the first night at the sister property Echoes next door and had a wonderful 3 course meal while we watched the sunset over the mountains - such stunning views. From the restaurant, we could see Scenic World, which we visited the following morning. After that, we had a 4WD safari to see kangaroos. It was really cool to see them in the wild hopping around. We did the Blue Mountains Guides tour. It was from 5:30-11pm so we saw the roos as the sun was setting. Then our guide Craig fired up the BBQ and made a great meal. While we were eating though I was bitten by a small leach, and as I was freaking out about it we saw A HUGE FUNNEL WEB SPIDER. This is the most dangerous and deadly spider in Australia. OMG. I will have to load photos soon. It was super scary but we got away unharmed. I highly recommend the Blue Mountains. Oh and we shopped one day in Leura and it is such a cute little town. Another must if you have the time.

Sky Car At Scenic World

Birds at Scenic World

View from Echoes Restaurant

Funnel Web! Eww!

Blog Award Nomination - Moi?

I am so excited to tell my very few followers and readers that this blog was just nominated for a Liebster Award! When I googled the actual award name, I get lots of blogs mentioning it but failed to find the actual web site housing the awards. From what I can find, I was nominated by a Liebster award-winning blogger who is actually Australian and living in France for a year with her family of seven (cool!). Check out Our House In Quercy to read all about it. The requirements to be nominated include less than 200 Google followers (easy to "tick this box" - American translation: "check this one off the list") and of course have some cool content. Thank you to Our House In Quercy for the nomination. Here's a link to her nomination page.

Traveling To America By Myself With a 9 Month Old

Months leading up to our departure, I was dreading this trip. Most Americans, I think, feel the same way I do. But I know many moms in my mom's group who travel to other countries with their bubs and don't seem to give it a second thought. They don't all do it by themselves, but it's much more of a common thing to do here, I guess because so many have family in other countries. And that's why I sacrificed my sanity, spending 2 weeks away from my husband, and I'm glad we did it. However, if I had known that the return trip would be a million times harder than the flights out, I may have had second thoughts.

Let me begin by saying that the trip there could not have been easier unless we had had a bassinet seat. I got to the ticket counter in Sydney and they offered me 3 bulkhead seats but no bassinet. Ugh. How to have a 14 hour flight and a baby sleeping on me? How do you use the bathroom? Will she even sleep? How do I eat my meals? Fill out customs forms? All of these thoughts rapidly ran through my head. But I sucked it up, got on the plane, and by a miracle was given a "floor bassinet," which was really a duffel bag with some cardboard supporting the sides. See below.

She barely fit in there but somehow was comfortable enough to sleep. God bless her. Then we got to SFO and happened upon a baby playroom. Jackpot! Avery is crawling and needed an outlet to release all that baby crawling energy and this was perfect. Long story short, this was a dream travel day. Of course I should mention a few things I noticed as an expat. United Airlines is much less accommodating to single moms or moms/families in general than other Australian based ones. Quantas and Jetstar both were wonderful. I had heard from friends that the stewards and stewardesses were trained to help mothers, holding the baby while you use the bathroom, washing bottles, etc. This was not the case on United. It was a much more annoyed/flippant attitude. I asked one if they had anything I could wash bottles with besides the hand soap in the bathroom and was quickly and flatly told no. The people, however, who are parents or grandparents and traveling alongside you can be godsends. I don't know what I would have done on the return flights without these angels who helped me out.

And to that, I won't go into a lot of detail because it's something I'm trying to block from my memory, but basically within two weeks, my baby became 100% more active, refusing to even let me change her diaper, and add to that severe jetlag, and you have a miserable 24 hours. Charlotte to San Francisco included a few hours of screaming and middle seat friend who didn't want to move to another middle seat (someone behind us kindly offered!), so when she wasn't screaming, Avery was trying to grab his computer, book, arm hair, and then wasn't able to nap because he had his reading light on. The second flight she slept for five hours and the other 10 weren't so bad thanks to a surrogate dad sitting next to us who was a new father himself and was great helping me out.

St George Open Air Cinema

Last weekend we visited the Botanical Gardens for the very popular Open Air Cinema and it didn't disappoint. It only happens in January and February and if you want tickets, you have to buy them right when they go on sale or they sell out. I got some great advice to go to their web site and sign up for updates, so I knew exactly when they were on sale. I didn't get my first picks for films, but I got two different showings - Martha Marcy May Marlene is what we saw this past weekend (very depressing) and then the day after Valentines Day we are seeing a Reece Witherspoon chick flick, This Is War. Regardless of the film you see, the backdrop to the screen is breathtaking - harbor views at sunset with the Opera House and the city skyline, with the occasional bat flying overhead. If you get there early (gates open 2 hours before the movie starts), you can claim your seats then wander over to the bar and just enjoy the scenery. Depending on the night, a few tickets are released at the door on the evening of the event, so you could always take your chances too.

Sydney Bats

I have been meaning to post something about the bats here for a few weeks, and I guess in true Sydney-style, I stopped doing anything productive for about a month. Businesses everywhere just shut down here during the holidays and a few doctors I had been trying to make appointments with just started accepting calls today! So the bats (I was reminded to do this post today when I saw bat road kill)... I had heard there were bats here, but I didn't realize how different they would look from the ones in my parents' attic. They look like the bats you see as Halloween decorations. Huge wings and enormous wing span and very fury.  According to sydneybats.org.au, the breed is called grey-headed flying fox. They look kind of cute up close in the photos there. But below is my own photo, taken in the Royal Botanical Gardens of Sydney where they are EVERYWHERE. They are not dangerous but a little spooky. I'll be visiting them again tomorrow when I return for a picnic lunch.