Perth and Fremantle

5 July 2015
Kristen says...

I feel like I've been all over the world since the last time I posted, but really I've just been to Perth, Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore...all in three week's time.

Let's start with Perth...

Chris and I celebrated our 9th(!) wedding anniversary in June, but he was being sent to Perth for work and was going to be gone for our anniversary...so we decided the best thing was for me to fly out there and join him instead of being apart for an anniversary.

So I did! :)

Perth is a realy, really nice city. I was especially struck by the interesting architecture:

Both old and new:

They even had a light show:

And a beautiful sunset over the river:

They also have wide open spaces, something Chris enjoyed, as usual...

 Chris had to work most of the time we were there together, but we had a lot of lunches together and one lovely Saturday. We spent the first part of the day in Perth City, where we really enjoyed these fountains (they kept moving! it was like water walls!)

We also visited McDonalds, not for food, but for ice cream...I'm not sure if this has hit the states yet, but Macca's (as it's commonly called here) is piloting computer-based ordering and made-to-order burgers. Weird.

The rest of our day was spent in Fremantle, a lovely seaside town just a short train ride away from Perth.

Highlights included:

Baked Potato bar! (Think Subway with potatoes)

Escape Hunt! We cracked the case with just 1 second to spare! (This was a lot like our ClueQuest game in London last summer...so much fun!)

Late lunch and a brewery tour at the Little Creatures Brewery

And a cider named after our dog! ;)

Chris even found a lovely park to nap in!

Fremantle also has some fun park areas with free table tennis

and a giant chess set. We had a fun time playing a friendly match against a couple locals!

 Of course, all good things must come to an end. On Sunday I hoped a plane to Kathmandu and Chris extended his stay in Perth for a few more working days...

 And year 10 of marriage has begun! :)

KF

Around Town

11 June 2015
Kristen says...

Don't let anyone tell you Canberra is boring. It's not.

We've been having lots of fun doing lots of little things around town over the past few weeks.

One of our favorite Friday night activities is visiting the Deakin Football (Soccer) Club. We don't go for the soccer, since neither of us enjoy that sport, or for the slots, even though Chris was a big winner a few weeks ago

Nope, we go for the meat raffle!

Yes, you read right, meat raffle. It's exactly what it sounds like--you buy raffle tickets, and if you number is called, you win some meat!

Case in point:

 Awesome.

We also went a few weeks ago to cheer on some friends running in the Canberra Marathon.

 I admit I haven't watched many marathons (or competed in ANY, thank goodness) but something that really stuck out about this one was the people running along with flags saying "5 hour pace" so you knew how fast you were running. Pretty interesting.

One weekend we participated in a Murder Mystery Cruise with a 1920s theme--I was Carrie Crooner, 19-year old songstress (haha) and Chris was my bodyguard Al Capone. It was a little weird to be on the boat, but we did have a good time trying to figure out who was the murderer.

We also visited the Mount Ainslee Lookout for some amazing views of the city, including the original view drawn by the Chicago architects who designed the city.

We walked to the very top of the hill

and inspected the beacon, one of many which was built in the 1920s.

It was very beautiful!

 Oh! And on the homefront, Chris finally had "shrimp on the barbie"

Which is hilarious, because here they're called prawns. No shrimp.

They do call it the barbie, though, sometimes.

KF

ANZAC Day

25 April 2015
Kristen says...

Happy ANZAC Day!

What, you don't know what ANZAC Day is? Oh, then you must not be from Australia, New Zealand, Turkey or France!

Anzac Day (ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) is celebrated every year on April 25. It is similar to Memorial Day in the US, but is specifically geared to memorializing the anniversary of the ANZACs landing for the WWI battle at Gallipoli in Turkey. This year is especially special, as it is the 100th anniversary of the landing.

This special day is being celebrated in multiple places across the world today, with the dawn services, the familiar red and black poppy flowers, and most fun for me, ANZAC biscuits.

Biscuits, of course, in Australia and other places, are cookies.

Eating ANZAC biscuits is an essential part of the ANZAC Day celebration, because they were sent to the soldiers by the mothers, sisters, wives and girlfriends back home. Of course, by the time the biscuits reached the soldiers they were hard, so hard they couldn't be eaten without being ground up like granola or dipped in tea.

I made some ANZAC biscuits using the first published recipe earlier this week for our work celebration. It's always a little nerve-wracking to attempt to make something that is so essential to other people's culture, but Chris and I thought the cookies were nice, and nobody complained, so I call it a success.

Some of the recipes I looked at call for dried coconut (but not the original recipe, so I left it out), but all the recipes I saw called for Golden Syrup, something I'd never heard of before!

They advertise golden syrup as being perfect for pancakes, etc, but it doesn't taste like maple syrup at all. Golden syrup is the consistency of caro (corn) syrup, but it's made of cane sugar, so is closer to Molasses...I think if you took brown sugar, added water and boiled for a while, you'd probably come up with something as close to Golden Syrup as possible...probably. :)

The newspaper says over 160,000 people celebrated the holiday at the various services in Canberra today, which is really amazing. Chris and I stayed home (4 am is really too early!) but watched some of the events on the tv. It was very inspiring and I have enjoyed being here for the Centenary of this important historical event.

KF

Wineries, Easter Break, Rugby and a New Diet

6.5.15
Kristen says...

Happiest of Easter/Passover to those who celebrate those holidays!

And warm greetings from Australia, where the days are getting shorter and the weather cooler, but so far not any less busy! :)

We have had a particularly large amount to do the past few weeks, what with weekend events, the Easter holiday, our HHE (STUFF!) being delivered, and of course, multiple trips to the chiropractor...le sigh.

So let's start with our winery trip a couple weekends ago...a friend of a friend is leaving soon, and so wanted to buy some wine to take home with her...and since I am a firm non-drinker, I became the much appreciated designated driver. :)

There are many wineries in the Canberra District, in large part due to the cool climate. We visited four, and Chris and our friends sampled (and purchased) a wide variety...

Chris contemplating a red

Most of the wineries use netting to try to keep the birds off the grapes before they are picked

Christmassy wine barrel art

Wine bottle art

A llama

It was a beautiful day and we had a really nice time!

 The following weekend we went out for breakfast across the street from an apple orchard--it's fall here, and we're enjoying being in the middle of the local apple season!

More netting!

Visiting the apple orchard was particularly good, since our chiropractor has put us on an inflammatory diet, which has outlawed: sugar, wheat, bread, potatoes, milk...basically everything I eat. On the approved list? Fruit, vegetables, beans, eggs, cheese (thankfully, or I'd have starved to death!), yogurt, and things I can't eat like nuts (allergies)...

So we've had fun experimenting with recipes this week. So far I've made flourless brownies (made from dates) and pudding (made from oats), as well as quiche and grilled cheese with a cauliflower crust/bread and a delicious veggie frittata...

So, clearly we're not starving...I do REALLY miss bread, though, and I'm not going to lie, we totally cheated on this diet on Easter Sunday when we went to the Pancake Parlor after attending the 6 am Sunrise Service...

Also on the schedule for Easter Sunday? A trip up Red Hill for an amazing view of the city:

Beautiful!!

What else did we do over the Easter weekend? Well, our stuff was delivered at the end of last week, so we have been spending a lot of our time unpacking and putting things away...I finished the library (much smaller than it was in Vlad, unfortunately) last night:

And we gave ourselves a reward for all our hard work by attending our second-ever rugby game!

And were met by singers!

Fun fact...there are two types of professional rugby in Australia, Union and League. The Raiders, the first team we watched, are rugby league, while the Brumbies (an Australian horse), the team we watched this weekend, are union.

They both play at the same stadium, but the style of play is quite different.

For one, the Brumbies got to do this:

 FUN!

A Knock On is like a Fumble in American football (called Gridiron here)

Go Brumbies!!

 Of course, a weekend in Australia isn't complete without a kangaroo sighting:

And that brings you back up to speed with what's going on here...

 It's good times!

 KF