The Spice of Life

Sourdough bread with butter and little bit of habanero sauce is my new favorite snack. Where has this been all my life?!

Phew

It was a Bitter Phew kind of Friday night with friends. It was great until I started losing my voice.

Saturday has been social too, with a frisbee board meeting and a Sydney Swans vs. Richmond Tigers AFL game with friends. I can't remember the last time I saw one team defeat another so badly (Swans won by over 100 points). It has been really tricky being out but trying not to talk. I've resorted to stuffing my face with Iggy's bread so I don't have to talk, some charades, or resigning myself to only saying things that are really worth the effort. It's along the same lines of the old Mitch Hedberg joke...

Fan (Not a Fan)

Last night we went to the Sydney Opera House to see Ben Folds and yMusic play. I have seen him live four other times before this, at either Wolftrap or Merriweather Post. This was Michael's first time. Ben always has really good acts play with him or open for him. He always has funny or interesting songs about how his songs were written. There are always a few ways he gets the audience to participate, so every show is similar but different. Of course, the opera house is a wonderful venue, and this experience was better than our last one there (see my previous post about Heathers).

He played "Not a Fan", one of his newer songs, which I love. It's about how at the beginning of a relationship little things don't bother you so much, but then at the end you can barely stand these same things. There's some truth to it, and of course it's funny too. 

Ben also played a lot of older Ben Folds Five favorites, and a few of his great solo songs too. When you have a 20 year long career, there's no lack of stuff to choose from. He also played his standard improvised song, to the delight of the crowd. Overall, the show was great, as was expected. I'm sure if he's on tour again in the city where I'm living, wherever that might be, I'll go see him again. 

Sydney Tea Festival

This weekend Michael is away in Brisbane for the Halibut frisbee tournament. Every tournament has a theme and for some reason the theme this year is 20,000 BC. Themes are usually kind of random and out there, but that one seems exceptionally so. 

Anyway, I went to the Sydney Tea Festival at the Carriageworks today, which was awesome. I didn't know quite what to expect, but it exceeded my expectations. When you arrive you are given a little tasting mug and you can try as many different teas as you want to your heart's content. I got a little jittery since I tried more caffeinated teas than I would normally drink. You gotta live a little, sometimes.

Almost every stall had so many different kinds of tea and free tastings, pastries and food, and tea accessories (like teapots and mugs, tea cosies, etc). I even saw the Urban Beehive people (with whom I had taken a beekeeping class over a year ago), and I bought some more local honey. 

Harajuku Girls like tea too.

- Chocolate Matcha Whoopie Pies -

There were so many good pastries to taste and buy!

Some of my acquisitions: honey harvested in my neighborhood, matcha nut butter, dandelion chai, and my tasting cup. I admit, part of the reason I got the matcha nut butter was the super cute jar. 

I definitely plan to come again next year and bring some friends.

The teacher becomes the student, who then becomes the teacher again. The vicious cycle continues.

Last night I went to a yoga class with a friend at a new studio I hadn't been to before. The yoga instructor was talking about how it's the end of another moon cycle and how we should reflect on the last month and what we have learned.

I struggled to think, in words, of what I have learned in the last month. However, I know I have learned and progressed. In the last month I have spent time in seven different US states and one Australian one. I got to visit with and make memories with my extended in-laws and know them better. I met my good friend's baby and see how my friend has changed now that she has become a mom. At yoga, my shoulder stands are straighter. By definition, the facts that I learned going to trivia are not important, but they are little pieces of new info that are floating around somewhere in my brain, possibly to be helpfully recalled at a future time. I have officially hosted an AGM (annual general meeting) for my frisbee club. I have had more teaching facilitating experiences that have informed how I communicate instructions in the future. I participated in the Australian census for the first time. I've learned that even though the internet says you can clean your skin with an apple cider vinegar solution, it makes my skin angry. I've learned that the noisy miner in park on the way to the train station doesn't only like to swoop on us in the morning hours.

None of these things are particularly important on their own. I didn't have any epiphanies. Little bits of progress make up the bulk of life experience, though. So, maybe that's what I learned. What did you learn?

Our Kuhl Dealer

One of Michael's and my favorite outdoor clothing brands has been Kuhl for a couple of years now. They have good quality stuff that lasts and fits comfortably, but still looks nice with interesting stitching, colors, or patterns. For example, it's not all tan (like so much other outdoor clothing).

Recently, we discovered one of our frisbee friends actually works for an outdoor retailer and his job is to literally give free Kuhl clothing away, as promotion. He knows our sizes, and will randomly show up with random new gear for us. I most recently acquired some gray cargo pants and a blue patterned shirt. 

It is the best.

Location! Location! Location!

I'm sure at the beginning of my blogging I complained about real estate here in Sydney. It's a big pain dealing with realtors a lot of time time, and it can be really stressful to look at and apply for apartments. They give you some small inflexible window of time to look at and apply, and then you're competing with however many other people who have submitted applications for that one specific place. Having pets makes you ineligible to live in so many buildings, assuming you are honest about it. If you're not, many buildings hold inspections every few months and you can get caught and kicked out. There's also the constant tiny fear as a renter that at any point the owner can just say they want you out of the apartment with X weeks notice. This has happened to a few people we know.

When we lived in Arlington, VA we rented our apartment from the building and not from an individual owner, with some random realtor that they've chosen, which is so much simpler. Sure, the building could still kick you out with some notice, but it's less likely. Your application odds are better because there are often several units up for rent.

We got lucky that our current place has a good realtor/property manager that returns our calls and emails in a timely manner, and helps fix any problems quickly; not everyone is so fortunate. We are allowed to have our lovely cats. There are lots of great and convenient things about where we live, but it is still very small. It also doesn't have any actual usable doors, which is weird. Yes, we have a bedroom door but it doesn't really shut because it's too big for its frame. Yes, we have a bathroom door but it's more of a sliding board. We don't have a clothes dryer or a bathtub. None of these amenities is a given in a Sydney apartment.

We recently discovered that a frisbee couple we know has an apartment they are looking to rent in a few months. It's also a one-bedroom, but bigger than our current place (big enough to actually have small groups of people over!). Cats are allowed. Although the neighborhood isn't as picturesque or as close to the beach as our current one, it has a central location in the city, walking distance to more of our friends and places we go. There is a bathtub and a dryer! It has working doors! And, the bathroom door isn't right next to the bed! We would have enough room for a normal-sized couch and a kitchen table! It'll will be like we're aristocrats. Also, we wouldn't have to deal with a realtor/property manager, we would just have to deal with our friends, who are reasonable, like-minded people. 

Needless to say, we are hoping this works out. Stay tuned.

Stranger Things

All of a sudden, everyone was talking about Stranger Things, so we decided to check it out. It's a fun show, although we haven't finished the first season yet. 

As I watch it, I think, why is this appealing so much to so many people right now? It has an ET/Goonies kind of quality to it. I get the appeal for all of us children of the 80's; it's very nostalgic. Also, all the actors have been really good in their roles, at least so far. There are a about five main kid actors on the show and they're all believable in their roles, which is so rare. Anyway, if you're looking for something spooky, suspenseful, nostalgic, and "coming-of-age" (I hate that term), Stranger Things hits the sweet spot. 

Double Life

I'm still alive. We had a great trip back to the states that included reunions with old friends, delicious meals with the family, a Vermont family reunion on Michael's mother's side, a short trip down to Richmond to meet a good friend's new baby girl, yoga, W & OD trail bike rides, and my brother's birthday. 

Things I didn't miss about the US: traffic, the DC metro's continued unreliability, the 24 sensationalizing hour news cycle, the gigantic portion sizes at most restaurants, having to tip everyone for everything, having to calculate sales tax, the fact that most businesses are part of large chains (at least in the DC area; not as much in Vermont and Richmond), and DC summer humidity. 

Things I was happy to experience again: Obviously it's always great to spend time with friends and family, home-cooked meals (by people other than myself), more-than-reasonable business hours, access to a clothes dryer, a bath tub, driving on the right side of the road, Bon Chon, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Sweet Green, central air, and seeing a bunch of deer during my bike rides.

Things I was happy to experience for the first time: Vermont in summer (including a rare sighting of 3 active barn owls at night), Good restaurants like The Yellow Deli (we have been to the one here in the Blue Mountains, but never to the one in Vermont) and Earl's Kitchen, the Hosteling International in Richmond, Village Yoga in Merrifield, and a Lavender Fog (which is similar to a London Fog). 

Favorite new movies I watched on the plane: The Lobster and Hello, My Name is Doris. Honorable mention goes to The Family Fang.

I had a longer-than-usual layover in LA, which made the trek back feel endless, and I am happy to be adjusting back to life in Sydney now. The cats seem happy we are both back too.