My First Netball Game

My zeal to embrace all things Australian may have gotten the best of me today. My dear friend and neighbor Sally and the awesome ladies we play tennis with convinced me to join a netball team. A perfect way to soak up Aussie culture, right? That they somehow spotted my competitive streak still astounds me. Ahem. At any rate, I bought my ridiculously short uniform, attended 2 practices and soaked up all the instructional videos YouTube had to offer. Here is a link to one of the videos if you want to get a feel for the game. Sophia, who has been playing netball at school, also offered up a few tips. She even served as the official photographer..

Photo credit:  Sophia Lark

Today was the first game of the season. It was so much fun. At first we were all a bit freaked out when our opponent turned out to be a group of 16-year-olds (year 11 aka juniors to us americans) complete with a coach and official scorekeeper.  The first quarter was a bit bleak. The umpire was blowing her whistle every few seconds and we looked like deer caught in the headlights as we tried to figure out what we were doing wrong.   But then we got it together and ended up coming from behind to win.   Go, Mosman moms!  They might have had youth, agility and skill on their side but we had an exuberant and under-supervised crowd of kids - ranging in age from 1 to 12 - on ours. 
The bad part didn't come until later. In the fourth quarter I twisted my ankle but didn't think much about it at the time. I was fine for the first few hours.  But now it is extremely swollen and painful and I can't put any weight on it.  I'm following the RICE (rest, ice, compress and elevate) treatment, have dug into my stash of imported Advil and am hoping it will improve dramatically by tomorrow. Thank god i still have crutches from the stair incident. And before you ask, it was the other foot.
At least we have a few weeks off until our next game. The first school term comes to a close this Thursday and not much gets scheduled during school holidays. The kids and i are going to New Zealand to visit nanna and granddad fish for a few days and andy's cousin Lorraine and her family are coming to visit us so it should be action-packed. Yet another reason why this ankle problem had better be temporary.  More soon as I'm way behind on my updates...which will feature Picasso, a possible new career in law and the car I'm planning to steal from Andy. . .stay tuned!  Miss you..  xoxoxo. 

It's The Hard Knock Life

Sophia and I went to see the musical "Annie" yesterday. (Her adorable friend Issie rode with us.)  Hard to say who loved it more but it was probably me.  I've always had a special affinity for Annie - not because I grew up as a poor orphan but because I had a terrible mop of short red curly hair.  I was called Annie a lot - and not in a good way either - but that didn't keep me from dreaming I could sing like her. 

Sophia and our neighbor Issie with their "Annie" purchases

 

 

 

I remember going to see the touring production when it was in Kansas City and I couldn't have been much older than Sophia is now.   When I asked her which part she liked the best she answered "all of it" but later admitted that she liked Sandy the best.  (Of course!)  She also had some really great questions - How did Daddy Warbucks know about Sandy? Why were those people going to get money for taking Annie and Daddy Warbucks didn't?  Was President Roosevelt real and why was he in a wheelchair?  Did all of those other girls go to live with Annie, too?  Of course, the song "It's the hard knock life" opens up an entire can of worms but it would be hard to come up with a better opening for talking about the harsh realities some children face.  I suppose the message was somewhat overshadowed by the fact that I allowed us  to fall prey to the Annie marketing machine.  She was shocked to learn that they didn't sell "Sandy" stuffed animals when I went to see the show with my mom.  But at least she promised to carry on the family tradition:  "When I have a little girl, I'll take her to see Annie and you can come with us.  And Grandma, too." 

Kicking off the New School Year

This week marks the official start of the new school year.  Sophia started "Year 1" on Monday and Zachary started his "senior" year of preschool today.  Zachary loves being a big kid, wearing a uniform and being so close to Sophia.  (The preschool is next door to the prep school.)  Sophia loves being old enough to play on the monkey bars.  (Kinder was banned due to several broken bones.)  Mom loves being able to do drop-off and pick-up for both at the same time. 

Parking remains a nightmare but we are getting lots of exercise as I've decided to give up on trying to find a parking space nearby.  Nothing like a brisk walk to get your morning started right. (Today's downpour made it so refreshing!) And what great strength training to carry a tired and cranky 4-year-old at the end of the day!

Dog Days of Summer

I have definitely been remiss in blogging during our "summer holiday" but I'm going to blame that on the craziness of having the kids out of school.  A few highlights:
1.   Spending New Year's Eve at our neighbor's and watching the fireworks from our deck.  AMAZING!
2.  Taking the kids to see "Hairy Maclary" at the Sydney Opera House.  (If you aren't familiar with the series, go to the link and buy this beloved NZ children's book!)
3.  Celebrating Zachary's 4th birthday at Luna Park, a 1930s amusement park on the harbor.
4.  My stealth solo trip to Kansas City for my dad's 70th birthday and to meet my new niece Mara and nephew Jackson.
5.  Putting our annual passes to the Taronga Zoo to good use.  I LOVE that place. 
6.  Spending "Australia Day" and the last four days of school holidays watching the kids catch waves on the South Coast.  
I should probably note that the title of this post really isn't apt as it has been anything but "dog days" here.  I don't know how many people have told me that this is the "worst summer in Sydney" but I'm quite enjoying it.  It is still unseasonably wet and dreary but there are have been very few days when we haven't been able to squeeze in a swim or a trip to the beach. . .

Santa Claus is Coming to Town. . .

There are a number of notable differences between Christmas in Australia and Christmas in the US.  Here are a few examples:
1.  Santa Claus doesn't come to town.  Father Christmas does. (but you can still visit him at the mall as you can see from the photo!) 
2.  The most common greeting:  "Happy Christmas"
3.  Christmas pudding and mince pies.  I really didn't want to buy either but could tell that it would upset my MIL if I didn't so I gave in.  I also bought a bottle of brandy as it seems "brandy butter" (homemade, not store bought) is equally essential. 
4.  Weather.  This one is pretty obvious but definitely worth mentioning.  Despite the fact that Sydney is experiencing the coldest and wettest December in 51 years, the kids have been swimming nearly every day and the forecast for Christmas Day is sunny and 23 degrees (that's mid-70s).  Perhaps we'll hit the beach?  Now that's a tradition I could get used to. 
5.  Christmas Eve dinner.  Now I know that every family is different, but mine tends to eat Italian on Christmas Eve (lasagna is popular because it feeds a lot of people!)  But this Christmas Eve we will be eating: meat pie.  A burgundy beef meat pie to be exact.  Pies are very popular here but they are almost always savory.  There is little chance of finding a pumpkin pie, pecan pie, apple pie or, my personal favorite, a chocolate silk pie but you can find meat pies on nearly every street corner (both here and in NZ.)  This is no doubt why Andy loved going to Boomerangs  in Austin. 

Of course there are a lot of things that are universal and key among them are the thoughts of friends and family - near and far.  Thinking of you and wishing you all a very happy christmas!  

Thanksgiving: Lost in Translation?

I have never felt as far away from home as I felt at the grocery store shopping for our Thanksgiving feast.  And I've never felt quite as frustrated by the differences as I did in trying to actually cook some of my most favorite things.    Turns out that a stick of butter is a very American measurement, sugar is not sugar and no one knows what marshmellow creme is.  Here is a photo of what happened when I tried to make "Mississippi Mud" for our Thanksgiving feast.

I must have called my mother-in-law in New Zealand a dozen times (is granulated sugar the same as sugar?  is icing mixture the same as powdered sugar?  can i use karo syrup for corn syrup?) and even she couldn't prevent this nightmare.  My "homemade" marshmellow creme would not set and the icing layer just sunk straight in.  Fortunately, I had enough time to make another layer of icing and hide the evidence.  While it looked terrible on the plate (marshmellow creme oozing out), it still tasted delicious.  Of course, i wouldn't want to venture how many calorires were in each slice. 

Corn Casserole presented a similar problem but I was prepared - or so I thought.  Our family recipe calls for "jiffy corn muffin mix" which, alas, is not sold in Australia.  But a quick google search uncovered a "clone" recipe.  Unfortunately, when I went to grab the cornmeal it was actually cornflour.  Another call to MIL confirmed what my gut and google said - NOT the same thing.  Fortunately, I was able to find a corn casserole recipe online that didn't call for cornmeal or jiffy mix. And then I left Andy to make everything else. . .heck, I even let him clean it all up. 

Zachary with our Aussie neighbors

The good news is that our guests didn't care one bit that the mud was messy or that we had to make some last-minute substitutions to the menu.  And they didn't care that the feast was held on a Sunday afternoon. They were thrilled to be included in such an American tradition and even came looking the part.  What a wonderful reminder of all we have to be thankful for - wonderful friends and family in every corner of the world.

A belated happy thanksgiving to you!

Our First Three Months In Pictures

We just got around to posting the photos we've taken with the "good" camera since moving down under. (And I re-posted a number of my iPhone photos as well.)   As you'll see under the recent pictures section, we just had the most amazing weekend with friends on the South Coast.    http://thelarkfamily.shutterfly.com/