Grocery Store Meltdown.

a couple of weeks ago i had a hankering for some mexican food - beans, rice, queso, salsa/pico - the works.    

so Jeff and I head to the local grocery store and start getting everything on the list.  we get to the fresh herb section, where I need cilantro in order to complete my delicious mexican meal, and there isn't one stalk of cilantro in the entire store.

I am beyond furious about this...I am going up and down the aisles ranting and raving:

• "How can they complain that their Mexican food isn't as good as Mexican food in the US.  OF COURSE it's better...they use cilantro."
• "Cilantro, it's a typical herb, nothing crazy.  How can we not find cilantro."
• I'm calling Ericka (the mastermind behind the BEST pico in the world) and asking her to send me some seeds.  I'll grow my own"
• "I can't live here if there isn't any cilantro.  What am I supposed to do.  I can't live like this."

Yes, my friends, I had a grocery store meltdown.  While I was not in tears, I was pretty close.  Over CILANTRO.

We stopped at another grocery on the way home - no cilantro there, either.

That evening, we had dinner with an aussie friend, and I went off on a tangent about mexican food and cilantro, and how can i be expected to live like this for several years.  He looked at me like I was insane (kind of like everyone in the grocery store - I stayed out for a couple of weeks until I went back, hoping they would forget).  Then he very nicely said, 

"Isn't cilantro the same as coriander."

Turns out, that he was right - I verified with wikipedia.  And EVERY grocery store, market, random corner store has coriander.  I was ranting and raving like a lunatic - turns out that I'm just a knucklehead.

Foley Shi(r)ts.

our friend patrick is a fan of USA inspired apparel.  his wife is not.  as a result, he has lost TWO USA flag shirts...one of which jeff and i provided when USA flag shirt #1 was conveniently disposed of by michelle.  oddly enough, michelle also had a hand in the disposal of USA flag shirt #2 - she gave it to her dad!!

jeff was emailing with patrick a couple of weeks ago and told him that we were going to go to the President's Cup Golf Tournament in Melbourne on November 20th, and made the comment that he hoped to find a shirt to "represent" the U..S..A.

patrick quickly responded (too quickly in my opinion) that he would help us.

well, this week, while jeff was traveling, a package arrived.  i knew that i had to wait to open it until jeff returned from his trip...boy am i glad i waited.

sent from the USA with love

jeff's first glimpse of our surprise

just in case i wanted to wear it to work this week, this note
will remind me that in fact, i must wear only to the
President's Cup

jeff got home around 11.30pm and the first thing he did was grab the package to find out what our great friends had sent to us.  i'm not even sure that words can express the "Americanism" of these shirts, so i'll let you get the full impact for yourselves.

jeff is REALLY excited... 

...while I am wondering what i will wear with the shirt...

one of our favorite parts of said shirts...."Made in Bangladesh."

hard to see, but it says, "made in bangladesh"

thank you patrick, michelle, and jake.  we will wear them with pride and we'll be sure to record the australian coverage, as we're sure to make the news.

ps - i was telling my boss about this and sent him a picture.  his simple response, "and that is why I love america."
pps - we love to get mail and care packages...hint, hint...

Storm of the Century.

on Tuesday night last week we had some pretty bad storms that flooded parts of the city, and they continued into Wednesday.  around 5.15pm, the radio stations were advising residents of the city to leave work and return home prior to the "storm of the century" hitting the city.  it was a pretty eery scene driving home, as the highway was relatively clear with little traffic.

what i saw when i visited the bureau of meteorology
**image courtesy of bureau of meteorology**

so, i left to come home and was glad that i got here before the rain to take some pictures.  i went out to the beach, and to my left...clear, beautiful skies.

beautiful spring day

to my right, storms are a brewing...

spring storm coming in from the west

right before the action started

all in all, it wasn't the worst storm that we have seen here, although one of the girls that jeff works with had her house flooded and there was 23mm (almost an inch) of rain in 6 minutes in one part of the city.  we were very fortunate that we didn't get the worst of it.

Beach Weekend.

we went to the beach with some friends last weekend and had a great time.  we went to a town named dromana, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes from melbourne.

we drove down on saturday and went to the red hill market to pick-up some wine and cheese.  the market was great - lots of local artists, farmers, and wineries.  on our way to meet our friends, we stopped at the beach and saw this...a HUGE jellyfish.  he had a fish in his tentacles.  there was some bonehead who was jumping in and swimming up to him.  we were hoping that the jellyfish would latch onto his face.  the water at this part of the bay is crystal clear - not at all like the murky water of the mid-atlantic :)

jelly fish about the size of Poofie-Cat

beach at dromana

jeff and george went to play golf at cape shanck, while i went to the beach with heather and the kids.  it was a beautiful day - the water was freezing cold, but it was such a nice day to just enjoy the sunshine.

cape shanck golf course

cape shanck golf course

on sunday we went and had brunch and to the beach - it was much cooler and cloudy, but still a nice time hanging out with friends.

dromana beach

Went went to the Ponies.

from late september until late November, Spring Carnival occurs in Victoria, Australia.  during this time, there are horse races all over the city and in surrounding towns.

on the first Tuesday in November, everyone has off of work to go to the horse races.  yes, i'm serious.  since my work normally has a meeting during this week, we decided to go to the Melbourne Cup, not knowing if i would be here next year.

as i mentioned in a previous post, we went shopping for the right dress for me, as this is a pretty dressy event, and all of the women wear hats or fascinators (think Beatrice's headpiece at the royal wedding).  the track opens at 8.30am and races run from about 10am - 5pm.  it is like nothing i have ever seen.  there are women dressed to the nines, men in suits, and people swilling champagne at 9am (our party included).

Yep, this is the fancy dress...covered up by a sweater and scarf.
And, that's a feather from the huge bow on my head in Jeff's eye.

we had seats that were right across from the finish line, with a great view of the big screen TV (for the really close finishes) and a great view of the city.

our view of the finish line

as you probably heard, the finish of the Cup race was close.  they called the winner by 1mm.  1mm.  i don't think they really have a clue who won.

I got yelled at in Argentina for taking pictures at a horse race,
but not in Melbourne!  Lap 1 of the Melbourne Cup.

during the day there are about 10 races, with THE race being run around 3pm.  think about how risky that is...people enter the track around 9am...then start to gamble and drink...then THE race isn't run until 3pm.  i'll let you determine what everyone at the track looks like by 3pm.  it was awesome people watching.

Jeff was a big weeeennner!

it was a really fun day, we bet on every race, lost a bit of money, and had a few laughs.  definitely something we would do again.

unfortunately, all of these tickets were not winners.

A Saturday in Melbourne.

we had a normal saturday in Melbourne, tried a new restaurant, came upon the "occupy wall street" protest, and went shopping.

there are a ton of great restaurants in Melbourne, and many of them don't take bookings.  Chin Chin has been on our list since we got our "Good Food Guide" and on the tip of a co-worker, we decided to try it for lunch on a Saturday.  we were told that if we weren't in by noon, that'd we'd have to wait...thank goodness for the tip - the food was outstanding, the service was good (hard to come by here) and we didn't have to wait.  Chin Chin will be on our new favorites list.

yummy asian fusion food

we then stumbled onto a marching "occupy wall street" protest.  people fascinate me.

"we have a right to peaceful protest and assembly"

"Evolution is the Solution for this Revolution"

crazy bike that we saw all around the CBD the rest of the day

we then went shopping to find a dress for the Melbourne Cup horse race; I must have tried on 18 dresses and found one for warm weather - hooray!  let's hope the weather is nice!

all in all a great day with good food, sights and shopping.

art students that appeared to have bathed
in cement and hardened in place