Happy birthday mothers day

With so many celebrations in such a short time frame Lucy was very confused and kept saying 'happy birthday' to me! After explaining it was Mothers Day she decided that it was appropriate to say 'happy birthday mothers day' to me. She still thinks it is her birthday and often breaks out in song singing happy birthday to herself.

I was given a lovely pancake breakfast in bed! All three of us crawled into bed together for breakfast and whilst there were a few pancake crumbs in the sheets everything worked out surprisingly well and there wasn't maple syrup dripping from the ceiling! We did lots of gardening, mostly weeding and mulching before heading off for dinner at Kornerstone pizza (a wood fired pizza restaurant)

While at Kornerstone there was a tornado warning for our area of New Hanover! The skies were black. I mean really really black. There were loads of lightning strikes and menacing thunder rumbles. Suddenly there was sideways rain. Two minutes later the rain had stopped, the clouds had cleared and there was blue sky and sunshine! It was totally weird but fascinating. Andrew took a photo of the clouds when we got home. Look at the amazing light show we had!

Nicola's

On Saturday night we headed out for a Silex dinner at a mod Italian restaurant called Nicola's. With children not allowed the lovely Erica, a trained paramedic, had the task of putting Lucy to bed. Lucy played happily 45 minutes but by bedtime she was crying. She hid in a corner before deciding to run into her room and put herself to bed. She wouldn't allow Erica to put the blankets on so when she fell asleep Erica sneaked in and did so. Meanwhile we were enjoying some merlot and a nice dinner (prawns and lamb - separately) followed by profiteroles covered in a nutella/cream mix.

WILD DOGS KILL CHICKENS!

Yes our fresh egg source is sadly no more! Whilst we have an egg supply for this week the poor chickens (about 12 of the 18) were killed by dogs on Saturday night.

Apart from the sensation above we had a very quiet weekend. We did some planning for the front garden, talked to the neighbours, slept, and went to church. Jenny, Joe, Gabriel and Julian came over for a lamb roast and then the three of us went out to Cracker Barrel for a pancake dinner (after shopping at Costco).

Weekend visitors

Aunties Julie and Lynda came to visit for a 3 day long weekend though given the amount of stuff that exploded in the spare room (left) you would think they were staying a month! Julie and Lynda toured the Dawson and One Tree Hill sites on a wet Friday. But Lynda still doesn't know where Chad Michael Murray lives and I'm not going to tell!!

We played monopoly, read Lucy books and ate a lot. For Julie's birthday we had breakfast at Sweet & Savoury, visited Wrightsville beach (where the water was officially freezing), did a Screen Gems tour (saw the One Tree Hill police car!!!), did some shopping, and finally dined at the Brasserie. Andrew and Lynda ate 3 mini desserts each, even after having a strawberry cream cake for afternoon tea!

Lucy was very wary of having new people in the house but played with both her Aunties. She particularly liked Julie (who read lots of books) so much so that Lucy was even happy to go for a walk with Julie sans parents.

We farewelled them at the airport Sunday afternoon after church and a lamb roast lunch.

Weekend sunshine

With such gorgeous weather in the high 60's we headed to our favourite breakfast spot Sweet & Savoury so that we could quickly access the beach. We drove to the northern most part of Wrightsville beach and had to wait for a car parking space! Lots of surfers, kayakers and walkers about. Andrew pessimistically thought we would only be on the beach for a few minutes but it turned out to be wonderfully pleasant. Lucy made and smashed sandcastles, collected shells in her bucket (not very discerningly) and begged for 'pig' (piggy back rides - her new favourite thing).

We were able to do some gardening mostly pruning dead branches as well as planting 5 new trees (which we picked up for free at TreeFest). We planted 3 wax myrtles on the left and 2 crape (sic) myrtles on the right. Fiona raked half the lawn of pine needles which thankfully Darryl wanted for his garden next door.

Still on the hunt for good Chinese food we consulted our Entertainment Guide and headed off to Double Happiness. Andrew had the best wonton soup outside of Hurstivlle whilst Lucy enjoyed her pot stickers and pork buns. Dessert is worth a mention - banana spring rolls. So awesome. Lucy had fried ice cream - green tea ice cream in a strange batter but she still liked it!

Sunday saw us at church and we were invited out to lunch with Terry & Petra. We headed over to Cracker Barrel (their choice) which worked out well. During the wait for the table we sat in the sunshine in rocking chairs (with a sleeping Lucy in my arms). Turns out Cracker Barrel serves breakfast all day so we indulged in pancakes, eggs and sausages.

We were also invited to a superbowl party at the Westras but given the late timing (6-10:30pm) we decided to have a quiet one at home. We watched a couple of minutes of football, 20 minutes of ads and then switched over to watching a Canadian sitcom called 'Corner Gas' (it's supposed to be like Northern Exposure). We are checking it out, still not sure if it's something worth watching.

Steve & Rory are coming over for dinner tonight (lamb roast).

Life is full (of food)!

Australia Day (but not a long) Weekend

We celebrated a cold and wet Australia Day at Outback Steakhouse!!!! Of course they had no idea that it was Australia Day but that didn't stop 25 of us getting together for an 'Aussie meal'. Lucy and Rory waved their flags, bunted a balloon and scoffed down chips from their highchairs. We all got dressed up - Lucy in an Aussie shirt, Fiona in a Hawthorn shirt and Andrew in an Australian Open shirt. The group had been thinking of organising a cricket game but it was good that nothing eventuated as it was 30 degrees (0 celsius) and very wet!

We decorated our house with flags with a big one on the flagpole (built into the side of the garage) and little ones on the mailbox and in some pots on the verandah. The three of us watched the tennis and made lamingtons together. So overall we had a good time. If only we had the day off tomorrow! We'll just have to wait for Independence Day!

A fishy weekend

On Saturday morning, Andrew and Lucy headed south to the Aquarium for the 'Daddy and me' program. They had a great time looking at the sharks, turtles and fish as well as playing with the toy eels in the playroom. Lucy had so much fun she fell asleep in the car on the way home but was easily woken up for a pizza lunch.

We went Outback for dinner, dining at the Outback Steakhouse. It's full of kitschy Aussie decor and it even has Fosters on tap. We called ahead for a table but there aren't reservations, just a place on the waiting list. This meant that we only had to wait 35 minutes for a table as opposed to the 75-80 minutes that walk-ins were told. The food was fine with very large portions. Funnily enough they had NZ lamb on the menu instead of Aussie lamb?? Now we've been there and done that. Won't be heading back here if there is such a long wait again.

The weather has turned cold again! We enjoyed the spring weather last week so much as Lucy and I spent a lot of time playing in the backyard, eating ice cream and wearing tshirts. It is just so variable here!

Food roundup

Grannys Country Kitchen
The last weekend of 2007 was quite hot (25 degree celsius) so we decided to head down to Carolina Beach. This was partly so that we could try out a restaurant called Grannys which is one of a few independent restaurants that is not part of a chain. We had a good Southern cookup of shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, scrambled eggs and fresh buttermilk biscuits. The food was excellent but for some quirky reason they served their beverages in styrofoam cups!?! Unfortunately Pops, an ice cream parlour up the road from Grannys, was closed for the winter but reopening again in April. We'll have to head back down south to check it out and maybe fit in a visit to the Grind.

Kornerstone Pizza
This place had been recommended to us so we were eager to check out their wood fired pizzas. The pre-fab oven (both gas and wood) was very large and impressive. Whilst there was a very good range of pizza toppings we were very disappointed with the actual pizza produced. The base was so soggy and flimsy that a piece of pizza could not be picked up with a hand (as the pizza just flopped 90 degrees). It tasted good but its not good pizza if you can't pick it up to eat. Their butternut squash ravioli was great but again we'll have to wait for the Wilmington branch of Andrew's pizza to open to get some great pizza here in NC.

Cracker Barrel
Given the diabolical fridge situation we ate out a couple of nights last week. We ended up at Cracker Barrel one night as we had quite enjoyed the food last time. Unfortunately CB still allows smoking. Whilst we were seated in the non-smoking section, the table next to us was a smoking table. There was a wall between us but the smoke just drifted over the top. So we've decided to boycott CB until they become a non-smoking restaurant. iHop has just become totally non-smoking and hopefully it won't be long before more restaurants in Wilmington follow suit.

Pre-Christmas Dinner

We celebrated our last bible study for the year and the end of our studies on Malachi with a Christmas dinner. We provided the venue and (Australian) wines whilst everyone else brought the rest - lasagne, fresh bread, creamed spinach, apple sauce, and potato casserole. We followed with a 'Derby pie' topped with Reddi whip (the pie is some sort of chocolate gooey pecan pie namd after the Kentucky Derby) paired with Noble One botrytis that I sourced at a wine shop here. We then finished with Williams Sonoma Peppermint hot chocolate. In the end no one wanted to leave! Lucy even got an early Christmas present from her Grammy Lou and Poppy. Note the new blind in the background - the sheets are gone from our windows and we had new blinds installed on Tuesday.

Baby its cold outside

Yesterday the temperature range (in celsius) was between 4 and 9 so it was very chilly!


Last night we had two adventures: watching the world's largest living Christmas tree being lit up and having a romantic anniversary dinner at Boca Bay restaurant.

The Christmas tree sounded excited though we were a little skeptical this being Wilmington and all. (For example our friends Rick & Erica went to the Nutcracker performance by the Wilmington ballet last week. Based on Rick's impersonations it was not something you would want to see for free let alone pay money for. But hey its Wilmington, a small coastal town not Broadway New York, so you can't have unrealistic expectations) It turns out it is not a 'christmas tree' in the sense that it is actually an oak tree rather than a fir tree but it was a 'christmas tree' in the sense that it had a ridiculous amount of lights. In fact the tradition started in 1928 and the same tree has been lit up every year with the exception of one year during WWII. The local tv station were broadcasting live so we even had to wait for the commercial break to finish before they pushed the button. It was kind of fun to count down and then see the tree light up and even grouchy Lucy was impressed with the lights. Now remember the temperatures I mentioned above!




Our dinner at Boca Bay was excellent. The food was awesome and some the best we've had for a while. Unfortunately the live band, who incidentally were also excellent, were way too loud and the smoke from the bar drifted into the dining room. But we had a great meal and enjoyed a meal with just the two of us.

PS In regard to the Netflix movies, the four I rated one star were: License to Wed (terrible terrible movie even if Jim was in it), Ten Canoes, The 40 year old virgin (I watched the first 5 minutes and then took it straight to the mailbox) and Annie Hall. I loved Evan Almighty!

Indochine

We have been lamenting the lack of authentic Chinese restauarants around here so Andrew very much enjoyed going to Lots back in Sydney. We have pretty much given up on Chinese cuisine so last night we decided to check out Indochine - a Vietnamese and Thai restuarant. And it was GREAT! It's not a chain, it charges higher prices (like all good Thai restuarants) and it has a very unique decor including an outdoor courtyard with pagoda (and wooden monkey). We very much enjoyed the chicken dumplings, moo goo gai pan and bun-thit nuong followed up with chilled lychees (on ice) and mango with sticky rice and coconut sauce. Lucy couldn't keep still but managed to enjoy herself especially as the waitress brought her a special monkey plate to eat off. Andrew doesn't like going to Thai restauarants as many menu items contain shrimp and although this was the case at Indochine there were still enough options for him to choose from. I could tell he really liked Indochine when we were ordering dessert as he ordered another lot of chicken dumplings to go. We will be returning soon.

Weekend update

After our week of travel it was good to spend some time at home.

Friday night saw us at the ACME Art Studio for Gail and Michelle's art exhibition premiere. It was good to see the Silex crew but what was more amazing was seeing other people I knew. We met some more Aussies who live here (including Lucy's signing teacher's husband) and it felt like a really small world! 7 degrees of separation (or only 3 in some cases) is really true.

Saturday we had a sleep in before checking out Carrabas for lunch. This Italian chain resataurant was highly recommended to us (esp. because it has a wood fired pizza oven) but sadly it was over priced and lacking in quality. The pizza base wasn't cooked all the way through, the tomatoes were flavorless and they brought out our mains about 1 minute after our appetisers were served. The service was good but its unlikely we will go back there.

With full bellies we set out into our garden for some pruning and weeding. You can see Lucy was trying to help by putting on my gardening gloves. Our rose bush continues to produce roses, on average producing 10 per week, and still has many more buds on it. It is an amazing plant and our house is constantly full of the perfume of roses. We also cleared out the canna lillies and have replanted them to make way for our fence to be put in this week!!! So exciting!!! Now Lucy can be contained in the backyard without having to worry about her running on the road. It seems a strange thing to Sydneysiders that many backyards have no fences. We have been waiting some months now for the fence and it is finally happening this week. I will post a picture on Friday when it's finished.

Stay tuned for an Asheville post tomorrow.

A happy hearty weekend

It is officially fall. On Monday we had beach weather of 32 and now we are in the daily range of 9-24. It is amazing how quickly the change came but we are now enjoying awesome afternoons in the sunshine of the backyard.

Saturday morning saw us head out for another breakfast adventure – this time to ihop We have been wanting to try out this restaurant chain for a little while but every time we have ventured here the place has been so packed out that we couldn’t even get a car parking space. This time we were in luck with the last spot. A two minute wait for a table and then Crystal was ready for our order. I had a ‘Rooty Tooty Fresh n Fruity’ (10 points for guessing what that means), Andrew had the original buttermilk pancakes and Lucy devoured her French toast before we could blink. It was a super quick move’m in move’m out kind of place but the food was very good and inexpensive. The menu even has senior specials (smaller portions at smaller prices). Whilst open for breakfast, lunch and dinner it seems that breakfast is the most popular time to come.

Saturday afternoon we put up our hostess gift from Katrina – a hammock for the backyard! Andrew enjoyed lying in it for a while until Lucy climbed in and insisted on playing ‘horsie’ on his stomach.

Not feeling like cooking dinner we decided to check out the Outback Steakhouse for their autumn specials. The level of cringe is going to be high but we decided we needed to see it for ourselves. Take for example their radio jingle. In an effort to get people to go out for dinner on a Wednesday night it goes “Let’s go outback tonight! Start your weekend two days earlier” We get there but it’s a 40 minute wait for a table. So we went around the corner to Cracker Barrel.

Cracker Barrel is to American cuisine as Outback Steakhouse is to Australian cuisine. Kind of kitschy especially with the Old Country Store attached, the rocking chairs out the front and the old farming equipment hanging from the ceiling. But it’s new to us so its kind of fun. The menu is pure comfort food – Sunday home style chicken, meatloaf and mashed potato and smoked country sausage ‘n biscuits. We celebrated the autumn applefest with apple cheddar chicken and fried apples. A good hearty meal for the three of us cost just $30. We also picked up a free touring map and had a look around at the Christmas decorations in the store. Lucy had a great time sitting in the old fashioned high chair (with leather straps), playing with the old fashioned solitaire game made with a wooden board and pegs and drinking her milk in front of the huge fire place. So although we were disappointed to miss out on our Aussie experience we felt very contented and full after our American feast. We thought about buying a jar of fried apples to take home but discovered the second ingredient (after apples) was high fructose corn syrup so we left them on the shelf. OVerall our exeperience was two thumbs up.

Sunday saw us at church followed by a lunch at our house. We invited Scott, Michelle and Wade over for a lamb roast and pavlova. We hung out in the backyard whilst Lucy played in the sandpit, Wade lay in the hammock and the rest of us chatted. Then Andrew had an afternoon nap given his 4am bedtime trying to fix the church computer.

Battleships, Christmas shops, farm fresh eggs and swimming

Life has been so busy we feel like we have been living in a whirlwind. Here is a rundown of some of the things that have been happening:

• Daytrip to Southport. This time we drove through Leland, dined at The Pharmacy, visited the Christmas shop and caught the ferry across to Fort Fisher



• Breakfasted downtown at the Barista cafe with a detour through the Riverfront Farmers Markets before heading over to the USS North Carolina Battleship. A great weekend to visit the ship as the living history crew were in uniform and giving demonstrations. An amazingly large ship complete with a dentist office, pharmacy, and chapel.



• Lucy attended music and signing classes, Fiona went to bible study and had lunch with Jennifer at Macaroni Grill



• Worshipped at church followed by a lunch at Sweet and Savoury



• Visited Wrightsville beach a couple of times and ate lots of Kohl's frozen custards. Lucy likes chocolate (and pretty much every other flavour)!



• Andrew and Fiona went out for dinner twice - once on a 'taste the town' tour where we got to visit 8 different restaurants and the other time to Oceanic for a Silex get-together. We also headed out to our Wednesday night bible study group



• Birthday lunch for Manuela at the Atlanta Bread Company!

We farewelled Andrew's parents yesterday and life (without visitors) should slow down. Regular blogging will resume again next week.

Labor Day weekend

We hope you had an excellent labor day weekend as we sure did! We got out and about showing Katrina the sights of Wilmington. There is so much to report and some of these items could have their own blog entries but I don't have time to type at the moment so here are the highlights:

• Fort Fisher Memorial Site. A free musuem about the civil war that we've been meaning to visit for a while. Wilmington was the last Confederate port open to blockade runners. Upon surrender of this site the war was almost over. Although the South lost the war Southern people still bear immense pride in their homeland. The museum gives a good overview of the battle at Fort Fisher and we were able to see some of the original battlements even though most of the coastline has since eroded.



• Southport ferry ride, Southport antique shops and The Pharmacy for lunch. The Pharmacy turned out to be a surprise hit with excellent food and service. The site became a pharmacy in 1877 and has only recently converted into a cafe. The original pressed metal ceilings are still on display.



• Oceanic for Katrina's birthday lunch. Dinner seems to be the forte of this restuarant and lunch was a little disappointing esp. given the terrible parking situation. Still, we had a good view of the beach and we ate prawns so it wasn't all bad (though the smoothies that were made with syrup were terrible!)



• A sunny day at Wrightsville beach + Kohl's Frozen custards = excellent time. We tried out the vanilla, chocolate and banana pudding flavours and highly recommend a visit here on the way to or from the beach. WE were a little curious what these custards would be like but it seems that they are just genuine icecream (ie made with eggs) and they certainly taste good. Can't wait for the 15th when the flavour of the day is 'Elephant stomp' which is Reeses peanut butter cups in a chocolate custard.



• A belated housewarming/birthday chocolate cake from Margaret next door was very much enjoyed. Two thumbs up!



• 10 episodes of The Office (American version of course)
  
  

Working weekend + eggs + heat

Saturday morning we ventured off for breakfast at the Goody Goody Omlet House. I say ventured as we were a little worried about what we might find when we got there and I hadn't heard the word 'goody' since reading The Crucible in high school. The first thing we noticed was that they had a sign on the door stating that they don't take debit or credit cards (not a good thing for us as we never have greenbacks so this led to a quick detour to a nearby drive-through ATM) GGOH is a small orange roofed building with 5 booths and 10 bar seats and for takeout orders they even had an old fashioned telephone with a genuine ring. We got a booth (and high chair) and whilst the menu had lots of choices we decided that because it was an omlet house we better order omlets (or at least have eggs and not pancakes). Lucy, being a true Shire hobbit, settled in for second breakfast quickly eating her toast and grits and asking for more in a loud grunting way. She looked very cute so the waitress forgave her throwing things on the floor and even lent her a book to read. The omlets/scrambled eggs/bacon/grits/biscuits were excellent and the service fast. Note that when the menu says 'sausages' they mean little round patties of sausage meat not the long 'hotdog' shaped version we are used to. We had a great meal here and we are likely to return. Interestingly it is the first place where there have been both black and white people. Usually it is just one or the other but it was great to find a true mingling of people here.

Apart from church and our monthly church luncheon (lots of fried chicken and hush puppies) the rest of the weekend was spent working in the garage. Andrew built a workbench and put up lots of shelves. Then we moved all the stuff out of the guest room into the garage. So the guest room is almost empty! Which is a good thing... now we can get it ready for our first guest.

Just for the record, it is SOOOOO HOT. It is so hot that it is unpleasant to go outside as it is regularly getting to 35 degrees+. The grass needs mowing every week and the plants are growing like crazy. Its the combination of thunderstorms providing lots of water and the heat. Even Andrew's fingernails are growing faster than ever. We are living in a greenhouse!

Weekend roundup

Friday night saw us stay at home due to a 5 hour thunderstorm. It was so loud that at 2am Andrew and I were both woken up at the same time by a 5 second rumble of thunder that sounded like the house was being bombed. We are getting together hurricane supplies just in case.

On Saturday morning we headed off to the Wilmington Children's Museum for Mud Day. It is a fantastic place that is not museum-like at all. It is more of a play centre with differently themed rooms like science, grocery store, circus etc. Outside there were pools of mud, slime and a muddy slip and slide. Lucy was plonked in the mud but did not like it! She preferred the clean water pools. We then had a Southern buffet lunch at the Roudabout Cafe nearby.

In the afternoon we headed over to Topsail beach but when we got there it was raining! Lucy still got some bodysurfing in as the water was warm! It was literally like bath water because it had been so hot and sunny during the week. I know I am prone to exaggerating but when I say that it was 100 degrees last week it truly did reach those heights on the farenheit scale. After drying off at the beach we headed over to Rick & Erica's for dinner.

After church on Sunday Nicky & Susan (with Caleb and Rachel) came over for a lamb roast and pavlova. We are doing 'cultural exchange' with these native North Carolinians who are teaching us all things Southern so in return we are teaching them about Australia. Caleb was very excited last week as he thought he was going to Australia for lunch. Unfortunately for him patting some stuffed kangaroos and koalas was the closest he got. Vegemite still not a winner.

Weekend update

Friday night saw us at church for VBS (Vacation Bible School - like kids club). It was the closing night so all the kids, 55 of them, put on a small concert of the songs they had learnt during the week. This was followed by a hot dog dinner, jumping castles and a clown making balloon animals. Lucy and I had been at VBS a couple of days during the week to help with the nursery and it was really great fun. On Friday we took a pavlova for dessert which was a big hit. But I am sick of making pavlovas and was left with 16 egg yolks to turn into custard pots and home made strawberry icecream for Sunday.

Saturday was a quiet day whilst Sunday saw us have Jenny, Joe, Gabriel and Julian over for lunch. Our first visitors over for a meal! We cooked a lamb roast with our delay start oven and even had some D'Arenberg shiraz. The photo shows Andrew with Lucy and Julian who are 1 month apart in age.

More weekend highlights

Another busy weekend with new friends...

Friday night saw us next door with Lucy and Ava playing with a water table (plastic table with two big bowls where you put the water in and then the toddlers have fun scooping out the water with cups and throwing it around). Andrew came home from work and couldn't find us until he jumped over the fence. Lucy had a ball!

On Saturday Terry, Petra and William invited us to have high tea with them at the Wilmington Tea Room 'enjoying tea by the sea'. Located on Water St we had a great view of the huge thunderstorm going on, with lightning hitting the main bridge. We had a 'full tea' which comprised of many sandwiches, cakes, scones and cookies. Alas no clotted cream but the ham and cheese sandwiches were on cinnamon swirl bread, an unusual but tasty combination. William had a 'wee tea' for kids and Lucy just played around with the cheese sandwiches and flowers. Even with Andrew there we couldn't finish all the goodies on offer.

On Sunday we had lunch at Andy & Melba's and met Kathy from Glasgow. We had a great time talking, eating and playing with space shuttles. Then off home to eat strawberries and cream while watching (for 3.5 hours) Federer defeat Nadal in the Wimbledon final.

Independence Day

Yesterday was the 4th of July and we had a holiday! It is the biggest holiday on the American calendar and everything from cars to houses to children is plastered in American flags. Even stone lions in gardens were wearing red white and blue (rwb) hats. We got into the spirit of things by wearing rwb clothes (Lucy), eating an all-American breakfast (Andrew) and eating rwb cupcakes (Fiona). We started the day at Wrightsville beach with a swim followed by brunch at Sweet and Savory. Wimbledon was next followed by a party at Bob & Carol's with an amazing fireworks display (that Lucy slept through). Fireworks tents popped up all along Market Street to sell to eager customers that had not had the opportunity to go to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina to buy rockets, roman candles and other more interesting fireworks. Even in church last week we sang 'God bless America' (well everyone else in the congregation sang and we listened in)

Having been in Boston the other week where we saw the balcony where the independence declaration was first read we thought that this was the birth of the new nation. But interesting North Carolina was the first state to declare independence through the Halifax Resolves on April 12 1776 where it was voted unanimously that North Carolina declare independence from Britain. But don't worry about us becoming too Americanised. We have a little Aussie flag in our front garden and an opera house lamp in our window. And we are looking forward to next Australia Day where we can put on a real BBQ with lamb chops and pavlova.