The adventures of an Australian family in American southern culture where the vowels are long and the food is deep fried.
Andrew, Fiona and Lucinda
Wilmington, North Carolina
About Us
We have been living in the US for just over a year, having moved here from Sydney Australia. Andrew and I have been married for nearly 10 years and Lucy our daughter is 2 years old. We enjoy learning about American culture and it is fun to look at life with Australian eyes. We are currently in the process of building our own wood-fired pizza oven in our backyard. We attend a Presbyterian church and spend a lot of time thinking about God. We love going to the beach, gardening and watching Hawthorn win football matches. We love to travel and so far we have visited 13 of the 50 US states.
With the girls battling head colds it was a quiet weekend - breakfast pancakes at home, gymnastics and church. We did have a lamb roast for Sunday lunch but unfortunately had to cancel our guests so that we didn't spread germs around. They turned up with some flowers and well wishes and we handed over a dairy-free chocolate cake with raspberry coulis for their enjoyment.
In more exciting news we got a parcel from Auntie Julie during the week which contained 'powdered chocolate' and vegemite. We have been enjoying hot milo drinks and here is a video of Lucy with the vegemite. You can decide whether she likes it or not.
After trawling yard sales for months (though the internet!) we finally tracked down a playhouse. They are usually sold within hours of the listing so we have missed out on quite a few. This one is a late birthday present for Lucy and she loves it!
Well we didn't have much planned for Independence Day but it turned out to be a 'big' as well as a 'long' weekend. Americans don't like you to be alone on holidays so we were invited out!
Saturday morning we decided headed down to Wrightsville beach which as it turns out this was the same thought everyone else in Wilmington had. After 30 minutes of circling the parking lots for a spot and someone in our car continually moaning 'beach, beach, car spot, grammy lou, poppy' Andrew decided to drop us off and then continue looking. After another 25 minutes he found a place to park! It turns out it is more economical to park illegally and pay the parking ticket of $30 than drive around for 1 hour wasting money on gas/petrol! In the end we met up with the extended Mahlow clan for some beach fun making sand castles and frolicking in the tidal pools.
After swimming we made a 'nap stop' which also involved making a patriotic pavlova. Andrew decorated the square meringue in the shape of an American flag with blueberries in one corner and sliced cherries to make the red stripes. Saturday night we were at the Mahlows again eating hot dogs, baked beans and peach cobbler. We were a little out of place, in more ways than one, as everyone else was wearing a red shirt of some description but they all appreciated the Australian dessert with the salute to the flag. After dinner and toddler time in the pool we headed over to our prime viewing spot for the fireworks.
The fireworks are launched from the battleship in the Cape Fear river and we had a good view from the Leland side. We weren't expecting much (again underestimating American patriotism) and so we were surprised and delighted at the massive 20 minute firework display somewhat choreographed to music (including Springsteen's 'Born in the USA'). It was very fun and Lucy got to stay up until 9:30pm!!! (The fireworks started at 9:05pm as it was still light until 9pm)
Saturday brought gymnastics, blackberry picking and a Double Happiness Chinese dinner. Sunday brought the agonising Wimbledon final that we thoroughly enjoyed over many hours and rain delays! We even had some fireworks of our own in the backyard (they are legal as long as they don't leave the ground)
I think life for us will be getting back to normal tomorrow - no more vacations, holidays or tennis for a while. Phew! But I still have a few more vacation blogs to bring you up to date on.
Life is busy. Andrew spent last week in Boston for work whilst in Wilmington we endured a number of thunderstorms which flooded the backyard. Our family is reunited and blogging has now resumed.
Spring is a wonderful time of year here in Wilmington. Most gardens are planned around this season and as such there are explosions of pink and purple in every garden as the azaleas start to bloom. Next week is the Azalea festival, the biggest social event in Wilmington. Who will be crowned the queen of the festival? I'm holding my breath (well not really) but I am looking forward to visiting the first farmers market for the year.
Whilst we have planted a summer garden out the front we still have a number of azaleas that have surprisingly bloomed red despite their neglect over many years. Our ornamental pear trees have puffed out with white flowers that have given way to green leaves which has created a confetti of petals across the yard. It is very fun to walk through the petals to the mailbox whilst splashing in the puddles as there is quite a lot of it. I think churches should allow confetti regardless of the mess! Despite the beauty of this process the flowers themselves reek of the bog of eternal stench, sorry to any disappointed or delicate readers!
We have a nest of baby birds living in a holly bush. There are three babies so new to the world they have not opened their eyes yet and just continually open and shut their beaks in the hope that a tasty bug or worm will be placed inside. They are so cute and fluffy that the naturally curious Lucy wants to play with them.
On Saturday we had a grill next door with Sam & Sheila and on Sunday we celebrated Julian's second birthday. Juju is one of Lucy's best friends and we attended his birthday party at Ogden park. Happy birthday Tuba!
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).
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.
On the weekend we had dinner with Daryl & Margaret. They made a lovely seared tuna dish! Knowing in advance that Andrew wouldn't eat tuna they also made something else for Andrew - wonton soup. Little did they know how much Andrew loved wonton soup and he thought this homemade version was the best he has had in a long time! Andrew says they can cook fish anytime as long as he gets some of those wontons. Lucy enjoyed it too scoffing down four wontons and plenty of soup.
Last week, after a difficult fight with cancer, Mary Fox died and her funeral is today. Remember her husband Jason and their two young children today in your prayers.
Cry freely, but Do Not Cry for Me By Mary Fox
Cry freely, but do not cry for me, for tonight, or in the mere blink of an eye, I will be kneeling in the presence of my Lord and Savior.... Standing amongst all the many dear saints who have gone before me.... And singing with the angels to my Abba Father, a biblical name for God which means “Daddy.”
Cry freely, but do not cry for me, I am free of pain and distress I am no longer feeling the effects of cancer. I am anxiously awaiting the day when I will be reunited with my husband, my three lovely children, and all the rest of you who proclaim Jesus as your Savior! Of course, I hope you will live long, happy, and worthwhile lives, here on Earth until that day when we will meet again.
Cry freely … for yourselves, I know you will miss me and my love for you. Cry for my children and those milestones I will miss… … lost teeth, scary driving lessons, late night chats and celebrations. Cry for my husband – for the years we have missed… … and this cruel separation of a deep love, uncommonly found.
Cry freely, but most of all examine your own lives. Is your name written in the palm of God’s hand? I so hope so.
Yes after a year long hiatus and a general ban on doing household renovations whilst living in the US we did our first day of handy work. Andrew installed an exhaust fan in the kitchen (Lucy thought it was great that Daddy cut a hole in the ceiling) and Fiona sanded the gyprock around the door that was put in upstairs 6 months ago. Once Lucy was in bed we both painted the door and wall.
It was kind of fun to do something like this again and even more fun that it was just a small job unlike this time last year - Andrew finishing the deck and Fiona painting the rafters in the study! We had two dramas 1.Finding painting clothes as we threw away all work clothes before leaving Sydney and had to dig deep to sacrifice some older tshirts. 2. No equipment esp. googles which was soon discovered during sanding, so sunglasses had to suffice!
Unusually we did not go out to eat this weekend. Margaret, Daryl and Ava came over for a lamb roast on Saturday night and we went to church on Sunday. End of weekend.
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).
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.
A couple of different things happened this weekend:
1. We became members of our new church (Northgrove EPC) - photo of the new members left. Sharon on the right is the teaching director at Community Bible Study that I attend. Pastor Gary is up the back with the maroon vest on.
2. We attended our first congregational meeting at Northgrove. Sadly it turns out that these meetings can be frustratingly the same anywhere around the world.
3. Andrew & I had dinner with some of the Silex crew at Paddy's Hollow to celebrate Richard's 50th birthday. We skipped the ghost tour which turned out to be a very good thing as we were able to stay warm and wait fro them to finish in the warmth of the pub!
4. I attended a Christmas Tea (making the faux pas of not dressing up in the Southern tradition of red, green or other Christmas colours - I wore my bright orange Berlin jacket without thinking!!! Luckily they are used to me being different!) The tea was complete with wedding china and spiced tea with lots of cake and sandwiches. We had a great talk about making Christmas 'real'
5. Lucy is still battling a cold/cough but continues to be a trooper.
6. The neighbours all put their Christmas lights up on Saturday 1 December. Three doors down rivals the Griswolds. We brought a couple of decorations with us (nativity scene and three wise men bobbleheads) and have bought a cool advent calendar. Probably going to keep things low key as we will be away for a week but when we get back we'll be buying a North Carolina Fraser Fir tree. Will keep you posted. Strangely Andrew is not concocting some elaborate scheme of lights but I think he is just living by our family motto of 'keeping it simple'.
Since thanksgiving on Thursday we have kept a fairly low profile just catching up on sleep. The exception being that we ventured over to Mark & Sandy's for a catch up and an aussie bbq complete with chocolate pavlova. It's good to have Aussie friends here!
On an unrelated note over the weekend we did encounter some southern racism that TOTALLY shocked us. It was said "I wouldn't allow my [white] child to marry a black person because they would have tanned babies". WHAT??? Words fail me.
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.
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.
We had a fairly social weekend catching up with friends.
Saturday morning saw us out and about shopping primarily for new pillows at Bed Bath and Byond. But we also stopped in for a browse at Radio Shack and Jo-Ann's (craft store). Late afternoon we headed out to Pastor Gary's for cheeseburgers and a game of bocce on the golf course. We caught up with lots of people from church whilst the kids, including Lucy, ran around. Side note - it is really strange to hear little kids speaking with a southern drawl!
Sunday morning saw us a church followed by lunch at Bill and Mary-Lou's house. They loved playing with their substitute grand daughter and Lucy even obliged with lots of cuddles. We headed over to their pool (complete with fountains and wading section) so that Lucy and Andrew could have a swim. The water was fairly cool and dare I say it but this could have been the last swim for the season! After a year of summer,and I never thought I would say this, I am actually looking forward to a break in the weather.
But after cooler weather over the last week Monday morning sees us at 32 degrees again!
After trawling yard sales for months (though the internet!) we finally tracked down a playhouse. They are usually sold within hours of the listing so we have missed out on quite a few. This one is a late birthday present for Lucy and she loves it!
