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!

O TV, where art thou?

With the writers strike going into its 3rd month there is even less to watch on TV than usual. The Office is off the air and Top Gear is on re-runs. The only thing left is Amazing Race (12th season) which has only 2 weeks to go. So I guess in a couple of weeks time we'll be going sans TV for a while. Imagine all that free time, oh the possibilities!

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.

More Christmas madness

I know this post is little late but I wanted to record some more of the differences in Christmas traditions between the US and Oz.

1. It's cold (duh!)


2. Christmas tree decorations must be colour co-ordinated (all red, all silver, all green etc)


3. Every family bakes hundreds of Christmas cookies to give out to friends


4. When attending Christmas events (including church services near Christmas) it is compulsory to wear red or an appropriately designed Christmas themed sweater


5. Most houses are decorated with either a wreath on every window of their house (our neighbour has 15 wreathes with red ribbons on his house not including the front door) or a battery lit candle in every window (said neighbour has these as well)


6. The lyrics to 'Let it snow' make sense in Seattle - "Oh the weather outside is frightful"


7. Crackers are unusual to have at Christmas (mostly used at NYE)

Product of the week - French toast

One of Lucy's favourite things to eat when we go out for breakfast on Saturdays is french toast. So I thought we should try out this frozen variety to see if it's any good. Lucy seemed to like these 'sticks' but they didn't taste at all like french toast.



Here are the ingredients: ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), WHEY, FRUCTOSE, EGGS, VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN OIL, PALM OIL, AND PALM KERNEL OIL WITH TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID FOR FRESHNESS), SUGAR, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, SODIUM ALUMINUM PHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE), SALT, CALCIUM CARBONATE, SOY LECITHIN, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, NIACINAMIDE, REDUCED IRON, YELLOW #5, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), YELLOW #6, VITAMIN B12.

I think we'll be sticking to regular toast going forward and save the french toast experience for Saturdays.

New Year roundup

We've all had the flu here and given the weather it is no surprise. The last Saturday of 2007 saw us at the beach in 25 degree weather. The water was freezing but that didn't stop Lucy running in and out of it whilst begging Andrew to take her in further. Following that mild weather we plunged into the cold with daily temperatures between -5 and +4 degrees. But then to finish off the week we've had weather of 22 degrees today. Yesterday we all lay out in the hammock in the sun and then rushed to the front garden when we heard the ice cream van drive around. It is truly crazy! Especially when we were buying dry ice from the supermarket to keep our milk cold in the esky while the fridge was being fixed. It would have been colder to leave it outside on the deck! The good news is that the fridge/freezer is now fixed so we are back to normal again. And we are all feeling a lot better.

Happy New Year!

We've made it into the new year, only 16 hours behind Sydney! We've starting 2008 in the dark ages as we now cool our food with dry ice (the fridge is bung and can't be fixed until at least Friday) but on the same day we reduced our car insurance to $950 for 6 months (vs paying the same amount per month).

In 2007 we spent 8 months, 3 weeks and 3 days in the US and I'll leave you to calculate how many days we spent in Oz (these seem so long ago). Here are some of the highlights of the past year:

• January - Lunch at Kobe Jones with Kel and Lucy on a gorgeous Sydney day


• February - Finishing the backyard garden and deck


• March - Lucy's baptism and our last pizza party in Sutherland


• April - Moving day (no more packing or sorting or stressing)


• May - Lucy's first birthday in Airlie gardens


• June - Long weekend in Charleston SC learning to cook gumbo


• July - Watching mom's taste vegemite for the first time


• August - Smelling the roses in our garden


• September - Watching Federer win his 4th US open in NYC


• October - A week in Asheville NC to see the Fall colours


• November - Enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with our new church family


• December - Eating at our third revolving restaurant (this time Seattle)