I heart Hobart, Part 2

In the late afternoon on Saturday, Hugh and I grabbed some tasty sausages for a snack, and I dripped sausage grease all down the front of my only pair of trousers. The evening was to be full of schmoozing whiskey industry peeps, so I decided to go buy a new pair of jeans. Except that shops were starting to close, and I panicked a bit, and ended up buying a silk hippie skirt that showed off my unshaven calves. It also looked totally ridiculous with my brogues. Hugh and the others went ahead to the whiskey event while I shopped, and when I turned up to the event, the girls on reception were obviously not impressed with my fashion sense. I probably would have been better off with my greasy jeans! Oh well. We had a good night anyway, and Hugh totally impressed the crowd with his talk of cold filtration and micelles (did you know that adding water to whiskey has a completely different effect on the flavour than adding ice does?)

The next morning, we headed out of town to the New Norfolk region. We grabbed breakfast at a place called Salmon Ponds, the saddest excuse for a tourist attraction I think I've ever seen. Breakfast was stellar, though! They specialise in "pancakes" (the European kind). Then we headed further out of town to Redlands Estate to visit the onsite distillery.

The Estate was large and beautiful, with loads of historic brick buildings, including a main house, a butchery, a general store, tenements, and barns/warehouses. Oh, and what looked like a Victorian tennis court, of course. It's located next to a river, and there's a resident platypus, named Mr. Scratchy that comes and runs around sometimes. On the drive back to town, we caught three mountain goats climbing the hill by the side of the road.
 

Hugh's coworker's girlfriend and I spent an hour in the town of New Norfolk while the boys explored the distillery. The town is small and doesn't have much going on at all, but they had an awesome stationery store called Flywheel. There was an old printing press at the back of the shop, and they sold old unused letter blocks. There were also lots of larger home decor pieces like you'd find in Anthropologie. I bought some cute shield stickers by mt.

From there, we went to the Museum of Old and New Art, or MONA, which has improved the cultural reputation of both Hobart and Tasmania. It was created by an eccentric Tasmania who has won millions as a professional card counter. The site includes the museum, living quarters for the owner, a vineyard and winery, a brewery, and a restaurant. The owner's parking space is labelled "God" and his girlfriend/wife's spot is labelled "God's Mistress." The museum is housed mostly underground, in a cavernous space that would make a fantastic evil lair. Modern and classical art pieces are scattered throughout in artistic fashion.

Hugh and I failed to grab audio guides before heading down the spiral staircase into the museum, so we didn't really understand much of what was going on. But it was modern art. I doubt the audio guide would have changed much. I always want more explanation for stuff than the audio guide, or even the artists, are willing to supply. It was a cool museum, though, and I enjoyed it, even though I chickened out and didn't have a go on the bell-adorned trampoline.

And that was about it! Back in Hobart, we had fish and chips and caught a plane home!

Elections, blech

Ugh. Australia had a big election today, and the result is not pleasing. I won't begin to try to explain Australian politics, because I don't understand them in the slightest, but the Liberal National Party being in power does not bode well for Australia. Hugh is ready to leave the country!

The Liberal Nationals aren't very liberal. Tony Abbott, the leader of the party, is strongly against gay marriage. He opposes abortion being legal and has made so many negative comments about women that his wife and daughters had to go on TV defending him as "a good father and husband." On the election trail, he told voters they should vote for a certain female member of his party because she had "sex appeal."

The party's campaign has been all about how awful life in Australia currently is, due to the Labor Party of course. Except that life in Australia is pretty damn good. While the rest of the world is still recovering from economic recession that started in 2008, Australia has sailed through relatively unscathed. The economy here has flagged slightly, unemployment has risen slightly, but overall, people are doing fine. In the recent list of most liveable cities, Australia takes four spots in the top ten. And they only have five cities! Okay, like, seven. But Tony's gonna introduce what equate to austerity measures. Cuz those have worked so well in other countries. And also, WE DON'T NEED THEM!!

Ugh, I'm just upset because I haven't been able to get a research job, or even a research INTERVIEW, in six months, and the chances that the Liberals are going to support public health research seem pretty dang slim. So yeah. I might be working in retail for the next few years. Ohhhhh, that is a depressing thought...

I heart Hobart

Hugh and I spent last weekend in Tasmania, and it was so fun! I really enjoyed myself. We went to Hobart, which is the capital city of the State of Tasmania, which is an island off the southeast coast of Australia. Nine of Australia's 21 currently-operating distilleries are located in Tasmania. Hobart is a pretty small town, with just over 200,000 people living there currently. It is located to the southern end of Tasmania, and is really not all that far from Antarctica (relatively speaking). The climate is more similar to the Pacific Northwest or to southern Scotland than it is to the rest of Australia.

The Australians love a bit of what I call "regional racism," and Tasmania is the favorite object of their scorn. Because it's an island, and perhaps owing in part to its history as a penal colony, the rest of Australia likes to claim that Tasmania is rife with incest and two-headed people. They also imply that there is no culture or anything of interest to do in Tasmania, despite the fact that Hobart has loads of great shops and is a thriving bastion of hipster culture in Australia.

Hugh and his coworker were invited to present at a whiskey event on Saturday night, so we decided to make a big trip of it, with Hugh, his coworker, his coworker's girlfriend, and me flying over on Friday night. We stayed at the self-catered "Apartments on Star," in a 2-bedroom apartment. The apartment was gorgeous and had a view of the water. On Friday night, Hugh and I tried to check out the whiskey bar run by Lark Distillery, but they closed at 10pm. On a Friday. Small towns, eh? To be fair, as we wandered back to the apartment on foot, we passed quite a few raucous bars and pubs, so it's not a completely dead town.

Saturday was a big day, starting with tasty breakfast at the Tricycle Cafe off Salamanca Place. Prior to leaving Melbourne, I had made a short list of shops to check out in Hobart, and I set about checking them off my list, starting with The Maker. They had lots of little wooden craft supplies, decorative papers, homewares, and clothing designed by the woman who runs the shop. I bought some mermaid washi tape!

The Salamanca Market was in full swing, so we wandered through there a bit, then I headed into town to Liverpool St to find The Stash Cupboard. This was a really great yarn store with quite a selection of luxury wools. I bought last season's Pompom Magazine, which I've been meaning to buy but it isn't available in Victoria. I looked for wool for a sweater for Jody, but all the good ones were from a company in Seattle. It didn't feel right to buy wool in Australia that came from Seattle, for someone in Seattle. Right? Plus it was super expensive (because of the high quality). I wished there was more Australian wool available, but I know there aren't many companies making luxury wool in Oz. I tried to go to another yarn store, called the Craft Hive, but alas, it was closed.

I met back up with Hugh and we ambled back toward Salamanca Place. On the way, we stopped in at Store & Co, which was very Anthropologie-esque with pretty stationery, awesome homewares, and a smattering of clothing. They had a vintage tin dollhouse that made my heart skip a beat.

Back at the market, I pulled Hugh into the Tasmanian Woollen Co., which had a small selection of even more luxurious yarns than the last store! Hugh found two skeins of some really gorgeous dark green and blue hand-dyed merino wool. It was so beautiful...and $25 each. I spent a solid 15 minutes trying to decide whether it was worth the expense, whether I'd be able to make a nice scarf out of it, and whether Hugh would actually wear said scarf (he's never worn the one I made him last year that cost me $80.) In the end, it was too beautiful to pass up! We explored the markets some more and chatted to another whiskey distiller who runs a stall at the market. As we were talking, a long procession of zombies passed through the market. It was a pretty impressive turn-out, but the majority of the zombies totally didn't bother to stay in character. There was some very poor shuffling going on, let me tell you.

And I'm gonna leave this post there cuz this is getting quite long! Part 2 tomorrow! Or in a few days...

Anglesea

My softball team spent a couple days away in Anglesea this past weekend. Anglesea is a small, coastal town an hour and a bit out of Melbourne. One of the girls on the team has a holiday home there. I got totally trashed on Friday night, lounged around like a slob all day Saturday, got drunk again but not as bad on Saturday night, then we all headed back to Melbourne and played double-headers. Yeesh! By Tuesday, I had a sinus infection. I'm clearly too old for this kind of partying! (Incidentally, it didn't take long to establish that I was the oldest person in attendance. And yet I neither look it nor act it.)

The whole weekend, I only took pictures of the beach. haha! Those are my priorities! There were 16 of us there, and only four of us even bothered to go to the beach. To be fair, Anglesea is set about a mile from the beach, across marshland. And it's winter. Sadly, I think I may have ruined my Minnetonka moccasins traipsing through the mud :-( But look at that sunset!!
 

1000 Steps

I joined a hiking club! Can you believe that? First softball, now hiking. You'd almost get the impression that I like being active.

I joined my first hike on Monday. It was in the Dandenongs, a little mountain range on the outer edges of the greater Melbourne area. (I think. Don't quote me on that information.) I caught a commuter train to the start of the hike and met up with the rest of the group. We were climbing a track called The 1000 Steps, though the others informed me that it's really only about 750 steps.

I quite like hiking, compared to jogging or running, which I passionately despise. But I'm out of shape, and it wasn't long before the rest of the group had disappeared and left me huffing and puffing at a snail's pace up those 750 steps. Meanwhile, lithe young ladies in exercise gear jogged past me.

When we reached the top, there was an option to hike back down and go home, or continue on a longer track for the next several hours. I was the only one to choose home. It's important to know one's limits! And it did afford me a nice walk through peaceful woods.

Well, somewhat peaceful. Now and again, a branch would creak threateningly. A few weeks ago, when we were in Adelaide, I had dinner with my friend and her new man. Her man carried a pager, a satellite phone, and a iPhone which all kept bleeping at him. It seems he is a weekend volunteer for tree-clearing services, and there were some felled branches that needed attention. I commented that I found that odd, given the weather. It had rained very heavily the previous day, but there hadn't been any wind to speak of. Was the rain causing branches to fall? They explained to me that gum trees drop their branches willy-nilly, whenever they want. Tree-clearing services operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So yeah, good information to know as you walk through a forest of eucalyptus trees...

A little bit of research tells me that these trees are giant mountain ash trees, or eucalyptus regnans. The tallest living tree of this species is the third tallest (living) tree in the world, but historical records indicate that there used to be an even taller one, giving the species the potential to be the tallest in the world. Hard to say for sure, but it certainly competes with the redwoods and other western U.S. giants.

Cleland Wildlife Park

On Sunday, Hugh's mum and I weren't sure what to do for the day, but I happened to mention that I hadn't been to Cleland Wildlife Park yet, so it was settled. At Cleland, you can hold a koala. That's right, a koala! And they have all the other wonderful Australian animals, too. Wallabies, wombats, Tasmanian devils, potoroos, kangaroos, bandicoots, and more! In my year here in Australia, I've seen one pet baby kangaroo, and that's it. I haven't seen any other Aussie critters (except birds), not even from the road! So I was pretty excited for Cleland.

I fed lots of little guys and patted a koala's butt. I even saw a kangaroo with a joey! So cool!!

Either potoroos or bandicoots (can't remember which)

Easter fun times

When I lived on London, every once in a while I would stop and think, "Holy crap, I love in London! This is awesome! I'm awesome!"

I realised the other day that I haven't had a single moment like that in the nine months I've lived in Australia, despite Australia seeming to be so much more exotic and cool. I've had moments where I marvelled at the fact that I'm in a real relationship, with someone awesome, and I've marvelled at the soft sand beaches, but even in Melbourne, I don't feel like I've achieved something big by living here.

But it's early days. I'm still recovering from the move and settling into this vibrant new city, finding my place in it. I'll get there.

I've been working lots, but got a few days break at Easter. Easter is a big deal here. Not like, people talking about Jesus or rushing to church, but it's a four day weekend for lots of people. I was surprised to learn that pretty much everything was shut on Good Friday, including my store. The rest of the retail world and I had to work on New Year's Day, but Good Friday is off limits to retail. And it's a bigger deal here than Easter itself. Hugh pointed out that the important bit was that Jesus died. The rising again on the third day was a bonus. He has a point...

Anyway, I didn't have to work the Friday, Sunday, or Monday, so instead, I decided to get a urinary tract infection that traveled up to my right kidney! Woo hoo! I had no idea UTIs were so painful! Holy crap, I now feel suitably sorry for anyone who gets them frequently. Yeesh. Thank The Lord for antibiotics and painkillers.

Photos: I wasn't too sick to buy a new teapot. Ain't it perdy? And pretty fabric for new tea towels. Jody and Amy sent me birthday presents! Yay, Redneck Life!!

Part 2 of our Big Journey

When we got back to Adelaide after dropping our stuff in Melbourne, we spent the night at Hugh's parents' and returned the moving truck the next morning. Rather than relax at that point, we bundled back into Hugh's car and drove nearly two hours to his parents' holiday home in Port Vincent. The house is really sweet and we finally took some time to lounge around and be lazy. The town is tiny! It's not particularly charming, but makes a good holiday town (the only real requirements for that being beach and accommodation). We had schnitzel dinner at the local pub then walked along the beach as the sun set.

The next morning, Hugh's dad took us for breakfast in a neighbouring town, then took us to see some emus that live nearby. Emus have such intense stares, but they're still totally comical. I quite like looking at them and chuckling to myself.

I decided to explore the shopping opportunities when we got back. Hugh's dad mentioned the church op shop (that's short for "opportunity shop", which for some reason is what they call second-hand shops). I checked it out and found a bundle of goodies for just $3! Then I wandered to the beach, assuming there'd be some beachy, surfy shops. There weren't. On my way back to the main drag, though, I stumbled upon a fabric store with yarn at half price! I bought two pretty skeins of strawberries and cream-coloured wool for $5.

I couldn't wait to get started knitting the new stuff, but my needles were in Melbourne, so I improvised with coloured pencils. It mostly worked!

We rested for that one day, then we got back on the road on Sunday to return to Adelaide. On Monday, we were off to Melbourne via the coastal route and the Great Ocean Road.

On the move

We have been on the move for almost a week now. We left Adelaide late Tuesday afternoon, drive until about midnight, and spent the night in Ararat (no sign of Noah's ark). We arrived in Melbourne the next day just before noon, travelled across town by tram to pick up the keys from the real estate agent, then spent about 4 hours unloading the truck and taking everything up to our second floor apartment in small elevator-sized loads.

I'll post about the new place when we've settled in a bit. We've hardly spent any time there! We discovered that we were supposed to contact the energy company ourselves to set up electricity, which we hadn't done, so we had no power. Oops. When it got dark, we headed into town to meet up with a couple Edinburgh friends who moved to Melbourne three weeks ago. Hugh used to work with both of them, and they started dating right at the same time we did, so it was really nice to catch up over drinks.

We returned to our power-less flat well after midnight, crashed out, and got straight back on the road to return to Adelaide. This time, we made the journey in one day and arrived back in town a bit after sunset. We spent the night at Hugh's parents', and on Friday, instead of relaxing and catching our breath, we got back on the road to head to the holiday home in Port Vincent!

Hugh gets a driving break today, but then it's back to Adelaide tomoz, then back to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road on Monday. We'll probably take three days to get back, and then Hugh has two days of first aid training! Busy busy busy, he is. But we'll have the weekend to "relax" (I.e. arrange furniture, unpack boxes, etc) before he starts the new job.

A good bad day

I had a bit of a rough start to the day, but it was pretty great in the end. I knew going into work that my access to the University's computers and internet had been shut down. I also knew that I wouldn't be able to file my timesheets so that I can finally get paid for the work I've been doing for the past month. On the drive in, I discovered my phone was dead, so I couldn't communicate with any of the people that I needed to. I was basically on media blackout all day, which turned out to be not so bad. And hey, I got some work done and my boss bought me a coffee cuz she felt bad that I was po'.

When I got home, I discovered that I didn't have my housekeys and I had no idea when Hugh might be home. But I knocked on the door in the hopes that someone was around, and Hugh's adorable face answered it. Well, his face and the rest of his body, too. So that was a nice surprise.

To cheer me up, he took me to the pub for dinner (mmm, fried foods). I tried crocodile burgers! They tasted like chicken but with a texture in between chicken and seafood. Not amazing, but I might try crocodile again in another form.

Then I went to finally cash in my WINNING ticket from the Melbourne Cup. The Melbourne Cup is the nation's big horse race. It was held back in November and I did nothing to celebrate. But E and J went to the pub to place bets, and I gave them $2 to put on a horse called Jakkalberry. (Why that horse? Because his name was Jakkalberry!)

Jakkalberry actually had quite good odds, so it wasn't that surprising that he came in third! We calculated that I had maybe won, like, $4, $6 at the most. So I was a bit surprised when we cashed in my ticket tonight (yes, only 3 months later) and the girl handed me $31.40! Awesome!!! I'm not quite as poor anymore! I think I'll buy knitting needles...

melbourne, part 2

Meh, I always lose interest in the second part of any travel post. Often I lose interest in the first part, too!

Okay, so the rest of Melbourne: we ate some food, we went shopping, we ate again, we slept, we ate, we wandered, then shopped, then ate. I guess I could go into a bit more detail.

I'm not sure why I left the last post where I did. After the market, I got tired and we sat for a while in a nice park. Then we went to two different outlet malls! One of them was really big and ugly outside, and mostly empty inside. Lots of the shops were gone, making the ones that had stayed look really lonely. The second outlet mall was attached to the Hilton at South Wharf and was quite a bit swankier. There were no empty shops there!

We wandered down the wharf area and found a nice Japanese restaurant for dinner. We sat at the reclaimed timber tables and benches along the river. I was brave and tried plum wine, which was a bit sweet for my tastes, but still nice.

Wednesday was our last day in town. We took the tram down to St. Kilda, which is a little seaside town on the southeast edge of Melbourne. It was very charming and I decided that I wouldn't say "no" to living there, though I don't think anyone will ever ask me to because it's a wee bit pricey. Lovely seaside towns on the edges of big metropolises tend to be that...

We returned to the city center and explored Federation Square for a bit. Federation Square is one of those bits of city that someone spends millions of dollars redeveloping and then it becomes a tourist attraction for that reason alone. Well, kind of. It is meant to be a modern cultural center. The Australian Open was just beginning in Melbourne that day or perhaps the day before, and there were big screens set up on the sides of buildings in Federation Square. There were also lots of lawn chairs scattered about so people could relax and enjoy the tennis.

We wandered into one of the buildings, which had some gift shops and some historical displays and a big screen showing TED talks and seemed to house some sort of conferency, museumy-type lecture hall. I thought we were leaving, but then Hugh led me into a place called the Australian Centre for the Moving Image: it was brilliant! It was like an art and science museum hybrid, dedicated to video: television, movies, cinematography, video games, all sorts. It was really interesting and had lots of cool interactive bits. And it was free to get in! I'm totally going back there to hang out.

I forced him to stop and pose.

And that was about it. We pretty much wandered to the airport after that.

When the plane landed in Adelaide, I involuntarily breathed a sort of relieved sigh. We were home, in the quiet, sleepy, laid-back, nature-surrounded country town that is also frustratingly stuck in the past and spraawwwwwling. Sigh, why can't I find a place to live that suits me just right? Am I too demanding? I want the country and the nature and the relaxed atmosphere, but I also want the humming and the movement and the open-mindedness and the excellent transport connections. And I guess I do get both, because I've spent the last 7 months in Adelaide, and get to spend the indefinite future in Melbourne!

A Melbourne tram is just like a rhinoceros on a skateboard so, you know, be careful.

melbourne, part 1

Hugh had an interview in Melbourne, and since I've never been there and haven't really been out of Adelaide since arriving last July, we decided to take a few days to explore. After Hugh booked the hotel, I turned to him and said, "We're not staying at the Hilton, are we?"

Of course we are.

We didn't fly first class this time, but Qantas is pretty awesome so it was a nice flight. Also, it was only about 45min long, so not much room for complaints. We flew over Sunday night after Hugh got home from work.

Lobby of our hotel. Not complete without a sports car on display.

I awoke at dawn Monday morning, and this was the view that greeted me. Four hot air balloons had just taken off from somewhere in the city. I was entirely charmed.

The first thing that struck me was the thought that I was in a city. That's an odd thought to have, when you've already been living in a city. But it made Adelaide look like Grand Junction. Actually, I'm not entirely sure Adelaide is much different in size from Grand Junction. Anyway, it dwarfed Adelaide. Turns out, it's at least twice as big as Seattle, even! It was nice and clearly wealthy.

South Wharf and the Yarra River

While Hugh had his interview, I used my fancy new iPhone to video chat with Holly in London. We had a nice long chat and I caught up on all the gossip (there were some juicy bits!) Then I headed into town to meet Hugh and grab some breakfast. I discovered a cool-looking cafe called the Journal cafe, next to the city library. It was very industrial-chic, with bookshelves suspended over the long tables.

Then we went shopping. According to all of the Adelaideans I spoke to, this is the only real reason one goes to Melbourne. Apparently, shopping in Adelaide has traditionally been a pretty grim affair and big chains have only recently colonised the city. All's I know is that the shopping has been totally fine here for as long as I've been here. I don't really feel like I'm missing out on anything. They just opened a Kmart, for heaven's sake! And anyway, all the stores we went into in Melbourne were ones that exist in Adelaide. *shrug*

But that's not to say I didn't buy anything.

Yes, this is rather an awkward photo, but the dress was perdy, and I need something for Amy's wedding in October, so...it's MINE, all MINE! We also checked out a really nice yarn store that was smack dab in the middle of the city. Imagine that! A yarn store that you don't have to take two buses to get to, only to find that it closes at noon on Saturdays and isn't open at all on Sundays! Or like the one in the northern suburbs of Adelaide that is only open on Saturdays. Anyhoo...

For dinner, we went to a fun-looking restaurant on the riverfront near our hotel. It was called Merrywell, and they had some very exciting things on the menu. There were onion rings, loaded fries, burgers, shakes, macaroni bites (!), and other American classics.

On Tuesday, we had breakfast at The Pancake Parlour, a wonderfully cheesy pancake house with an 1890s theme. I had the cheese and potato pancake. I don't think I need to say anything more about that. Cheese. And potato.

Then we walked to the Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne's open-air food market. I liked the sort of art deco booths for the dairy vendors.

 I think I'll leave this post at that and write the rest in another one!

News

There is so much to say and I have no idea where to begin.

Hm, well. My job at Flinders University ended in mid-December, but my boss liked me so much that she found some funding on another research project for me to continue working there until my visa limit runs out. The plan was to come back in late January, early February.

Then Hugh heard that he had a job interview in Melbourne in mid January, and if he got that job, we might need to move fairly quickly.

Then my boss asked me to move the work up to be done throughout January. As my retail job hadn't given me many January shifts, I was happy to get the work done in January. So I started back last week, working four days. Then the retail job called to offer me an extra shift and to let me know that they would like me to stay with them indefinitely! (I was a Christmas temp) They want to train me to work at their department store concession as well, and so some discussion started to try to arrange time for training. We were in Melbourne for three days this week (pictures in the next post, I think) so I need to make up for the time missed from Flinders, but the retail job wants me too! I'm just too much in demand and suddenly feeling quite busy!

Which is all very exciting, but Hugh found out today...He got the job in Melbourne!!! Woot woot, we're moving to Melbourne! We don't know when yet, but it's unlikely to be before February. At any rate, if he needs to rush over there, I can take my time, finish things up here, and then head over. Em got a job as a teacher in the country, so she moved out this past week, leaving us with her hilarious and rather energetic boyfriend. Our lease goes until July, so he'll probably take that over. He just got a good government job, and he's toying with the idea of keeping the flat all to himself once we're gone.

I think the best part about this news is not being held in suspense anymore! At least mentally, I've been putting things off until we knew. Like, Hugh suggested that we take sewing lessons together (isn't that adorable??) but I didn't want to start anything until we knew.

Oh, actually, the best part is that Hugh's schedule will be work 5 days for two weeks, then work four days for two weeks, then just three days for one week. That means I get to spend whole days with my boyfriend! Yays! We are going to be so sick of each other, it'll be great!

So yeah. Details forthcoming, I suppose.

Second time surfing

We went body boarding again yesterday. We went all the way down to Victor Harbour, to a spot called Chiton Rocks (watch out for the large rocks hiding below the surface in some spots!) It was not as calm as the last time, but the waves weren't great for riding. I did catch a couple good ones, though, one which I rode straight in to shore, and another in which I finally managed to ride sort of parallel with the wave (I forget what Hugh told me that's called). So far, I've focused more on staying on my board and on the wave than I have focused on actually manoeuvring along the wave. I have not yet learned to become one with the board.

I also haven't learned to become one with the water, and I got smashed by waves more than a couple times. I quickly learned to always face away from shore, and to plug my nose and drop into the water when a big scary wave caught me unprepared. With the choppier and deeper water on this go, it became apparent that I needed some flippers, so we stopped at the good surf shop in Glenelg on the way home and picked some up. Now a just need my own board, in a pretty color, of course!

We also grabbed some tasty treats from Port Elliot bakery, which Hugh displayed down the front of his shirt.

Hard Rubbish

When I first arrived in Adelaide and we moved into our new home, Em and Hugh kept reminiscing about when they lived in the richer part of town, and "hard rubbish" day would come around. Apparently, "hard rubbish" is big stuff, like furniture or paint cans or sports equipment that you don't want anymore, but can't throw in your normal bin. When I was a kid, Pops would borrow a truck and take items like these to The Dump, which was always a thrilling adventure for us. But around here, they save them up until hard rubbish day comes along, then they put everything out on the curb. In rich neighborhoods, apparently, you can find some really nice stuff.

Hard Rubbish season arrived in our neighborhood in November. It started slowly at first, with a few items in front of a few houses, but within a week, our sidewalks were littered with huge piles of junk. It was awesome!! It is considered totally socially acceptable to rummage through someone's hard rubbish. There was one pile down the street I was hoping to scavenge from, but a woman with an SUV (called a "ute" around here) pulled up seconds before I got there and started chucking all the good stuff in the back of her car.

Still, I found some killer stuff. For my first find, I was a little nervous at nicking people's garbage, so I made Hugh come with me under cover of night. It was a little, white nighstand made of solid wood with nicely turned-out legs. Hugh was skeptical that there could be anything decent, but he agreed that this piece was actually quite good.

A couple days before garbage collection, when the piles had reached lofty heights, I discovered a kids' cardboard suitcase. The pattern on it reminds me of Amy's baby blanket, Gigi (or was it Geegee?)

Outside the Croyden Bowling Club, I found an awesome lawn bowls bag (the mustard yellow suitcase-looking thing). Inside, there was a film canister full of chalk and these rulebooks. I loved that Ms. Kath Wood highlighted the bits about bowling etiquette.