happy australia day!

{Nessa and the roo, at the Taronga Zoo a few years ago}

{Fraser Island, photo by Nessa}

{Nessa and I on Fraser Island, photo by not sure who...}

{me in the Northern Territory, photo by husband}

{Sydney, photo by me, editing by the paper mama}

Just popping in to say Happy Australia Day!!

Normally we spend the day at barbecues with friends and squeeze in at least one ocean swim, but this year it's rainy and grey. Boo. Other than listening to triple j's hottest 100, not quite sure what we'll get up to. I hope all of you have wonderfully festive and patriotic days!

p.s. I'm really excited to have a very special interview on my blog tomorrow, make sure to stop in...

My top 10 songs of 2011

Every year my favorite Aussie radio station, triple j (actually scratch that - they're my favorite radio station hands down, in the world), has a huge poll called the hottest 100 where you vote for your top 10 songs of the year. Then on Australia Day, they spend the day playing the 100 most voted for songs in order. Last year, the song Big Jet Plane by Angus and Julia Stone won.

I spent a large part of my day yesterday agonizing over my shortlist, and finally got it down to these 10 songs. I'm curious, what would be in your top ten? And what would be your number 1?

Getting my Christmas on

As a Canadian, I find it near impossible to get in the Christmas spirit here in Australia. My family's not around, it's the middle of summer and all of the traditions that I've grown up with just aren't here. And it doesn't help that this year we won't even be home for Christmas (we'll be in New Zealand) so we won't be getting a Christmas tree or decorating at all...

But ever since I've been back from Bali, the weather here has been oh so crappy and I decided yesterday to take advantage of it and try to get my Christmas on. I spent the afternoon making gingerbread and listening to my favourite Christmas music of all time, Sufjan Stevens' Songs for Christmas. And I dare say, I did feel a bit more festive.

How have you been getting your Christmas on this year?

I need your decorating advice

Source: boho-storm.tumblr.com via Gabriela on Pinterest

Now that the summer temperatures have arrived, I'm once again wondering how on earth to make my bed. This happens every year when summer rolls around; I want a pretty bed but it's hot as hell and most nights we're sleeping with just a sheet, a fan that goes all night and sometimes even a cold towel over our faces (not just yet, but give it another month or so...).

And as much as I love this floating bed, - which is really the perfect summer bed, don't you think? - I'm stuck with the bed you see below. In winter, it's all made by me flannel and wool. But how, oh how, do you make a bed look pretty in summer?

A very Australian playlist

As a follow up to my very Canadian playlist, today I thought I'd share a very Australian playlist. There is some pretty awesome music coming out of this country, and I hope you find something new to love... Also, I really wanted to add a song by Winter People but it wasn't on grooveshark, so go here to watch a beautiful video of the band playing their song Wishingbone.

Up the coast

It's been a pretty rough week around these parts, especially for my husband. After being away for work for eight days he came home to two family members dying in the same week, and two funerals to attend.

And so on Sunday morning we decided that a change of scenery was needed and we spontaneously jumped in the car and drove north, destination central coast.

We ended up in sunny Terrigal, which was actually not at all sunny when we arrived on Sunday. And as much as we ended up getting what we needed, a change of scenery, it was also kind of a comedy of errors.

We had a shocking time with restaurants, for example. On Sunday night we left our hotel just before 8 to find a quiet place for dinner. We walked to the two restaurants we had in mind, both were closed. So then we widened our search only to find that most other places were closed as well. I then remembered a restaurant in the next suburb over that I'd been hoping to try out so we jumped in the car and raced over (not literally) only to be told that the kitchen had closed 20 minutes earlier (it was 8:15 pm for crying out loud!). I'm happy to report that we did finally find a friendly place to eat, where they were happy to serve us dinner at 8:30 :)

The next day included two visits to the beach (with accompanying sunburn, of course) and a stop at Bamboo Buddha, thanks to a suggestion from Jodi. A vegetarian cafe in the loveliest of gardens, this place was right up my alley.

Finally, we ended our little jaunt with a trip to Avoca beach where we covered up (no more sunburns for us!) and I read my new book while husband did his crossword. And no, I'm not expecting I'm just preparing for a prenatal yoga class I'm taking on this month :)

Do you have an accent?

Source: Uploaded by user via Gabriela on Pinterest

That's a silly question because the answer is, of course, yes. We ALL have accents. So what I mean is this: where you live, are you the one with the accent?

It's something I've never given much thought to, until I moved here that is. Here in Australia, my Canadian accent is an ever present part of my life. Anytime I meet someone new, the first thing they say is "Where are you from?" And quite often when I'm just taking part in a boring transaction like buying a coffee I'm asked "Where are you from?"

Sometimes it's nice. It's been pretty easy for me to meet guys here (hello, I married one of them!) and to make new friends because people are curious about my accent.

But on the other hand, sometimes I get sick of having the exact same conversation over and over again. And sometimes I just want to buy my coffee and not have a conversation about the person's great aunt Mildred who may or may not live in Windsor, Ontario and perhaps I know her?

So I'm curious... do any of you live somewhere where you're the one with the accent? And if yes, how do you feel about it?

The shore

Yesterday my friends and I road tripped it out to the Royal National Park (see pics of my last trip there here) after my morning class at lululemon. Two of us are Canadian, and one is British. We got to talking about how very grateful we are to live near the shore. My British friend said that growing up without a beach nearby meant that there was nothing to do; you made do with the park.

As for me, I've always lived by the sea and for that I am grateful. Oh so grateful. And this week I've also been grateful for this country that I call home. Spontaneous trips to pools and beaches have been a daily occurrence. As have icy poles (popsicles), cold pints, bike rides and spending time with friends. I think it's going to be a good summer...

Happy spring!

Yesterday was the first day of spring here in the souther hemisphere, and I celebrated by going down to the beach for lunch with my friend. It was a beautiful day, nice and warm. Warm enough, in fact, for me to bust out my thongs (flip flops) for the first time. And below, you can see how very excited I am about this event...

check out my "I'm so happy to be wearing flip flips" face

What did you guys do to celebrate?

My Creative Space: a peg bag

As long as I've lived in Australia, I've never owned a dryer. At first it kind of bugged me, and then I actually came to enjoy the process of traipsing outside to hang things one by one on the hills hoist (the aussie laundry line you see above). I'll admit that it's less fun now that we live in an apartment, but I make do.

And in the spirit of making do, I whipped up this peg bag from a pattern in the book The Crafty Minx (fabulous book, by the by). I love how cute and daggy it is, and of course, it is pretty useful. For more creative spaces, go here. xx

Sydney love: even more confusion

* I posted this on my private blog last year, when I was working at a very Aussie pub. It ties into what I was talking about last Friday, with my Australian glossary...

A funny conversation at work the other day:

Me (behind the bar): What can I get you?

Customer: Just a lemonade please.

Me: So, like, pop or juice?

Customer (with baffled look on face): What?

(Photo via tasted by two)

Me: Pop or juice?

Customer: I don’t know… Just a lemonade please…

My manager (who happens to have overheard this conversation): What are you on about you crazy woman?!?!?

Me (staring at the fountain drink controller in my hand): Ok, so did you want squash (a lemon flavored pop they have in Australia)? Should I push the "Sq" button for squash or the "l" button?

My manager: Just push the friggin "l"!!!!!!

Customer walks away with a "lemonade," whatever that means.

Manager: We don’t say pop in Australia.

Me: Ooh.

Manager: And we certainly don’t sell old-fashioned lemonade, or juice, as you call it. We’d have to charge $15 a glass if you tried to give him lemon juice.

Me: Ooh.

Manager: And while squash is, in fact, lemon flavored, if someone asks for lemonade, you push the "l" button. If they want squash, they’ll ask for squash.

Me: So what is behind the "l" button?

Manager: It’s sprite.

Me: What??? You people call sprite lemonade. I didn’t even know sprite was supposed to be lemon flavored.

Manager: You Canadians are weird.

Me: You think that’s weird, let me tell you about a very popular drink we have called a Caesar…

Sydney love: Do you speak Australian?

Well not to worry, I'm here to help! After nearly 3 years of living down under, I've come to the conclusion that Australian English is very different from North American English. Trust me on this one. When my mom came to visit in November I realized that a) She didn't understand half of what was being said around her and b) My vocabulary has changed spectacularly since living here. I've adapted. So without further ado, here is a short glossary of Aussie terms that I've compiled. And people, this is just the tip of the iceberg...

Aussie North American

Avo = Avocado

Arvo = Afternoon

Bikkie = Cookie

Bloody oath = So true!

Blue = Used as a noun to mean fight. E.g. I got in a blue last night.

Bludger = A lazy person

Bogan = White trash

Boot = The trunk of a car

Bottle-o = Liquor store

Buck's night = Stag party

Bush = The forest

Bushwalk = Hike

Cark it = To die, e.g. He carked it.

Chippy = Carpenter

Chrissy = Christmas

Chook = Chicken

Chuck a sicky = To call in sick for work.

Copper = Police Officer

Cozzies = Swimsuit

Daggy = Tacky

Doona = Duvet

Dunny = Toilet

Esky = Cooler

Fair dinkum = For reals. And I'm not even kidding - Aussies actually say this!

Fairy floss = Cotton candy

Flat white = A kind of coffee which is very similar to a latte, but they still have lattes here

Hen's night = Stagette party

Icy pole = Popsicle

Journo = A journalist

Jumper = Sweater

Lemonade = Sprite

Lollies = Candy

Maccas = McDonald's. As in, the fast food place.

Middy = A quantity of beer (like a pint, but it's not the same quantity as a pint)

Mozzie = Mosquito

Muso = A musician

Nappies = Diapers

Op shop = Thrift store

Pash = To make out. E.g. I pashed this guy last night. (p.s. I LOVE this one, so funny!)

Petrol = Gasoline

Postie = Mail person

Pram = Stroller

Prezzy = Gift

Ripper = Awesome

Sambo = Sandwich

Servo = Gas station

Singlet = Tank top

Snag = Sausage

Spag bol = Spaghetti bolognaise

Sparky = Electrician

Squizz = To have a look at something. E.g. Just taking a squiz.

Sticky beak = To have a look at something. E.g. I'm just having a sticky beak.

Sunnies = Sunglasses

Uni = University

The top end

Back in December when my mom was here visiting us, my mother in law let us know that she would be giving us some of her air miles so that we could go and explore another part of Australia. Excited and very grateful, we started thinking about and researching potential destinations. For a while there we were stuck between the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru, the two must-sees of Australia. And then one day my mom was flipping through a coffee table book we have called Australia: 42 great landscape experiences. She found a photo of Kakadu National Park and said, "I want to go there." And that was that. We booked our tickets, our hotels, our rental car and off we went. Neither my husband nor I had ever been to the Northern Territory, or "the top end" as it's more commonly known, so it was a pretty big adventure for all of us. Here are some of my favourite photos from our trip...

Warning - image heavy post!

Botanic Gardens. First impressions of Darwin: it's hot. So very hot. Did I mention that it's hot? No seriously, the heat was a serious impediment to our touristing activities.

my mom and I

On our second day up north we drove to Litchfield Park. It was absolutely beautiful up there, but even hotter than Darwin because it's inland. This made it pretty hard to go for the walks and hikes that I had thought we could do. Instead, we went for really slow meanders with lots of stops.

The "town."

the magnetic termite mounds

Florence Falls. Although Litchfield has several swimming holes and waterfalls, every single one of them except for Florence Falls was closed due to crocodiles. You see, we went in wet season and this had all sorts of repercussions we didn't anticipate. Wet season is the hottest time of the year, and the wettest (go figure). This abundance of rain means that the saltwater crocodiles have a field day and the areas that they usually don't/can't enter they now can. As my friend Kellie, who lived in Kakadu National Park for a year, explained: "It's the salties [saltwater crocodiles] that you have to worry about. The freshwater crocs are pretty much vegetarian." Me: "What do you mean pretty much?" As you will see in the sign below, even freshwater crocodiles can become aggressive, but most people ignore this. Anyway, although visiting in wet season did limit our swimming options it did make for some spectacular vistas.

That's me in the front waving to my mom.

Kakadu National Park

At the end of this really well laid out loop that takes you by some of the area's art, you can climb up to the top of Ubirr rock for a bird's eye view of the park. This was definitely the highlight of my trip.

Dingo!

* I'm away camping right now, but I hope you enjoyed this pre-scheduled post. xx