Music to my ears

I have some seriously talented friends. My friend Nancy is on the verge of releasing an album - she's done three solo albums on her own and is now collaborating with her friend Fran on an album of children's music.

Back in the days of FFM's non-stop screaming (months 0-3) Nancy bravely invited us to her house to hang out. If her 1 year old was asleep (thus not requiring her immediate attention) she'd pull out her guitar and sing Beatles songs to help lull FFM into calmness. And darn it, if it didn't nearly work :)

So please check out the upcoming album "Under the Stars" by Sunflow. http://www.myspace.com.sunflowmusic/



We're also lucky here - FFM's swim teacher is a blues singer when she's not teaching swim lessons. She, too has released an album of kids music but mostly does regular blues and sings all over Queensland (and the US when she lived there!).

Ekka

Last week was Ekka week here in Queensland. Australians like to shorten their words and from the official original name of 'Brisbane Exhibition' came Ekka. It's current official name is Royal Queensland Show, but EVERYONE calls it the Ekka and all advertising, including the official advertising, names it the Ekka. To compare it to something I recognize, it's pretty close to a state fair. But bigger - and I've been to some of the big state fairs (hello, we saw the world's largest hog and the world's second largest hog at the Indiana state fair!). The first Ekka was 131 years ago and out of 20,000 people in Brisbane that year they had an attendance of 17,000.


Exhibits included fashion, animals, food, produce, cars, cakes, wine, cheese, you name it you saw it. Plenty of freebies and of course fair food. The specialties at the Ekka are dagwood dogs - think corndogs dipped in extra batter and dunked in ketchup - and strawberry sundaes. This time of year is strawberry season around here and they are flavorful and plentiful. The sundae is actually a cone filled with strawberries, then super creamy ice cream and strawberry ice cream topped off with a giant strawberry.

We toured some of the animal barns, and I think the whole while FFM thought we were nuts. He's had a great time at the various zoos we've gone to, but apparently your standard farm animals aren't his cup of tea. Mostly he looked at us with a sleepy bored expression along the lines of, OK, so why are we here?
After the sheep, the petting zoo with every imaginable baby animal, and the stop to see the baby chicks (which elicited a mild reaction) he finally got excited about the donkeys. The donkeys of all things! Ooohs and ahhhs and kicking and flapping, donkeys were the fan favorite for our kid.
First ferris wheel ride, very popular. Even though it's a terrible picture.
Playing games at Sideshow alley. Drop the ball in the clown's mouth, hit some number, win a prize. OR be a blond baby and throw the balls all over the place, smile a lot at the ladies working the booth and get two prizes.
The only fairs I've been to have been midwest or western state fairs. I have never seen fruit dioramas before. See the apple 'quilt' on the right, on the left are the champion bananas.
Close up of the winning bunch of bananas. We aren't savvy enough to know what makes a champion bunch of bananas but they sure did look good (although obviously not ripe yet).From the pineapple growers...this was about 1/3 of their display, I had the old camera so no wide angle lens.
And from the Citrus Capital of Queensland, the orange display...

Some got really elaborate, this one had parts that lit up and a whole scene with a tiny tent and walking paths. Other had moving parts (like an emu and a kangaroo) made of beans, nuts, grains, etc. And of course no trip to the fair is complete without a light up souvenir. Behold the spinning light up ball thingy.

Ekka part 2

We went back to the Ekka later in the week with friends Sara and Cooper so Cooper could ride the ferris wheel and pet the animals, too. Here are the boys waiting to see the cakes. FFM likes to push Cooper's stroller and Cooper likes to push FFM's hand away.

Go Team USA (and the Aussies)

We've been watching some of the Olympics here, seeing them on a TV channel with a non-US commentator is really refreshing. The Aussies are very generous to the Americans, following them and showing their competitions so much that we don't feel we are missing out on any team USA action at all.

Our apt came with two TVs but when we hooked up the cable we only paid for the living room TV. When FFM started getting adventurous we packed up the unused bedroom TV and hid it in a closet. The Olympics are on a local channel that's not broadcast over cable so we've pulled out the bedroom TV and plugged it back in to get the one channel coverage is on. It's a bit decadent for me to sit in bed and watch TV! FFM enjoyed a bit of the men's 4x200 relay the other day.

The TV isn't the only thing we have to keep out of reach...

How often do you leave your knife on the kitchen counter while you toss something in a pot? No more at our house. He can pull things off from at least the first 6" in from the edge of the counter. We have to be careful about heavy things, too, like plates, which he tries to pull off onto his noggin.

Yes, that's the front door. This one is too heavy for him to actually pull open, but I'm keeping an eye on things just in case...it's fun to watch how curious he is and how fast his skills change. Each new .5cm gets him a whole new perspective on life.

Antipodes

We're moving to Perth in less than a month, and I'm learning exactly how far away from the rest of the world parts of Australia really are.

Travis finished final job discussions a week ago and yesterday we got the final details worked out on exactly when we're going to leave Brisbane and fly to Perth. It's a bit of a quick change for us but not totally unexpected. There was some other work in Australia that came about, but the timing wasn't great for us and the job offer in Perth finally started to line up with what Travis was looking for, so off we go.

Knowing when/where we are going means I can finally book travel again! The long awaited plane tickets to go to my brother Q's wedding to the lovely Karen this November are done. Nothing like booking tickets that look this this: Perth-Sydney-LA-Phoenix (spend a week doing wedding stuff) -Denver (hang out for a month or so with family)-LA-Sydney (take two weeks off to go to New Zealand on a boat) - Perth. Throw in coordinating travel with mother-in-law Penny who is starting from Durango and joining us starting with the Denver leg, and a series of almost-but-not-quite-the-same tickets for Travis who has to skip the Colorado part to go back to work and I'm glad to pay a travel agent to deal with sorting out airline schedules, connecting flights, and getting all of us on the same plane at the same time.

Booking all this travel was not the best idea right before moving to Perth. It really makes me realize HOW FAR AWAY from EVERYTHING Perth is. It's a 5 hour flight from Brisbane or Sydney to Perth. Penny learned it's a 3 day train ride. It's going to take 26 hours and 52 minutes for us to fly from Perth to Phoenix. That's starting from when our first plane takes off and our last plane lands (for you world travelers that are rolling your eyes at me-that's all coach. I'm not complaining, but do expect to be a total wreck upon arrival in AZ. We start out the trip on a redeye with a one year old...). So I got to thinking, what if I was going to the east coast of the US? Would it be faster to go the other way around the world? Exactly what is on the opposite side of the earth from Perth?

Well, turns out it's pretty much Bermuda. If I look at our family, we're absolutely farthest away from Suzie and James, in York, PA (don't take it personally guys). While googling the antipode of Perth I found this map. If your Australian geography isn't as good as it used to be, I put a little orange circle where Perth is and a green square where Brisbane is. The pink part of the map shows what your antipode would be - or play here (zoom in see Bermuda): http://www.zefrank.com/sandwich/tool.html

I'm so so sad to be leaving the good friends I finally made here after such a short period of time, and honestly we live in the nicest apartment we've ever had in a stellar location that's going to be tough to match. That said, I look forward to seeing a new Australian city and can't wait to explore a whole new part of the country.

It will be a whole new experience for me to move somewhere that's not totally new - Perth will have all the same grocery stores, department stores, and I've already got the post office figured out (these are the important things when you move to a new country!). For the first time ever I'll be moving to a new place where not only do I already know someone, that someone is a good friend. Katie's been living there just over a year now and we can't wait to see them all again. I'm already making plans to meet up with Brissy friends again next June for a mom's trip to Melbourne, which always makes parting a bit easier.