Merry Christmas!

But let me back up ... to Halloween.  The Aussies don't much care for Halloween.  Which made it all the more fun to dress up like a bunch of freaks and knock on their doors.  I reckon that maybe one out of every 7 or 8 households were ready and willing to hand out some "lollies" (that's what we call candy over here).  Another American family with 3 kids joined us for the trick or treating and the mums dressed up as well which made for an even bigger freak show.  At one house they even opened the shutters, took one look and closed the shutters! 

As we progressed into what you all would call "fall" and we call spring, Thanksgiving rolled around.  The Aussies care even less for Thanksgiving than they do for Halloween.  For obvious reasons of course.  We still attempted some kind of acknowledgement of the holiday by having the same American family plus another over for turkey and trimmings.  We did it on the Saturday after Thanksgiving since it is not a holiday and the turkey had to be pre-ordered since they don't normally sell whole turkeys in the grocery stores.  That 13 lb turkey cost $65.  No joke.  And we don't have cranberries.  Or Stove-top. 

And that brings us to Christmas.  Or "Chrissy" as it is commonly called here.  (Side note:  the other day, Quinn was complaining about his "mossy bites" - that was the first time I had heard that term for mosquito bites).  It does not feel a bit like Christmas.  It's not just because it is warm.  We lived in Arizona for a couple of years so have experienced a warm weather Christmas.  This is different -- it is summer!  With all the sights, sounds and feel of summer - the school year is over and the kids are off for summer break, the days are long and hot and muggy, the birds are at their all-time high level of insanity (they sound like chimpanzees on crack), the spiders are enormous and plentiful, the cockroaches are flying, the most common attire is shorts and flip-flops. (Havaianas are the thongs of choice here - 99.8% of Aussies own a pair.  That's a fact. And that Hatterman kids each got a new pair for Chrissy.  That's also a fact.)  With that said, Christmas is a big deal.  We put up Chrissy trees and decorate them with "fairy" lights.  We listen to Chrissy carols and buy Chrissy presents.  Christmas Eve doesn't seem to be a big deal -- the public holidays are Christmas Day and Boxing Day.  (Boxing Day is 26th December and was named for the day that servants would receive gifts or a "Christmas Box" from their employers.  It's celebrated in the UK and various Commonwealth nations like Australia and New Zealand). 

Even though the actual public holidays are similar to ours -- two days for Christmas plus New Year's Day, most offices are closed for the whole two weeks.  Which really burned us one year ago when we landed on 24th December and then had to wait about three weeks to get our air shipment because the people in customs were on holiday.  This year we're loving it as we have 2 weeks off work. 

I am writing this on Christmas morning.  I baked our traditional egg dish for "brekky" but it is just SO hot to be running an oven.  Therefore, most people don't bake and instead fire up the barbie for their Christmas lunch.  We will do the same and will literally have shrimp on the barbie today (curiously enough, shrimp are known as prawns, so I don't really know where that whole "shrimp on the barbie" thing came from).  The annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race launches from Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day and we will be on a boat cruise to watch the action.  I've heard that it is an amazing sight.

These photos are from one of our favourite spots in Sydney -- called Milson's Point, it's a beautiful view of the bridge and harbour.

This is Phyllis - the blue-tongued skink that lives in our front yard.

This is Matt.  You gotta be careful if you're going to take a nap around here.

This is me - giddy for Chrissy!

 

 

Oh! I almost forgot to mention -- we took a vacation to Bali in November. Bali is a popular vacation spot for Aussies because it is relatively close - just a 6 hour flight from Sydney- and way cheap. We had heard the term "bogan" used before describing things that are unsophisticated or like we would use "redneck". Bali epitomizes the Australian bogan tourist, and we fit right in! Had a grand ole time!

 

My babies in Bali, and Charley and I getting a fish spa - hundreds of little fish eat the dead skin off your feet and legs.  So creepy and exhilarating at the same time!

 



Moving on up!

Two weeks ago, we moved into a new house - a few photos below.  We are so happy to be here.  It's a much nicer home so the hassle and exhaustion of moving again is well worth it.  It's located just a few blocks from the other rental so the move was relatively easy.  And we moved even closer to the boys' daycare and Charley's school.  The house has 3 levels, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, an office, a nice little craft/storage room, large master and master bath -- and my favourite feature is the little balconies off of all the bedrooms.  It was built in 1995 and after the builder and his family moved out in 2005, it was rented to the US Embassy for use by Embassy staff.  Which means it has a remote-controlled security gate at the entrance to the drive-way, security system and underground safe!  We're not using any of those features, but that underground safe can double as a wine cellar : )

The woman in one of the photos is my "mum".  She's here with my 11 year old nephew Alex for about 10 days.  Will post more pics of our adventures this week.

House Hunters International

We're on the hunt again for a new house to rent.  Our current home is in a suburb called Lane Cove which is really close to my office in North Sydney.  Although we love the location and the suburb, the house isn't working for us.  It has one small interior bath and the second bath is a combined laundry room with a shower, sink and toilet that has an outdoor entrance.  Winter's arrival has made it pretty much unusable - except for time-outs.  The boys hate it because its cold and usually has bugs in it.  The threat of having to go to "daddy's bathroom" for time-out is the most effective method we've found yet for shutting down whatever flip-out situation is occurring at the time.  Winter has also opened up the rental market a little bit and properties aren't quite as competitive.  We found a house (rental application is currently pending) just a few minutes walk from our current house that is 3-storey, 2 and a 1/2 baths (all indoors!) and same price.  To give you an idea of home prices, to live in this suburb that is close to the city, rent is about $5,000 per month.  We could find a larger, less expensive home further from the city but it would make our commutes much worse.  This move and increased cost of living has completely reset our expectations and standards ~ in a good way.  It has made us less materialistic, and more focused on experiences as opposed to accumulating nice things.

Also on the house front - we have semi-sold our house in the US.  The buyers are having to rent the place for about six months, but we have some rental income now to offset the mortgage and expect the sale to close in January.  I'm going to take this opportunity again to thank our neighbors the Euckers (hope you're reading!) who have done so much for us back home.

Matt is finally officially working for Dell AU.  He had been trying to find an opportunity here since October or so, and although feedback was very positive and they said they would really like him to be part of the organization over here, it came down to finding the right position and overcoming some hiring freezes that were occurring the first part of the calendar year.  In the meantime, he was still working for Dell US which meant working US hours.  He's still a Client Executive and the AU client is a University located in Melbourne.  It means frequent travel to Melbourne, but fortunately the flight is only about an hour and 15 minutes from Sydney.  His job will be different than the US as the product and solutions are not the same here.  In the US, the focus was more on IT services but the AU market is not as advanced as the US and the primary product is hardware.  For Matt, it will mean exposure to another side of the business and for Dell, they are hoping to broaden their services.

Happy Queen's Birthday

Despite my best intentions, I've come to the conclusion that a once every 2-month blogger is about the best I'm going to achieve.  I wish I could manage once a fortnight so I could use the word fortnight more often.

Happy Queen's Birthday!  It is Monday 11 June and a public holiday.  Australia (once a British Colony and now a member of the Commonwealth of Nations) is one of many members who still celebrates this holiday.  Interestingly, the Queen's actual Birthday is 21 April, 1926 but members celebrate on different dates.  For example, New Zealand celebrated on 4 June and Western Australia celebrates in September.  Speaking of September, Father's Day is celebrated in September here.  Mother's Day was the same as the US Mother's Day.  (Did you notice how I'm writing my dates?  That's just one of many differences we're getting accustomed to.)

It is raining here in SHEETS and SHEETS!  I have never seen anything like it.  The rain will fall just straight down at a steady, constant volume for days.  It's not like at home where it might rain for a couple of hours and then break for sun and rainbows.  Or rain during a thunderstorm with winds whipping it around.  It is also winter ~ the winter months are June, July and August.  The coldest it's been since we've arrived is probably low 40's but we're accustomed to central heat and a thermostat.  Many homes here don't have that, and our heat comes from these little portable gas heaters that heat the room they are in and not the whole house.  Will tell you more about houses in the next post ...

Autumn in Australia

Oh jeez, I just looked at the date of my last update, and we have made great strides in our transition in the past two months.  We received our sea shipment from home in mid-March.  It took almost exactly three months from the time it left Malcolm, NE and traveled by truck to New York, then on a ship to Australia, three weeks in quarantine/customs and then again by truck to our house.  We were over-whelmed with how much stuff we had, and where to put it in a house that is about one third the size of our house in NE.  This place is crammed full of furniture -- the dresser drawers touch the foot-board of the bed when fully opened, and we have to keep moving the coffee table out of the way to give the kids room to play in the living room.  A lot of things didn't even get unpacked and is in storage in the garage.  This has been a great lesson in learning what you can live without.  Why did we bring so much stuff?  We are completely comfortable without it.

Speaking of houses, we have not sold our house in NE.  We had a several showings in February and March and have two families that have their homes for sale and intend to make an offer if their houses sell.  Fingers crossed. 

It is autumn here.  We "fell back" when the US was "springing forward" so we went from being 17 hours ahead of you (central time) to 15 hours ahead of you.  Our first cold weather happened this week.  It was in the 30's when we woke up on Tuesday morning.  Our house does not have central heat (or any heat for that matter) and we were not prepared.  Matt had resorted to turning on the dryer in his outdoor laundry room/bathroom for heat and draping a blanket over his head and his plasma TV for warmth. 

It is not uncommon here to not have air or heat.  Instead, many homes have gas hook-ups, and you have to buy portable gas or electric heaters.  It has since warmed up again and it was a beautiful 75 degree day today.  The coldest months are July and August, and we hope it doesn't get any colder than it did this week.  We're already turning into cold weather nancies!  We resemble Ozzie and Harriet in our bathrobes and slippers.

Apparently the cooler temps took their toll on the slug population.  We haven't seen one in weeks.  However, they have been replaced with enormous spiders that create huge and extremely sticky webs during the night.  The webs can span the width of a driveway and hang from the branches of the trees.  The 5:00 am trek to the gym has become a frightening haunted house-style maze through webs.  I hold an open umbrella in front of me to break through them.  Have I mentioned the 3 inch flying cockroaches?  Nuff said.

The kids are thriving and adapting to their new lives like kids : )  Every time they get mopey or sad, I worry about their transition.  The other night Quinn (just turned 5) was in the bathtub and he suddenly turned sad and teary-eyed.  When I asked him what was wrong, he responded that he "wanted to get out of this place".  I prepared myself for a conversation about home-sickness and missing his cousins and grandparents and wanting to go back to America.  Then he said, "I want to get out of this bathtub and go to the couch."  Whew!  Crisis averted.

We do miss the US.  A lot.  One of the things we miss is variety and so many choices in consumer goods.  And amazing on-line shopping!  Oh, you don't know how good you have it there with so many choices and so many low-cost choices.  Enjoy your land of plenty and consumerism!

In the meantime, we will enjoy our new land of incredible beauty, sunshine and beaches.  Wonderfully friendly people, fantastic lifestyle and knowing what is really important.  If you've heard that Australians "work to live and do not live to work", we know what that means now.  Will try to be better at updating this blog more frequently.  I was not born to blog.  I think I was born to be on the beach.

Metric System

We are making tremendous strides in converting to the metric system.  Even the 7 year old.  Charley announced tonight while grabbing an apple from the fridge, "These apples are very pricey.  They are $4.79 per kilometer."  Frankly, she's got it down about as well as I do.

"Bloggie" update

So, I'm not talking out loud with an Australian accent but I have caught myself talking to myself with an Australian accent.  True story.  And we've only heard a slight accent from Charley when she said "mummy" for "mommy". 

This is Charley's second week of school, and she's really liking it.  It's much bigger than what she's used to.  Instead of two 2nd grade classes of 13 students each, there are five 2nd grade classes of 25-30 students each.  Lane Cove Public School has 800 students in grades K-6.  And she wears a uniform which we're not used to (photo below).  All the students here wear uniforms whether they're in private, Catholic or public school.

As we meet more people, we are realizing that there is a very large expatriot population here.  It is so encouraging to commiserate with them over our relocation and assimilation experiences.  We're right in the most stresssful period as we attempt to establish new routines and are really missing the "normalcy" of home.  Charley is probably handling it the best.  She seems to be really enjoying each new experience.  The boys miss our house back home (as do we).  Quinn doesn't like this house because it doesn't have any stairs and he can't escape to another level.  During one of his teary-eyed moments, I was explaining to him that all of his toys and his bed will be coming -- that they are on a ship on their way to Australia, and he wanted to know if they "put our stairs on that ship".

A friend recently asked how many times we start getting in the wrong side of the car.  The answer is pretty much every time we have to drive!  I just did it with my manager -- a valet brought her car around and both of us started towards the driver's side.  One time after loading the kids and groceries, Matt and I got in the car.  He looked at me and said "I thought I was driving" and I looked at him and said "I thought I was riding!"  Although we've come a long way in being able to navigate a new city from the opposite side of the car and road, it is still really challenging.

We're also getting accustomed to paying exorbitant prices. For example, beer runs about $40/case, box of Fruit Loops is $8, a gallon of gas is around $5.25, a pack of smokes is $16 (I've been told), a ticket to the movie theatre is $19 and a glass of wine at said movie theatre is $10.  Milk, bread and beef are comparable to what we're paying in the US and the beef and chicken is so good!  So is the fruit.  It all tastes so much sweeter and fresher.  (Still haven't tried the vegemite -- they serve it with crackers at the boys' daycare.  Grey likes it.  Quinn doesn't.  Go figure.)  Speaking of Grey (and I know this doesn't have anything to do with being in Oz), he pooped on the living room floor tonight.  Yep.  That's right.

So, you may have heard how Aussies shorten words and add "ie" or "y" to the end, such as "barbie" for barbecue, and "footy" for football.  We are getting such a kick out of the proliferation of this annihilation of the English language.  Recently asked by a coworker during a rainstorm, "did you remember your brelly?" and heard on the news, "bikey hospitalized after hit by a truckie" as in a motorcyclist was hit by a truck driver. 

The Super Bowl played here on Monday morning.  It's so bizarre to be at the office and no one even mentioned it.  It's the Super Bowl!

Workin' 9 to 5

So I completely underestimated how uncomfortable starting a new job can be.  I have worked for Experian for over 13 years, and thought I knew so much. Not so much.  This has been the roughest week so far as I try to get into a new work routine and the boys started going to a new daycare center.  They miss their friends and teachers at Highlands Academy as much as I miss my "mates" at Experian.  We knew we would experience home-sickness, and it has started.

The Syndey Experian offices are in a very nice 30-story building in North Sydney. We have just under 100 employees on two floors of the building and we're planning to hire about 30 - 40 more people as we ramp up a new credit bureau.  The Melbourne office has about 250 employees, and it sounds like I'll get to visit them soon.  I feel so cosmopolitan when I put on my commuter shoes (flip-flops) and take my dress shoes on the bus each day. 

We are realizing how spoiled we have been living in the US.  There is a different level of urgency, customer service and technology.  Matt has been experiencing this as he attempts to coordinate utilities and other services.  Matt: "Australians are the most pleasant incompetent people I have ever met."

Slugfest 2012:  "They're a formidable foe. They have a brain the size of a grain of salt but unfortunately I can't figure them out" (Matt Hatterman).  This weekend he is mounting a full-out counter-offensive. It's like Eisenhower planning the D-Day invasion.  Stay tuned.

Photographic proof we are indeed in Australia

There's a wonderful zoo just a "hop" down the road.  Grey is finally convinced we are in Australia since he has now seen a kangaroo.

It was a good day

For me at least.  Matt started the day by getting out of bed and stepping on a slug at 1:00 am on his way to work.  One had infiltrated our defenses (which consisted of sprinkling table salt around the perimeter of the house).  That was about 16 hours ago and I'm still laughing about it (until it happens to me of course).  His description of the experience: "I almost puked".  He now has his flip-flops stationed right by the side of the bed.  A couple people told us to try little cups of beer - they love it and drown in it.  Those people don't know how expensive the beer is here. We're listening to the people who told us to use salt.

We took the bus to the city and to my new office building.  I'm going to love it.  The bus stop is a 2-minute walk from our house.  The public transportation here is really good (note, this is coming from someone who has never used public transportation).  The buses are timely, plentiful and clean.  It's about a 10-15 minute drive in and a walk literally across the street to my building.  We didn't go into the Experian offices since we had the kids so more on that next week.  I'm just really impressed with Sydney and how safe and clean it feels.

We also walked up to the boys' daycare so they could meet the teachers and kids and get a feel for the place.  It's located right across the street from Charley's school and they are about a 10 minute walk from our house.  After coming from a country acreage, the thing we like most so far (besides the weather) is the walking distance to everything we need -- five to ten minutes to shops, restaurants, gym, library, hair salons, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc.  So far, we don't think we'll have any problem down-sizing to one car.

And finally, the final one-third of our air shipment should be here tomorrow.  It cleared customs today.  It contains a brand-new 42 inch plasma TV.  It was a good day.  G'day!

Finally, some photos

Leaving Lincoln, getting comfortable on Virgin Australia, family fun at Darling Harbour (we stayed near here the first five days in Sydney until we could get into our house), improvising without our toys (those are "Little Swimmer" motorcycle helmets and "random crap from the pantry" guitars), loving the beach, and tired out from loving the beach.

American Pie

Visited the US Embassy today (aka Costco).  Hallelujah!  Home of American made mayo, ketchup and much much more!  Seriously, Matt and I were high-fiving each other over the giant tubs of Best Foods Mayonnaise.  When he saw the over-sized bottles of Hershey's chocolate syrup, he sang a tearful rendition of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA".  This isn't an exaggeration. They don't sell these things in the local grocery stores.

Speaking of food, I should note that we have not tried the vegemite yet.  There is a jar of it in our pantry courtesy of a care package from my new boss but we haven't tried it yet.  I'll be sure to let you know. 

Good news!  Two thirds of our air shipment arrived this week. It was like Christmas Day opening all those boxes of our own stuff.  The last ten boxes are still in quarantine.  It's starting to feel like a real home around here though.

Matt has been working third shift this week as he continues to support his US accounts.  The unusual sleep schedule is starting to affect his normally laid-back demeanor.  It doesn't seem to help when I remind him its temporary. 

Next week is the last week of "vacation".  Then, the boys will start full-time daycare and I will start my new job.  Charley will be home with Matt for a couple more weeks.  School starts for her on the 31st of Jan.  The kids are all doing really well.  Grey insists we are not in Australia though because he hasn't seen any kangaroos.

Oh, and we caved and went and bought a portable air-conditioner on the one day it was in the 90s.  A "mate" walking through parking lot as we were shoving it in our trunk called us soft.  It worked though.  It's been in the 70s ever since!

Feeling Sluggish

Woke up this morning to a fat, slimy worm type creature making its way across the kitchen floor.
Bonnie:  What the hell is that?
Matt:  Oh.  Yeah.  We have a slug problem.  There were about six of them in the kitchen when I got up this morning.
Bonnie:  Well, how are they getting in here?
Matt:  They don't have a skeleton.  They can get through about anything.
Bonnie:  Well, you're going to have to do something about this.
Matt:  I don't know if there's anything you can do.  I think you just have to live with it.
Bonnie:  I don't see that as an option.
Matt:  I suppose I could get us a mongoose or something that eats slugs.  But then you have a mongoose running around.

So besides slugs, our biggest challenge right now is that we still don't have our air freight.  Apparently the customs department has more holidays than what are listed as "public".  Each of us has one suitcase that we have been living out of since Dec. 19th when we moved into my sister's house.  We basically wear the same outfit every four days.Not a big deal right now but I'm really going to need my clothes before I start work on the 16th. 

It's starting to get warmer.  We've been told that January and February are the hottest months so we're a little concerned about how this whole no air conditioning thing is going to work out.  Going to buy fans today.