The wedding that didn't happen

So, 12/12 we were supposed to get married.
Didn't happen due to some paperwork snafus. Ah well. So we rescheduled. We're coming up on the new date. Meanwhile, I thought I'd share a couple photos.

Gluten free food is pretty widespread here. This is a "Fairly Floss" cupcake, lemon cupcake with rose/raspberry frosting...surprisingly yummy!

and

These are Rosellas at the market...I haven't tried one yet, but perhaps one day soon. :)

Easing the commute

A thing of beauty.



This is my commuter. D's Dad's old bike.
Some of you will recognize that pink smoke paint job on the GT Tequesta. It's odd riding a 7 speed bike, and those thumb shifters!

It's parked in front of my bike locker at the train station. There's a waiting list for bike lockers, but the deal is you pay a $50 deposit for the key and check in with them every three months. If you loose the key, it cost $50 to replace, but if you finish with the locker and turn in the key, you get the 50 back.
Riding the bike cuts 20-30 minutes off my trip to and from the station. Yay!


I ride the roads, then cut through the neighborhoods and over a stream that divides subdivisions on this little path. The bike slot on the left of the stairs is handy...the GT weighs a good 35lbs... Well...maybe not, but it is too heavy to carry up the stairs.

Morning walks

Some mornings, if we're not riding our bikes, D and I take a walk in the state forest across the street. We're usually out there by 5am and only hike a couple hours because the heat comes up so quickly.

The forest is in the middle of subdivisions, so it is well traveled by trekkers, mountain bikers, and trail runners.

This gives you an idea of the sorts of hills they have around here, short but steep. The tree across the trail is a remnant of the recent heavy storms here in Brisbane.



In the midst of the tree


There's quite a bit of rock here. This poor tree went over in the same storm.

Cranberry, where for art thou Cranberry?

You never know what you're going to miss. I was missing home a bit so I decided to make Thanksgiving dinner. And of course, you need cranberries to complete the plate, right? Just for color?

Cranberries are so ubiquitous in Michigan this time of year with stacks of fresh berries in all the markets, pyramids of cans of cranberry sauce in the aisles, umpteen types of gourmet cranberry sauce in the fancy foods stores and catalogs.

Well...cranberries are NOT big in Australia.
We're coming up on Christmas, I thought perhaps there might be some in the organic markets or in the bigger chain stores, but no.

This is all I found. Turns out the canned sauce has wheat in it (yeah, I don't know why they need to put wheat in there either...) and the snack pack of cranberries was presweetened (even though it said it wasn't. I used them in an orange/cranberry sauce that was a shade of the real thing.



and how about Turkey? Also NOT a big seller in Australia. Best I found in one store was a couple huge turkey legs. Anyone who has eaten enough turkeys over the holidays know that those legs are not going to be very tender...Ah well. (After purchasing these in Woolworths, I wandered down to the IGA to check for another ingredient I was missing, they had cute little 8lb frozen turkeys. Next time.

Pumpkin pie. No luck there either. Although the squash they call pumpkin would probably work well in a pie, it's a bit stringy, so I made a butternut pie instead. Darrell can't really tell the difference, but those of you who make pie know that there is! I'll see if I can find some pie pumpkin seeds and get them started for pie in fall...about April.

Here's Darrell with his first pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey leg, stuffing, grandma's sweet potatoes, and veggies.




And here's the pie

Surviving the storm

Well...we were in the city center when the big storm came through near our house on Sunday. Big electrical action in the city, lightning bouncing around. The damage from the high damaging winds and heavy rain reminded me of tornado damage back home. Big trees knocked over and roofs lifted off houses.
We had taken the train into the city and getting home was a nice little adventure. Fortitude Valley had been evacuated and they ran the train right past it, then put us on buses after the Bowen hills station. It was a long trip home, but it wasn't bad.

12-2 sucks

It's official. While Darrell and I managed with the 12-2 time difference, it really sucks when trying to keep up with friends back home. Bah humbug.

Meanwhile, here are a few photos from a trip D and I took up the coast a bit. HAIL! I never equated subtropical Australia with hail...but there it is.
When it hails, and people ask about snow and I start explaining different types of snow and how very little of it is really like hail people seem fairly surprised. Just as I am that it hails in sub-tropical Australia.

Whiplash!

Or...I'm now gainfully employed in Australia!

I was getting a bit depressed, the HR departments around here are very prompt in their rejections.
Evidently, if you're a good match they're just as quick in the other direction as well. I applied for a job that I wanted at a company I wanted to work for Monday of last week and had a verbal offer by that Friday. Signed my contract this week and I start next Monday.

Thanks to everyone who supplied leads, references, and support!