Yum!

October 16, 2001-On The Barbie

We went to a 71st birthday party today. It was billed as a real Aussie BBQ. The birthday girl, is a hoot. She’s always promoting something for some organization, selling raffle tickets, or soliciting for a luncheon. You know the type. You run the other way when you see her coming. She’s from Liverpool by way of Los Angeles, Melbourne, and three husbands. She’s quite intelligent and still works as an editor and records books on tape. Her English is of the Oxford school and I never have trouble understanding her.

The hosts were celebrating their 53rd anniversary. They're a stunning couple. Her younger sister was there and she's 71. She looks about 60. The sisters are from New Zealand and have nine siblings. The hosts live in a very large home (4000 sq. ft.) that prompted the discussion, once again, of how big our house is in Australian terms. We finally figured it out. They measure buildings here in square feet, but the lots are measured in square meters. The terminology, though, is different than ours. For example, a 2000 square foot house is referred to as being 20 squares. That was easy. No need to convert to square meters. I was also advised that Australian realtors are among the best liars in the industry. They will even grossly exaggerate the size of rooms. Everyone at the party knew I’m a realtor and delighted in telling me that Australia isn’t as litigious as the U.S. yet. Lawyers here are teaching the public the American system of suing for any reason. They’re now going after realtors.

The menu at the “real Aussie BBQ” was: crumbled fish (breaded), thin steak well-done, chicken, canned asparagus, rice salad, rocket salad (curly leaf lettuce), cucumbers (pickles), potato salad, coleslaw, olives, beef bangers (sausage), and buttered bread. There were about five different desserts followed by fresh fruit. It’s not too different from an American BBQ. Food Channeling A commercial on TV just informed us that Kraft makes a Vegemite snack pack. Gag! That reminds me. A woman at the party said that when she was twelve years old she decided to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She’d heard they were popular in America and wanted to try one. The only problem was that here Jell-O is called jelly. It was years until she realized her error and tried a real PB&J with jam.

I didn’t want to miss my afternoon ice-cream cone, so after we came home, we walked over to my favorite supplier. It’s a gelato store. We took the inland route and came home by the sea. There are tons of birds here and they all seemed to be flying about getting settled for the night. It was very noisy and we kept looking up into the trees. It was risky business considering the number of feathery creatures and the nature of their digestive systems. There were birds of all shades of brown, black, and white, but all of a sudden, a green body streaking past. Then there was a splash of yellow. There we were on an early evening stroll watching wild parrots. It was so exciting. I’m sure the joggers along the path thought the crazy Americans craning their necks to look into the trees were daft.

The Home Front

David has a sore throat. It’s really raw. He hasn’t been carrying Purell with him. The other day someone shook his hand and then said, “Don’t kiss me, I’ve got a cold.” I’m sure I’ll get it. We’ve been lucky to avoid getting sick up to now considering where we’ve been and all the hugging and kissing that went on here during the holidays.

We “talked” to Vikki and Alex today by Instant Messaging. Alex told us she scored the winning goal for the Lippman soccer team. Good on ya, Alex!

Toby