News and Noteworthy in a land down under

The other day I was watching the late news and this is what they said:

"A body pulled from the Yarra River with hands bound has been deemed "suspicious" by the Victorian Police"

Needless to say, It took several minutes for the laughing fit to calm down.  I'm glad our police force is doing a crack job.  I'd hate to think of all the dodgy things that body could have gotten into before it was discovered.  Petty crime, loitering, vagrancy..................

Christmas Down Under.......

I'm getting ready for my second Christmas down under.  I have to tell you - it's tough doing the holidays on the other side of the world.  What significance does the festival of lights have when the sky is light until 10pm?  Luckily, Christmas comes just at the beginning of summer, and thanks to good old global warming, summer doesn't really get it's engine going until a couple of weeks after the solstice.  It has been rainy and overcast here - which means that I can pretend that outside it is cold and inside.....?  Well, inside is not warm and toasty - most houses down here are drafty and cool when it is not 80 degrees outside.  So, I bundle up under a blanket, put on some xmas music and let my imagination take over.

I just got back from visiting the states a few days ago, so this year I did get a good dose of my christmas  - picking the tree with my dad - warm fireplaces, snow, christmas light displays, etc.

I was able to send back about 3 boxes of holiday things to decorate my tree so I finally have some of my ornaments and momentos- all the better to help me pretend.

My stepkids are going to the beach with their mom this week - (so not in my idea of the holiday season) and we will have them for Christmas Eve - I am trying to give them a good diet of American holiday specials because Xmas over here is very commercial.  Everything is made in China.  The led lights alone are enough to blind you!  I have a Charlie Brown Christmas on the agenda, as well as a night of family and Christmas Carols.  I just want them to realize that xmas is not just what you get from a store - that , maybe, christmas is just a little bit more.......

I am going to celebrate hanukkah too - a bit of dreidel, a menorah, a telling of the story of the miracle of the oil - they need to know that we don't exist in a vacuum.  I downloaded a latke recipe so that we can give that a go, (mmm - with applesauce and sour cream).  Plus, I grew up with those traditions through my friends (I used to babysit for a whole neighborhood of orthodox families and at 12 I knew how to keep a kosher kitchen - a good episcopalian girl!), and my husband's family is part jewish, (his great grandmother was an Arenfeldt (sp?) - in Australia at the time that was not a good thing so the family kept it hidden and assimilated into the existing culture, the line was broken when my mother in law married my husband's father and had twin boys - no girls to keep the lineage going.  I, of course, am as waspy as you can get with 5 ancestors fighting in the American Revolution and sketchy lineage to not one but two Mayflower passengers - that doesn't even count the Native American side of the family - what a mutt this kid is going to be!)  

It's Saturday, so we'll get the dreidel tomorrow.  

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas............

Rain

It's November and the water reserves in melbourne are at 34%.  We are on stage 3a water restrictions.  No washing your car, watering the garden, (if you need to) on Wednesday morning and one other morning, (is it Saturday?)  No using water for recreational purposes.  No sprinklers, no refilling the pool with the hose.  No new pools without using recycled water.  

Water can be used for hygiene.   But don't take long showers and don't leave it running while you brush your teeth.  34%.  They measure rain in millimeters here.  5mm is a good shower.  There are 10mm in a centimeter and 2.5 cm in an inch.  We have had the lowest spring rainfall on record.  When it does rain, there is a short period of humidity and damp, but once the sun comes out it is dry again.  Parch dry.  It's different in the winter, but that's mostly the cold.  

The rain runs off roofs, into the street.  It keeps my poor neglected garden alive.  Some people have water tanks.  Some people have rose gardens.  I have a bed of succulents that can survive long periods of dry.  I wish the skies would open up and fill the reservoirs and then people would stop arguing about the water.

Oh, how I miss the rain.

Tasty As......

My stepdaughter has a new phrase that comes up whenever she is asked her opinion on something.  "Audrey, did you like having olive oil on your bread?"  "Oh, yes.  It's tasty as....."

Or  "Audrey, what do you think of Nancy's new stained glass piece?"  "It's pretty as...."  She says this in a way which draws out the as in a singsong way so it goes up and down before she lets it trail off.......

As what?  I have no clue, and neither does she!  She is, in her 8 year old way, responding to peer pressure to be an 8 year old Ocker.  So, what is an ocker?  Well,  wikipedia defines ocker as:

 

a noun and adjective for an Australian who speaks and acts in an uncultured manner, using a broad australian accent (or strine).

Now, Audrey goes to primary school in Surrey Hills, which is a fairly swanky eastern suburb.  She is not much for the outdoors, ("it's dirty") and is afraid of flies and ants to an almost abnormal degree.  Yet, she is beginning to speak in a way that makes her seem as if she is from the country, or, at the very least, running barefoot in the outer suburbs of Melbourne.

Here is the address for a link to the ABC's (Australian Broadcasting Corporation's) guide to strine:  http://www.abc.net.au/civics/globalcitizens/ozstrine.htm

Apparently, Audrey is learning this from her "ocker" friend Sarah, or so my husband says.

   Audrey has also decided that she would like to be a gymnast because she likes hanging upside down on the monkey bars. This from a  girl who, endearingly enough since I couldn't do one at her age, cannot do a proper cartwheel.  I could, however, do a split, which she cannot do either.  I told her that I would help her work on  those things but her attention wandered.  She is a pretty normal 8 year old in most ways and most things.  Solidly on her way to a degree in liberal arts.  We do hold out some hope that her skills in the pool will lead her to the olympics one day, which is the great Australian dream, but, we'll see how she goes.     Gosh, when did I get to be such a cynic?  I don't have much experience with 8 year olds changing their mind every month, and, to be fair, she is a talented artist.  I just wish she could hold focus on one thing for more than 10 minutes!  Difficult as..........