For Future Reference

As many of you have commented, it is now basically June which means that we've been in Australia for almost 6 months. In the time that we've been here, there have been many ways that we're adapting to our surroundings - one of them is the phrases that we've become accustomed to hearing around town and even using sometimes. Knowing how many folks are planning to come visit at some point (or may end up in Australia whether we're here or not) we wanted to share some of these phrases along with definitions for your Aussie Education.

Essential Phrases
stuffed up = screwed up (You really stuffed up the job didn't you)
buggered = screwed up (The plans were buggered)
bugger all = nothing (I got bugger all for a raise)
give a bell = call on the phone
full stop = period (This is the way it needs to be done - full stop)
good onya = well done
rock up = arrive (Just rock up to the bar whenever)
gone off = has gone bad (for instance, expired milk)
trading hours = business hours
make a booking = make an appointment
knackered = tired/exhausted (you look knackered)
what do you reckon? = what do you think?
large night = lots of drinks consumed (Had a large night yesterday so today is rough)
won't be a minute = just a minute
couldn't be bothered = don't feel like doing
chockers= no time available (My schedule is chockers all week)
snowed in = no time available
booked out = no time available
flat out = no time available

There are many more, but that should be a good start.

We spent the weekend around Melbourne relaxing. Standard trip to the market, then a picnic in a nearby park enjoying a coffee, sunshine, and some very inquisitive magpies. Today as normal was spent vacuuming, doing laundry, and talking on the phone with folks back home - though, we did take a break for brunch to meet up with Sean who had recently returned from a trip home to Denver.

Australia's Biggest Morning Tea

Today was Australia's Biggest Morning Tea, which is a fundraising event for Australia's Cancer Council. In support of the event, Kristi made "Chocolate Raspberry Moose Crumble Bars" to be sold during teatime at her office. It was a bit interesting to follow this American recipe...butter is sold in 500kg blocks (no 1/2 cup sticks here), you can't buy semi-sweet chocolate chips or baking chocolate (we substituted dark chocolate "buttons"), and we don't have a mixer so it was a serious hand-mixing effort...luckily the oven temperature conversion was the easy part of the process! All in all it turned out well and they sold like hotcakes at morning tea. These are some prep and finished pictures - yum!

Showing Off

Phase 2 of our 'Explore Melbourne' adventure was having Charlene and Ian over to our neck of the woods to show off the sights, tastes, and smells of Port Melbourne. We tried to warn them that "some" walking would be involved....by the end of the evening they realized what we meant! We started at the Tram, got fish and chips for lunch by the bay, then did a quick hike over to the South Melbourne Market for some dinner fixins. On the way back it was time to explore Clarendon Street and Albert Park, catch a beautiful sunset on the pier, then stop back at the apartment to drop off our market goodies. Before it got too dark we hit Bay Street to find dessert and crackers to go with some amazing cheese we'd bought earlier that morning. We picked desserts from a new bakery on Bay Street that was more Greek-focused than the other Italian and French ones we had already tried.
Back at the apartment we dug into games - after learning the Settlers of Catan, Sequence was a piece of cake! I think everyone enjoyed the game - especially once we got the hang of drawing cards after playing ;-) Games before dinner and dessert with Port after - it was a great day spent with friends!

Now we have to figure out where to head next, we're open to suggestions. This coming weekend we travel to Adelaide and the Barossa Valley, which means there should be plenty of fun stories and pictures to blog about next week!

Kristi's Office

I've been asked what my new office at EvoGenix looks like, so I thought I would share a couple of pictures. It's pretty terrible - three shades of puke green, no natural light, and (as you can see) the person who inhabits the office is a bit messy! Those of you that have been in the office I had at NRG will easily understand why I feel this is so ugly, but luckily I don't spend as much time at work/in the office on a daily basis so I can deal.

Things are going fine with the new job. I've been there a little over a month now and am making friends, starting to understand more about the company and what is happening in the lab, and keeping quite busy as I settle into my role. I haven't stuffed anything up too badly yet, so that's positive!

I'm enjoying the 9 to 5 work day, morning tea, and taking a full lunch hour (anyone else worried that I might get a little jaded by this experience?) On Mondays and Wednesdays they also bring in a yoga/pilates instructor over the lunch hour so that's been a great bonus for me! It does take me an hour to commute to/from work on the tram, but I've started taking my knitting with me to help pass the time. I could also read - so if anyone has any good book recommendations please send them my way.

So the big news of the week is that another Australian biotech company has proposed to buy out and merge with EvoGenix. The company, Peptech, is also quite small and based in Sydney. If all goes well, the deal will be finalized in August and we will have a new name and likely move locations (same area, new building - which means a new office, if I still have a job - yeah!) The party line is that business will continue as normal and nothing will really change. We'll see...

Baked Oatmeal

Kristi's mum found the best baked oatmeal recipe that we must share. We tried out the recipe on Sunday morning after enjoying a bike ride along Beach Road and it totally hit the spot - it was so easy to make and sooo yummy to eat!
2 c. old fashioned oatmeal
4 c. milk
1/2 tsp. almond flavoring
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sliced almonds
1/2 c. dried cherries
1 large apple, unpeeled and grated

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all ingredients in large mixing bowl, then transfer to a 3 quart casserole baking dish that has been coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle top with additional almonds and then bake uncovered for 45 minutes. Serve hot. (As a variation, you can omit almonds, almond flavoring, and cherries. Add 1 Tbsp. cinnamon, 1/2 c. raisins, and 1/2 c. chopped peanuts - we're planning to try this one next!)

Exploring Melbourne

This week we started acting on our new goal of exploring more of Melbourne - it would be a shame to travel around Australia (oh yeah, and work too) and not get to know the city that we live in.

Step one - determine who of our friends live somewhere outside our neighborhood...check
Step two - invite ourselves over to their place and request their company exploring....check
Step three - invite them to our area so that they can see Port Melbourne/Albert Park...in progress
Step four - find more friends and repeat :-)

Josh works with Charlene at Accenture due to shared work on the process team. She and her husband Ian are permanent transfers from Ohio to Australia and didn't seem to mind that we invited ourselves over to their area of town. Of course the weather had other plans and decided to drizzle pretty much the whole time, but it's hard to complain when you know how badly we need rain. After a morning run, we figured out the trams and trains we needed to take and got on our way over to the South Yarra/Prahran area. The plan worked great as the four of us explored the Prahran Market and the local cafes/shops that Charlene and Ian knew about (and some new ones). After a yummy brekki, we picked up wine and foodstuffs at the market then headed back to their apartment for picture sharing, dinner, and board games. We'd never heard of 'The Settlers of Catan' but it ended up being a fun game - although a bit hard to learn after a few glasses of wine ;-) Much too early in the morning we bid them farewell and hopped a taxi back home. We're looking forwards to having them over to our place next weekend!

Dinner in Albert Park

On our way home from work on Friday we decided that neither of us felt like cooking and were up for exploring some of the cool looking little eateries along Victoria Street in Albert Park. As the tram passed a little Indian/Pakistani restaurant we remembered the great time in Chicago eating Pakistani food with Moid, Amanda and Sherbie last year. We decided to give it a go and ended up at Gharana for dinner. We were the only ones in the place for about 30min, but it had a great atmosphere with decorative paintings and good music. The names on the menu looked somewhat familiar and we ended up trying their Chicken Tikka Masala and a beef biryani, along with some naan and a couple imported Indian beers. Overall the food was good - we'd get the tikka again (and spicier!) before the biryani - and it was a great way to relax after a long week of work. It wasn't as authentic as Chicago, but there was nothing to complain about!

Saturday we're off to explore South Yarra so we'll have more stories to share!