Come to Australia...

According to the New Zealand Herald, Killer Spiders are invading Sydney. In this instance funnel web spiders and they look like this:

One night after Karate we had quite a long conversation about funnel web spiders (and lots of other deadly things). Sadly, unlike the awesome drop bears, funnel web spiders are a real threat. Apparently they are very aggressive for spiders and will just attack people. Luckily there is an anti-venom so the death rate is pretty low. But yeah, and aggressive spider whose fangs will go through many a shoe and is apparently hard to kill.. Just what you want in your back yard! And there are other varieties of nasty spiders too. I think Ginny and I are both a little scared of all spiders now. Every time I walk home late at night I'm more paranoid about walking through a spider web than I am of running into human trouble like muggers.

Lesson: Don't stick your appendages in dark places in Australia. Reaching into random hole or shell: bad idea.

This whole post has reminded me of a video I was shown shortly after arriving. I really like it, and as the title says, everyone should Come to Australia.

Yellow Belt

This week in karate I graded for, and received, my yellow belt. The grading was a bit harder than I was expecting. Mostly it just went quickly (about 30 minutes) without any breaks: push ups, crunches, no-contact sparring for about 8 minutes, demonstrating a routine and skills, etc. I was very sweaty and tired at the end. I'm going to have to get into even better shape if I want to keep grading.

After finishing my grading I rejoined the rest of the class for the remaining portion of our fitness class and then started learning my routines for my next belt, the orange belt. If I'm here all year I might get up to grading for my blue belt in November, but that will depend on grading schedule, etc. Should probably make it to at least purple (the belt after orange). I'm not too focused on the belts though. I joined karate for exercise and I definitely get that. It helps that quite a few of my friends are in the class (and most of my future house mates). That keeps me motivated to show up even when I'm having a draining day. I'm always glad to have gone after I get there and through the class.

So what do you miss?

Having moved across the world quite a few people have asked me what I miss the most. Truth is, I rarely think about it. I'm so involved trying to make the most of my time in Australia, that I'm not dwelling on all the things I left behind. I'm instead thinking of all the things I want to do here. In Sydney I still have tons of museums and what not to go to. I want to do the bridge climb, though it's $200 which I think is crazy. I want to go to my old landlord's cousin's restaurant on Bondi Beach, which is supposed to be excellent. I want to go to the French patisserie that Kiri works at on Sundays. I want to explore the parts of Australia that are outside of Sydney like wine regions and the coral reefs. I want to watch the rest of Dollhouse, and season 3 of Chuck as it comes out.  I've started taking notes on my phone as I hear about cool things to do.

So, I'm not spending huge amounts of my day dwelling on what I left behind. When asked what I miss, I generally answer my friends and family. They are the reason I doubt I could move to Australia permanently. If I did that I'd miss my nephews growing up! Next I mention food. I'm working hard to discover good food here in Sydney, but I cook a lot more than I go out. Not that I can't cook food... And when Ginny was around we went out to some really good places. I'll have to blog about some of them soon. But, I do really miss spicy food! My tolerance is going down I'm sure and I'm going to have to work to get it back up again. I'm sure there is spicy food here, but many of my friends aren't into it, so I haven't had much. When Annie gets back we're having some Sri Lankan food and this will help. But more than just spicy food, I have come to love the food of New Mexico. It may have taken twenty some odd years, but it finally grew on me.

Sadly, my favorite New Mexican restaurant, Diego's, closed down after a few people got salmonella poising. This is a tragedy, and we've yet to find any place we like as much to replace it. My sister is diligently searching. In December while I was back we tried out Castro's, which is one of the more Diego's like places she's found. It was a good dinner, but my enchilada wasn't as flavorful, and it wasn't a blue corn tortilla. Still, it was a delicious meal. I took a picture so you could all see the awesomeness that is a classic New Mexican meal.

In the top left you have the sopapilla, in the top right you have chile con queso and some corn chips. Then smack down there in the bottom you have my main (entre to you crazy Americans) which is a chicken enchilada covered with green chile and a fried egg over medium with spanish rice and posole as sides. A little tomato and lettuce serve as a garnish. This is pretty standard, though often you see beans instead of posole. I generally substitute both for more spanish rice, which I love. Needless to say, shortly after taking this picture I devoured the meal stuffing myself more than I should; but hey, I don't get New Mexican food very often these days.

Now as I'm counting down the weeks till my family visits, savoring my ridiculously expensive bottle of tequila ( Don Julio 1942 Anejo). I'm definitely missing New Mexican food. And my family, but them I'll see soon, the food not so much. Customs did let me bring some Chimayo chile powder in which I have been using cooking. But I was wary of trying to bring in frozen or dehydrated green chile. Australia is pretty tight on customs, especially on food items. I'm looking forward to my next trip to the US where I can binge in some New Mexican restaurant.