We have been here for 12 weeks! Wow does time fly!

The temperature may be cooling down, but it still nice outside!! 70s F during the day and getting down to high 50s F sometimes at night means Autumn is here.  It has still been nice and sunny for us, which is awesome for balcony sitting as I am writing this.  Sadly, our town house isn’t faced quite the right way for the our balcony or our patio to be in the sun much.  Oh well, at least we have some outside space.

This past week has gone well.  Brandon had his second week of work and is enjoying the flexibility of his schedule and the relaxed job atmosphere.  He got more answers from the bank and Jax’s friend who is an accountant about his business finances, so that is all set up.  He invoiced his boss so his first paycheck should be on its way. 🙂 My work is still going well. One of the drs. and our office manager who were on leave are back this week meaning things will get back to routine.  This also means I will be getting more duties and responsibilities shortly.  One of the original two nurses will be going on leave for a month starting next week to get married in Israel.   I am sure it will be fine, but I am worried about added pressure and expectations.  Oh well, cross that bridge when it happens and I will do my best.

Brandon had a Meet up Thursday so I got to try Woolworth’s TV dinners.  I chose an Indian one that was a bit spicy but good.  Friday the flatmates and him got pizza from Pizza Hut and watched some Gogglebox while I went out after work.  Gogglebox is an Australian show that films families and couples watching different things from TV that week.  It is entertaining reality TV.  I met up with some girls I met on a Childfree Facebook group at a bar called the Ivy.  It is more of a complex.  There are a few bars, a night club, restaurant, a rooftop pool, all this stuff there.  It is apparently a Sydney staple to nightlife and somewhere you go at least once.  We have found alcohol to be pretty pricey at bars here.  Most cocktails being $15-22.  I was glad it was Happy Hour and rail drinks were $6.  Then I got sad because I did not know what rail alcohol they even had at such a “fancy” place.  Riesling wasn’t on the rail special.  My usual amaretto sour wasn’t going to work because amaretto doesn’t seem to be popular and they don’t have sweet or sour, just “lemonade” which is Sprite or lemony flavored soda.  I ended up getting a vodka cranberry because there was too much pressure!. lol! We had a nice night and will be getting together again with more ladies from the area.

Saturday, Brandon and I had a lazy morning and then took the bus to North Sydney to the Kiribilli markets.  I was expecting produce, arts and crafts, food etc and was surprised to find mostly rummage sale type stands, with craft, jewelry, chocolate, art, food, plants, and more ones too.  I bought chicken and chorizo paella for lunch, a black and white scarf to wear with my black coat, and we got little pots with succulents to put on our nightstands.  We took the bus home and met a few of Heidi and Jax’s friends before they went out for the evening.  Brandon and I decided to go out to the new dumpling place that opened around the corner.  We had yummy dumplings and delicious fried rice and then when we were finishing up this girl was hovering by the open door of the shop on her phone.  Apparently, her and her friends were out for the night when they found a ring tailed possum that was hurt/sick and walking on  the sidewalk of busy Military Rd. They followed it into this dumpling shop and then one of them stuck around to rescue it.  She had tried calling the police and wildlife rescue to no avail. Her sister worked in rescue so she was going to capture it and have her help it.  The restaurant did not have any large towels to catch it with, so the girl was going to use her coat.  I decided to get involved when she began to get serious about catching it, having wrangled a fair number of wild cats in my day.  I offered to help and she accepted gladly.  We shut the door and I had her tie her sleeves off in her coat so the possum didn’t scurry out.  I blocked his front escape with my scarf and she grabbed him from behind.  I thought she was going to use her coat to grab him, but instead she used her hands.  Dumb.  Hello wild animal defense mechanisms!  He scratched her, then bit, not braking skin but I am sure it bruised.  Of course he urinated all over, but she got him into her coat and her partner came and got her.  The possum did not fight as much as I expected so it could be injured or in shock.  Quite the adventure on our “quiet” Saturday night.  Here is a picture of what they look like.  Ours was much cuter and round.  

Sunday we went to church and Jax made croissants for brunch.  We then took the bus to Spit Bridge in Mosman to do the Spit Bridge to Manly Coastal walk.  I read wrong about how far it was, so we were expecting 5-6 km when really it was 10 km.  It was a busy path and very pretty.  Lots of stairs and a well done trail.  We even saw hang-gliders and Aboriginal carvings.  It was a beautiful day, but not quite warm enough to swim at any other the beaches we passed.  When we finally made it to Manly we were hungry and a bit tired.  They were having a market and we browsed while looking for somewhere to eat.  Jax happened to be in the area and picked us up.  We went to Hotel Mosman, known as The Duck, with her, her brother and his flatmate and ate $9.90 steak and mash.  It was during dinner that it came to light that Brandon and I eat like cavemen with our knife and fork. 😉 I had noticed how nicely/proper most Australians use their knife and fork and I have been a bit self conscious about it.  Jax handled it gracefully and began teaching me like she does her nannying kids how to eat properly.  I hope I catch on and remember; twenty-nine years of eating a certain way may be hard to break. 🙂 We shall see how it goes.

Today is Monday and I am off.  (I work Sat.) I slept in, did some cleaning, planned our meals for the week and our grocery list, and now am posting this.  The cats were excited about turkeys that were just in our side yard off the balcony; they are now roosted in the tree by us.  Our flatmates talked about going to a high tea and also the Great Barrier Reef with us in the future, so that will be fun to plan.

Wishing you all a happy week and hope to talk to you soon!