Author: May

3 Year Anniversary

May

3 years of marriage + 7 years of dating = a third of our lives together! So that would make us … [if you do the math, then keep the numbers to yourself!]. We celebrated the 17th here since that would officially be the 16th in the US where we were married. The time difference is very complicated 😉

We decided to go low key this anniversary. After all, we did just move half way across the world and we have some grand plans for trips and vacations to come. So in the spirit of celebrating, I stated that I would make a special dinner.

Ben asked what “special” meant. It was a fair question with our belongings – which include the better part of our kitchenware – still in limbo. Apparently, it has all arrived here in Melbourne and has passed customs but still no word on any arrangements for delivery. Grrrrr.

This means that all these weeks I’ve been “roughing it” in terms of cooking. We have a single non-stick fry pan and a small 3-pot kit we bought at Ikea which reminds me of the camping cooking gear you buy to make quick meals in the wilderness. There are no mixing bowls and nothing I can truly cook with in the oven aside from make-shifting a pan from aluminum foil. I have one chef’s knife which I packed in our checked luggage but no utensils other than the two forks and two spoons we bought to eat with. Not to mention I don’t have a single baking instrument.

Even with this however, Ben has gotten extremely spoiled with home cooked meals almost every night. I can get by well enough when I keep it simple and think through one pan for meat or a primary vegetable and another for sides. When the ingredients are fresh and of great quality, thankfully, you don’t have to do much to make them tasty!

So in this case “special” simply meant more thought out. Here was the resulting menu:

  • Appetizer: seared scallops with an orange-ginger sauce
  • Salad: spring mix with marinated artichoke hearts, avocado, shaved Parmesan and homemade vinaigrette
  • Main: pan seared porterhouse steak, oven roasted shrimp scampi, mashed potatos and wilted spinach
  • Dessert: blueberry apple crumble + cookies and cream cheesecake (both bought from a local bakery)

To add to our “simple life” we still don’t have any furniture (purchased but not delivered). Since it didn’t seem romantic to eat standing up at the kitchen counter alongside the cooking prep, I created little make-shift tables by wrapping appliance boxes with our beach towels.

All in all it was a success and sort of reminded me of what a newly wed couple should be living like if we were in a romantic comedy. Something to look back at fondly when we are old – sitting on the floor eating our anniversary dinner off of appliance boxes.

I think it’s worth mentioning that growing up, I never wanted to get married. I never saw myself with a traditional family. I did see myself traveling the world and taking adventures. That part so much has been true and SO much better than I could have dreamed having my best friend and husband along with me for the ride. Sometimes the things you don’t plan are the sweetest in life – and that’s saying a lot from this type-A personality!

Happy anniversary my love!!! Here’s to designing our life together and making dreams that we haven’t even dreamed up yet come true!

Mexi-can’t in Melbourne

May

I promised that I would let you know how the Mexican Festival went and so I shall!…. Eh. It was pretty anti-climactic. Ben would tell you that I had let my cravings get the best of me and my hopes were unrealistic. Perhaps that is true but what can I say? I like to hope for the best, even if I don’t necessarily expect it.

Let me start with a little background info so you fully understand the situation. We’ve been in Melbourne for just over a month and a half now. So that is 6-7 weeks it’s been since my last helping of Mexican food or anything resembling it. You may think ‘that’s no big deal!’ … but in fact if you’ve ever lived in California for any extended period of time then you know it is a very big deal.

Please don’t misunderstand me. The food in Melbourne is EXCELLENT. And I’m well acquainted with studying and living abroad in countries where dietary restrictions and simple access to variety is very limited – try 2 months in India. However, when you have such food of such quality so easily available to you that you eat it on a weekly basis or more, then it’s hard not to miss. Melbourne has many choices in wonderful dining options but Mexican food is NOT one of them.

Not that they are to blame. It seems there is a slow and steady movement trending for Mexican cuisine but you can only imagine that with the geographic distance from Mexico and few Mexican immigrants, it’s more slow than steady. This is heartbreaking to me. Oh, I could make do and cook some of my favorite items myself but the ingredients are not so easy to find either!

We’ve finally located a vendor at South Melbourne Market that sells fresh jalapenos and one vendor in Queen Victoria Market that sells black beans. However, I’m still on the hunt for some decent corn tortillas and cilantro coriander that doesn’t taste more like parsley and don’t get me started on finding the right type of chili peppers.

So yes, my hopes for the festival were high. There was a very large turn out of people and food stands – all of the Mexican restaurants that give it a go in and around the city. Ben and I sampled a few different stand. The fish tacos at Mamacitas were bland. A carnitas burrito from Mad Mex left a lot to be desired, though Ben claims that it would do the job if he were badly in need of a fix. We did finally stumble on some authentic and flavorful fair at Los Amantes where we gobbled down the chilaquiles de pollo.  We’ll have to find their restaurant location and do some further reviews.

In and Around – Enjoying More Local Spots

May

This week wasn’t too eventful. Perhaps one small thing to note is I did some bookstore exploring. It seems that Melbourne has an amazing array of bookstores. I came across a list on Buzzfeed (yes, I’m a Buzzfeed addict) and had to investigate for myself. True enough there are a plethora of amazing bookstores all within a very short distance of each other – everything from discount chains, to independent bookstores to second hand books and even small specialty shops.

I don’t know how they all stay in business but it seems the written word is still alive and well here in this city. I didn’t hit up every store on the list but got to about 5 of them including the adorable children’s bookstore The Little Bookroom and Kay Craddock which houses first editions worth thousands of dollars per book. Though I have surrendered to the convenience of downloading books which can be accessed on any of my electronic mobile devices, I have to say that I am still a big fan of physically being able to turn a page so I may be making some literary purchases in the near future.

Today we kicked off the weekend with some lovely weather. Ben and I headed to Queen Victoria Market to do our grocery shopping and to indulge on some fresh made doughnuts. Queen Victoria Market is much larger than South Melbourne Market and we tend to alternate between the two for groceries. Picture an old time Bizarre with endless rows of stands selling everything you can think of. Both markets are fantastic and we are starting to distinguish preferences among the vendors at each.

In the afternoon, we noticed a bunch of booths set up near our apartment along the river. They were holding a small Lantern Festival with a bunch of different Asian food stalls. We wandered over and picked up some lunch. Then we decided to enjoy the day by walking to Queen Victoria Garden.

Spring is definitely creeping up and it was apparent on our walk through the garden. The trees are just starting to bud leaves and flowers are starting to add color. We made our way through the park to the War Memorial which we spent some time appreciating. On the walk back, we stopped and had a quick drink before calling it a day.

It may not seem too exciting to others to be in on a Saturday night but we need to be up very early tomorrow to watch the UGA game. Go Dawgs!!! Tomorrow afternoon, we are headed to the Mexican Festival! I cannot express how excited I am about the Mexican Festival – I might be persuaded to punch a stranger in the face right now if it meant I could get some decent Mexican food. I’ll let you know how it all turns out!

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week and a Dutiful Husband

May

The first week in September marks the beginning of Spring and with that comes Melbourne Spring Fashion Week (MSFW).  Festivities are held downtown all week with both free and ticketed runway shows, workshops, fashion film and of course, lots of opportunities to shop. The vast majority of the designers are Australian and unfamiliar to me but I figure why not see what all the fuss is about.

My interests were peaked even more when I saw Lululemon and Arthur Galan on the week’s program. My infatuation with Lululemon is pretty well noted by my friends. I can’t seem to walk into one of their stores without purchasing something. It’s very dangerous for my wallet. Arthur Galan happens to be the one designer whose store we stumbled into on Chapel street a few weeks back. I basically fell in love with EVERY item in the store and Ben had to haul me out.

While I’m sure Ben did not want anything fueling my Lululemon appetite, it was a free show and he was oh-so-kindly willing to come along and “support me” (a.k.a. see the models perform in yoga gear).  We went to the show on Wednesday evening and got there early because it was open to the public. We somehow managed to get seated in the first row which was reserved for certain important persons of unknown identities who ultimately did not show up.

The show was entertaining with all the models performing down the runway with yoga, dance, acrobatics and pole performances.  I made note of things to add to my workout wardrobe while Ben made notes of… well, let’s pretend he made note of the men’s running wear for himself. To top it off, we also got to claim goody bags with our front row upgrade which contained generous gift cards. So it was a win all the way around and the next shopping trip won’t worry Ben so much 😉

After the show I made us some dinner – a couple steaks from South Melbourne Market with pasta and salad. In a way, it was to treat Ben for being such a good sport but somehow I think he got the better end of the whole night!

Thursday night came the designer show. Ben played the loving and dutiful husband and dressed up to escort me. I was excited to have another proper occasion to wear my birthday Louboutins.  There were 10 designers featured: Akira, Yeonjin Bae, Thurley, Jayson Brunsdon, Arthur Galan, Megan Park, Nicola Finetti, Calibre, Nevenka and Christine.

The show was great and Ben limited his Zoolander quotes. The goody bags were not nearly as exciting as the ones from Lululemon but all in all a fun night – likely more fun more me than Ben.

 

Happy Hour, Markets and St. Kilda Beach

May

I have to say that this weekend is off to a pretty great start. On Friday, Ben finished work a little early so we headed out for happy hour. We live right near the river where there are a lot of restaurants that are connected to the Crown Promenade and Casino. As far as we’ve tried, they’re all pretty great and we intend to make our way to every one. However, the drinks are VERY pricey! Most have happy hour deals listed though, so we started off there. Then we moved on to Ponyfish which is a bar built directly under one of the bridges, sitting on the Yarra River.

At Ponyfish, we had a few more drinks and chatted up with a couple of guys who were in town for business from Canberra – the capital of Australia. They taught us some of the differences between Union Footy and League Footy a well as some good spots along the coast to visit. Afterwards, Ben and I were in need of something to soak up our drinks so we ended up at a sort of fast food chain called Pie Face. They make all types of savory pies in individual sizes. The steak pies were a perfect post-happy hour pairing.

Ben continued the indulgence by stopping at a cafe and getting a doughnut while I bought a second steak pie. No judgement! We got back to the apartment and laughed about the fact that we still managed to be in bed by 11pm. I’m sure others were just starting their nights – we are definitely old!

Saturday morning we got up and headed to South Melbourne Market. We’ve been a couple times now. It’s less than a mile walk from our apartment and sort of like a built in farmer’s market that’s open 4 days per week. Melbourne and the surrounding suburbs have several of these types of markets – another great one a mile in the other direction is Queen Victoria Market (more about that one another time).

Anyone who has come to visit us in SF knows how much I love farmer’s markets. So of course I’m over the moon that I get to do most of our grocery shopping here. There are different vendor stalls both inside and outside for fresh produce, meat, seafood, bread, and even things like housewares, random gifts and clothes. We picked up some groceries, I tossed back a couple of fresh shucked oysters – SOOOO TASTY – and I even bought a rolling grocery bag for future trips since we have no car and are embracing the pedestrian lifestyle.

The weather continued to be nice and warm so I convinced Ben to head out to St. Kilda Beach. I have been dying to get out to the ocean and didn’t care if it was still a little too cold to lay out or get into the water. In my opinion, it’s just great to be at the beach and take in the scenery. Apparently we were not the only ones who had this idea but I managed to get some pictures sans people and it was almost warm enough to make it feel like we should have summer wear on. The water is very clear and I’m looking forward to summer!

St. Kilda Beach is a little like Santa Cruz or the beaches in the Northeast back in the states. There’s a boardwalk that runs along the sand with some nice cafes/restaurants and Luna Park which is a small amusement park with rides and carnival games. We didn’t go into the park but instead walked along the beach and a couple of the piers.  In the rocks, we even got a peak at a penguin!… and a water rat but that was not cute.

Now we’re just resting at home until it’s time to head out for footy!

 

 

It’s Friday and the Sun is Out!

May

It is actually pretty warm today! It is getting towards 20 degrees C though not quite there (upper 60’s F) and with the sun out it feels much warmer… unless the wind blows. It’s a nice break from some of the cold rainy weather we’ve had.

Melbourne is said to be a city in which you can experience all 4 seasons in a single day. The clouds move quickly and the temperatures with them. People dress in layers and always carry an umbrella. All in all, it feels a lot like San Francisco during the colder months, with added rain. However, I’m dreaming of warmer days to come…. you can remind me of that if/when the weather gets above 100 degrees F.

On days like this I excitedly look towards the ocean from our balcony and the water looks so blue. I had to stretch my hand off the balcony to get the attached picture – don’t tell Ben! I hope it’s that blue up close. I can’t wait to explore the coastline but need things to warm up a bit.

In the meantime, the plan is to get out a little this weekend. We’ll do some shopping at the farmer’s markets and we’ve got tickets to our very first footy match! We’ll be seeing the Geelong Cats face off against the Hawthorn Hawks at MCG which is the stadium you can see from our apartment. I tried to take a more close up pic – it’s the open stadium with the big lights to the right of the tower structure.

It’s supposed to be a good match up and rivalry. I’m sure Ben will post more about it along with AFL in general. Footy is very popular here and people ask if we’ve picked a team yet – I guess we better get on it. Perhaps we’ll come out of this game a Cats or Hawks fan. Based on nothing more than the uniforms and logos, I think I prefer the Cats!

Here are a few fun Aussie phrases to carry you into your Friday. They don’t like to pronounce a lot of r’s and if a word ends in “er” then it’s often replaced with an “ah” sound. Stay tuned for weekend updates!

  • Whatta ya after? = What would you like to order?
  • How ya traveling? = How’s it going?
  • Give it a go = Try it
  • No worries = Your welcome or No problem
  • Rubbish/Litter = Trash
  • Fillet = “t” at the end pronounced – sounds like “fill-it”… we both agree, it’s just wrong
  • Coriander = Cilantro
  • Capsicum = Bell Peppers
  • Dinkum = genuine or true

 

 

Settling into Melbourne

May

Here we are in Melbourne, Australia. G’day mates! So let’s get some of the not-so-exciting stuff out of the way. The first couple of weeks were a bit of a blur fighting jet lag and trying to find a place to live, but we managed just fine.

  • Apartment
  • Cell phone
  • Appliances – fridge, washer, dryer
  • Utilities and Internet set up
  • Furniture….

We’ve moved into our new place and it’s great…except that the only furniture we own so far is a bed (for the guest room). Since our belongings, including our own bed, will not be arriving for another 3-4 weeks, we figured it would be important to have something to sleep on. So to all our friends and family who plan to visit, there is a bed awaiting you – you’re welcome!

Otherwise, we are getting ourselves situated. We’ve ventured out a little bit  in between getting all our essentials and logistics in order. However, with the colder [and sometimes wet] weather, we are looking forward to exploring the area as it warms up in the coming Spring. Among other things, the opposite schedule of seasons will be a new one to get used to.

We’ve embraced city living and have moved into a brand new high rise building equipped with all the bells and whistles – concierge service, large gym, lap pool, sauna, rec room, theater room, indoor and outdoor event spaces with full catering kitchen and outdoor grills, theater room, massage room and even a virtual golf room.  Our apartment is definitely fancier than we are. Good thing they didn’t charge us for the frills.

We are on the 35th floor of the building and have a pretty fantastic view. Our balcony faces away from the city center and looks out onto one of the AFL stadium and sports centers. On the far left, we get a glimpse of the Yarra River and on the far right we can see the ocean.  It’s especially pretty at night when everything is lit up.

Ben has started work and seems to have hit the ground running. The Aussie office has wasted no time in putting their new resource to work. I try to remind him that it’s a positive thing since he has a bit to prove with a new office and region and I have absolute confidence that he will blow them away.

I’m starting to think however that this was all a ploy to turn me into a housewife. I’ve spent the past week doing chores and making meals to be ready on Ben’s arrival. I keep telling him that this is not the “lady of leisure” image I quite had in mind. 😉