Opening up

Warm and hearty greetings, dear readers,

Here we go again with a little update of our life Down Under. We are getting some nice early summer weather and hubby is out every morning checking on his plants. Unfortunately they are not always doing so well. Plants that used to grow like weeds in France where we lived before struggle here and even die. 

We went to visit some friends that have bought a house just after we did in a place called Epping.  It took us a good two hours to get there. There were lots of blossoming jacaranda trees there, something that we don't have a lot of where we live.

Their house was built on a previous farm where they grew apples in the old days and neighbouring their property lived a lady called Maria Ann Smith. She grew little green apples that got the name Granny Smith and are now sold all over the world. There is a Granny Smith Memorial Park in her honor but we didn't have time to go there this time.  By coincidence, Granny Smith apples were a clue just two months later on one segment of my favourite Swedish TV program, På Spåret (On the track), and the train trip shown went from Wollongong to Sydney, passing just a few hundred metres from where we live.

Our friends had prepared a delicious lunch with steamed oysters as a first course. Tell you the truth, I was a little hesitant at first since I had had a projectile-vomiting episode involving oysters some time ago but it turned out to be delicious.

The day before this I was invited to a local Swedish girls-night-out dinner which was nice. The fact that we all ordered something Thai beforehand to be delivered at the hostess' place made it easy for everyone. It was a very nice evening. It turns out that there are quite a few Swedes down this way so I look forward to more of theses get-togethers in the future. We can now have 10 people together which is nice.

Two of my friends from the painting group have also been down for a visit. We have not had any painting lessons at all this term due to Covid so it was very nice to see them again. 

And last but not least, we also had the end-of-the-year ladies' lunch at my art-teacher's place in Miranda. She had just had a big gazebo put in, in the back of the yard, so that is where we had our lunch.

Life goes on

Dear friends, 

Life goes on, but very slowly. We are still in a pandemic state but not complete lockdown. As for us, hubby works from home and we don't eat out anymore, nor do we have visitors or get invited anywhere since everybody is afraid. Latest news today is seven new Covid-19 cases, four from overseas hotel quarantine and three locally acquired from a well known source, so it's not over yet but it is dying down at least here in NSW.

However we still have little outings, still discovering unexpected things down here on the South Coast.

Last Saturday we drove down to Nowra and Shoalhaven. We had fish and chips with the pelicans on the Crookhaven river. They might not look so big here in the photos but when they stretch up their necks to get something to eat near where you are sitting, they are scary and very hungry.

Fortunately a fishing boat had just come in and the fishermen were cleaning their fish, so we were left in peace since there was plenty to eat from the fishermen.

Another thing that has kept us busy lately is watching Tour de France, especially the three days when it was going through the area where we used to live near Grenoble. We saw the spot where hubby fell off his bike and also the spot where our son drove into a traffic light when he had just had his licence.

It went right through Montbonnot - St Martin which is the place where we used to live and we were able to see the road that went down to our house. I was not able to spot our neighbours though I am sure some of them were there in the crowd.

Sunday was the last day of the Tour de France and hubby was up to past three o'clock in the morning watching the last ceremony on the Champs Élysées. He really is a great fan and I do remember when we lived in Montbonnot he used to take the kids somewhere close where they were passing and come home laden with freebies from the sponsors. We had a big green hand, for example, hanging on the wall in our son's room for years.

Here are a couple of photos of the flowers that have popped up. It is so much fun to discover a garden that you have not planted; it is full of surprises. The people who sold us the house must really miss their garden.

Have to go and start a new week now. Take care and stay well!!

Watching TV

Dear Readers,

I am a little ashamed to tell you that we do watch a lot of TV these days compared to normal times. Hubby has discovered a channel that shows train programmes almost every night. I guess they are running out of cooking programmes and home improvement programmes and buying-houses programmes to show and now have to be a little bit more innovative.

We have also had a few people over for a meal since that is allowed now. In NSW you can have five different people from different households. We decided to go for a raclette which means you only have to make a salad and boil potatoes and buy raclette cheese and charcuterie and cornichons, and you have a great meal.

Oh, I almost forgot, you also have to have a nice white wine with it. Preferably a wine from Savoy but since that is a little hard to come by here, it can be a nice Pinot Gris or Sauvignon Blanc.

The big square in the middle is the actual raclette machine. It
heats up and each person puts his/her cheese section in it, in
 their separate little dish, and it melts from the heat coming
from the top of the machine. When it is melted you pour it
over your potato.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it but sometimes you are not so lucky. When we lived in Grenoble hubby rang home one day and said that he was bringing home a visiting colleague for dinner. Raclette is an easy solution when you don't feel like cooking so that's what we had. Sadly the guest, whom I had never met before and therefore didn't know much about, was a lactose-intolerant vegan teetotaller. Oh well, I hope he enjoyed the salad and boiled potatoes.

I must show you one of the bushes in our garden that is now in full bloom. It is a camelia and it makes me think of hubby's fortieth birthday. Our garden in France was pretty barren and we were very happy to be given such an exotic bush by our neighbours. There was a lot of talking and suggesting and discussing about where to plant it. Finally it was given a nice shady protected spot with special soil brought in and it seemed happy there. We treated it as our baby.

Now this one here in our Australian garden is exactly the same colour and nothing seems to bother it. Give it rain, storm, a full day's sunshine, and it seems to be doing great. Even better than its sister in France and it is not even a native Australian plant.

I leave you now with a little thought from a local church. We have a little giggle every time we pass by. Who makes up these little sayings!

Another day in lock-down

Newsflash

NSW is now permitting two visitors per household so people are getting excited about Mothers Day this weekend. In some states they even allow more visitors per household but not in Victoria where they have had some new cases of Covid-19. However, we have decided to keep to a zoom meeting and not risk anything. We have had a zoom dinner with old friends in Melbourne which was fun and we have also had an "aperitif" meeting with the kids in Sydney and Africa and Sweden. That was amazing and I hope we can do it again soon.

Now that the restrictions might be lifting I am thinking of all the things I had planned to do with all the free time in lockdown. I was going to learn a new language, maybe Finnish. That hasn't happened. It's too hard. Have you ever tried it?

I was going to write more of my personal story that I started some time ago. I haven't done that either, I can't find it on the computer. In fact there is a list of things I had planned to do but haven't.

However there is one thing I have done and I think many with me. I have cut my fringe, twice. That was an absolute necessity since the hairdressers around here are closed.

I have also unpacked book boxes with books that I haven't seen for years and started re-reading some of them.Among them was a series of Finnish books translated into Swedish written by Kaari Utrio. They are all about historical events mainly set in the Middle ages and focusing on women's plight in those days. They are a little purple-passion-like but great for historical facts. Like my daughter said "history for dummies".

Hubby, on the other hand, has become a foodie and is spending a lot of time planning, shopping and cooking for us. Everyday is a feast far removed from our childhood memories of what eating was like.
I remember dinner being potatoes and fish balls and maybe frozen peas. These fish balls were sold in a can and you could have them with dill sauce or just white sauce or lobster-flavoured sauce. It was a very common and cheaper alternative to fish.

Hubby has fond memories of canned spagetti and meatballs warmed up and if they had leftovers it would be put in the sandwiches they brought to school. He still loves it, and I guess I could give it a go. What I can't have though is rabbit which they apparently had quite often. It was cheap and nourishing.

Cheerio for now. May we soon be rid of this pandemic. Sincere and heartfelt condolences to those who have lost a dear one to it.

Self isolation and social distancing

Dear readers,

Just a quick blog entry to let you know that we are well and hope that you are too. The only people I have spoken to, at a safe distance of course, have been the kids and two friends who came for hubby's birthday two weeks ago.

 

I didn't get the memo about wearing hats

Birthday boy with cake without candles due to
Corona of course

The chef with helper R busy in the kitchen cooking
canard aux oranges and other goodies

Other than that we see people walking by our living room window, mainly dog walkers and hard-core runners. The schools are closed now for the virus and for the Easter holiday so I guess there will be a lot of desperate parents trying to think of things to do with their kids at home. They have closed many of the beaches in Sydney but not down here so I guess they can still take the kids to play on the beach but keeping a safe distance to others.

Well, this turned out to be mainly about the Corona virus but it is hard to talk about anything else. I remember every time there was a flu epidemic when I grew up, for example the Hong Kong flu, my grandmother started reminiscing about the Spanish flu and the horror of that period in her life. She was born in 1896 so she was just a young adult when the great war ended.

Well, I better go and get dressed now since hubby is in a Skype conference for work and I don't want to be seen sitting here in my undies and a tee shirt. He is working from home now during the virus and it comes with its pro and cons mainly pros of course.

Until next time, keep your distance and wash wash wash!

Toilet paper crisis

Dear readers,

Australia is going through a serious crisis right now. It's a war of toilet paper!

We have three rolls left in our household and after that we have to get out to fight for more. The thing is we didn't hoard because we didn't think it would come to this. We saw on TV how people fought each other in the supermarket for the last rolls but it all seemed unreal at the time. But it turned out to be the grim reality.

Most shops near where we live have empty shelves, no toilet paper, no tissues etc.

Hubby came home with some household paper yesterday that we could maybe use in emergency but I am afraid it will clog up the plumbing. I spoke to our daughter and she said that she had quite a bit extra TP so maybe we can go up to Sydney and get some from her. People generally try to go to the toilet at work so as not to have to use TP at home as much.

It reminds me of films we used to see of Russia and people queueing in shops to buy things. Here we have seen scenes on TV of people fighting each other over toilet paper. This is not so surprising since Australians use about 88 toilet paper rolls per person, or slightly less than two rolls a week, over the course of the year, according to data from German market research company Statista. This means a family of four would need about 15 rolls for a 14-day quarantine period.

All this is obviously due to media scaring us over the corona virus. I don't mean to diminish the seriousness of the virus but the daily scare reports certainly do the trick with inducing people to hoard.

We are having a lunch next weekend and one of the people we invited asked what they could bring and I was almost going to say "a toilet paper roll would be nice" but it seemed crass. We will try to manage and hope for the best.

Otherwise all is well and we are slowly getting used to living the beach life down here in Wonoona. We are also slowly getting used to hubby working three days a week. Or let's put it this way. He is getting paid for three days a week but probably working five days a week as he did before.

Ending this with special greetings to women friends everywhere.

2020 and bushfires

Dear all,

As you probably have heard or read by now we have been having terrible bushfires over here in NSW. I think they started in November, and at Christmas it was so bad that people had to cancel travelling in certain areas, mainly because of the smoke. We have been spared but so many have lost homes and farming property. Wildlife has also suffered immensely. It is still going on even though we have had a tiny bit of rain to calm things down a bit. 27 people have also died, they recently had the funerals of two firefighters who had the fire truck over-turn. I think both were fathers of young children. It is so tragic. Ecologists at the University of Sydney estimate around 480 million creatures have been killed in the wildfires, including 8,000 koalas. Officials fear that 30 per cent of the koala colony in New South Wales had been destroyed as 10 million acres of land burnt to the ground in the state. This last bit is from the internet by the way.

On a happier note. We are now well and truly in our new house even though not at all unpacked. That's going to take a while. We had part of the Melbourne gang up for Christmas with our kids as well.

Sister in law and T and T and hubby at the Mount
Kiera outlook.

One of the after dinner activities.

We have also had friends from Grenoble visiting which was very nice. They were vegan/vegetarian so that calmed down the cooking/eating since we all joined them eating vegan then. When there is someone who has made that choice in life you don't want to sit there scarfing down a steak or something. It feels disrespectful.

More and more people seem to have taken the  decision to become vegetarian. I don't know if I am ready for it yet but I sympathise. On the other hand I do like seafood and cheese. It would be hard, bordering on impossible, to forego that.

Today is quite chilly only around +19° C but some days it has been up to almost +40°. That was the case on the day that we moved in. The removal van driven by our son together with a mate broke down and they had to sit in that heat waiting several hours for roadside assistance. This delayed the whole moving procedure. But in the end help arrived and they were pulled up on a bigger truck and taken down here and given another truck in exchange so all good.

I have to go now and unpack some more boxes. Since we lived more than two years in the previous house without unpacking stuff it is all very exciting to find things that you have not seen seen for so long. 

HAPPY 2020 dear friends