Lizards & Sauces

Funny musings from the past month>>>>>



Following a sleepover birthday party with six of her girlfriends, Ponygirl found herself barricaded with me in our Holden Viva stationwagon as an Aussie lizard walked across our carport. Ponygirl took this "alone" time to share the fact that she and her friends spent some of the previous night talking about boys in their class. This is the first time this has happenend in her crowd and she didn't know quite what to think. Then came the wise words of wisdom from my smart and savvy ten-year old...."Mom, I think boys are kind of like that lizard. They are interesting to look at, but I wouldn't want to touch one." What more is there to say???





English homework...who knew that in an english-speaking country like Australia, that English homework could be such a challenge? Ponygirl asks, "Mom, what is a homophone for the word "source"? Source? Homophone? I could quickly list off many rhyming words..."force", "course" but a homophone??? Well, a quick email exchange with the teacher revealed the answer...."sauce"! So funny...Australians pronounce source and sauce thusly /sose/ (long "o"). We would never have figured that one out.



Humidity....OMG has it been humid....for weeks. 80% humidity with not a breeze to be felt. I'm a Houstonian...I know my humidity. In Texas, however, you do have some hope of cooling off. Here, you just walk around with a film. I can open up my entire downstairs but without a breeze, forget it. Thank goodness we have a dehumidifier in the basement. Beautiful, multi-million dollar houses that some of my friends are living in have mold and mildew growing all over their laundry rooms. Electricity is so unbelievably expensive here, that many people just don't use dehumidifiers...well, that was until this summer. Every morning after BigDog Daddy and Skierdude have showered, I put their towels in the dryer or else they are still damp the next day....unbelievable! Shops, restaurants, the children's school and most movie theaters do not have air-conditioning. Needless to say, frizzy hair piled ontop of heads and loose fitting clothing have replaced the tres fashionable Sydney chic look this summer. When discussing the greatest inventions of the 20th century... air conditioning has got to be one of the tops.

Olympics coverage- I remember sitting down for those two weeks of the Olympics each year and watching the competitions in prime time with my family. You got to hear the stories of, for example, the Finnish cross-country skier as he rose each morning for his training run across Lapland before heading to the small school where he was the teacher. For those two weeks every four years, you didn't watch Cheers or Seinfeld because they were pre-empted by Olympic coverage. This is not the Aussie tradition. Morning coverage begins @8:00AM and continues through around noon. Then, there is a 10:00PM to 12:30AM review show. If you want to see, for example, all of the ice skating, then you order that channel from your cable provider for around $30.00. Since we already pay an unbelievable amount for our cable and internet, this extra option is not going to happen. The same was true at the Summer Olympics. I didn't see one minute of gymnastics. I saw Nastia Liukin on a tv show and had no idea who she was. This coverage does make you feel quite isolated from it all, but, on the other hand, you do not miss your prime time shows.

The big salad- Elaine, from Seinfeld, would love this one... At lunch with some friends, I found the all-time best "Big Salad". Here it is...baby spinach, cubed greek feta, a huge portion of thinly sliced prosciutto, freshly sliced thick wedges of peach all dressed with honey. All you need is some italian bread on the side and a lovely glass of sav blanc and you are in heaven. Try it .... it's amazing.

I promise not to complain too much more about the heat and humidity here as many of you dig out of the snow...just know that as you are freezing in your sheets, I am sticking to mine.