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HULLO AGAIN.

As you probably already heard, I passed my exam. What a relief. I still think about it sometimes and revel in the amazing feeling that I don’t have to become a taxi driver.

But funny (?) story, I got another email last week from my new case officer that said “as your application deadline is rapidly approaching and you still haven’t told us if you passed your exam, do you want to withdraw your application?”. WAT!!?! I did not think that I would have to tell THEM that I passed THEIR exam. But apparently I did, and then my registration was finalized a couple hours later. Ah bureaucracy, so fun.

And then speaking of silly bureaucracy… I got a letter from the Australian Electoral Commission saying that I was not registered as voter at this address. Umm duh. So then I had to send THEM back a form telling them that I’m not a citizen! WHY ARE THESE THINGS MY PROBLEM??

I wonder what else I haven’t notified people about.

Anyway so I’m finally able to apply for jobs. I applied for all three that are posted right now. I have absolutely no clue how much competition there will be. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long for me to get a job.

It was real hot today. 35ºC. And the forecast for tomorrow… 16. Melbourne, you crazy.

Some pictures:

We had some friends over to watch hockey a few weeks ago. I made Nanaimo squares for the first time ever! They turned out DELICIOUS! Although Scott and I agree that the middle layer should be the thickest, not the bottom layer, so I would probably adjust the ratios when I make them again.

I used this recipe, but had to use smashed up cookies instead of graham cracker crumbs because they don’t exist here.

L-R: Kathy (aunt), April (niece), Brett (bro), Beau (nephew), Vicky (mum)!

April had her 3rd birthday party at a park. It was watermelon themed. There was a bbq, and footy kicking, and presents galore! I think she had a good day.

We also went to Blairgowrie for a night, way down near the tip of the Mornington Peninsula, on the other side of Port Philip Bay. We stayed with Shaun and Karen and baby Archie, and the boys went golfing one afternoon. We got to try fresh abalone that their friend caught that afternoon. I didn’t take any pictures the whole time though, whoops.

That’s all I can think of right now.

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Cassia invited me for a visit last week and since I was just bumming around and flexible enough to get cheap flights to Adelaide… I accepted.

Extra leg room is so wasted on me.

Jill, Cassia and I went on a drive to Hahndorf. It was rainy and sunny and warm and freezing, but we had a nice little stroll through town and lunch in a cozy cafe with fireplaces.

After lunch we drove through the hills a bit on the way to Mt Lofty. I found a koala immediately after getting out of the car. No, the novelty of koalas has not worn off for me yet. They are so cute!

And then we went out for a super delicious French-Vietnamese dinner at Cliché. I got to try the cheese soufflé, crispy pork belly (!!!) and beef cheeks that were incredibly tender. All great.

The next day Cassia and I did a lot of quality hanging out. We also went for a walk through the botanical gardens and through the city. So many bats! Bats are cool.

Cassia had to work on Tuesday so I spent the day with Jill. It was Melbourne Cup day so we went to a pub and wore fascinators and watched the race. We bought a few of those random horse tickets, and one of ours came in second. Woot!

That night we all went out to do trivia at a nearby bar. We won three out of four free jugs, haha! (We gave two of them away.) And we ended up coming in second. Not bad for a team of foreigners. Pablo knows abs!

Cassia and I before going to work/going home. Thanks for a great visit Dafoe’s!! I had a nice time, and it definitely helped distract myself from waiting for my test results.

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A couple weeks ago Scott and I went to Dexter in Preston for a BBQ dinner. The restaurant has a 4.9 rating on Zomato so I had very high expectations, and it lived up to them! It was delicious.

Coleslaw, brisket with bone marrow mash, pickles and slaw, pigs head croquette slider, and fried chicken slider. We ordered way too much, since I expected the sliders to be smaller.

The brisket was super duper tender and delicious. The bone marrow mash potatoes were soooooo rich and amazing, with crispy garlic on top. The slaw was fine, but we wouldn’t have ordered it if I had realized the meat would come with slaw too. Too much slaw. The pork slider was our least favourite, it was a little dry, but the fried chicken slider was a super crunchy flavour sensation, my favourite dish of the night.

If When we go back, I will order the fried chicken slider with a side of mash, and that will definitely be enough for me, as their sliders are almost full burger size!

Dexter Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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Sometimes I think about when I very first arrived in Australia, on July 1st, 2008, all alone-y on my own-y.

Without knowing, I got one Aussie thing completely wrong, and one Aussie thing completely right.

THE WRONG

After a 12 hour flight from Beijing, I arrived in Sydney and blearily walked through customs and immigration were an officer lady said “How ya going?” in a friendly way.

I thought about how I was going to be getting to the couchsurfing house I had arranged and replied “BY BUS”.

I found out days later that “how ya going” simply means “how are you”. HAHAHA. She must have thought I was funny.

THE RIGHT

I’m by myself. It’s hot. I’m thirsty.

I walk into a bar and ask for a LEMONADE.

The flavour isn’t quite what I expected, but it quenches the thirst.

Weeks later I find out that Aussie’s call Sprite-type pop “lemonade”. And actual lemonade does not exist (cry).

Hahahaha.

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So it’s been a week since I wrote my exam.

I’m not sure I passed, and I’m not just saying that in a fake humble way.

I definitely knew a lot of the questions for sure. But then there were a whole bunch that I either had no idea at all, or I could only narrow down to 50/50… and then I got home and looked up as many as I could remember and almost all of them I guessed wrong. Soooo… not good. I feel like I probably got 74%, and I need 75%+ (they decide after they look at the results) to pass.

I won’t get the results for another 1-2 weeks. Please cross all your fingers for me. I’m really not sure what we will do if I failed.

In the meantime, I have been surprisingly busy! I had a great week at the gym, with a new PR benchpress x5, and random strangers complimented me EVERY DAY. Weird! I have also been running errands, doing all the dumb tasks I had put off while studying, cooking, and crossstitching. That’s pretty great. And also brainstorming for a new Etsy business idea I have.

Tomorrow we are having people over to watch hockey, and then Sunday I fly to Adelaide to visit Cassia for a few days.

All for now, I need to go to bed because we are getting up early to try and get some free Icebreaker clothes at the newly renovated mall early tomorrow morning.