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Apparently Scott is not sick of papaya salad, because last weekend he spent $8 on a green (unripe) papaya. We used it to make a buttload of papaya salad, with basa filet mixed in. It was incredible.

It was easy to shred the papaya with our Thai vegetable shredder thingy. And I used our pressure cooker to perfectly cook the fish and green beans in 4 minutes.

I didn’t really have a recipe, I just mixed shredded green papaya, bean shoots, steamed green beans, cilantro, cherry tomatoes, peanuts, and the basa filets, plus a sauce made from lots of fish sauce and lime juice, and a bit of brown sugar, chili flakes, sesame oil and salt. It was great.

I made mango shakes to go with our papaya salad, to complete the holiday experience. Frozen mango cubes, mango juice, ice cubes, simple syrup and water blended up until it’s silky smooth. So good.

A 15 year old Melbourne kid named Morgan spends all his free time making doughnuts. School is out this week so he had a pop-up shop all week in Windsor, near where we live. I’d heard about him from a bunch of different sources so I went to check it out this morning.

I forgot my phone in the car so I couldn’t take a picture of the exact descriptions, but clockwise from the top: Cookies & Cream with custard syringe, Cinnamon Nutella, Lollies with strawberry filling, and Vanilla Chocolate Glaze with raspberry syringe.

The doughnuts are soft and fluffy, not oily at all. I liked that the glazes are made of chocolate. And the fillings are generous, there must have been a few tbsp of Nutella in the cinnamon one!! My favourite was the Cookies & Cream.

Bistro Morgan Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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This week started off kind of bad, but it got better, thank goodness.

I was feeling really sad and lonely. It’s hard being away from Rosemarie and the rest of my family and friends. And most of my old friends from Melbourne don’t live here any more. So… time to make some new friends, which is hard as a generally awkward and introverted person. Finally I decided to stop being a baby and follow Leslie’s tips about making friends in a new city.

So now I am a yes person.

I already met some nice people at an internet meetup the other night. And I stopped wearing my headphones at the gym. I think I’ll try and join some kind of board game group? Or maybe take some lessons in something. I dunno.

The other thing that got better this week is that SCOTT GOT A JOB!!! Woohoo!!! Things were getting a bit stressful in that department! He got the call on Tuesday for an interview A FEW HOURS LATER. And then that night they asked for him to come back the next day for a second interview. And then he STARTED the next day! SO FAST. It’s only a 3 month contract for now but at least he got something.

So now I have the house to myself to concentrate on my Netflix studying.

Scott is feeling much better these days. He is able to eat bad things without pain but he’s still not drinking alcohol and keeping the healthy diet except for Sundays. So that means I have to drink our trivia prize pitchers by myself, haha.

Weightlifting is going well. It’s so good to get back to it after six months off. I’m weaker, obviously, but I don’t get as sore… so I think there is still some memory in the muscle. Excited to get strong.

I did a little re-design of the ol’ blog. It should look a bit better on mobile devices now. If you are on a phone or tablet you can find the sidebar with the search, Twitter feed, links and stuff if you click on the little gear icon on the top left.

 

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Every avocado I’ve bought so far in Australia has been perfect. In Vancouver we always had to plan ahead and buy super hard avocados at least 4 days ahead of time, otherwise you’d probably be buying a mushy avocado skin bag full of brown yuck. Here you can buy a perfectly ripe avo ON THE DAY, with no bruises. It is incredible.

I think I’m up to about 70% looking the right way when I’m crossing the street.

I still can’t tell if trams are coming or going though. Why does the front and the back have to look the same??? LOL.

We’ve moved in to our apartment in St Kilda. We even have furniture and stuff now! Including my first real bed ever. How grown up. We also made sure to get a table big enough to play Agricola and 7 Wonders because we’re not actually that grown up. ;)

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After 3 months, 8 countries, 9 flights, 400+ km of walking, 1000s of km by bus and train, 4 ferries we are HOME. Our new home in Melbourne, Australia.

We had an epic time.

Highlights included:

  1. Meeting up with so many friends and family, especially the ones we hadn’t seen in years. (Kazue, Chris, Jono, Kirsten, Annukka, Shaun, Karen, Archie, Mirjam, Kees, Frank, Eveline, Rhiannon, Johan, Bonnie Mae, Lieven, Kai, King Ling, Isabel, Sarah, Daniel)
  2. Getting our ticket into heaven. More about this later.
  3. Wine. So much cheap Spanish and French wine. Until Scott got sick, then wine consumption plummeted.
  4. Cheese. So delicious.
  5. AirBnb. Most of them were just lovely, and so much better and cheaper than staying in hostels.
  6. FlixBus. Such a cheap way to get around Europe.
  7. Daily massages in Thailand. So good.
  • Things we lost: one pair of socks each, my (already quite broken) phone, one water bottle, skin, weight (Scott).
  • Coolest new food: goose barnacles
  • Best cocktail: Belt Buckle (passionfruit nectar + champagne)
  • Best museum exhibit: Picasso sketches of buttholes and naked ladies

Anyway right now we are staying with Scott’s parents. Scott has been applying for jobs like crazy, and I was looking for apartments. We just found out yesterday that our application for a place in St Kilda was accepted so I guess we are moving out soon! It’s just a 6 month lease so we can move closer to our future jobs if we need to.

I can’t do nuclear medicine for a while though. The committee decided I have to write the exam, at the end of October. I haven’t decided yet what I will do until then, possibly some temp office work or volunteering at a hospital, or something else part time while I study. Or 24/7 crafts?

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PREPARE FOR CUTENESS!!

Scott took Noah and Beau to the zoo when they were each around 4 years old, so this visit was good timing for Seth’s turn. We took him to the Healesville Sanctuary for the day, which was also a treat for me since I hadn’t been there before.

We watched a really cool platypus show. Platypuses (platypi?) are way smaller than I expected. That girl picked Seth out of the whole crowd to come up and feed an eel but he was too shy and passed (while hiding behind Scott). Aww.

Then we went to a birds of prey show where birds swooped right over our heads. Very exciting. A wild wedge tail eagle kind of ruined the end of the show by scaring away all the demo birds though. Seth is showing off his feather we found earlier.

We saw koalas, emus, dingos, kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, and lots more too.

Seth really really wanted to get a bird on his arm. I was impressed by how quietly and carefully he would go towards the birds. Much patience!

Having a plate of food helped, but he really wanted it on his actual arm.

So close.

Then we drove back to his house and we all drew pictures of each other and jumped on the trampoline (I taught Seth popcorn) until Michelle and the other boys came home. A fun day!!