Time Out for Women

Last weekend I joined several ladies from our church to attend the Time Out for Women tour presented by the Deseret Book Company here in Sydney.

Now, I'm typically not the type of person who wants to go to these events but somehow I found myself telling a lady at church that I would be glad to buy an extra ticket from her.   And so it happened that I invested money in an event that I wasn't really interested in attending.

But I am so glad I did.  

It was so uplifting and such a breath of fresh air.  Waking up at 6 am to travel to the Olympic Park for the event was definitely worth it!  All of the presenters were so earnest and personal, and they made me realize that I have great potential as a person, and especially as a woman.  The speakers were Laurel Christensen, Virginia Pearce, Brad Wilcox and Sheri Dew.  Hilary Weeks also introduced each speaker and performed many songs that I'm sad to admit I'm not familiar with.  Each of these five individuals had fantastic messages to share.  If Time Out For Women stops by your city, I would definitely suggest checking it out.  And that's all I have to say about that.

Love me some free stuff!  I'm lame, I only took three pictures the entire day and didn't even bring the DSLR.  

Location of the event, at the Sydney Olympic Park.

Inside the venue.

AUSSIE grocery post!

Get excited, y'all!  

True to my word, here she is! My official grocery post in OZ!  Now, Clark was embarrassed to be seen with me taking photos of various items in the grocery store, drawing attention to ourselves and whatnot, so my friend Joanne kindly accompanied on my photo quest.  Joanne has no shame.  She is awesome and I can always count on her.  I did, however, use our point and shoot in my small effort to be discreet.  So I apologize for the flash dots in many of the pictures.  May the Gods of cameras shine upon us in the future and grant us a new point and shoot.  Or maybe Clark will just give in and let us replace his mission point and shoot (yes, it's that old) with a much more advanced one in the near future.  They are so handy to have when you want to, say, take a photo of something at the grocery store.

The cost of bananas is OUTRAGEOUS!  I haven't had one since we left the states in February.  The floods in Queensland damaged much of the banana crops, hence the steep price.  To make it easy on you--since the price of bananas is in kilograms-- a pound of bananas would cost roughly $6.50-$7.00 a pound.  I can't believe people still buy them, but thankfully they do.  At least there are people out there who like bananas enough to support the farmers who had a lousy year.  

Proof that eggs don't need to be refrigerated.  We now leave ours out, too.

Kangaroo steak.  I know I mentioned in previous posts how excited I was to try kangaroo. But after seeing them and petting them, I am now hesitant to eat them.  They are such cute marsupials!  But we must. I know we must.  Our Australian adventure would not be complete without trying some kangaroo steak.  This week...

Cordials are super popular here.  In case you don't know, cordials are drink mixes, simple as that.  Lemon Lime and Bitters is outstanding, by the way.  America needs to learn.

Also known as Sun chips.  Australia needs to learn.

Ginger beer.  AMAZING.  America needs to learn this also.  Has America learned this?  I've never seen it before in the states, but then again, I never even knew it existed.  Love us some Ginger beer.

I would be so cool rockin' a 40 oz bottle of some Ginger Beer.  Totally in with the barely 21 college crowd still.  Totally.

Long neck or stubby, it's all good.  Yum yum yum yum yum.

Tim Tams, our chocolate cookie of choice.  I wish we could show some fellow Americans the Tim Tam Slam.  But no one came to visit us.  I'm not bitter at all.  Ok, just a little.   American friends and family of ours, you totally missed out.  

Our other cookie of choice?  Orange Slices.  I do believe that Americans have a very different acquired taste than Australians.  We haven't met any Aussies who like these.  Whenever someone brings an assortment pack of Arnott's cookies in to work, Orange Slice cookies are always the last ones left.  I'm always the one to finish them off.  And I am more than happy to do so. 

Anzac cookies, aka oatmeal cookies.  Aussie patriotic cookie of choice.

Weet-Bix, an Australian staple for sure.  The cheapest cereal by far.  Load on the sugar, they have no taste.  We happen to fancy Weet-Bix and it keeps us regular.  Just sayin'.

Sultana Bran, aka raisin Bran.  Apparently the Aussie version is made with white grapes while the American version is made with red grapes. 

Chocolate bar of choice.

Muesli bars, aka granola bars.  Muesli is just too hard to say.  Granola may have more syllables, but it is easier to pronounce.

Vegemite.  Tastes like bouillon.  Definitely an Australian acquired taste.  

Teach 'em while they're young.
The children in our Sunbeam class at church bring snacks each week.  Two of the children always bring Vegemite sandwiches.

Ice cream is sort of expensive. Two boxes for $13??  But they do have the awesome Magnum bars that are all over Europe! Yesssssssssssssss!

Cute Cadbury chocolates with Australian animals.

Don't worry, the alcohol has been removed (fine print at the bottom of the label).  Australia has not driven me to drink.  I just couldn't help but try this.    

  I really wanted to take some pictures of the Confectionary sign in the candy aisle.  But I chickened out as a few employees were restocking shelves.  And capsicums.  Green/red/yellow peppers = capsicums.  The sign was too small to see with our antiquated camera.

I hope you feel as if you were strolling the grocery aisles with me, looking at foreign foods with strange names.

Thanks for joining me.

Fail.

In our attempt to be righteous, we did not succeed.  Clark and I had it all planned out.  We would leave our apartment at a specified time and take three different trains to Carlingford, the closest train station to the Sydney Temple, and walk another 15 minutes to arrive at the Temple doors.  A total travel time of about 2 hours one way (meaning over 4 hours both ways).  Only when we got to the doors they were locked.  They didn't want none of our Americana-ness inside the House of the Lord.  

Actually, it turns out that the Temple is only opened in the morning and in the evenings, not during the middle of the day when we decided to go.  Guess I didn't check the schedule properly on the website.  A total fail.  And a lot of train riding for not a whole lot of action.

Maybe next time?  

If there is a next time...time is running out!

Yum Cha, Watamolla, and gorging.

Last weekend we had a day-o-fun with our friends Joanne and Ivan.  We started out the day with Yum Cha at an extremely overpriced and mediocre Chinese restaurant.  We still love you, Joanne, for your noble effort to introduce us to the wonderful world that is Yum Cha.  May Clark and I learn to appreciate it in the future at a less expensive mediocre restaurant that doesn't charge each individual for that damn tiny tea cup.  

Aren't they cute? Our dear friends, Joanne and Ivan.

I was hoping Joanne would capture the ambiance, but she seemed just to focus on our faces.

After our Yum Cha experience, we drove into the Royal National Park for a little hiking action.  We did the Watamolla hike to Marley Beach, only we didn't quite make it to the beach.  Clark and I were limited on time. We overbooked our day and had to meet up with a Russian couple from church for dinner.  Dang, we are just so popular.

The first part of the walk we trekked through bush.  I. Don't. Like. Bush.  Luckily, this part of the hike only lasted about 10 minutes. 

Ohhhh, such clear water!

Clark and Ivan...posing.

Ahhhh, that gosh darn rugged Australian coastline I love so much!

Photo-bombing what would have been a really nice picture of Clark and Ivan.

Gorgeous.

Enjoying the view from the edge of the cliff.

Don't let her face fool you.  Joanne also liked enjoying the views from the cliff edge.  

Unbelievable colors.

The closest we came to Marley Beach.  I don't feel too bad about having to turn back so soon.  It was pretty chilly.

Rachel + Clarkman

Some more of the gosh darn coastline.

I'm not quite sure what Clark is doing, but look at those colors!  

So bright and so vivid!

Mid air showing off what appears to be a semi-graceful leap.  Thank goodness I didn't break anything.  After working in the public hospital system, I know I never want to be a patient here!

Sadly, we had to leave this wonderful part of the Royal National Park.  Good-bye coastline.

Hope to see you again really soon!

Oh, and our Russian meal with our Russian friends was amazing.  And then afterwards we bought a couple of pizzas and went over to Ivan and Joanne's for a movie.  (We may or may not gorge ourselves quite often in this country.  Healthy habits to begin in Philly, in August, TBA. )  

What an awesome day.

Bush walking, bowling & more explorations of Sydney.

For the sake of keeping things simple, I am condensing what should be three separate blog posts into just one.  What can I say, I strive for simplicity.

The other week we went on a bush walk with our friend Joanne.  Australia doesn't really have forests so we can't call it a forest walk.  Australia has "bush" and thus it is a bush walk. I love hiking and walking/wandering aimlessly BUT I have officially decided I don't like bush walks.  I'm never prepared with the right clothing (i.e. long pants) and I hate when the bushes constantly scrape my legs.  It's unpleasant.  And makes me want to scream.  But I like my friend Joanne and my husband Clark so I decided not to unleash my temper and 5 year old personality on our walk.  That is willpower, my friends.

Some poor soul is completely devastated about the cyclists... READ THIS

The first part of the walk.  Nice wide path, just the way I like 'em. Here in Australia, at least.

Joanne wanted me to get a picture of her with the pretty flowers, and then Clark told me to get a picture of him poking Joanne with a stick.  So I managed to fulfill two demands in one photo.  Awesome.

I guess I'm just a little more flexible than Clark.  I am totally going to do the splits by the end of the year.  And a pull up.  I have yet to do one!

Trying to make Joanne feel awkward.

I thought I was jumping into Clark's photo but it turns out he was aware of what I was doing the whole time.  Dang it.

Joanne climbing a tree.

Crawling and climbing on natural rock formations in the bush.

Sydney from a distance!

We thought this waterfall would be a site to behold.  The hiking guides make it out to be something amazing.  Not that it isn't amazing, but you know what, I'm waaaaay taller than it.  So no, it's not that amazing.

Playing with the aperture. 

Joanne's photo of Clark that I just love.  

Sweet reflections.

Clark found a javelin in the bush.  He gots skills.

I just love the forehead kiss.  Gets me every time.

 So the bush walk basically started at one train station and ended at another.  After our incredibly long walk--maybe the longest walk I've ever been on?--we treated ourselves to Cheese & Bacon Balls.  Thank you, Cheetos.  Clark did not partake but we thoroughly enjoyed our cheesy bacon balls!  Maybe we just bought them because the name is so fun to say: Cheese & Bacon Balls.

Then...a few nights later it was Joanne's husband Ivan's birthday.  Since Joanne had to work the evening shift at the hospital, Clark and I spent the day with Ivan.  And at night Ivan wanted to bowl.  So to the bowling Alley we went.  

I am embarrassed of Clark's form.  Just downright embarrassed.

Ahhh yes, the bowling leg kick. Proper form, Clark! 

Ivan's got it down, too.

I, on the other hand, roll too slow and can't even throw the damn ball straight.  So I can't even focus on a proper leg kick after I let go of the ball.  PS, I asked Clark to not get an "ass shot" but he didn't understand that concept.  Sorry about the booty shot, y'all.  

 And...just this past Tuesday Clark and I went on another excursion to the city.  We went back to Kings Cross initially, to take pictures of the nasty hotel we had to stay in one of our first nights here in Australia.  But Clark wants to post those pictures along with his own story in his own words--hopefully sooner than later.  From Kings Cross we ventured to the botanical gardens area, which is just east of downtown.

Here we are a Woolloomooloo Bay wharf.  Way too many o's in that one.  

Old steps leading up to the botanical gardens.

St. Mary's Cathedral and the tower.

St. Mary's.

We went in the Cathedral to look around.  Gorgeous stained glass.  We weren't allowed to take pictures, but man, it was beautiful.  In my future castle I want 75% of my windows to be stained glass.  Biblical or nature themed, it's all good.

Hyde Park.

The Sydney Hospital.  Still in working order?  You know it.  

 The mascot (??) outside the front of the hospital. 

A beautiful fountain in the hospital courtyard.

Martin Place.

The Rocks.

Cockatoo perching.

Ahhhh, the shot I have been waiting months to take.  The Opera House and Bridge!  I was hoping for darkness so that the Opera House and Bridge would be all lit up, but we had other time commitments to keep.  A sunset-kissed photo works pretty well, I suppose.

Thank you, kind stranger, for taking a picture of us, even if we do block out a good portion of the Opera House.

Downtown Sydney from the botanical gardens.

And that same night we had a belated birthday dinner for Ivan at an Indian restaurant.  I so wanted to steal the water cup.  I found it fascinating that I could be drinking out of something that should have flowers potted in it.  And garlic and cheese naan is the bomb.  Diggity.  Yes, I just typed that.  And I won't erase it.

SOFT DRINK.  No frills, indeed.

I can't wait to do a grocery post.  I must get on that asap.  There are some weird food items here.  And I'm not just talking about kangaroo meat.  Weet-Bix, cordial, sultanas...