Linda's Notes

Athena’s New Eurotrike Ultima!

Linda — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:42:54 +0000

She’s been lobbying for this for a while. Every time we were at the park and she’d see one, she’d walk over and check it out, climb on it, look at me and smile. We’d pass one on the street and she would point and babble, which I took to mean something along the lines of “Mom/Dad, can I please have one of those cool trikes? I really really want one!”. The toy shop in Balmain is closing this location, and were having 30% off their trikes. So I showed up before they opened on the first day of the sale. Turns out it was the last trike and was the floor model, so they gave me 50% off. She LOVES her trike and could spend all day riding it.

I swear, Officer…

Linda — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:00:34 +0000

This morning Athena and I went out to run errands. As we were driving back through the Crescent, there was a big line of police officers with a roadblock set up. They were diverging all traffic over to the side of the road. I figured it was a license and/or registration check. Nope, it was a random alcohol breath test. The officer asked me if I’d been drinking. I, of course, said ‘no’, but what I was really thinking was “are you crazy?!? I have my baby in the car and it’s 11:30am, of course I haven’t been drinking, you idiot!”. Then he held a device up near my face and my initial reaction was to ask “is that thing clean?”. Turns out you don’t have to actually blow into the machine, they just hold it in front of your mouth while you count to 10. Before I got to 8, he waved me on. I guess the machine can tell pretty quickly when the only thing you’ve had to drink in a week is water, gatorade and tea. Now, if it had been a caffeine measuring device, that would be a different story. I’m not sure why but the car in front of me was taking a long time to clear out. Eventually they did let her go and I was able to move along as well.

unhappy camper

Linda — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:26:54 +0000

Athena is not a happy camper this afternoon. She woke up from her nap in such a state of fuss and unhappiness. The pink spot on her left cheek is telling me it’s that darned lower incisor that just won’t come in. Took almost an hour of cuddling to get her calmed down. Now she seems well enough to go to play-time with her buddy Mitch.

Taxes, taxes, taxes

Linda — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:41:00 +0000

I’ve lived in Sydney for so long that I forgot that when I order stuff in the US for delivery in California, they add sales tax.

Countdown to move to California

Linda — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:56:51 +0000

Countdown To California

New Year’s Eve in Sydney

Linda — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:01:59 +0000

Athena learning to walk in Tasmania

Linda — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:23:54 +0000

More videos only a Grandparent would love

Videos only a Grandparent would love

Linda — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:39:36 +0000

Videos only a Grandparent would love

Doorstep Organics

Linda — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:09:40 +0000

Food here has become increasingly expensive. I’m not sure if it’s just becoming more expensive overall, or if it’s becoming more expensive for us because the US$ has been steadily losing value against the AUD$. It’s more than 50% more expensive for us to live here now than it was when we moved here in January. The grocery store within walking distance is OK but not great. It’s small compared to the other stores I prefer but those are further away and require either a bus ride or putting Athena in the car and driving to them. The fruits and vegetables at the local grocery store are not great. Actually, they have a really poor selection and very few organic options. There are two fruit and veggie shops on Darling Street in the main part of Balmain, another one or two in Balmain East and at least two in Rozelle. All of those have much nicer selections of fruit and veggies but they are really expensive. I once paid $8 for about four bananas. FOUR! There was no price listed on the shelf, and Athena and I both wanted bananas, so I figured ‘how expensive can they be?’. Well, the answer was $8! Back at the fancy grocery store we went to at home in San Mateo, those same bananas would have been about $2.

Then there is About Life (the equivalent of Whole Foods) in Rozelle. I really like this place and I can get Amy’s Organic Salsa there which makes it one of my favorite places in Sydney. They also have a decent selection of organic fruits and vegetables. You know how most people call Whole Foods “whole paycheck”? Well, you could certainly call About Life “whole paycheck” as well. Yesterday I stopped by for some coffee for Adam (fair-trade and organic certified, of course – he could not care less, but I do) and a selection of fruits, veggies, and a few miscellaneous things and spent about $100. These groceries easily fit into my two little reusable grocery bags, and there was some room left in them.

I was also disappointed that they were out of Athena’s favorite crackers, so I’ll probably have to go back later this week. They are regularly out of stuff, which does not happen back in California. Back home, you don’t go to the store and find they are out of tea, all teas, not just the one you wanted; or out of black beans; or only have two kinds of coffee left when last time they have fifteen. That just does not regularly happen back home but this happens regularly here.

So this morning I placed our first order with Doorstep Organics. A friend told me about this place yesterday and we are excited to try it out. The organic fruits and veggies are a lot cheaper than at Whole Paycheck and the organic eggs and milk were more than 20% cheaper than at Woolies, AND they deliver! They deliver! I’ll write that again: they deliver! I don’t have to push Athena and her stroller up a steep hill, shop with her fussing that she thought we were headed to the park, and then balance bags of heavy groceries while pushing the pram back downhill. I will note that we have previously ordered home delivery groceries from Woolies, but their fruits and veggies are not so good, so we haven’t really done that much home delivery from them.

Interested in what we ordered? Well, we ordered the Basics Box, which will be some mix of fruits and veggies that they will pick for us, some rindless bacon rashers, organic chicken sausages (this is the only place I’ve ever seen these for sale in Australia), and some organic full cream milk (that would be for Athena). Expect a report back in a few days on what we actually got in the box and what we think of our order.

Baby talks!

Linda — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:26:29 +0000

This morning as Adam was leaving for work, Athena said to him “bye bye Dada”.
Yesterday while we were having some chill time watching Dora, Dora’s character asked “do you see a sign?” and Athena pointed at the correct side of the TV and said “there it is”.
This morning as we were leaving the gym’s child-minding area, she turned to her little friend, Maya, waved and said “bye bye”.
She amazes me every day.

Note: I wasn’t prompting her, she’s just talking