Rebas' Adventure in Ozzieland

We had a rent inspection this week. Apparently it is law in WA (Western Australia, usually just called by its initials) that rented properties are inspected every 3 months. In the house I lived at before with Melissa, they were selling the property and were not interested in the house anymore so I never experienced an inspection there. The owners or the company handling the proper send you a letter so you have a weeks’ notice along with a check list of what needs to be done. The check list only talks about the walls, bathroom, yard, etc, however you are expected to also make your bed, do the dishes and have all surfaces clean and tidy. We keep a pretty clean house (except my bedroom which always seems to be in a state of pig-sty-ness, I really don’t know why) so we only had to make sure that the floor was freshly moped and the vent over the stove was wiped down. Still, since we did our cleaning on the weekend and they didn’t come to inspect until Tuesday, it made for an uncomfortable few days where you felt like you had to wash every glass right after you used it and you couldn’t leave a pair of shoes in the living room. We got a 100% on the inspection, yay._________It was my turn to make dinner for bible study this week. I was trying to think of something good that I hadn’t made before and that could be prepared in under an hour at someone elses house. I came up with Sloppy Joes; really quite easy. No one had eaten them before but several people had heard of them from TV and were excited to taste one (I can’t say I remember every see people on TV eat sloppy joes). They were a big hit, my friend Heidi (who is my cooking partner) brought a veggie tray with dip and we had potato chips as well. A rather summery meal for the start of winter, oh well.__________ I am so bummed, I woke up with a sore throat today. I really hope I don’t sick again. Or at least I will not be as sick as I was before. It is defiantly, excuse me, it is definitely going around. I will try for more pictures soon. (Mom, that correctly was for you)

Oh my word is had been a solid month since I have written. What have I been doing, you may ask? Well, for starters I was sick. Sick, sick, sick. No stomach problems, thank goodness, just a head cold that would not go away. You know how sometimes you get a cold and you just have the runny nose and so on but you can still function; and then there is the cold that hits you in the head so hard you can barely think and all you can do is curl up in your PJ’s with a cup of tea for days on end. That was me. The one thing I did over Easter was have my friend Sharifah over for dinner with her family. Sharifah is a postgrad student in food science and we have desks in the same room. We have been getting to know each other all year. She is married with two little kids, and is originally from Malaysia. She is also Muslim; we have had some really interesting conversations about religion. I really enjoy talking to her. It is really bad sometimes because we will end talking for 2 hours during the day when we should be working. Hee hee. It was good to meet her family and we had a fun night. I was all worried because I didn’t know how to cook food that was Halal (Muslim food laws), it turns out there are only rules about how meat is prepared, so I went the safe route and made a vegetarian meal (eggplant parmesan). _____________My class that I am teaching is almost over. I have really enjoyed teaching. I was so scared the first time I had to mark (grade) assignments. I felt like I was holding the student’s fate in my hands, what does one do with so much power? I hope I get to teach this class again next term._________ a funny thing happened to me yesterday; I was sitting outside taking a short break when some high school girls, on campus for a school trip of some kind, ask me to take their picture and then proceeded to lay on their stomaches on a table outside the coffee shop. I had just heard about this, it is called “planking” and people are taking these photos all over the place and posting them online. I had just become aware of this pastime because they had said on the news earlier this week that someone had “planked” on a high balcony while drunk and had fallen to their death. I resisted telling the high school girls about the news story. ________________Some new ‘Aussie-isms” for you. A very Aussie way of saying afternoon is arvo. Ex: “I am having coffee with her this arvo”. Now to pronounce this in the Aussie accent drop the R so is sounds like aw-voh. I really like this phrase for texting as it is the shortest way to write ‘afternoon’. Another one is jug and pitcher, basically reverse the two. Over here no one uses the word ‘pitcher’ and if you ask for the cylindrical plastic container with a lid that is holding juice, you ask for the jug. I have asked people if they know what a pitcher is and they describe a container with a large round body that narrows to a small neck. A.k.a. a jug!___________ It has turned cold and rainy here and we are definably in winter. It never gets below 35 F but it is still a change from the summer. I kind of like the rain it makes me feel cosy and homelike. However it is a bit difficult to do laundry as we have no dryer, right now our living and dining room is full of hanging clothes. Now you must be wondering about my title for this post? Well, I was trying to find out if you could buy caramel corn and my friend said there was a brand called Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs. I laughed out loud. What a great name! I swore to buy some ASAP.I have done so and it tasted just like the caramel corn you get in those big decorated tins at Christmas. I don’t think they have those here; I will have to ask around.