My stuff...

It seems my stuff is coming next week. The ship is coming but I have to wait for my stuff to clear Customs and Quarantine. That may take anywhere from ten to fifteen business days. All I know is I can't wait to start opening my 48 boxes of stuff. Winter is almost here, and I need my sweaters and boots. My plates, cookware and my framed needlepoint pictures to be unwrapped, I cannot wait, because then the apartment will feel a little more homey. 

A bit of venting...

When I left New York, I was very upset, I was leaving all my friends, and my family and my much loved cats behind. The people I worked with on a daily basis I missed and cried over. My true friends I tried to not look into their eyes or I would have been bawling upon our goodbyes. Over the past 2 months tomorrow, I have noticed only 2 of my friends have made any kind of effort to make and keep contact, one has made a half attempt which fails miserably with today's technology. While at work I can keep Facebook open, I just don't have time to start conversations as I am working. I can, when messaged respond and have a conversation, but not many have taken the step to say "hey". It kinda hurts, especially when these same people tell other people how much they miss me. Really? You miss me? What kind of effort are you making to contact me? People who don't work expect me to contact them on my Saturday morning? I work five days a week, 9-5 and I am technically a newlywed and the two of us are still in that phase, plus Friday nights we like going out, to go bowling, out to eat, play some pool and go out for drinks or just snuggle in and watch a movie, thereby going to bed way after 1am. We wake up Monday thru Friday at 7, and believe you me, I am so not in the mood to get up that early on my weekend. I miss my friends, I love my husband but sometimes you need that female friend, the ones that know what you like, the ones that find the odd things funny as you do. I miss that. Most of all, I miss my daily or semi-daily chats with Barbara and Laura. 

Our Long Awaited Honeymoon.....

We waited so long for our honeymoon, that we decided we wanted to chase summer and go up North to where the temps are warmer. We left Brisbane and flew into Cairns, where we got onto a bus that drove us to Port Douglas. When we got to our "Hotel" we found out it was not what we had hoped it would be, it was not a resort, but rather apartments for those wanting to golf. There are 2 pools, and a tennis court but no restaurant on premises. To get food,  you need to walk quite a distance and some places do not have sidewalks so you wind up walking either in the street or on the grass where a sidewalk should technically be. There is a "shuttle" bus that you have to pay for to get into "town" and the beach. The "hotel" was a lovely room with a crappy bed and boring views. The distance from the hotel to the town and night-life was also crappy. When we get to the "hotel" we find out we cannot swim in the water at Four Mile Beach, reason? Stingers, jellyfish....lovely, but is that all? No, there's more...salt-water crocodiles also inhabit this area. There is only a tennis sized area roped off that you can safely swim in and with that I think if a croc wanted to it could get through without a problem. Ok enough with the things that went wrong....here are the things that went right. 


Once off the bus, we land on Macrossan Street, which is basically the "Main Street" of Port Douglas. Restaurants and stores galore. Our first stop was at Bistro 3 that had this martini that I am determined to replicate and those that know me I am very determined when it comes to food and drinks that I enjoy. It was a White Chocolate Chili Martini and it was clear with a hint of kick along with 3 white chocolate chips. We had great food, I don't believe we had a bad thing to eat the whole week we were there. Pizzas at Rattle and Hum, we ate there more than once, we had ribs at Wharf Street Bistro, delicious fall off the bone ribs. YUM! Shakes Gelati Bar had the BEST gelato it was so good we had this almost every night as our dessert. Salsa Bar & Grill had high end food at medium end prices, the wine a lovely Gewurtztraminer  went well with my phyllo wrapped pork loin.The Court House bar had great margaritas, no extra flavoring just a plain margarita. Bel Cibo on our last night was the best food, we had a table overlooking the street and it was a rainy night but we were undercover and outside at the same time. The food was spectacular and the drinks were good, I cannot say a bad thing about any of the food that we ate that week. 


The views off of Flagstaff Hill are the most beautiful views I have yet seen here with my own eyes. I'm sure I will see others but this was beautiful to see, I'm glad we came here, and know the only reason we'd ever come back up there would be to enjoy the food. 

Kitties...

I am a huge cat lover, to prove the point my profile picture is that of my baby. I had to leave him in New York, and I miss him more than I miss anything. My husband right now is working 7 days a week and because of this we hardly have time on our weekends to do much, except go to the local malls and pretty much just window shop. The first day I landed we went to Westfield Chermside, a huge mall, and we saw 7 gorgeous Ragdoll kittens, all female and I wanted to take them all home, we then went to Westfield Carindale and there they had these little Lyonese kittens, also wanted to take them all home. Our lease states no pets, but on Friday we saw a little, teeny black and white kitten that was the runt of the litter as we had seen this kitten earlier in the week with its siblings and it was the last one left. :( My husband wanted to take it home immediately. Mother's day morning we saw 3 kittens, and 2 older kittens, the older ones were a Ragdoll and a Lyonese. The little kittens were domestic short hairs but the one I fell in love with was this little grey tabby puff, and he was beautiful, he must be a mix with a long haired cat as he's too fluffy to be a true domestic short-hair. When we got back we emailed the managing agent to ask if we could have a cat, even though it had said no pets, it can't hurt to ask. So hopefully they get back to us and let us have a little ball of fluff. 

Food, restaurants and supermarkets...

Growing up in New York, I have been eating food from around the world for years. Everything from basic staples as bologna and American cheese (sliced thin please). Fruit and Veggies from South American influences, Goya beans galore, how many white beans ARE there? Condiments such as ketchup taken for granted and often tossed. Huge Ethnic influences, from everywhere, from Croatia, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Greece and many other countries have influenced the flavour of NYC and it's food, whether it's in a supermarket or a restaurant.They have Kraft "singles" but that's the only sliced "American" cheese you can find. I'm searching all over the place for sliced to order cold cuts. I want sliced cheese, cut to my specifications, I want my ham the same way, not sitting in piles behind the glass case, drying out. I think the deli thing is my biggest pet peeve, we are on a mission to find a proper deli, I want 250g of ham and Swiss sliced not too thin. I want sliced provolone cheese to go with my hot soppressa (soppressata to everyone outside AU). I don't want to buy a chunk of cheese, to then slice it and put that in a sandwich. Speaking of sandwiches, the way a deli is set up in the US is SO NOT the way they are set up here, you don't go into a deli and say I want a ham and cheese sandwich, you need to go to a cafe and get one that's pre-made unless you go to Adams (Croatian small goods store - LOVE this place). Sliced to order EVERYTHING, but it's a 45 minute drive away. Kraft Whipped Peanut Butter, OMG, so yummy. The bread here is to die for, baked fresh and cut to the thickness of your choice. I love this one called a Cape Seed Loaf it's really good but it's $6 for a large loaf from Baker's Delight ( a franchise). Brumby's (another chain) have a multi-grain whole meal (wheat) bread that's only $4 for a large loaf so we have the Cape Seed only on special occasions. Yoplait is here too, but other than vanilla all the flavours are different. There is no Jello, and the faux Jello they do sell, has been banned by the FDA in the US. We have Pepsi, Dorito's,Cheetos, Coca Cola but in their line-up only Diet Coca Cola and Coke Zero are available to diabetics. There is no Fanta Zero, but I did see Sprite Zero once. I can go to the movies and get Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Coca Cola is the soda of choice in malls and movie theatres, but there is no extra butter or salt (which could be a good thing). Quaker Oats is coming in now, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Special K, All Bran, Rice Krispies (Rice Bubbles here) among other's I can't remember clearly are already here. My Special K cereal bars are here too, though not my favourite chocolate covered pretzel, at least they have the same amount of carbs and calories. Lindt chocolate we bought the other day on sale for $1.99 and that's a great price even for NY so here it's a great price. 


 Asian food here is very popular as it is the closest country to here. Thai, Malaysian, Chinese, Sushi are just a few of the many Asian style eateries. Fast food: McDonalds, called Maccas here, in the US we called it Mickey D's. Burger King is here but it's called Hungry Jacks, we have Domino's pizza and KFC. We actually have Sizzler which I can't wait to see what their buffet offers. Starbucks is here too, but the cappuccino's in Australia are made properly not a tiny bit of coffee and a whole cup of foam like in NY. Tonight we're having Thai, at this place called Thai Chada. We had Thai last Friday and it was pretty good at a place called Thai Kitchen. The Kookaburra Cafe has some really good pizza, with toppings unheard of in NY, but delicious, they even sell slices (rare to find here) at $4.50 a slice. The Smoke Restaurant has really good ribs, American style and I can't wait to go back and try their buffalo wings. Carolina Kitchen also has ribs and wings, the ribs were great the wings, eh. I can make them better and I will. 


I have baked a few things so far. Banana walnut bread, a fave of my husband and father-in-law as there were second helpings. I baked peanut butter cookies and my husband never had them before and he LOVED them. I tried making Anzac cookies and they were gone within a few days and I made 38 cookies. Since I'm working I don't have that much time to bake or cook the way I want to but I will make new things and I want to bake the Anzac cookies and bring them to work.