Back in Dubbo

I'm back out in Dubbo for 7 weeks. Same thing as last time - filling in for the reproductive biologist at Western Plains Zoo. Gotta love being back in a small town full of friendly people. Seems like everywhere I go, people are like "Hey Kerry, good to see you again!" At the gym, my instructor made a public announcement at the end of class - maybe a little more than I would have liked, but nice to feel welcomed back. And I'm lovin' the bike ride by the kangaroos, again. I'm not happy about being away from Ben and Ani again, but at least it's a lot shorter than last time.

Getting to know you

I've decided that personal maps should be a standard part of introductions.
"Hi, what's your name?
What do you do for a living?
Can I see your map?"

Could this idea be related to my obsession with maps and travel? Possibly. But I do think it makes practical sense. It replaces the "Where are you from" question, which is becoming more complicated as people become more mobile. To simplify this question, people either pick one place ("I'm originally from Colorado") or give a very general answer ("I'm from the US"). Consequently, you can miss some great parts of that person's geographic history. Having a map allows you to identify points of common ground (literally) in one glance.

And then you could have a recent version that you can show to people you haven't seen in a bit - get an instant overview of trips that people have taken since the last time you saw them.

So here's our map. It's only for places that we've both lived - it does not include vacations we've taken. The "B&K holiday map" is a whole other project.

View Our Map in a larger map

Korean Festival

This weekend we decided to venture down to the Korean Festival – kind of an obscure little festival by Sydney standards – and it was a great decision. The decision to ride our bikes was less stellar, given the hilly-ness of the ride and our post-long-run fatigue, but that’s OK.

So we came up to the park where the festival was, and I seriously asked Ben “Wait, what country are we in?” All the people were Korean; the majority of the signs were in Korean; there was Korean music playing; the master-of-ceremonies was speaking Korean (with occasional bits and pieces translated to English by a younger Korean). We had biked 2 miles and suddenly we were in a different country. I kind of felt like we had crashed a large Korean wedding.


And we stuck out like sore thumbs. Not only were we some of the very few white people, but Ben was also one of the tallest people. Within 10 minutes of arriving, we were interviewed by a film crew about what we thought of the festival. Later, someone pin-pointed Ben in the audience and dragged him up on stage to leg-wrestle their Korean leg-wrestling champ, who succeeded in flipping everyone who came up on stage, but I still say Ben put up the best fight.

And he got a prize for loosing

– turned out to be a case of this great orange drink. Didn’t enjoy the extra weight on the bike ride home, but we’ve been enjoying drinking it!

We had some great food, too: spicy chicken with funky noodle-things, dumplings, kimchi (of course), some novel berry drink, and these “pancakes” that are filled with brown sugar – very addicting.

And we accidentally bought a whole bottle of rice wine. You may wonder how we pulled that off, but I will remind you that in regards to communication, we may as well have been in Korea.

So all-in-all, it was a great afternoon!

Spring-time

It's weird - now that we've been here over a year, we can start to recognize some of the signs of changing seasons. And spring is definitely on its way in:
- baby birds are everywhere
- plants are covered in flowers

- baby skinks are scootin' around
- gum trees are getting ready to shed their bark

- the first St. Andrew's cross spiders are starting to spin their zig-zags

- the common koel has started its mournful mating call outside our window
- we even had a thunderstorm the other day

And since I mentioned the baby birds, I'll give you an update:
Molly Magpie has lost one of her kids, but the other two made it through the brutal winds of the dust storm and are as sassy as ever. Really - magpie kids are obnoxious. I thought they were going to fledge a week ago, but they're still hanging out in the nest - almost as big as the parents - making mom and dad bring food to them. Even after they fledge, the go around harassing adults for food. (Hmmm - maybe they're not the only species with obnoxious kids?)
both kids


Lily Lapwing lost two of her kids, but the other two are still doing fine (we'll pretend Pokey is one of the ones who made it). Both parents are extra protective, and they've moved away from the office window so I can't get good pics anymore. But they're getting quite big.

Wilma Wood-duck has 15 kids!! So I was walking by the campus lake the other day and saw a pair of wood ducks with 15 ducklings! But I think they're cheating - I think they just rounded up everyone else's kids.


I got charged by the one with its head up just after taking this pic!

My life would be better if I had that house... or would it?

So the other day we woke up early and headed to Manly Beach for a nice morning walk. Manly Beach is probably the second-most famous beach in Sydney (the first being Bondi). There's a beautiful long beach with two craggy/cliffy/great-splash-producing outcroppings on either side. So as Ben and Ani and I are wandering among beautiful new houses with ocean-view balconies,

and watching the morning sun dancing on the water, and checking out a few ambitious surfers and this awesome elderly (70ish) lady walking back from her morning swim, and being envious of the people who have a walk on the beach as their morning commute

- we start thinking "this is the life!" And if we both got "normal" jobs, we too could wake up with a nice run on the beach and then enjoy a cup of coffee together on our balcony watching the waves.

And it's a happy thought. And it reminded me of this book title that I heard the other day but now I can't find it anywhere so I'm not sure I got it right: "My Life Would Be Better If I Just Had That House." But the problem is that it's just not us. We're too trendy for Manly. (Or maybe it's the other way around - I can never keep it straight.) Manly is pretty much DINK-ville, and by no stretch of the imagination do we classify as yuppies or DINKs (double income, no kids). Plus, Ani wouldn't be allowed to run on the beach with us - I guess with riches comes species-ism. So for now we'll keep our life in our house, but sometimes it's just fun to imagine.

Vegemite

Ah, Vegemite – the food icon of Australia. I don’t know if any other country has the equivalent: one single brand of food that is such a colossal part of the cultural identity. And when you try to mess with such an icon, it doesn’t always go smoothly – a lesson Kraft is slowly learning.

So Vegemite, for those of you who don’t know, is this substance that kinda looks like hot fudge or Nutella, but tastes like a cross between salt, brewer’s malt, and salt (really, it’s so salty you probably get a week’s allowance in 1 teaspoon). The key to Vegemite is to use it sparingly, but it is still an acquired taste. And I’m determined to acquire it! I don’t know – maybe it will give me a cool accent? Maybe it will turn me into a sun-bleached surfer-babe? Maybe it’s just my effort to embrace local culture?

Anyway, Vegemite was invented in 1922, and has been doing just fine. But Kraft decided they needed to mix things up a bit, and thus begins the endless Vegemite media saga. Here’s a recap:
- In June, Kraft releases a new product that is basically Vegemite mixed with cream cheese
- They decide to open up a 3-month national contest to name this new product, and they receive 40,000 entries
- Kraft chooses the name “iSnack 2.0” (in an effort to make Vegemite cool to younger people. Yeah.)
- The Aussie public rebel – seriously, if they weren’t so laid-back, there might have been street-riots – and this fury is broadcast from every possible media outlet
- Kraft revokes the name and opens up a national vote to chose between Cheesybite, Creamymate, Smooth, Snackmate, Vegemate and Vegemild
- After nearly 5 months of seemingly endless Vegemite media coverage, they have chosen the name “Cheesybite.” So far, there’s been no public outcry at that name

So I can’t even begin to sum up all the criticism the name received, but one of my favourite critiques was “Do you really want to use the #2 to describe a thick brown substance?” Which also leads to my favourite name suggestion: iSh*te. (Yes, I may be a doctor, now, but I still appreciate a good poo joke.)