Fruit of the day: Lychee

The trip to the fish market also 'happened' to take us right by the fruit market, so we had to see what's in season. Turned out lychee fruits are now in season. They're kind of like the longans (see entry on 8/17/08), but sweeter and bigger and definitely better.

Bees do it, educated fleas do it - trees do it, too

They molt. Or shed, depending on your semantic preferences.

There are lots of different smooth-barked eucalyptus species (aka, gum trees) here. They have really pretty, smooth bark (hence the term) most of the time. But a few days ago, when I was walking Ani, I noticed one of the trees in our neighborhood had this big pile of bark at the base, and it didn't seem to be looking so good - bark was peeling off. Then I noticed that the bark was starting to peel off of lots of other trees, too. And it turns out that smooth gums shed their outer layer of bark every year or two because they 'out grow' it - just like insects. And they all do this massive exfoliation of all their bark at roughly the same time, so there are big chunks of bark all over the place. Crazy!

Sydney Fish Market

Aahhhh... the fish market. Such a wonderful place.

Ben's first exposure to the fish market was several weeks ago, when he and Dr.Phil (who luckily isn't like the other Dr. Phil) went down to meet with Dr.Simpson's lab at the University of Sydney. It happened to be on a Friday, and the Simpson lab has a tradition of walking over to the fish market for a leisurely lunch. Then, as they're walking back to the lab, they stop at a few pubs along the way. (They must be the best paid grad students in the world.) And by the time you get back to the lab, it's time to go home! So Ben and Phil missed out on the pub crawl, but they did get to go to lunch, and Ben decided he had to take me.

So on Saturday, we met up with Julie (lab mate) and her mom (who is in town visiting) at the fish market. [And scatter-brain Kerry forgot the camera, so no pics, but I'm sure we'll be back.] You can get raw fish or cooked fish - you can even get some live fish if you want. You can get fresh bread or cheese or a bottle of wine to go with your fish. And then you can sit and enjoy your lunch right on the water (and the gulls & ibises will do their best to enjoy your lunch with you). We sat there for probably 3 hours, chatting and sampling some of the best, freshest seafood there is. And Ben and I had walked through Chinatown on our way over, and stopped at the bakery and picked up dessert (a coconut tart and a passionfruit & apricot mousse thing). It was a happy day for taste buds!

Fruit of the day: Ya pears

So until now, I had thought that more or less, a pear is a pear. Sure you could taste little differences when we sampled them side-by-side at Brennan's, but if you were blindfolded, you'd still identify it as a pear.

But Ya pears are different. They're very crisp, and I think they taste a lot like jicama (even though every website describes them as tasting like a cross between a rose and a pineapple). They're very juicy, too. They're good, but I don't think they're going on my list of favourite fruits.

I FINALLY spy: Brushtail possum

Pretty much since we moved in, we knew we had a possum around. There were little clues like Ani getting super excited about something in the backyard that we never managed to see, the sound of some clawed-animal leaping onto our roof every morning at 5am, the rotting carcass that was cached in our roof for a later meal, the neighbors asking if it still lived there. And we caught a glimpse of it climbing up a tree and onto our roof when we took Ani for a late walk one night.

And finally, last night, I got a good look at it. It's a brushtail possum (the only other real possibility was a ringtail possum, but the brushtails are cuter so I'm glad that's what it is). It's the best Ani-entertainment since rabbits. As soon as it gets dark, she'll just go sit out in the backyard and watch for it - maybe bark every now and then to encourage it to come out and play (or something like that). And it's nice to finally know who we're sharing the house with.



To give you some reference, it was right above Ani's head. She's still looking for it.

The race that stopped the world

On the second Tuesday of November, Australia holds the Melbourne Cup, which is an incredibly popular horse race that has been dubbed "the race that stops a nation."

But this year, as everyone in the world knows, there was another race going on that day, too: the US elections. And yes, the rest of the world was just as riveted by the elections as US citizens were - certainly here in Australia:
- everyone in our office had an election map up on their computer and closely followed the blow-by-blow
- our 7-year old neighbour knew Obama was one of the candidates
- people pulled their kids out of school to watch Obama's acceptance speech (because it was Wednesday afternoon in AU when he gave it)
- morning radio talk shows were all about the results (not just the news stations, but the pop stations, too)
- people who had never been to the US got shivers or started crying when they watched Obama's speech

Needless to say, Australians are just as excited as most of the rest of the world that Obama won. Regardless of what other things Obama does or does not accomplish, I think this marks a huge change in the US' international standing - it's like national leaders around the world have turned into giddy school girls with a crush on the cute new guy.

Bitter and Twisted

Yesterday we headed to the edge of the Hunter Valley, which is famous for its wineries. But we didn't go there for the wine - we went there for the beer. Actually, what initially prompted the trip was the music. And in the end, we spent most of our time in the prison. :(

Kerry recently discovered Josh Pyke, an Aussie Indie/folk singer, and noticed he was going to be playing near Sydney - good excuse for a trip! Then she noticed he was playing at an international beer festival - even better!! Fast note about the beer situation here: 1) it's really expensive, and 2) there's not much variety - fun, quality microbrews haven't really taken off here. So we've been missing good beer a little bit.

So we headed off to the Bitter and Twisted International Boutique Beer Festival. And when we arrived, we were escorted to the prison. Yes, the festival was held in a maximum security prison that was closed ~8 years ago (but looked more like something from the 1800's, because barbed wire and cement were about the extent of the security measures - nonetheless, my escape-attempt was still pretty daring!).

So we tasted some really good beers for dirt cheap, listened to some good music, explored an old prison, saw a new part of the country, and even saw some more kangaroos on the drive. AND we saw more butt cracks than you can imagine - we're thinking we need to turn this into some kind of game at the next festival that we go to. What a good day!