The first week

I have been doing very little. Until yesterday it was quite rainy and of course all were at work or school. Yesterday (our Saturday) the kids played baseball- of course the games were miles apart. I went to the distant one at which Julius played. He was not a happy camper- he struck out at bat and, when he pitched, gave up some hits. Of course since the fielders are not too good anytime one hits the ball at all one is likely to get a hit.

My experiment of the week was to determine whether king parrots or cockatoos eat carrot bits. They do not- indeed the cockatoos seemed rather annoyed at having to push the bits aside to get at the birdseed.

I am still afraid to drive- being convinced I will end up on my normal side of the road thereby causing a disaster. Perhaps today I will give it a brief and short try praying that I will stay on the left side of the road. My fears are of course enhanced by Sydney drivers who, astoundingly enough, seem worse than Calgary drivers. And of course the roads are not at all good and the traffic ranges from bad to truly horrible.

The differences between Calgary and Sydney remain intriguing. I made my first visit to a mall. It was three stories and though all the sections were connected it seemed more like connected separate building. As Les does not go to them very often he did not know his way around all that well. We did manage to get back to the car- had I been on my own I would still be in the mall. Perhaps the most noticeable difference both in the mall and elsewhere I have been is that small specialty food stores still survive. The two major supermarket chains were in the mall, but around each were fruit and vegetable shops, butchers, fishmongers and so on. I had earlier been to a butcher near us. It was rather pleasant. I was getting a chicken and five sausages, and mentioned that I had just arrived. I was greeted very warmly, introduced to the owners and given an additional 10 sausages for free. The sausages were not the European style to which I am accustomed, but the dozen or so kinds were sort of flavor or base meet variants on an English style sausage. They all looked just like our common pork sausage.

My first day we had pizza- or so it is called. It is recognizable but the combinations were to me rather bizarre. I can't seem to find the menu or I would list a couple. Luckily the Stockmans like the ones more or less the same as the ones with which I am familiar.

As we are a ridge above an unoccupied ravine there are more or less constant animal sounds- loud animal sounds- all unfamiliar and some rather weird. Sometimes it sounds like a sound track to a bad horror film, particularly whatever it is that sounds like someone being tortured. And I had forgotten precisely how much racket cicadas can make- there are only a few as they are not in season.

The linguistic differences are of course very noticeable. I have extreme difficulty with some of the accents- one just smiles and pretends one knows what was said. And of course the vocabulary can throw one. I learned from the pizza that a capsicum is a pepper green or red. We had stopped at a small Chinese grocer in the mall. After I paid my bill she asked if I would like the docket. I stared blankly and looked back at Les. But she was quick- she quickly said - that is a receipt. And so it goes.