Today was another exciting day for the Essex Heights Primary school children. And for me, as I got to experience another sport at school event, which is completely different from the events that we know. It is a fun event, fundraiser and a selection for the school team at the same time. The Essex Heights Fun Run! Continue reading “Essex Heights Fun Run”
Number six of our bucket list is to go to the movies in Australia. We have not posted about it yet, so about time to do so. And since we are new to this country we had to try out different places, so enough inspiration. Continue reading “Going to the movies in Australia”
I always find that there is nothing better than a fresh bread from the bakery, or even better, a home made bread that just came out of the oven. Well, maybe our soft chocolate tart does get close.
We used to have a bread machine, but the bread comes out as an unattractive block with two holes in the bottom. So after using that for a couple weeks it ended up sitting in a cupboard, hardly ever being used again. Continue reading “Recipe: sourdough bread”
ANZAC day is not until Monday, which is a public holiday, so the schools had their ceremony today. Previously the ceremony was only for the grades three and up, this year all the students were there. And, parents and friends were invited, so a nice opportunity for me to experience another school tradition. Continue reading “School Anzac Day ceremony”
Last month we had the pleasure of welcoming our first overseas visitors. What did we do? Here are five things that we considered important to do. Continue reading “Five things to do with overseas visitors”
The Mornington Peninsula is a very popular holiday destination for Melburnians. Why? We did not know yet, so time for us to head out there and explore a little. Continue reading “The Mornington Peninsula beaches”
No, this is not a town where they mine tourists, as the sign might suggest. Walhalla is an old Victorian gold-mine town that got deserted in 1915, but has been kept very much as it used to be and is now a touristic village.
After a suggestion from someone on the Dutchies in Melbourne Facebook page, we decided to pack up our camping gear and head out to mountains. It is only a two hour drive East of Melbourne, so easy to reach. Continue reading “Easter weekend in Walhalla”
Although the quality and variety of food in Australia is great, there are times when we long for some Dutch food. No, for us that is not the kroketten the frikandellen or the drop. They even make decent fries here, although people give you an astonished look when you ask for mayonnaise with it. “Yes, we fuck’n drown them in that shit”. What we miss is all the different bread toppings, like pindakaas, hagelslag, appelstroop and ontbijtkoek (see picture above).
Luckily there is a Dutch-German store in Croyden that has most of the supplies that make us happy. So today I drove up there for the second time to do some grocery shopping.
Since the Dutch are already krenterig by nature (a Dutch word which is closest to thrifty, as in using money carefully and not wanting to spent too much), they might be extra krenterig when it concerns food that they know has very different prices in the Netherlands. Therefore the store can probably not live off Dutch-German food alone, so it is also a gift store and a confectionery.
I guess the Dutch are pretty specialized on their sweet bread toppings, as I have not seen any other country that has such a big variety. Next to the ‘normal toppings’ like marmelade, honey and Nutella there are many different chocolate varieties like hagelslag (sprinkles) and vlokken (flakes), which of course all come in milk, dark and white variety. But also speculoos (a cookie spread), muisjes and gestampte muisjes (anise flavored sprinkles), gekleurde hagelslag (coloured sprinkles).
Paying $ 8.50/€ 6.10 for a small jar of peanut butter is a lot of money. But the expression on Kai’s face when putting his teeth in a Calvé peanut butter sandwich completely makes up for that. They sell some sort of peanut butter here as well, but it just isn’t the same…
Last time I visited the Dutch store, they even sold Old Amsterdam cheese. A really tasteful cheese, even the exported variety. The regular Dutch Gouda which they sell, unfortunately is the same quality as the one that gets exported to Germany, a variety that does not have a lot of flavor.
After living in Melbourne for nine months, it is great to be able to buy some familiar flavors. Yes it has been that long already, long enough for a baby to be conceived and born. Time sure flies when you are having fun!
Although an empty house is a perfect playground, according to our kids, we do prefer to be able to sit down while eating. So when we arrived in an empty house five months ago we had to start looking for furniture, appliances and lots of other practical stuff.
When moving from Europe, from a complete house full of everything, you wonder how much can actually bring along with you. And if you don’t what it would cost to buy it.
True friendship is discovering that, despite the physical distance of 16585 km/10305 miles, you started playing the same instrument at exactly the same time and playing together via skype…
europe2australia.com 