As we have blogged before, Essex Heights Primary, the school that our kids go to, has a large music program. They put on a Showcase every year, where the students show off their skills on violin, flute and marimba.
Last year, one of the teachers had the idea that it would also be fun to do something with dancing, and they put together a dance show for the parents. It was such a success that they did it again this year. Continue reading “Essex Heights – Land Down Under”
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”
Now that we had the trampoline sitting in a big box in our secret hiding place, it came to making plans on when to set it up. Since we wanted it ready on Sunday morning when Luka woke up, this presented us with a bit of a problem. Let’s just say that Luka (like most children I know) is not known for sleeping in on her birthday.
So the only option was the night before. A secret operation under the cover of darkness. Continue reading “Birthday present for an 8-year-old – Part 2”
It’s Luka’s birthday today. And with birthday, you have presents. We tried to convince Luka that this year, we’d turn this around and she would give us presents. But somehow that idea didn’t fly with her.
So, back to the drawing board. What do you give your 8-year-old daughter who already has everything? Continue reading “Birthday present for an 8-year-old – Part 1”
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”
In an earlier post I asked the question on whether I am Australian yet. Well, I still don’t like Vegemite, so it might be a way to go for me. But Willemijn has made the transition. Continue reading “Naturalized Australian”
It’s still dark outside and the clock is not yet showing a 6 when I am woken up by an alarm going off. Bleary-eyed, I roll over, thinking that someone probably opened the wrong car door, or some shop owner forgot to turn off the alarm. In any case, nothing to do with me. Continue reading “Firealarm”
Project Avo is now almost 2 months old. Time for another update.
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!
Our first overseas visitors are on their way! Time to open flightaware again, to follow their flight. They will be traveling for over 24 hours from Europe, so plenty of time for us to do so. While it is in the middle of the day here, they are now flying somewhere over the Indian Ocean in the dark. Continue reading “First overseas visitors”
europe2australia.com 