Aussie Expats Update – Pavlova, Foolishness & Camping Prep!

I can’t believe it’s Friday again, everyone.

AND IT’S SEPTEMBER! The month of many many birthdays because everyone’s parents felt so jolly and full of Christmas/New Years cheer/alcohol that they recklessly decided on having more children. Or didn’t decide. Regardless, September is the month of a million birthdays, and back in Aus, it’s also the start of Spring.

I love baby animals, crisp weather, the verdant green lushness creeping back into the world and, to top it all off, I’m born in September… Needless to say, I love this month.

So then, other than googling for pictures of really cute baby animals, what’s been happening with us? We had an amazing time celebrating Singapore Day on Saturday night with the vibrant and hilarious group of internationals currently living on Fort Sill (seriously, seriously amazing. It was so great: big deal for the local hermit!). Like I mentioned last week, James came up with the pretty awesome idea of making a pavlova and decorating it like the Singaporean flag, so…

Awesome, right? This was definitely not a cooking catastrophe (thank goodness!). I bought some egg whites from the Commissary and, on a whim, decided to google whether using carton egg whites might be having any effect on my pavlova efforts: lo and behold, I read a post by someone who said that although carton egg whites can work, they’re not as good as the real thing, and the ‘egg beater’ branded ones aren’t optimal. Guess what I’d just bought? And guess what we only had two of left at home? So we went out and bought a Sam’s Club membership (danger, Will Robinson, danger!) and supplies that afternoon and I have to say, I think the end result is awesome. The investment of time and effort was clearly worth it. And of course, the food was awesome, as evidenced by the following:

Sadly, we had a bit of a hiccough to start the week when James got up early on Monday morning (read: 4:30 am) to participate in an online uni seminar… and realised it was actually on Tuesday morning over here. Like Mondays aren’t hard enough. We were both pretty tired by the time Tuesday night rolled around, but with Lee and Dave having us over for dinner, we didn’t end up getting to bed until late. I haven’t napped at all this week people, which if you know me at all and also consider the fact that I stay at home all day, is a pretty phenomenal fact. But it also meant that at 9pm on Wednesday night after our shopping adventures, I crawled into bed and crashed, hard.

You can’t blame me for being tired through: we went on a spending spree at Dick’s and the PX on Wednesday night for some essentials for this weekend’s adventure. As you read this, we’re currently road tripping our way from Lawton to Arkansas for a four-day camping extravaganza. James has pretty much exclusively handled the plans, so I’m just buckling in with some roadtrip snacks and the heavy burden of putting together our roadtrip playlist, and getting ready to camp! We bought flannos and I got some (men’s) hiking/outdoorsy shorts and long pants at Dick’s, so I figure we’re about as prepared as we ever could be. Add in some new cast iron pans (the food lover in me is squee-ing at the prospect of using these post camping too), an esky, our new 2-human sleeping bag (with hood!) and some dehydrated meals (say wahhhhh?), and it is a camping party, without a doubt!

By the time you read this, we’ll almost be in Arkansas (another US state to be ticked off the list!) and ready to get our camp on. I won’t be posting on Monday because we’ll still be out amongst the wilderness, but I’ll be back with something on Wednesday and (hopefully) some great tales and amazing photos of our adventures by next Friday. Have a great weekend everyone!

— Ana.

[Image credits go to the amazing JME for photographing me being an idiot, and a host of random internet sites: https://twitter.com/bbanimals, http://amazing-creature.blogspot.com/2012/03/23-adorable-baby-animals-in-cups.html#.V8geYWXpVmA, http://www.the-digital-picture.com/News/Default.aspx?Cat=Spring-Photography-Tips, http://yesserver.space.swri.edu/yes2013/personal/emilyklotzbach/emily.html]