Aussie Expats Update – Uni Break Fridays!!

Helllloooooo beautiful people!

I know, I know… I didn’t put up a blog post last Friday. Oops. I’m sorry, but it’s a complex iss—ok, to be honest, it’s not that complex. Having (officially) finished Trimester 2 of uni on Thursday with my political ideologies exam done and dusted, I wasn’t overly keen to do very much. Plus, I made the mistake (or brilliant decision) to pick up a new book after my exam and I powered through it… Then the sequel over the weekend. If you haven’t read Erika Johansen’s The Queen of the Tearling, I highly recommend it: it was an awesome read that (obviously!) I struggled to put down. I also didn’t check that all of the books had been published before I started the trilogy: turns out number three isn’t due until 29 November 2016. URGH.

I feel especially bad about all of this (well, not really, but whatever), because last Friday marked the (approximate) FOUR MONTH mark of our move to the US. Four months without Australian beaches, easily-accessible high quality bakery goods or cheap lamb. What is this life? As it starts to get colder here (12 degrees C yesterday: YUCK), I’m really missing home.

Other things you missed out on: I got cat-called in the CVS parking lot last week (James was feeling sick and I swung through for some cold&flu) by a heavily tattooed man and his vocal female partner… A little surreal, to say the least. But other than such strange incidents, life has been fairly uneventful. I submitted my application to the Iceland Writers’ Retreat Alumni Award last week and, if I win (big if), I’d get to go to the Retreat for free… In Iceland. Iceland people! They have reindeer there!!

Anyway, winning is fairly unlikely, but a girl can dream, right?

Speaking of dreaming, I’m hope that this evening goes just like a dream, because all of James’ students are coming over for a BBQ and some beers after their game of footy this afternoon. Though James told me last week, we both completely forgot until earlier this week when one of his students reminded him and he reminded me. Oops. And now I think maybe we’ve gotten a teeeeeensy bit ahead of ourselves in what we’ve planned. We tried making Neenish tarts last night, and while I’m not saying that they’re a complete disaster, that’s probably all I’m saying. Maybe they can be redeemed.

Plus, we’ve been invited to TWO Halloween parties (consecutive weekends, thankfully and oh my gosh, aren’t we just so popular?) over the coming weeks, so I’ve started collecting ideas on Pinterest for spooky foods to take along. If you have any brilliant recipes, let me know!

On that note, there’s a pavlova to cook, Neenish tarts to try and rescue, lamingtons to attempt and some fairy bread to put together: though I’m fairly sure we can salvage the Neenish tarts, there’s a reason I’ve already tagged this post with ‘cooking catastrophes’… Something is sure to go wrong! And people? Bunches of people at our house, needing hosting and thus meaning I shouldn’t just run away?

I’m probably going to need to nap today.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

— Ana.