speaking of which...

It's been a few weeks since our last update, mostly because the novelty of living in Australia is starting to fade. We like blogging about "interesting things," and quite frankly, it hasn't really been an interesting month so far. It feels less like we're living in Australia, and more like we're married people living at home. Kinda boring. Ben is back to work, so our joint adventures are few and far between. Here's what we've been up to recently:

- Because Ben was working out of town during the company Christmas party, he was nicely compensated with a movie theater gift card. We used some of it to watch "Frozen," which was super fun. We're still getting the hang of the assigned seating thing - we always describe our preference as "middle, closer to the back but not too far up" but we're never seated quite where we want. Also, by far the best thing about living down under is the fact that they sell amazing drink containers for epic movies. You've already seen my awesome Thor hammer cup, but now I present to you Ben's Gandalf Staff drinking thing:

- Speaking of perks, one of the nice things about our zoo membership is being able to visit an hour before it opens to the public on weekends. This is cool, because a) there aren't as many toddlers running around screaming at the animals, and b) the animals are usually awake, and eating, which is always exciting. We spent last Saturday morning watching turtles and lizards nibbling away at leaves, elephants stuffing their faces with hay, and wild dogs devouring raw chickens - bones and all - about two feet away from us. Terrifying.

- Speaking of eating, Ben asked me to make chili for dinner once, and I failed to taste it before serving. Apparently a teaspoon is different from a tablespoon, especially when it comes to chili powder? Ben tried to be polite about the whole thing, but it was so bad that he turned the air conditioning on and had ice cream for dinner. Over the weekend we tried to fix the chili by adding in a ton of rice and veggies (and no more chili powder), but it's still really hot. :(

- Speaking of hot, it's definitely summertime in Melbourne! At the beginning of the month it was unseasonably chilly, but yesterday it reached 109 degrees fahrenheit, and the rest of the week will follow suit. Coincidentally, the air conditioning at Ben's office is malfunctioning, so the office manager routinely passes out Popsicles. I love hot weather and have tried sitting outside to read and write, but the Docklands area is way too windy to actually do anything relaxing.

sorry guys. you'll have your sweet revenge in july. maybe.

- Speaking of windy, it's practically Little Chicago in our neighbourhood. The forces of wind can make our apartment sound like an airport runway at times. Our building manager puts up signs every week reminding people not to keep anything on their balconies, even barbies*, because anything and everything has been blown away at some point, and usually onto unsuspecting vehicles down below. I suppose this is what happens when you build a bunch of high-rise apartments by a waterfront, but good lord. Going for a run outside in these conditions is not unlike jogging on a treadmill. Really.

- Speaking of running, the Nike club held a fun "resolution run" 6k last week. It was actually kind of a fancy event - they handed out free t-shirts and rented out part of the Melbourne Central mall for the finish line, where we were greeted by tennis athlete Sabine Lisicki. She led the cool-down stretches and talked about her New Years resolutions, and there was free gummy candy and lots of security lurking around. 

Anyway, see? Boring stuff.

CK

*the Australian abbreviation for "barbecue grill," not the anatomically incorrect Mattel figurines... although I'm pretty sure those wouldn't fare too well on the balcony during a windstorm either.