Moving Day and Charity Balls

So...I realize that is a random title - but it seems we neglected to post an update last weekend. Before I get onto to the exciting move updates, I wanted to be sure I share my and Bill's adventure at a Charity Ball last weekend.

The event was called the Butterfly Ball and it was raising money for a charity called "Touched by Olivia" (http://www.touchedbyolivia.com.au/). It is a locally based organization that is raising funds and awareness for vascular birthmarks, something neither of us had heard of before. The founders lost their daughter at 8 months due to complications from a vascular birthmark and have turned their grief into a crusade for 2 primary causes: more research/understanding/survivability from this disease and increasing access to all abilities playgrounds for children. It was very inspiring to see this family making a difference in the lives of others. Their efforts have begun to pay off in terms of awareness of the disease and the study of how to treat it.

The ball itself was themed "Vegas" which we thought humorous, considering how close to the real thing we lived for the last 10 years. The food was decent though, the wine and beer complimentary and the music very American. We went with my boss and his wife, who have become good wine and dinner partners for us - always good food and conversation. It also gave us an excuse to dress up - though not having my full closet accessible made that a bit more challenging than it would have been. I got a beautiful new dress that will be worn as often as possible as long as it fits. My gorgeous husband was dashing as always.

This weekend is much less glamorous for us - at long last (ok, not really literally, but it sure feels long) we have a move in date for our new place here in Oz. It seems fate was working in our favor - the day we need to move out of the hotel (next Tuesday, Sydney time) is the day the moving company is dropping off all of our belongings at the new house!!! So this weekend is packing up the hotel room and moving all of the things we don't need here. This will (hopefully) make Tuesday easier for us. So starting on June 1st we will officially have room for guests. The furniture may still be in pieces and there could be boxes everywhere - but come on down! We would love to host our family and friends in our adopted city. We will even have a fridge (maybe) by the time you arrive. Apparently buying one from a local store, paying for it and calling multiple times in a week isn't enough to get it delivered in a timely fashion. Latest news today was "earliest possible delivery date is Tuesday" (ironically) but I won't know for sure until Monday. Sigh...

I am off for the night - hope everyone is well and shout out to my big brother - Employee of the Year for his department at Central Washington University. Congrats big bro - we are so proud of you!!!!!!

Cheers mates!

There's No Place Like Home

We found a home!

I have to admit, it was much easier than expected. When we started looking for a more permanent place to be, it seemed there were more potential renters than rental properties. Every property I went to had at least 3 or 4 other people checking it out as well. In reality, finding our new place was relatively painless (not completely, but relatively). Bill and I spent one Saturday hitting about 6 open houses, and having mixed opinions about all of them, decided to apply to just one. It took us 2 days to complete the application, needless to say we weren't thrilled about doing it again. We were still concerned with putting all of our eggs in one basket, so the week after we completed the application, I was still looking for other options.

And then good luck struck! We had made friends with the listing agent during the open house and introduced ourselves to the property managing agent for the house we applied for and it paid off! As I was leaving to check out another place (so not an option either) I got a call saying our application had been accepted and if we could wait on a move date, the house was ours! As I write this, we haven't yet signed a contract or gotten keys - but that is set for this Thursday. Hopefully nothing happens to delay it. The delay is for a good cause, they are repainting and re-carpeting, so it will feel new and clean when we move it, always a bonus.

To continue our streak, our belongings are due to arrive in country tomorrow!! It feels like forever since I have had our bed and linens, to say nothing of the rest of my clothing. The freight company says it shouldn't take more than 2 weeks to clear customs, I am hoping they are right. The timing is actually perfect, we are very ready to be done with the apt, and won't have to find storage for our stuff. It feels good when a plan comes together :-)

As soon as we have pictures - we will be sure to post. Wish us luck finding a fridge (bought the washer and dryer this weekend) as apparently in this city/country its "BYO". Till next time!!!

Bendigo, An Aussie Enigma

Its Bill reporting today. I have been meaning to check in with you all for a while now, but to be honest couldn't be bothered. But today I can. And I have a secret to share with you all . Its the region of Bendigo. Stephanie and I snuck away there over the Easter / Anzac holiday(This is the down under equivalent to memorial day). We had wanted to stay in the adjacent Heathcote region Stephanie has regaled you all with in her previous post. However, the more famous Heathcote area was booked out in what few accommodations we were able to locate. We ended up staying in a quaint family style gambling casino. It was like staying in a Holiday Inn near Reno Nevada or something, what with the slot machines and sports betting everywhere. But that's not why I am writing. I am not even going to tell you about the rich Chinese culture in Bendigo and its ties to the gold rush when Bendigo was briefly the richest town the world. I am going to tell you about our experience at the Bendigo wine festival. I know, who would have thought I would want to talk about wine, I even surprise myself sometimes.
On our final day of wine tasting it was Stephanie's turn to drive and I was the designated drinker. And so off we went to the Bendigo wine festival. It cost us a mere $25 each to taste over 100 wines. (as opposed to the $75 it costs for the privilege to attend the same type of festival in Santa Barbara.) We had to be in Melbourne later that day so our tie was limited and the wine was waiting. From the first sip to the last gulp I knew I had found my kind a place. Bendigo is known for producing big reds namely shiraz (syrah if you are from the northern hemisphere). Most of the wines I tasted were big. for all you non winos that means it has a lot of flavor, little subtlety, and all that wine talk about hints and notes of non wine related items becomes silly.
One winery called Rivergate especially caught my eye. It only had Shiraz but Rivergate does them well. I am no wine critic but these wines were to my liking. The 2005 was a big unfiltered very well defined grape flavor, but not your sweet table variety. I am talking about the grape this wine came from the syrah/shiraz grape. If you have never tired one, try it. It will help you understand the wine. And in my opinion a good wine should reflect the grapes it came from. But enough of this soap box.
We only had a couple of hours to taste and I took full advantage. The wine of Bendigo is not nearly as well recognized as those of its neighbor Heathcote or the likes of Barossa or Mclaren. This was a boon to us. The wines we liked were not grossly over priced out of our budget. I probably would have paid a bit more for some of them. Needless to say we left more than a little laden down with new purchases. More than we could hope to bring back to Sydney but fortunately we had some good company in Melbourne to share it with and what we didn't drink or bring back Nicole and Steve were good enough to let us store some in their home until the next time on of us passes through. I wonder if they have figured out where we have hidden it. I hope not.