New Car & Helium Balloons

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Today Erich and I celebrate 16 years of wedded bliss.  He went out with the kids this morning and came back with flowers.  *love*  Because of the changes we've been going through, we really didn't make a big deal out of the whole day.  We ended up having dinner in.  We had an American classics for dinner.  Macaroni and cheese and buffalo chicken tenders with ranch.  Not very romantic.  But we all loved the US food. 

Today was the first day we had to put gas in our rental car.  There are no pay-at-the-pumps in Australia.  What??!  I have to unload the kids to go in and pay?  Today we were all together so the kids didn't have to get out.   Erich went inside to ask, "Do we have to prepay to pump gas?"  The cashier's response was that they don't sell gas at the pump.  They don't call it gas.  They call it petrol. Gas to them means propane. 

The Bird

Have you seen the video of the goats that sound like humans yelling?  Its totally legit and we laugh EVERY time we watch it. Hilarious. If you haven't seen it, watch it here (my favorites are the second and last goat):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpccpglnNf0

There is a bird here that sounds like a human yelling very similar to the goats in that video.  I haven't yet spotted the bird.  But the first two mornings here I thought it was a child yelling outside our window.  Wrong.  Its a bird!  Its the most bizarre thing.

Our new car!

Today we bought one of our cars.  We bought a brand new Toyota Corolla from the dealership.  We hadn't planned on buying new cars, but we got a really great deal and it will be easier to resell the car when we leave in 3 years.  We are still waiting for our transfer of funds from the U.S. but hopefully we will have the car on Wednesday or Thursday. We are looking for the 2nd car.


The new car.

 

Steering wheel on the wrong side.



The kids got balloons in the Toyota showroom. 

The kids used the balloons they got at the dealership to have fun at home.  They had fun attaching the balloons to an empty Happy Meal box to see how many balloons it took to get the box off the ground.  Once they succeed in that, they tried to see if they could put anything in the box and keep it off the ground.  One paperclip made it fall to the ground!  Right now, as I type this, Charlie has the stopwatch on Erich's phone going.  He has four balloons attached to two pieces of paper.  He is timing to see how long it takes the paper to touch the ground. 

Attaching the balloons to the Happy Meal box.

 

It's off the ground!!!

Random Thoughts and Observations...

• You can't buy ranch dressing around here.  I had been told this and came prepared.  They won't let bottles of ranch through customs, but the will allow the dry packets.  So I've made ranch dressing and the kids use it all the time.  Even on apples...  (yuck)
• They have McDonalds here! The kids (and me) love this.  But they don't have ranch for the chicken nuggets! 
• "Tires" is spelled "tyres". 
• They show full male and female nudity and drop the f*** bomb on regular television. 
• There is no bathtub in our apartment.  The kids miss the bathtub.
• I'm telling Erich we are celebrating our anniversary today in Australia, Saturday, August 3rd.  And we will celebrate again on Sunday, which is August 3rd in the U.S.   Brilliant!