Please Pass the Napkins

Saturday, August 10th, 2013 -  Day 16 Living Down Under

A special shout out to a special lady, Erich's grandmother, Norma Chaney Wolf Hagler on her 90th birthday yesterday!  She is an amazing woman with some great stories.  Maybe she should start a blog!  Her husband, Erich's grandfather, was in the Air Force and the family moved overseas to Germany soon after the war.  Grandma had to ride a boat with a baby for something like 7 days by herself to make it over there.  I hear the seas were rough and it was a horrible trip.  Riding on the plane for 15 hours to get to Australia is a breeze compared to that!  Happy Birthday, Grandma! 

Today we joined Costco! Imagine the biggest jar of Vegemite.  They had it. The prices are going to save us some money since things here cost so much.  At grocery stores, the items are packaged in small quantities.  (Probably because you have to carry them through the mall to get to your car that's in the car park.)  It will be nice to be able to stock up instead of going to the grocery store three times a week.

Random Thoughts and Observations...

• When wanting to know when a business is open or closed, we ask about the "hours of operation." Here they ask about the "trading hours."
• An entrée in the U.S. is the main dish.  Here the entrée is an appetizer. That one, my friends, is gonna mess me up.
• When the Aussies say "ship"  it sounds like the four letter word "shi*."  We had the news on today and the newscaster said, "...a shipload of ..."  and we swore that instead of shipload he said "shi*load!" 
• I'm going to put a Jayhawk sticker on the back of my car.  I'm on a mission to spot another Jayhawk fan around Australia.
• We have been told not to ask for napkins at the restaurant because here the word napkin only refers to a feminine product.  But no one has told me what word to use for a napkin you use on your face!  What word am I supposed to use??! Please, tell me!
• I miss the automatic flush toilets in public restrooms and the frozen steamer bags of veggies.
• The Aussies don't say "vacation" they say "holiday."