Hello from Melbourne, Australia!!!!
This city reminds me a lot of Chicago: public transportation is everywhere you look; their park system is on point; downtown has all the major fashion names (Gucci, Tiffany & Co, Coach, Rolex, etc.). While it’s refreshing to hear and see English everywhere, I rather enjoyed learning different languages in the other countries.
I requested an Uber to take the kids and I to the grocery store.
Totally killing this nanny thing!
When it arrived, I walked outside with the kids, only to be told by the driver that he wouldn’t be able to take kids. “Why not?” I asked. “Because they need car seats,” was his response.
Ah yes….Welcome back to a first-world country.
I had been so used to holding Hunter on my lap during car rides as car seats in Thailand and Bali are non-existent. It’s amazing what you get used to when you’re in a third–world country.
How come you never hear about second world countries? It’s always either first-world or third-world. No in-betweeners.
Hunter absolutely hated the ride. Up until now, there haven’t been cribs available at the places we’ve stayed in so he’s been sleeping in his car seat for the last three months. I’m sure in his mind, he thought I was trying to put him down for a nap. Now that he’s transitioned back into a crib, I’m hoping the car rides will be smoother or shall I say quieter.
That poor Uber driver…. There goes my 4.80 rating.
The apartment I’m staying in has a great kitchen so I decided to make myself a breakfast casserole. After getting suitable ingredients (mozzarella cheese instead of cheddar, English sausage instead of maple-infused breakfast sausage, omit dry mustard), I turned my oven on and instead found the temperature only went to 250 degrees.
I need it to be at 300 degrees. Why does it only go up to 200? This will take all day to bake. Australians must love just sitting around, waiting on their food to get done. Who has time for that? Maybe I should just throw the casserole out. No, you did not just convert ounces and pounds into mL and grams for nothing! I’ll just check it after 2 hours and guess from there.
15 minutes after placing the casserole in a mere 250-degree oven, I realized something…. That oven operates in Celsius! After scrambling back to the kitchen and waiting for the oven to cool off, I successfully made a breakfast casserole.
Fun Fact: 250 degree Celsius is 482 degree Fahrenheit.
Only 182 degrees Fahrenheit too warm for the first bit….
We rented an SUV for our duration here so I took the kids to the Melbourne Zoo on Saturday. I felt pretty confident in my driving abilities as I got comfortable driving on the left-hand side of the road in Thailand and Bali. I slightly forgot the difference between what that means in a car rather than a scooter. Everything that is normally on the left-hand side of the steering wheel is now on the right-hand side and vice versa.
For example, what used to be the turn signal is now the windshield wipers. It only took me about four tries and Chloe’s “Is it raining?!” comment from the backseat for me to figure it out. It took a little bit longer to readjust my spatial awareness in the lane now that I sit on the right-hand side of the vehicle. My only saving grace was that the foot pedals remained the same. Gas on the right, brake on the left.
Could you imagine if those were switched too?! The number of accidents I would have been in or potentially caused…..
The kids are adjusting well. Chloe is sleeping in her own bed in her own room. Hunter snoozes away in his crib. There’s a high chair in their townhome so no more following Hunter around with a broom as he eats! There are toys galore in their townhome as well.
The city is super kid-friendly (it’s rated #1 for most livable city). All three zoos are free to children every weekend, school holiday, and public holiday. There are parks everywhere you look and each one has a different feature than the rest. The sidewalks are stroller-friendly and a decent length away from the street so no more walking in the street pushing Hunter while Chloe gallops along the sidewalk that is four feet off the ground.
The way your mind desensitizes things is truly remarkable.
For someone who is very type A, I’d say I adjusted to the other living conditions quite well!
I realized I didn’t take many pictures this week. I was truly enjoying living in the moment and being grateful for this amazing life I’m living.