A "Wicked" 25th Birthday!

My first Australian birthday on July 14th is one that I will always remember with fondness. It began with a formal lunch on Southbank after church with Joel on the 12th of July. He lead me to believe that we were going to see a movie that afternoon, even buying candy like we usually do beforehand. To my surprise we went the opposite way to the movie theatre after lunch, ending up at the Regent Theatre to see the musical "Wicked"! I was thrilled! I had told Joel months before that I would like to see it and he remembered ... how lovely! It was a fantastic musical as I had heard from some good friends back home.

My surprise ticket

Joel usually plays soccer on Tuesday evenings (which happened to be my actual birthday night) so I decided to invite all of my favourite girlfriends out to my favourite Italian restaurant and then to my favourite chocolate shop. I invited 12 girls, thinking that only a few would be able to make it, and to my surprise and honour, everyone came! I really appreciate all of the relationships that God has blessed me with so far and I look forward to forging new ones in the future.

At Doninni's with (left - right around the table) Katie, Casey, Charlotte, Shaz, Caz, Hannah, Becca, Emma, Bec, Caza, Erena & Jax!

Excursions with Emily : Part 2

2. Oreo Taste Test



Being the Oreo connoisseur that I am, I'm convinced that Oreos taste different from country to country. I wanted to test my theory, so I asked my parents to send me some Oreos from Canada and an Aussie friend brought some American Oreos back with her from the States. Upon purchasing some Aussie Oreos and having Emily stay for the weekend, I thought it the perfect opportunity. We had a blind taste test with Joel, Em and I as the subjects stating our preferences. Then we discussed the reasons for our preferences such as "this cream is most creamy," or, "this biscuit tastes most chocolatey," or, "this Oreo has the most cream." If I remember correctly, Emily chose the Australian Oreo, Joel chose the Canadian Oreo and I chose the American one. Some of the things we observed is that the American Oreo has the most bitter chocolate biscuit and not as much cream as the Canadian Oreo. The Australian Oreo had the least amount of cream and a biscuit that was between the Canadian and American in sweetness. The Canadian chocolate biscuit was the sweetest and the Australian cream was the best tasting.

Me & Em with 2 Oreos from each country

A close-up of the different Oreos

3. Little Cupcakes

Emily and I explored a laneway in the CBD and the cutest Little Cupcakes shop. They are delicious little morsels bursting with yummy cakey flavour.

4. Melbourne Beach

Yes, Melbourne does have a beach! Port Melbourne, that is. It's nothing flash like Queensland beaches but it was still relaxing to watch the board surfers!

5. Moonlight Cinema

We took in the movie "Twilight" on the green grass of the beautiful Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. It's an outdoor cinema that runs throughout the summer.

Me, Emily and Bianca

Excursions with Emily : Part 1

In January I met a Canadian, an Edmontonian in fact, who was coming to Australia for a work term as a co-op Civil Engineer. We share a mutual friend back home who connected us named Jeanie. Her name is Emily and I was delighted to meet a fellow Canadian who I could talk freely with about Australian culture - all the different, weird, fun and interesting things - from a Canadian perspective. Since January, I've had the opportunity to do many things with my lovely new friend. We've explored the City together, created our own chocolate tour, discovered cafes and restaurants, travelled to Apollo Bay, eaten out in Lilydale, participated in an Oreo comparison from different countries and eaten the cutest, yummiest cupcakes ever, to name a few. So in the next few blogs I'd like to take the opportunity to highlight some of my "Excursions with Emily" (excursion is the word used in Australia for event outside of school, which can also mean any event out and about) in the next few blogs.

1. Greenhouse Cafe

First, here is our experience at one of the coolest travelling cafes I've ever been to. It's called the "Greenhouse Cafe" and it was situated on the edge of Federation Square just for the summer months (Dec & Jan). It's constructed entirely out of recycled materials and even the dishes were recycled. It travels all over the world; it's next destination was somewhere in Europe. As a side note, one of the chefs we met was from Saskatchewan - ! He was on a working holiday visa living and working all over Australia.

Let's Do a Time Warp Again ...

Well I must apologise for being SUPER SLACK on blogging lately! Teachers warned me that Term 2 would be brutally busy and guess what, they were right! I've done heaps of cool stuff all the way back to this summer which I haven't gotten around to blogging yet. As a result, I've decided to go back and blog about past events that I believe are blog-worthy. So please bear with me as I do a time warp ...

Pay It Forward

My sister Allison had this on her blog and I had to sign right up! And now I'd like to extend this fun offer to my friends and family as well. The idea is that the first five people to post a comment on this blog entry will receive something special from me sometime in the next year! Then you look for people to pay it forward to yourself.

Here's how it works:

1. Leave a comment letting me know you'd like to participate. You must be willing to provide me with a mailing address, obviously.

2. Post a "Pay it Forward" on your blog where you link back to me and extend the same offer to five of your readers. (again, if you don' have a blog, you can still participate maybe over FB, Twitter or just in 'real life' situations!).

Promise that you will follow through and send something special to those five who comment on your blog (or however you choose to do it!) The little something's don't have to be extravagant, just something that you select with that specific person in mind. You know you want to comment!

Introducing ... RED HOT!

And here it is ... the moment you've all been waiting for ... now introducing for the first time ... our new car ... RED HOT! We purchased this 2003 Toyota Echo from some friends who kept it in immacculate condition. Watch out, Melbourne, Natalie Wickham is now driving a manual on the opposite side of the road on the opposite side of the car than she grew up learning (and doing so quite successfully she thinks!).

Above, I took a friend down the Great Ocean Road over Easter, a 3.5 hour journey one way. I think those narrow, curvy roads were the ultimate driving test and thankfully I passed!

Now We're a TRUE Aussie Couple!

Here is our brand new four burner Jumbuck BBQ complete with Aussie BBQ - steak, sausage, corn, potatoes and garlic bread (the veggies skewers went on first before the meat)

On Valentine's Day I got a call that I won a BBQ! I don't usually win draws so I was ecstatic! Here's the scoop ...

I went shopping to a Pharmacy (they call them "Chemists" in Australia) to pick up some prescriptions and other personal and household necessities like I normally would on a Friday (my day off). Lo and behold when I went to check out and my bill was determined, I got asked if I wanted to enter a draw since my bill exceeded the amount required to enter. I was told it was for a BBQ but the amount was only $40 so I thought it was going to be a Coleman camping stove or something small like that. Anyway, of course I'll take the chance so I entered, not expecting to have anything come from it. Well, at around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday (the following day) I received a call on my mobile phone that I had won the BBQ!! Joel and I decided to go and pick it up immediately since the Chemist wasn't too far away. When we got to the store it was waiting near the front for us and to our amazement it was a full, middle-range, four-burner gas BBQ with a gas bottle included!! And it looks pretty flash too (if I don't say so myself). Aussie's love their BBQs and Aussie men love to show off their skills by having people over which is what Joel and I then proceeded to do. We've had 2 large BBQ parties so far and we've been inviting families over on an almost weekly basis to share our BBQ with them!

Thanks God for this unexpected gift and the opportunity to host people as we become a more Aussie couple!!