Brownies in the oven

Another sign that I'm getting settled - I'm baking brownies tonight. Afternoon tea is a common thing at work and I felt that after 6 weeks I needed to contribute to the festivities. BTW - I'm a huge fan of afternoon tea... it's quite civilized - everyone stops work and gathers around some baked goods, tea or coffee, or, if it's Friday afternoon - wine. Yep, in the office. It's a great way to goss with co-workers and take a break. It's a good thing I'm walking everywhere now here - afternoon tea plus morning tea more than a couple of days a week and I won't fit into my chair anymore. AND - there's a Krispy Kreme at the Woden shopping centre - which is about a 5 minute walk from the office. Again - not good for the hips.

It looks like I"m head up to Newcastle on Thursday for my first Aussie outbreak! There's a Salmonella outbreak and my boss is sending me in to 'assist' - I hope I can do more good than harm! I'll be working over the weekend, but I'll get the days back, and I get to be on the coast for a few days. Newcastle is a small town north of Sydney, home of he Hunter New England Health Department - the birthplace of OzFoodNet. I'm supposed to get back to Canberra on Monday and then I'll be heading to Melbourne for an overnight face to face meeting with the Victoria State Health Dept. I'm stoked for this because there will be CDC folks there - they're in town for an E. coli conference. My good friend L will be at the conference, and she and her husband are coming to Canberra the weekend after next to hang out. I'm very excited to see people from home. Although, I'm not under any illusion that it won't be difficult to be so clearly reminded of Atlanta and all my people there. I expect there to be a fair amount of tears, but it'll be good. I'm hoping L, who rode her bike across the country last summer (on a relay team that KICKED ASS), will help me pick out a bike that will get me around Canberra and maybe through a triathalon or something.

I'm taking a yoga class on Tuesday nights and tonight I had to wait 30 minutes in the dark for the bus to take me home. Kind of takes the edge off the relaxing hour and a half of yoga. I need a bike.

So, making the brownies tonight was another conversion puzzle - how many grams in four ounces? If I have a 250 gram baking chocolate bar, how many of the 40 squares do I need to make 4 ounces? How many grams are in a pound so I can get 1/4 lb butter? And what's 350 degrees F converted to C???? Never fear - I figured it all out - the internet is just SO great. Especially when its at your fingertips. Amazing, this 21st century way of life. :)

Speaking of being an ex-pat in the 21st century - thank god I moved to another hemisphere in the early 21st century. Seriously - I CANNOT imagine how tough this journey would have been without internet, phones, air mail. In some respect I feel like there are some people I've actually talked to MORE now that I'm here than I did in Atlanta. And globalization has made things pretty easy too. It's comforting to know that I can go down to the store and get microwave popcorn and rent a DiCaprio movie if I need to. I can also get almost every food I miss from home - Mexican is a struggle, but I'm learning to make do with tasty cheese instead of cheddar, and Old El Paso (somewhere, someone in Mexico/California/Texas is groaning) instead of my Herdez Salsa Casera. And I haven't been able to find dryer sheets! What's with that? They must be hidden somewhere, although I think the truth is that folks here don't use the dryer that often - they air-dry things. Which makes sense and is certainly more economical, but some things I gotta dry in a dryer. That' just me. So I've ben staticky for a while while I wait for a shipment of dryer sheets.

It's pretty dry in Canberra - I liken the climate to the desert. It is an arid country after all - with limited water. There is a sever drought right now, and it's all over the news. Farmers are having a tough time, and that's putting it mildly I think. But back to the weather - it's cold in the mornings and the evenings, but it's getting hotter during the day... about 24 celsius today.. that's mid 70s. And the sun is INTENSE. But you can step into the shade and be cooler. In that sense it's more like CA and AZ than Atlanta. Humidity does a number to you, I swear. I never thought I'd miss the humidity, but today at lunch a cloud went over the sun and it got windy and I was cold for a second in my skirt and top, missing the heat of Atlanta that just surrounds you. But then I got over that real quick, remembering the 15 minute walk to work in the middle of summer that left you sweating like a race horse.

Speaking of race horses... the Melbourne Cup is fast approaching. Or so I'm told. This is a big deal here, although I'm not sure when it actually is, but I'm sure I'll not miss it - I'm told it's close to a public holiday for the whole country. And there are a lot of TV ads running advertising race dress - fancy dresses and hats for the ladies and suits for the guys. Fancy Schmancy.

A bit of trivia I learned last night while watching a show called 'What A Year'... last night was 1969, a monumental year in our hemisphere and pretty monumental here too. Apparently one of the scandals of that year was around the Melbourne Cup - the favorite horse, Phar Lap (I think), was fed a laxative before the race that took him weeks (!) to recover from, so he wasn't able to race. It was a BIG deal and the accused jockey, who was acquitted, apparently only fessed up on his death bed years later.