Texas to Colorado

The destruction left by hurricane Ike, left Jess and I a little 'stuck' in Houston. Our scheduled flight to Denver was canceled and we were re-scheduled several days later to Denver via Salt Lake City (?!?). This didn't work for us as we had plans in Colorado (including a wedding)....long story short, we called Patrick once again to come rescue us from a Hurricane. Side note: Patrick rescued us once before just prior to hurricane Rita.

Anyway, Patrick picked us up in his airplane at West Houston Airport and we flew to Austin. This worked out well, as we got to see a little of Austin (Southside pizza....mmmm) and Jess was able to take a direct Southwest flight to Denver immediately.

While Jess was on her way, Patrick and I flew his airplane to Boulder with a overnight stop in Amarillo. We had a great time checking out new airports and non-airports all the same. All in all a great time.

Texas Size

Everything is bigger in Texas...even when it is in Australia. Here is the back of a muffin mix, check out how many muffins it makes.

Mexican Food - Down Under Style

The selection of Mexican food here is nearly non-existent, which is not a surprise given the distance away from Mexico. Anyway, I am kind of on a mission to find a half way decent Mexican restaurant, just to see if one exists. So far we have found a couple of places that have Mexican food on the menu, but I wouldn’t categorize them as Mexican restaurants. Near my office is a placed called Xquisito, which has tacos, nachos and burritos, but apparently they specialize in Mexican crepes. Hmm…don’t seem to remember any Mexican crepes back home…seems like a rare French-Mexican hybrid to me. Jess and I also tried a taco place in Bondi Junction, which was actually pretty good, but the tacos only came with meat and beans…not exactly a full fledged taco if you ask me. I have a crazy idea that a good taco stand/shop would do really well here…still on the lookout at the moment.

At the grocery store, there are usually one or two shelves that have “Mexican Food”, which usually consists of canned chillies, salsa, taco seasonings, and tortillas. The only brand to choose from is Old El Paso. Jess and I have already gone through a jar of salsa, which tastes more like spicy ketchup than actual salsa. The tortillas come with a moisture absorption packet (the same kind that comes in the box with new shoes), but surprisingly it doesn’t affect the taste as much as I thought it would...although they were a bit dry. Once our kitchen stuff is delivered, I am sure will be attempting to make tortillas on our own (any advice John Q?).

Update: I decided to try one of these so-called “Mexican Crepes” for lunch – it was terrible and it cost $9! The Asian behind the counter seemed shocked when I wanted avocado and cheese….um this is a Mexican Crepe right? The crepe itself was too thin to pick up, yet to tough to cut with the plastic fork and knife….hmmm maybe a tortilla would be better? The “spicy meat” filling was interesting, but in no way had any resemblance to “meat”. So I have learned my lesson….if I want Mexican food here I am going to have to make it myself.

Our Stuff

In moving to Sydney we elected to have some of our ‘stuff’ shipped (by air and sea) over. The air shipment arrived as expected back in December when Jess was here working. Since this shipment was weight restricted (500lbs), it contained mostly clothes and linens. Everything else (furniture, kitchen ware, etc…) was shipped by sea. The sea shipment arrived in Sydney on Dec. 26th and due to the holidays has been there ever since. We ended up having to buy a few items from Ikea (a story in and of itself) and other places to get the bare essentials (like some place to sit other than the floor). Luckily, we already had a very nice air mattress (thanks to Jess’ Mom) that we are able to sleep on in the meantime.

We finally got word this week, that our ‘stuff’ will be delivered to our apartment next Tuesday (the day after Australia Day). After the dusts settles, we will be sure to take a few pictures so everyone can see where/how we live.