Davis Cup Tennis Tournament Does Sydney: Australia vs. Switzerland

All week my attempts to acquire tickets to the Davis Cup Tennis Match turned up dead ends;  I stalked Ticketek via phone and website, I called people who might know people, I even showed up at the match on Day 1, stood in line for forty-five minutes with some cranky, snotty old guys dressed up like they were going to high tea--- only to be shut out. 

And my sister said, you'll get tickets.  Don't even say that you won't.  And I was thinking that same thing, but was slowly starting to accept that it might not happen.

So I marched on, and with today being Day 2 of the three day tournament, I conceded that sometimes it doesn't all happen-- and that's okay, as Tony Robbins would say, "There are no failures, there are only results."

Then we went to the seven year old's tennis lesson this morning, during my break from ball-boy duty, I received an eBay message that Davis Cup tickets had just been listed.  Upon reaching the seller (a.k.a. "The Ticket Pimp") he says he's at a restaurant a couple minutes away from us, and he has front row seats with our name on them-- for the match that starts in 90 minutes.

Woooo freaking hoooo!  FRONT ROW, BABY!

So I'm all, "We'll be there in five minutes to get the tickets."  And he's all, "First come, first serve-- I'm sittin' here."  And I'm thinking, is this for real?  I had been willing-it to happen JUST. LIKE. THIS. all week long... and it's really going to?  Really?  YES!  That is, unless we pay, the tickets end up being fake, and we walk away sad losers... hmmm, that sure would be unfortunate.  But I am a truster, and I am willing pay the trust tax if necessary to believe this is the real deal, because I KNEW it was going to happen all along... I just knew it.

I jump into action and shout onto the tennis court to my seven year old, whose coach just told him they were going to play a "real match" for the last 15 minutes of their lesson, "Honey, we need to leave-- I got Davis Cup tickets!! I got the Davis Cup tickets!! We need to go get them before he sells them to someone else... let's go!"  And then he whines (or whinges if you're Aussie), "I can't go right now, we are about to play a real match.  Can't we go afterwards???"

At risk of becoming Crazy-Ameri-Mum in public, I think I threatened him with a week of no-ipod if he didn't, "Get in the car NOW!".

Thankfully, he shut his piehole and we rushed down the street.  As we approached the rendezvous point I saw The Ticket Pimp walking anxiously up and down the footpath (that's Aussie for "sidewalk"), he had that I'm-looking-for-someone, but-I-don't-know-what-they-look-like face on... so I was pretty sure it was him.  And.... just like that... BAM!... we had front row seats to the hottest game in town, Davis Cup Australia vs. Switzerland.

After dashing home and wolfing down some Oporto Chicken Rappas, we were on our way.

I pulled into to my favorite carpark (that's Aussie for "parking lot")-- full.  Damn.  Headed back onto the main road and BAM!  Perfect massive spot to parallel park in, directly across the street from the entrance.  Seriously, it seems obvious that our day has come.  We have arrived.

We were late enough that there was no line to enter the Royal Sydney Golf Club, and before we knew it, we were in.  Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Stanislas Wawrinka, and Chris Guccione-- alive and in person-- merely feet from us, or metres if you're all metric and whatnot.

And if all of this goodness wasn't enough, we were lucky enough to be seated on the west side which was almost completely shaded from the searing Aussie sun which was as strong as it comes today.  The little sub-climate at our seats was a cool, breezy 20ish degrees Celsius- that's probably about 65 Fahrenheit?

It was absolutely gorgeous and ah-MAZ-ing day, and here's a taste of it...


The temporary seating we'd seen them put up earlier in the week-- I heard it was three or four thousand seats.


Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy, Oy, Oy!  (FYI- our colors are green and yellow).


The tennis-fanatic seven year old and Roger Federer, who would clearly be unaware he is taking part in such an important photo.


Federer in deeply focused, as he should be :).


The award winners for "Most Enthusiastic Fans".  They kept the match rockin', literally... those temporary stands are pretty darn flimsy.


This was the first professional tennis match I've been to, and was quite intrigued by the umbrella-holding girls during the quick breaks.  Note:  I am totally in support of as much shade as possible.


It was such an exciting match, and the Aussie took it home!


After the match, there were mini-tennis courts set up, which was incredible considering he was harassing me that he wanted to play tennis "RIGHT. NOW."  After four hours at a tennis match, he seriously wanted me to take him to play.  Could this have been any luckier a find???


He was so hot and schweddy after playing tennis with the other kids that we decided the best way to top it all off would be by pouring the remnants of his water bottle on his head for an instant cool-down.

It was a perfect ending to a perfect day.

Mary Poppins at the Capitol Theatre Sydney

News Flash: Mary Poppins has landed in Sydney with the help of her highly fashionable, yet mysterious, umbrella... and sporting a harness with strings barely visible to naked-eye of middle-aged mums (moms); one mum specifically (wink, wink), who clearly needs reading glasses (a sad fact made even more evident after attempting to read the $20 Mary Poppins Program book.  Hmm, is it just me, or does the print just keep getting smaller???).    

But apparently, trying to get tickets to see the nanny who puts grown men in their place, isn't easy.  To get "the good seats" at Sydney's incredibly beautiful Capitol Theatre, we had to book months ago, but lemme tell ya-- it was well worth it!

Our six and seven year old boys loved it, and so did their parents :).

And I love going to the Capital Theatre, it's an experience in itself.  We saw Wicked there, and also Tap Dogs, which was really cool since at the time the boys were taking tap dance lessons at the Tap Dogs Dance School.

When you enter the Capitol Theatre it feels as if you've stepped into the glamourous days of yesteryear, where people dressed to the nines to see a show, and said things like, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." 

Anyway, luckily for us, the the proximity of Mary Poppins was within walking distance of our regular Sunday morning church, sorry, I mean Yum Cha restaurant (it's our religious ritual so I sometimes get confused).  So we got ourselves some dumplings, salt and pepper calamari,  and Chinese broccoli, then walked in the beautiful, crisp Sydney weather about a kilometre (that's Aussie for 1/2 a mile) over to the Capitol Theatre.


The kids were hoping they'd have popcorn, they didn't.  But they did have mini-cans of Pringles and blue Mary-Poppins-flavoured (that's Aussie for "flavored" if I lost anyone there) lemonade slurpee style beverages which came in these handy-dandy souvenir cups...




We stopped by the cloak room to claim a couple booster cushions for the boys, though they only "boosted" them a couple of inches higher, which wasn't all that helpful when seated behind seemingly ginormous stranger heads.

Upon entering the theatre, we were shown our seats by a friendly usher who was oh so kind, and gently reminded us to switch off our mobile phones, and that photography was strictly prohibited.  We sat down, briefly checked-out our theatre-mates, and got some time to admire our surrondings.  Enamored once again by the Capitol Theatre's beauty, I reached for my camera-- and then I stopped, and I thought to myself-- surely he meant no photography during the show, right?  Why wouldn't you be allowed to take photos of the inside of the theatre? Duh.

And so-- snap, snap, sna...

And with a look of disappointment and disdain, the friendly usher turned on me.  "There's absolutely no photography allowed in the theatre, jackass."  Okay, well he didn't actually say "jackass", but he didn't need to-- it was implied.

Boy, my kids sure don't have a good rule-following, role-model in me...


There you have it, an illegal photo of the inside of the Capitol Theatre.  I am a very bad girl.

Anyway, each actor in this production was outstanding.  The actress who played Mary Poppins was amazing.  The guy who played "Bert" was really good, and is apparently a judge on one of the innumerable reality talent shows here-- not that that matters.  The kids who were on that day were great, and adorable, and all that good stuff.  And the supporting actors were all extremely engaging and stole many of the scenes they were in.

I also thought the adaptation of the show from screen to theatre was done in a very interesting way,  if I'm not mistaken, I believe some of the songs were in a different order than in the movie, and there were new songs also.

In my professional opinion, I would highly recommend going to see Mary Poppins while she's here.  It was an absolutely Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious show, and it looks like we're not the only ones who think so, as they took home a whole heap of Helpmann Awards last night at the Sydney Opera House, which is not at all surprising news-- because we loved it! 

The end.

Costco Sydney Review, Wooo Hooo Mate

The rain here has been torrential, and I had planned on having a quiet day at home, catching up on the many things neglected during the kids three week winter break.

As I pulled into the house from school drop off (8:45 this morning), my mobile (it's not a "cell phone" here, mate) rang, it was one of my Aussie-MumMates-Down-Under, and this is how it went:

The Convo: 

Her:  You'll never guess where I am?

Me:  Wheeeerrre???

Her:  Costco!!!!!

Me:  Omigod!  Is it packed?? Omigod!

Her:  It's empty.

Me:  Shut up!  I want to come!

So we get off the phone, I call my other girlfriend... and within minutes, me and girlfriend were off to the races!  We bolted, in her mini-van (with ample storage), over to Parramatta Road in Lidcombe, to check out Costco Sydney, yeee- haw.

It was Grand Opening chaos as we pulled up to the massive warehouse; police cars blocked the entrance, as the carpark (that's Aussie for "parking lot") was full.  We were directed to the shopping mall across the street, parked quickly without issue, and then followed the parade of "new Gold-Star Members" through the crosswalk, up the ramps and into the Costco entrance.

By the way, you can stop by for lunch without entering Costco and have a "all pork" Costco hotdog (not the all-beef they are known for in America) or a refreshing beverage, as the snack area is not actually inside the store itself.   It's funny because later in the day an employee was telling us, and she was really giddy with excitement about it, that you can get free refills on your drink from the snack area-- it reminded me, we definitely aren't in Kansas anymore and Australia is still a very different place.

Anywho, let's just say this-- Costco definitely wasn't empty when we got there! haha

So we probably only covered about 30% of the store during our probably 2+ hours there, as it was absolutely beyond jam-packed;  there were staff literally, boxed into a tiny spot on the floor unable to move.  Massive gridlock-- though there were a few aisles we were able to cruise through without issue.

And here's what they had...

American stuff you don't see often in Australia like:

• Bounce Dryer Sheets
• Febreeze
• Poppycock Popcorn Snack
• Lots of Kitchenaid items, though they seemed to be at normal Aussie prices
• Many Kirkland brand (that's Costco's private label) items-- like coffee, baby wipes, lots of other widely-used American Kirkland items
• And...

Downy Fabric Softener, so nice to see you old Ameri-friend, too bad you've been replaced with Epsom Salt.


Australians have no idea what Dr. Pepper is, as proven by the convo (that's Aussie for "conversation") heard next to the Dr. Pepper cases.



Kosher Dill Vlasic Pickles down under, wow.



I never thought I'd be so happy to see Lay's.  I would probably never buy them in the US with all the other choices, but here, just seeing the logo gave me a little smile.


OMG... I thought I hit the jackpot when I saw this-- then I noticed the Kirkland brand Organic Peanut Butter-- it's like the US Smuckers brand style-- all natural, no sugar, needs to be stirred.  That was a real win for my six year old and he doesn't even know it yet.


This makes me feel like I'm at Costco.



Definitely something you don't see in Australia.



Best baby wipes in the world.



Should've, could've, would've.  Damn, why didn't I get the Swiss Miss???



Duh, it would be Costco Australia without insanely large tubs of Vegemite.



Lamb cutlets, you've made my life a lot easier, thank you for converting my vegetarian six year old back to meat.


Passionfruit, something we've learned to love, especially with vodka.



Massive boxes of Weet-bix, it's like the Wheeties of Australia; perhaps you could say it's the national breakfast cereal?

Random list of other things they had:

• Twinning tea massive pack of 3 varieties.
• Beef fillet for $31.99/kilo (which is pronounced in Australia like it rhymes with "skillet" instead of with "ballet")-- that's about half the price than our local butcher.
• Treadmills, TVs, Vacuum Cleaners, Small Appliances of all kinds.
• Walk in refrigerator full of fresh produce like kilo sized bags of asapargus (that's 2.2llbs), ginormous bags of baby spinach and rocket (Aussie for "arugula"), leeks (the new onion in my house), and container of beautiful baby-capsicums (capsicums = bell peppers) that my Fiery Redhead taught me to roast to perfection.  
• Swingsets, they call them "cubbyhouses" here.
• Books.
• Clothes
• Fresh Pizzas-- the boxes say "Take and Bake" $15.99 for a seafood pizza that looked amazing.
• Larger than normal packs of:  milk, eggs, yogurts, all kinds of frozen items,

Disappointed that they didn't have American breakfast cereals.

Disappointed to see the Kitchenaid appliances were the same price as other Aussie stores.

Disappointed the Costco hotdogs were not the all-beef ones from the US, all-pork Aussie-style ones are just not at all the same. 

View from the cashier line chaos.

And after waiting about thirty minutes in line to check out, maybe less-- we put our Costco Rainy Day Escape Plan into action.  My friend was going to get the her car at the mall across the street, while I waited with the two Costco carts at the Tyre Centre (that's Aussie for "Tire Center":)

And if it wasn't already our lucky day-- well guess what, it was about to be.

As it was raining cats and dogs, my friend organizes permission from the police brigade to enter the "full" Costco carpark and pick me up with the goods.  She arrives, backs the mini-van, which makes me miss my American Honda Odyssey (the Aussie one is a stationwagon type vehicle), right under a nice convenient awning at the Tyre station so we can load, when one of the Tyre Centre guys comes out and says something about a flat tire-- and we're thinking he's probably shooing us away from stopping in that area.  Then we realize, he's actually saying we've got a flat tire.

Can you imagine, a flat tire discovered while your car is parked illegally in front of a Tyre Centre?  Haha, it doesn't get much luckier than that :).  



Needless to say, three new tires and three new //Costco-employee-best-friends later... we were on our way home to do school pick up and tell our children how lucky the are to have mums (aka "moms") who buy them Costco-size cases of single-serving Pringles.
 
Costco Sydney/Auburn/ Lidcombe/ or whatever confusing suburb you're in.....
You rock!

I Love The Sydney Opera House

A few nights ago, I sat in bed with my husband and watched Oprah climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge-- and it was surreal... it felt like Oprah was here living with me.  Seeing her at our places we go all the time was strangely awesome.  And watching Oprah taste Vegemite for the first time, and wildly exclaim how much she loves it... well, that was just pure crazytime,  (note to Ameri-readers:  Vegemite is a fermented yeast extract that all Aussies spread on toast).  And being that it's a (correct me if I'm wrong) highly acquired taste, I think she was totally faking that Vegemite love.  Easy there Aussies, I'm not saying Vegemite isn't delicious-- my kids love it.

And all of this Oprah-watching, and all of this Vegemite-talk, reminds the hubs and I (once again, here it comes) that we have done the right thing in moving to Sydney.  This cross-cultural experience has changed us in so many ways, and it will always be a part, of who we and our children become. 

And so last week we went to see "Le Grand Cirque: Adrenaline" in the Concert Hall at The Opera House-- and I'll just say this...  we may have been due for a loser.  Ooo, that wasn't very nice.  Or,  possibly, I'm just not a "circus person".  The reality of the situation is, anything you see at the Opera House is awesome, because you get to go to The Opera House... duh.  But just being honest, somethings are significantly better than others.

These two guys were our favorite (that's "favourite" for the Aussies) from Le Grand Cirque.



And even though Le Grand Cirque didn't blow us away, what did wow us, was the newly renovated restaurant area on the "lower concourse" of The Opera House.  Usually after a show we take the kids down for lunch or a snack at what used to be an underwhelming, airport-esque, food-court style dining area.

The newly redone food/ shopping area looked amazing, only adding to the already beautiful harbour and bridge background.






Momentary, post-circus meltdown.



This is The Opera House lower concourse food area today... they redid the casual restaurant area, added some really nice food options, and upgraded the furniture.

And just last night I got to take in all of that Sydney Opera House freshness with my girlfriend Erin.  Erin was one of the first Americans I met in Sydney, we met through our blogs and then in person, over a lunch which filled with deep conversation, and me picking coriander (that's Aussie for "cilantro") out of a burrito with my fingers (manners?), and we fell in friendlove... or at least I did.   Needless to say, Erin is a very special person to me here in Oprahland, I mean Sydney.  

Soooo, last night Erin and I met at the Opera House Bar for a little pre-show cocktail hour.

Photo: Dirty Disco Carpet cocktail and artichoke prosciutto pizza from the Opera House Bar.

The crowd was dressed unusually islandy.  Hawaiian shirts and hats with parrots on them, perfectly normal wear growing up in South Florida-- but not so much at the Sydney Opera House.
You must be wondering, why were people dressed like this (see photo below)? 


Photo:  Random Woman.  (By the way, thank you nice lady for letting me photograph you).

and like this...


Photo:  Cute People at the Opera House wearing Parrotheads, but I did not ask to take a photo of these unsuspecting new friends.

And like this...




Ooops, we actually were not dressed up, but we do look a little toasted-- not surprising since it felt like it was about 100 degress Celsius (that's about 212 degrees Fahrenheit) outside.

But THIS is the reason:




I seriously cannot think of a place less "Jimmy Buffet Parrothead-ish" than Sydney Opera House--  it's so wrong, but yet so, so right.

 

Jimmy Buffet in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.  Awesome.





And here's just a little taste of the show... you may want to enlarge it to watch, I have no clue why it came out so small.

I guess you could say he really knows how to bring down the house, ha! no pun intended.

If you live near the Opera House you're destined to go to shows there, and if you go to shows there, you're going to love the The Sydney Opera House.  If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for some milk.

Bottom Line:  Sydney Opera House = Awesome.  Jimmy Buffet at Opera House = Even More Awesome.

Sydney Night Noodle Market 2010 With My In-Laws!

After an almost thirty-hour long trip from Florida, my in-laws arrived in Sydney looking unaffected and ready to rock like teenagers on Red Bull.   

The first surprise we had lined up for them, was that instead of going to our house we were bringing them to a hotel for a few nights so we could properly disinfect and eradicate the Swine Flu from every surface in that germ factory we call a house.   Luckily Grandma and Grandpa had had the flu vaccine, and by the time they had arrived in Sydney we had recovered the week prior-- but better safe than sorry.  So I guess you could say they got the bonus package, a few days at a nice hotel with Opera House and Bridge views, and a little extra time to mentally prepare for a week of living with two energetic 5 and 6 year old boys.


The view from the hotel room...  I'm still surprised they agreed to check out.
 
Unfortunately, the weather in Sydney has been very temperamental the last few weeks, the second day they were here record wind gusts were raging through the city.  And for some reason we thought this would be a good time to take the in-laws to the famous Icebergs at Bondi Beach for lunch; the good news is, the surfers were out in full-force and it was a real taste of the Aussie spirit and love for surf.
 
This video doesn't exactly do the treacherous winds justice, but trust me they were insane.  What also didn't come through on the video was the cute, old-married-couple-argument my in-laws were having-- hence the cheeky commentary from yours truly.

So, wintery weather and sporadic blistering sun didn't stop us from showing Grandma and Grandpa the best of Sydney.  And the Sydney Night Noodle Market was calling our name.

Note:  No people at the Night Noodle Markets were harmed by the tiger shown in the photos below; though it is a very realistic looking tiger, he is not real...  he is in fact, my five year old child who wears a tiger costume when and wherever possible.



The 2010 Night Noodle Market, tucked away in the middle of Hyde Park.


I wish I had these paper lanterns in my house.


OMG.  Grandpa and mini-Grandpa.


A little entertainment amongst the food stalls.


I sometimes get comments from readers who think they have seen us out around town but aren't sure... so, if you see a little tiger with big blue eyes--- it probably is us!



Maybe next year they'll hire my tiger as the Chinese dragon's sidekick?


Sydney Night Noodle Markets-- I highly recommend going... and eating many dumplings, and noodles, and some Serendipity Ice Cream!!

Paddy's Market and The New Moscow Circus in Sydney

I'm not sure how it's possible that we've been here over three years and yesterday was my first real visit to Paddy's Market, that seems very strange.   And incredibly, my friend, who moved here right around same time we did, hadn't been either-- so yesterday we went, and conquered I might add.

Another tick (that's Aussie for "check") off the old mini-bucket list I keep in my cloudy head.

So here's the big news on Paddy's Market:   it's what we call a "flea market" in the U.S. 







For all you fashionistas, apparently this is where your UGG boots originated from, a booth at Paddy's Market with all things that represent Australia.


I'm still trying to figure out why there were so many wig booths. Club kids?



There were a few food booths.




As I approached this booth a lady asked if they sold chili powder here.  Um... duh (and that was basically the response of the guy working there too).



And the prices were amazing, considering you could pay $5-10 for a tiny punnet of blueberries near my house, and here they were two for $6. I bought a lot of fruit and paid about a quarter of what I normally would.

And this was just hilarious... I've seen it before, and it's still really funny.




But the best thing I bought yesterday at Paddy's Market were two teeny, tiny jade Buddha's (about the size of ping pong balls).  We often read a book called Buddha at Bedtime, and I've been on the lookout for a little Buddha for each of them.  I told them if they rub his belly they get good luck, though now I'm thinking someone may have told me if you rub his belly you'll get pregnant-- oh man, that could be an error of epic proportions.  But with the severe eczema we've been dealing with the our house for the last month and recurring head lice-- yep I said head lice ewwwww, we need some good luck here.



Innocent head scratching?  You be the judge.

But itchy heads, and itchy eczema legs, and all-- we still were able to take in The Great Moscow Circus a couple days ago, which conveniently pitched a tent in our area recently, so how could we not?

I'm still quite baffled over the bizarre, dark opening scene in which some Russians (I'm assuming) walked around looking sad, dressed in winter clothes.  If you ask me, which you didn't, not really the way to start off a circus.  But the performers were awesome, acrobatics, contortionists, a juggler-- very Cirque d' Soleil and really great, the only exception (which I wasn't expecting or probably wouldn't have bought tickets) was the miniature ponies they brought out and make do "tricks" in the ring.  The guy giving them direction looked scary and was holding some long whip looking thing-- at that point I almost left, but I didn't move fast enough and the ponies were done.



The Great Moscow Circus grand entrance.

After the show, we played a couple of those creepy looking games they must have stolen from Luna Park.








We told them they could get snow cones or fairy floss (which is Australian for "cotton candy").  I recommended they choose fairy floss since they'd never had it before (and I wanted some), but they incorrectly chose snow cones.  Of course they realized pretty quickly they had made a mistake, so we caved in and they ended up with both (yay for me:).




The bonus cotton candy/ fairy floss, I'm off to the side eating some and thinking of days gone by.