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.

My Little Boys are Ameri-Aussies and I'm Giving Them Tall Poppy Syndrome

Last night while he sat in the bathtub, my raspy-voiced seven year-old asked in his Ameri-Aussie accent, "Mum, have you ev-ah her-d the soong 'The Star-Strangled Banner'?" Omigod, I nearly peed in my pants-- the Star Strangled Banner???

I'm now officially quite sure, Angelina and Brad's kids would definitely put mine to shame in the "knowing-about-the-country-you-came-from" category.  Wow.

I said, "Of course I know that song honey-- it's called the 'Star Spangled Banner'; though, I did think your name for it was very awesome too."  And then, I did what any other really wacky parent would do... I busted out in an unusually loud and dramatic rendition of our national anthem.  And it wasn't pretty--- though it was quite fun.  So fun in fact, that in my tiny bathroom with tiled walls, I must have sang it eight or nine times.  Did I mention it was loud?

Anyway, we ended up googling the lyrics (which there were a few I was unsure of) and singing along to them until bedtime.  Needless to say, I'm sure my husband wanted to kill me-- and I'm guessing our neighbors would have helped.

On a completely different topic, living here in Australia has given me a new perspective on so-called bragging-rights.  I never was shy about telling people how awesome my kids were-- until I finally realized that that's not the way most people do things here.

Instead of the mentality I grew up with, which was along the lines of-- everyone is good at something and if you've got it flaunt it.

So you can take Florida Girl out of America, but you can't take America out of Florida Girl, so that being said... I feel like showing off my little guys once in a while, and I'm going to right now...

My seven year old is an amazing tennis player if I do say so myself.  Here's proof:

And my little guy is a creative sponge and plans on "being famous" when he grows up.  I figured I'd give him a head start here... can't hurt, right?

It's as if the talent in our house is seemingly endless...

So don't be hatin' or cuttin' down these poppies, mate.

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!

Australian School Uniforms and Swearing in Australia, Bloody Hell Dammit

Pop into the shops in most Aussie suburbs between the hours of 3 and 4pm, and you will most likely be quite entertained as you see kids of all ages gussied up in their adorable Australian school uniforms.

After four years here, I am sold on the whole uniform thing.  In fact, I'll go as far as to say, the more formal the better.  Dare I declare... it sets a tone; it creates an atmosphere.  It makes boys acting naughty, still be, boys acting naughty; but they look extra adorable while doing it, haha.  In my opinion.

So you can imagine the cuteness factor a couple of years ago, when my oldest child was in Kindy (that's Aussie for Kindergarten) and I would walk into their classrooms and see all their cute little Aussie friends, with all their cute little Aussie accents, in their cute little uniforms.  And one day, whilst the kids were putting their "morning tea" (that's Aussie for "snack") in their designated spot, a little boy I was quite fond of drops his bag on the floor, exploding with an enthusiastic, "Dammit!".

My jaw probably dropped to the floor, and in my best Homer Simpson voice, I was like, "Doh???".  Did that little mister five-year old cutie-pants just shout out "dammit" and no one even blinked an eye?  Huh?  I'm no Pollyanna, and I can swear like a truck driver when necessary...  or, for no reason at all.  

Anyway, so over the last couple of years there have been many a playdate and/ or a birthday party and/ or a school drop off, where "dammit" and "what the hell" are flying out of babes mouths like it's nothin'.   So finally, I asked a friend of mine... (about 10 seconds after her son said both these words in front of all of us), "Um, hey girlfriend--  are dammit and hell bad words in Australia, or are they not?  Because in the U.S. you really wouldn't hear little kids talking like that."  (At least as far as I know, but then again, my kids were two and three years old when we moved here).

And then I stopped, and then I thought-- hmm, I wonder if the word "bloody" is actually worse than "hell" or "dammit".  So I asked the question-- who knows, could that be true?  Guess what, assuming my friend wasn't just messing with me... "bloody" is actually worse.

You'd think after all my time here, I would have picked this knowledge up along the way.  Apparently, I'm a little slow on the uptake, but now I am well-informed of what the really bad word is.

So last week, newly enlightened on the swearing front, I stood by as the boys and their classmates were slowly unpacking their morning tea bags, so I chimed in with, "Speed it up kiddos, and get the fuck out to the field."  The Aussie mums (moms) quickly turned around and glared at me (more than usual).

And I'm not really sure where this all went awry -- it's not like I said bloody field.  

I guess I'll never really fit in here.

**Update:  I didn't really swear at a bunch of seven year olds, and if my kids said "dammit" or "hell" there totally would be no ipods for who knows how long :).