A yabbie dabbie doo Chrissie

Posted on December 28, 2011 by waggadventure

Christmas Day, one year ago, we were in Ushuaia, Argentina, on a cruise. We were still deliberating whether or not to move to Australia. If there would have been a sign there saying Wagga Wagga 10000 miles, it would have been an easy decision!

So, what did we do on our first real southern hemisphere Christmas (we say real because last year we were in Ushuaia, Argentina but that was a novelty…a vacation, not how we live)? Well, on Christmas Eve we had dinner on the al fresco (Aussie for patio) and went for a walk around the neighbourhood looking at all the beautifully-blooming trees. There are some red gum trees with spectacular flowers right now. Then to bed fairly early, with plans of being up around 6:30am to go cycling. When you’re used to snow and ice, the idea of cycling on Christmas morning is quite magical; even Santa couldn’t compete with this plan!

However, the first bit of consciousness on the 25th was earlier than planned as a huge thunderstorm went through Wagga just after midnight. Winds up to 85 km, a lot of rain, and thunder and lightning kept all of us – especially the cats – up.  And we wondered, at the time, how it would be in the morning. Would the trails be flooded? Would the muck keep Santa’s sleigh (rather, our bikes) from being roadworthy by Christmas morn?

It is really hard to photograph birds while biking, so we stole this pic of an Eastern Rosella from another website. We saw scores of these and blue-winged parrots on Christmas morning. And herons, egrets, spoonbills, swans, ducks...Much better than whatever bird life is around Edmonton this time of year!

Fortunately, it was fine. Better than fine, actually. At 6:15am it was 19 c and not a cloud in the sky! So we saddled up (as in put on the padded bike shorts) and went for an hour-long pedal east of the city. Because it was a holiday, we knew there wouldn’t be much traffic so we traveled on roads instead of trails. An amazing morning; probably 8 cars, in total (including two guys who we saw putting a BBQ in the back of their ute in an industrial area; Dan was sure it was their workplace and that they were surprising someone with a new barbie for Chrissie — but Lisa was sure they were stealing it, a la the Grinch – you know, the original 1966 cartoon version, not the horrible 2000 Jim Carrey version). Overall, it was a great route, and there was one segment of about 3 km where we saw more than 100 parrots! What a gorgeous way to start a day.

Is this a) a really good restaurant? b) a really good winery? c) 15 km from our house? or d) all of the above and why we like Wagga? Answer: D. Yes, we like Wagga.

When we got home, we had a Skype chat with Dan’s family (strange – they could see us but we couldn’t see them! Please Santa, won’t you bring the new IPad to Dan’s sister for Chrissie next year?). Then, we just relaxed for awhile before heading off for Xmas lunch at Cottontails on the Ridge, a local winery. Sure, that might seem like we were celebrating the day, but really it was just a good excuse for us to try this restaurant. And it was very good. Beautiful views of the vineyards and some great people-watching of the other folks who choose to eat out for Chrissie lunch (and no, we were not the only table for two in the place; however, the others included a 40ish guy treating his deaf mother and a very sour-faced couple, who arrived 90-minutes late — she looked pissed, while he kept going to the bar to get pissed… funny that!). Dan finally got to try yabbies, a local delicacy.

They were nice enough to cut the yabbies in the salad so Dan didn't have to figure out how to extract the meat from them. They did leave the eyes intact though. And the brains...

A yabbie is a fresh-water prawn that lives in dams (aka small lakes) on the farm paddocks around town. We’ve even met someone who has them on their property.  Dan says the yabbie salad was quite enjoyable, despite not knowing how to pick the meat out of the shell. Lisa enjoyed a spicy mango chicken salad (yes, fresh mango! Did we mention that we eat fresh – really fresh – mango almost every day!). Topped off by traditional turkey and ham dinners and then the (Aussie) traditional pavlova and Christmas pudding for dessert. Yum! We even had Christmas crackers with the silly hats and bad jokes… but the Aussies call them “bon bons”, which makes no sense at all! As Dan mentioned later that day, this would be very confusing to anyone who watched Married with Children on a regular basis.

Christmas lunch ended at just the right time… both because our bellies were full (nap needed!) and because some very dark and ominous clouds were rolling into Wagga. While Dan bought some wine, Lisa monitored the lightning bolts and tried to estimate the distance from the restaurant to the car in her satin pumps. Yes, it wouldn’t be Christmas without dressing up! Dan wore his Hugo Boss suit (first time in over a week wearing long pants, and maybe last time for a few more) and Lisa wore a new slinky number that she bought in Canberra… which was balanced quite nicely by the bogans in jeans, sneakers and yes, sadly, thongs… eating lunch at the winery. That’s the Aussie version of the thong… thankfully (ick – bad mental image)! We did see a lovely tattoo of a large bird on one woman’s back! But still, we thought it would be a shame to ruin good dress-up clothes with a vicious rainstorm.

The view from Cottontails. It was getting more and more ominous as lunch progressed.

Luckily, we made it home just as the clouds opened up and after navigating through a patch of hairy panic (go ahead – Google it; you know you want to…) attacking the car in the ensuing wind storm. We were also just in time to Skype with Lisa’s family before they headed to bed (Christmas Eve, Canada time). We ended the day with a light supper of Cottontails wine, and local cheeses, charcuterie, and olives.

The next day, Boxing Day, was rather uneventful… since (unlike in the rest of the known universe!!), December 26th is actually a day of rest here in Wagga. You might be able to find a pub or a gas station, if need be – but even the grocery stores are closed. The local paper even noted that one resident had to go to Sydney to get her Boxing Day shopping fix. We feel sad for her! It’s such an amazingly wonderful concept to be forced to sit around and do nothing for two days straight. Okay… you could shop on the internet; but we resisted! You see, this is a country town, and that means that people actually rest now and again. You need to plan for this type of event; we shopped for food in advance, so that we wouldn’t starve to death in the extra 24 hours of non-shopping-ness here in town. Oh yes, but we should mention that the movie theatre was open – thank god! Otherwise, what would we do with that many hours of together time, all in a row? So, another hour of cycling and then we ventured out to see Mission Impossible IV (can’t go wrong with Tom Cruise saving the world…again). We also became Forum Film Club members, to ensure that we have more down time in the form of regular movie date nights, in 2012. Do I hear “early new year’s resolution”? Next up? Probably War Horse…

Borrowing a page from the Test Cricket playbook, we decided to break for tea (well, actually lemonade) mid-afternoon during our bocce game. Unlike cricket, however, this game doesn't last 5 days.

We also monitored the paper closely for notices of what would be open when — especially because December 27th was a holiday “in lieu” because the 25th fell on a Sunday. So, on the 27th, only the major department stores and grocery stores would be open. Imagine that! We did venture out on this pseudo-boxing-day, to buy a set of Bocce balls to play with in our expansive back yard. And a salad bowl (good sale at Myer!), because we realized one day recently that somehow in our pre-move purge we got rid of all our nice ones! And a sports bra (for Lisa, not Dan; just to be clear). Happily, the paper also provided the Snakeman’s mobile number… so we knew we were covered for whatever this crazy holiday period might send our way.

Next up, another holiday we aren’t celebrating, by going to the King Valley (another great wine region) for new years.

And by the way, if you haven’t seen any of the facebook or twitter posts, we are in the short list for best new blog! Go to the Canadian Blog Awards and vote for us. And get all your friends to do it too. Please…

Posted in bicycles, birds, bogans, Christmas, food, hairy panic, holidays, wine, wineries | 4 Comments

We’re up for an award!

Posted on December 27, 2011 by waggadventure

The Canadian Blog Awards http://cdnba.wordpress.com/ have announced the short list for each category and we are in the top 5 for Best New Blog! So, everyone, please vote at

And spread the word among your Facebook/twitter/ real life friends.  We don’t have the number of followers a lot of people do, but we think people actually like this blog!

And while  you are at it, go to the Feminist, Humour and Law categories and vote for our good friend Feminist Figure Girl!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

do they know it’s Chrissie?

Posted on December 24, 2011 by waggadventure

There is something a bit disconcerting to northerners about seeing Christmas lights on flowers.

Jeeps and Minis are among the many forms of transport that Santa uses to get to Wagga.

In the Aussie tradition of shortening and ee-ing everything, we are now in the throes of celebrating “Chrissie”. Well, we are in the throes of seeing Australians celebrate it, as we don’t really do that much around this holiday. Never have and now that we are here in a whole different environment we are even less interested.

Our house is extremely non-Chrissie-ey; there are, of course, the cards that people have sent us (Christmas cards, mixed in with Dan’s birthday cards and sympathy cards about the passing of his Dad – thanks everyone!). And there are a few small gifts sitting on a table that people have given us. But we have done nothing on our own. We had to get rid of our tree for the move (pine cones were a quarantine hazard!) and without a new tree, Lisa’s favourite ornaments remained tucked away in a box. It’s very hard to get into the Christmas spirit in 30+ temperatures.

We wouldn't have been surprised to see Johnny Galecki and Juliette Lewis at this house.

But, at least some Australians are really into Chrissie, in a Clark Griswold freakish way. On Thursday last, the Leader (the local free weekly) posted a list of some houses that were decorated for the season. We, and a lot of others (based on how much traffic we encountered), decided we had to experience some of them.

The white kangaroos are called boomers and six of them are used to pull Santa's sleigh across the outback.

What we learned was that warm weather Xmas lighting is very different than cold weather. First,  you can do a lot! In Canada, you slap up some lights quickly and get back inside before you freeze your toes. Here, linger, look, tweak, go nuts…your fingers aren’t going to freeze and fall off, but you might be putting yourself at risk of skin cancer.

Second, people looking at lights do it in a different way. Yes, we encountered the lines of cars driving slowly past the lighted houses, but we also saw people walking down the streets with a glass of wine in their hand (have we mentioned that you can drink in public here? With wine being one of the largest national industries, regulating that would be akin to telling Albertans they had to trade in their 1974 Ford LTD that was keeping Suncor in business!).

Whereas other people could decide how Santa was supposed to travel, these people were torn between motorcycle, bicycle, helicopter, airplane, or space ship.

Most of what we saw was pretty standard stuff – it could have been anywhere, but here it was placed among flowers and grass rather than snow. Some of it was noticeably out of place – e.g., reindeer don’t live here. Reindeer don’t live in Canada either, but at least you can imagine them there.

There were a few streets where people seemed to band together to all decorate their homes, and when they did it was pretty spectacular. A lot more interesting than Candy Cane Lane in Edmonton. Lots of blue lights, which are pretty eerie.  People in Edmonton were using blue lights, but mostly they were LEDs and they didn’t shine too brightly. The ones here are brighter and bolder.  And for some reason, the Australian term for Christmas lights is ‘fairy lights‘.

Not a lot of interest in getting inside a warm plastic dome when it is +30 degrees!

The other bit of Christmas decoration that we have seen is, of course, in the shopping centre. Wagga Marketplace, the (sort of) mall in the CBD, has a Santa. But, they also have an inflatable snow globe that people can get in and have their picture taken, pretending they are in a winter setting. Not a great success…people here really have no interest in snow! We haven’t seen anyone in it.

And now it is Christmas Eve here in Australia, and we are off work for about 10 days because, as with our previous jobs, the university closes over the holidays.  We are looking forward to some time off. It has been a hectic month, with Lisa hosting a visitor, Dan having to be in Bathurst, a couple of trips to Canberra, etc. We need some down time. We’re not really celebrating Christmas but we have some special things planned for the break. We’ll post about those as they happen.

Whether you are celebrating something, ignoring something, or like us just taking advantage of someone else’s religion for a few days off work, we wish you…whatever.  Enjoy.

This is just a small part of a massive multi-media installation on one front yard. Multimedia as in some of the stuffed animals on the front sing carols. The owner's granddaughter kept them going.

Posted in Australia, Christmas, holidays, small town culture, southern hemisphere, wagga wagga | Tagged , | 1 Comment

across the great divide

Posted on December 20, 2011 by waggadventure

I don't think we're in Wagga anymore, toe toe.

In our last episode, we were in Canberra eating Ethiopian food. The purpose of that trip was to take Lisa’s visiting scholar to the Capital for some meetings. One of the things the guest requested, when Lisa asked her pre-trip what she might like to do, was to go to the coast. Wagga is about 4 to 4.5 hours from the coast, so that seemed a bit long, but since we were already going to be in Canberra for the weekend, it was an easy day trip on the Sunday.

This picture of kangaroos is chronologically out of order; we came across them at the end of the day. But you need something better than Dan's toes to think about.

Canberra (as well as Young, and many of the other areas we frequent) is on the tablelands – sort of mesas in what Australians refer to as mountains. The Snowys are nearby, and the drive from Wagga to Canberra goes through some beautiful hilly country. All of this, from the Victorian Alps in the south through to the Blue Mountains and into Queensland, is part of the Great Dividing Range that separates coastal Australia from inland Australia. But we didn’t really realize how high up we were until we started to go down to the ocean. It was a spectacular drive down (and back up later in the day), descending for probably 20 minutes of twisty turny roads through lush rainforest. People comment that it is a twisty and steep highway…well they’ve never driven up to Mount Edith Cavell! At least this road has a centre line and an overtaking lane occasionally.

Our destination for the day was Bateman's Bay, which turned out to be scenic but boring.

On the way out of Canberra, we stopped in the little town of Bungendore for a market. Not much there, but some interesting crafts and Dan added to his marmalade collection (gotta start eating some of it!). We then headed out to our destination of Batemans Bay, which actually turned out to be a bit of a disappointment – a touristy coastal town that is probably great if you are there to drink and sail. So, on the advice of the info booth, we headed south and a bit inland to Mogo. Mogo is a gold-mining town that pretty much died, and to regenerate itself became a crafty/touristy shopping haven. In 2003, it became the first town in inland Australia to get rid of plastic shopping bags (with the motto “no go in Mogo” — gotta love that!). A cool place, with good food, a great kitchen shop, a place selling alpaca goods, a leather shop, etc.

This is where we finally ended up...a nice scenic beach.

After Mogo, we headed back to the coast to South Rosedale Beach. It was great. Windy and a bit cool, but perfect for a stroll and to watch the waves roll in.  Lisa collected shells, Dan took photos, our visitor just marveled at the beauty that is Australia!  And we were all thrilled to see some sort of lizard – haven’t identified it for sure, but it was either a Jacky or a Nobbi dragon.

This little (well not so little - 15 inches nose to tail) dragon startled Lisa on the path to the beach. We'd be grateful if someone can positively identify it for us.

And then, back on the road to Canberra. It was, fortunately, getting toward evening so  between Lake George  and Canberra we saw a huge mob of ‘roos out grazing. Hard to tell, but probably around 50, with a couple of them even boxing when we first passed by in the car. By the time we found a place to turn around (Dan almost got us killed in heavy traffic!) and got back to them, the fun and games had stopped (for the ‘roos, at least) but we still had a great viewing.

So, another good day of experiencing Australia. We aren’t really beach people, and though it was inevitable that we would get there at some point we didn’t think it would be this soon. But, thanks to a guest, we did it, and we had a great time!

Posted in Australia, beach, Canberra, driving, kangaroo, lizard, mountains, travel | Leave a comment

Everything is upside down

Posted on December 16, 2011 by waggadventure

20111216-212510.jpg

People here walk the streets eating pie with their hands, but we go to an Ethiopian restaurant and they give us cutlery. Weird country!

Of course the server did point out that we are in Canberra, which is a pretty white conservative city…

And yes we are in Canberra, not Wagga…for the second time this week. Again travel makes it hard to keep up with good blogging. Sorry.

Also we should point out that the photo is just for illustrative purposes; Lisa did eat the food by hand. Cutlery is for pie, but wat and tibs must be eaten with fingers and injera.

Posted in Canberra, cultural differences, food, pie, travel | 2 Comments

on the road again (and trails and tracks)

Posted on December 11, 2011 by waggadventure

It’s been a hard week for blogging…you must have all noticed that we missed doing a mid-week post :).  Lisa has been busy hosting an international visiting scholar, and Dan has been in Bathurst for work.  But we did manage to do some notable (at least to us) things separately, both involving our bicycles.

Dan was thrilled when the CSU-assigned car (all uni travel is done using car pool vehicles) was big enough that he could get his bike in the back. He was going for the whole week, and wanted to be able to do some riding. And not just any riding: his hotel is on Mount Panorama, facing Conrod Straight on the famous Mount Panorama Circuit. So he thought it would be cool to ride around a race track.  As has been pointed out here before, Dan is a bit of an idiot…he didn’t really do his homework when it came to this. If he had just looked at the Wikipedia page (linked above) he would have known that there was a huge hill on the 4-mile track. The view from the bottom of Mt Panorama, near the hotel. Dan thought the track went around the hill, not up it. Idiot.Or, well, just think about it for a minute…the next day, he said to one of his work colleagues that he didn’t realize there was a hill. She gave him a quizzical look and said “It is called MOUNT Panorama.” But he just thought the track went around the hill; race tracks are supposed to be (mostly) flat. Anyway, he managed to do it on his first day there, along with some other hilly terrain nearby. The next day, he opted just for some (still hilly but not as bad) town riding. On Wednesday, he decided to tackle the mountain again. But, this was his 5th day in a row of hard riding and his legs were getting tired. 2/3 of the way up, he decided it wasn’t fun anymore, and turned around. Only to end up doing some long hills on other roads anyway… Bathurst is a hilly city.

The best thing about the track, however, is that race tracks need to be pot-hole free, so this is the best pavement he has ridden on. Though the climb was hard, coming down a perfectly-smooth hill at 50 km/h is pretty exhilarating. He would have gone faster but Bathurst is also a very windy city, and the a 30 km/h sustained wind, gusting to about 40, was holding him back. Except on some of the curves where it became a crosswind…freewheeling down a curvy hill at 50 k, wobbling in a 40 k gust, is pretty scary!

Lisa’s cycling adventure is more of a milestone however. It was her first time out alone! She had one free evening, so after work slathered on some sun block, helmetted up, and headed out to Lake Albert. She is now familiar enough with that area to not get lost. And according to her Cyclemeter iPhone app, did the fastest riding she’s done yet (Dan edit: why won’t you go that fast with me?). One of the roos that Lisa saw. He ran away, but she didn't try to ride alongside him.And, for the first time while riding, encountered some kangaroos beside the golf course (Dan edit: I saw some too at the Bathurst reservoir…on top of another bloody hill).  This is a pretty cool place to ride right now: roos, darters, herons, egrets, moorhens, swamphens, cockatoos, gallahs, parrots… When she got home, Lisa texted Dan to say she had gone for a long ride; she said she was going to do it some time during the week, but he didn’t believe her. When he got home on Friday and saw her helmet and water bottle still out on the bench, he wondered if she had done it. “Yes,” she said, “and I sent you a text and a photo of some roos, but you didn’t respond.” Well, it turns out that when she looked at her phone, it didn’t send for some reason. Oh well, Dan will now believe her that she can and will ride alone.

On returning home, however, Dan also had a milestone. Lisa had been talking to another visiting scholar about cycling, and he was lamenting that there were no bikes for rent in Wagga. After a long flight from the UK and a week of working, he was itching to get active. Lisa offered that she would ask Dan if this person could borrow his bike. He had to think about it…it is his baby! But he agreed, though thought it would be preferable if the visitor was short and would prefer her bike instead (partly so he could ride with him). But that wasn’t the case, and we arranged to get the person to our house, and Dan entrusted him with it (at least this person recognized it for what it was…he is an avid cyclist). Dan found it easier giving the person access to our garage and house (because we were going to be out when he returned  it) than his beloved bike.  And we even drew a map of the interesting roads and trails nearby, complete with details of hazards and birds!  In the end, the baby came home without a scratch. All is well… So all potential visitors out there, you may just be able to convince Dan to let you take his bike for a spin when you’re here with us.

Posted in Bathurst, bicycles, cycling, kangaroo, lake albert, mountains, wildlife | Leave a comment

pickers and permanent people

Posted on December 3, 2011 by waggadventure

When we went to Young a couple of weeks ago, we sort of jumped the gun.  A variety of other plans throughout the week got shifted, so we ended up with a free Saturday and we really wanted some cherries. So off we went. But, we knew we would have to go back because we had already been planning to attend the Young Cherry Festival.

That event was this weekend, and good timing, as we had finally eaten all of the cherries from last time (well… except for those that we made into chutney; we still have a few jars of that in the freezer). First stop was Ballinaclash, where we harvested about 10 kg of lovely red fruit. This time it wasn’t as easy; we’re not sure if it is because of the time of year or something to do with the weather, but the trees had a lot of bad cherries. And there were a lot more people. But we lucked onto a really great tree and pretty much both filled our buckets from it.

Thought we did get a 750 gram piece of cheese, we reckon we maybe should have bought a bit more because he sells it for $25/kg. That is really cheap for here! We might try to track him down for more.

On the way out of the parking lot, we stopped to chat to an elderly Italian gentleman who was selling olives and cheese from his caravan. Both of these were produced from 5-generation-old recipes that he brought with him from Italy. He’s been in Young for 0ver 30 years, where he has an olive grove and 50 goats. He cures olives, presses his own oil, and makes an amazing semi-hard goat’s cheese. And he sells them at give-away prices!  He also said he makes ricotta and feta, but can’t do that right now because the goats are pregnant so he can’t milk them. We just love hearing stories like this, and meeting these wonderful people who produce artisan (or should we say rustic?) foods because they love doing it. He kept saying to us “You won’ta finda cheese/olives like this anywhera else. I make from love, not business.” He learned the craft as a small boy, from his grandfather.

Then, into town for some pie (a lot of pie, of various types), and the festival. Because we were in a bit of a hurry, we went straight to Wilder’s Bakery where we bought some cherry pies (2 small ones for our dinner, and a large one for Lisa to take to tea one day at work) and some sausage rolls for lunch (sort of pies…). Here in Australia, you see people walking down the street eating sausage rolls, hot meat pies, sausages wrapped in white bread… all sorts of meaty/doughy combinations. We decided to do as the Aussies do, eating our sausage rolls as we walked to the carnival grounds. This was a big challenge for Lisa who a) thinks all pies should be eaten with a fork, napkin at the ready, and b) doesn’t really understand the notion of encasing sausage meat in pastry.

The Young festival had the usual attractions: a display of vintage cars (including some cool, 1950s caravans to match!), grey-haired ladies selling crocheted baby booties and marmalade, and the local choir. However, this event also had a Cherry Queen (sash and all!) and a ‘Charity Queen’ (we were wondering if this was a polite title for someone who wasn’t good enough for the real competition), an annoying clown named Milo (who gave this man a microphone?), and 23 buskers (we know this, because there was a competition).

Not your typical small-town Aus festival goers. These back-packers were waiting for the drum solo in the choir performance.

This festival also drew a very different audience; yes, there were your typical Aussie families (from grandkids to grandparents), teens with nothing else to do on a Saturday in a small town, and lots of people saying “hoy” to those they knew. But there was another group of people we’ve not yet encountered — migrant workers. Now, these aren’t your typical migrant workers (i.e., for those readers in Southern Ontario, you may be familiar with Mexican workers who come north in the fall to pick apples). No, these were hippie travelers from France, Brazil, Korea… and yes, even Canada… in town to pick cherries. This festival was kind of like a multicultural Grateful Dead show.

The punk guy (not Sebastien, who we mention later, but Mathieu) was from Quebec. Dan would have thought the Buzzcocks logos on his jacket were cool if it was still 1979. The juice jug was full of goon, being refilled from a bladder in his girlfriend's knapsack. He said he drinks about 5 l of it a day.

Like moths to a flame, this kind of transient/traveller/hippie is attracted to free food.  And there was free food at the Cherry Festival. Not for everyone though – only those who entered THE PIE EATING CONTEST!  And guess who was there in the registration line with all the hippies. Not Lisa… Dan had hoped that this would be the third competition of a trifecta, but the Batlow apple pie eating contest was a bit of a dud. So, for his second pie eating contest in Australia, he was up against  53 other competitors: a whole lot of migrant workers and a few locals, or, as the (really pathetic) emcee put it “pickers and permanent people”. Oddly, we don’t know which class we fit into. We only have temporary visas, as we are just now applying for PR status. And we did pick cherries that morning. But when the emcee called the competitors for each heat, he said where they were from, as self-declared on the registration form. There were competitors from England, France, Korea, Japan, Brazil, and even Canada. Dan, however, had listed home as Wagga. So, sort of a ‘permanent’ maybe…

Dan gave Milo, a whole bunch of Young'uns, and a crowd of international pickers a lesson on Canadian iconography and tattoo artistry.

But, when he was settling into his seat for his heat, Dan showed his true colours, literally. He stepped a couple of seats over, tapped a Quebecois picker (Sebastien) on the shoulder, pulled up his sleeve exposing the Inukshuk tattoo, wished his fellow Canadian good luck, and sat down. This intrigued Milo the clown (sort of the Cherry Festival equivalent of Ed McMahon) who actually settled down for a while and interviewed Dan about the tattoo, having him show it to the entire crowd (500+ people) and explain the meaning. This got a round of applause from the small cadre of Canadian hippie-chicks at Sebastien’s feet…of course, once the eating started they went back to cheering for their fellow back-packer.

When a pie is this good, you don't just shovel it in. Enjoying a free pie is more important than winning.

In the end, Dan didn’t win… The format was to eat as many 5″ pies as you could in 2 minutes. The winner of his heat ate 4 whole pies. Sebastien finished 3 and took a couple of bites from the 4th. Dan was slowed down by crunching down on a cherry pit in his 2nd pie (he signed a waiver saying he wouldn’t sue if this happened) but managed to finish 2 and take a bite out of a 3rd. This last bite wasn’t for competition sake – it was just a nicety…the competitors were told to finish one pie before grabbing the next from a pile in front of them. All untouched pies from the round were left for the next heat. Partially eaten pies…by that point, most competitors just binned them. Dan, however, is a really great husband: he forced himself to bite into the third pie so he could keep it and give it to Lisa. She was the real winner of the competition – no over-indulging, no humiliation, but free pie (despite a bit of Dan’s drool)! Of course, losing didn’t bother Dan. He said right from the start he had no interest in winning (even said this in his public interview with Milo), but was only in it because these pies are from Wilder’s and are really good. And unlike the Ganmain contest where he paid $5 for 3 mediocre pies, this was free!

Lisa got the best deal of the day - free pie! Sure it was a leftover, but still yummy!

We didn’t stick around to see how it all ended up. Dan was in the third heat out of nine, then there were play-off rounds. Instead, we wandered through the festival grounds a bit more, then went for lunch…back to Wilder’s for more pie! This time meat (curry chicken for Lisa, rosemary lamb for Dan), again eaten without cutlery. And then headed home, via Ganmain where the Christmas Twilight Market was being held. This was a real small-town event. We bought some marmalade and some tin magpies for the garden, and resisted the free kittens.  We also bought some really great brie and camembert from some lady also selling plants. She likes to eat cheese, so learned how to make it. She now sells it to co-workers (would love to work with her!) and thought she should try selling it at this market. Like the Italian guy with his cheese and olives, it isn’t a business, just a hobby. People here have really interesting hobbies…and ones that we are glad to help them out with!

Once home we compiled a wonderful dinner of things we had acquired throughout the day and in other local spots: the cheese and olives we had just bought, buns (known as bread rolls here in Oz) from Wilder’s, Harefield pistachios, cabana (an Aussie smoked sausage) from the butcher down the street, dried muscats, a bottle of sangiovese from Tumbarumba that Dan bought at the Jugiong Wine Cellar. Easily a “100-mile meal”.  And, to finish it off: more cherry pie. Yum.

Posted in agriculture, Australia, Ballinaclash, cheese, cherries, festivals, fruit, olives, pie, pistachios, rural life, wine, Young | Leave a comment

I can see for miles

Posted on November 30, 2011 by waggadventure

When people ask us if it has been hard to leave all our friends and family behind, we say  “yes, of course.” But we also say that the move to Edmonton was probably a bigger move. All of our family was, and still is, in southern Ontario. When we lived in London, it was easy to drive up for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays, Christmas, etc. We could go up and back in a day.  We could be there for any special occasion, though Christmas was a challenge because of the horrible Ontario weather.

When we moved to Edmonton, we saw family less frequently. We were no longer 2 1/2 hours (Canadians measure distance in hours & minutes, not miles or kilometres) away; depending on layovers it was more like 8 or 9 hours.We usually went together once each year – often for Canadian Thanksgiving – and sometimes Lisa got back alone. But our visits seemed to be better. Rather than just driving up for a couple of hours for a large gathering, we would be there for a week or more; we could have the large meals, the afternoon get-togethers, but also spend some quality time with our parents and/or siblings. And events like weddings, funerals, milestone birthdays could easily be worked into our plans. And because there were a variety of flights, we could easily leave Edmonton early in the morning and be in Pike Bay for dinner with Dan’s family. On the way home, we could have brunch with Lisa’s family in Owen Sound and be to Calico Hills to pick up the kitties before closing time.

Now though, it is hard to even measure in hours. Getting from Wagga to Ontario is a matter of days…flights, time zones, etc. At this distance, it is hard to measure it in time. But the distance is also unfathomable too – it is 10000 miles.

This means that we have missed, and will miss, some significant events. We’ve missed two weddings for example (the first one was friends in Edmonton, the second was family in Ontario). We aren’t around to meet new babies (again, friends in Edmonton and family in Ontario – not the same couples though). We aren’t able to celebrate birthdays together.

And, more importantly, earlier this week, Dan’s father passed away. We knew it was coming, as he has been sick for a while, but no matter how much you expect it, you can never really be ready for it. And though it would have been great to get back to Canada for all these other events, this one is the big challenge. Should Dan go home? Can Dan get home quickly? Probably the answer to both of those is ‘yes’. But in reality, it won’t happen. Sure, his boss would understand, and our credit cards could take the hit. But…it is 10000 miles. Dan was home in February when his father was really sick, and we both were there again in May, before we left Canada. That time together was really important for everyone in the family.

OK, so we’ve always tried to keep this blog fun. Sorry, but blogs are about life… So this one may be a bit of a tear-jerker. One day, a few weeks ago, Dan was driving to Bathurst for work, on a scenic two-lane highway lined with gum trees filled with kookaburras and parrots, some kangaroos and the occasional emu in the fields. All he could think about was that his father wasn’t doing well, and that the rest of the family was taking care of Dad while he was living a dream in paradise.  It was a rough trip.

And then, this week, Dan’s sister called him to say that Dad was gone.  She reached him just as got to work – he had ridden his bike. It is a beautiful ride along the Murrumbidgee River…the banksia and jacaranda trees are flowering, and there are tons of cockatiels, mynahs, and gallahs, and the occasional egret. And only later, as we were having dinner – pork chops, corn on the cob, and potatoes…Dad would have loved it! – did Dan realize that probably about the time Dad passed away, Dan was trying to figure out what kind of parrot that was in the tree…

RIP Dad. You had a great life. We loved you and we’ll miss you, more than we can say (you inspired a feminist like Lisa to change her name when she got married!). And thanks to all the family and friends that have been able to be there to visit him in the last few weeks. It has meant a lot to us knowing that people care so much…

Posted in family, holidays, homesickness, Owen Sound, Pike Bay, travel | 2 Comments

capital radio

Posted on November 26, 2011 by waggadventure

We’ve both been on the road this week, so not a lot of blogging time. The hilarious thing is that we both went to Canberra for work, separately. We overlapped a night – had some pretty good Moroccan pizza on ‘date night’.  But, other than that, they were separate trips. Separate cars. Separate hotels. (Separate expense accounts…).

The rose garden at the old Parliament building is very impressive. It isn't huge, but big enough to piss off all our Canadian friends and family who are now getting snowed on.

Canberra is the capital of Australia. It is a manufactured city…here are some details from Wikipedia: “With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia’s largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), 280 km (170 mi) south-west of Sydney, and 660 km (410 mi) north-east of Melbourne. The site of Canberra was selected for the location of the nation’s capital in 1908 as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, Australia’s two largest cities. It is unusual among Australian cities, being an entirely planned city. Following an international contest for the city’s design, a blueprint by the Chicago architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin was selected and construction commenced in 1913.The Griffins’ plan featured geometric motifs such as circles, hexagons and triangles, and was centred around axes aligned with significant topographical landmarks in the Australian Capital Territory.” It is a pretty cool city. It seems that many Australians hate it…but then again, we know some who love it. It might just be that, like with Ottawa, those opposed to the government can’t separate the city from what happens there.

Lisa got to meet an Australian radio celebrity, but Dan got to see an anhinga novaehollandia.

That descriptor of it being between Sydney and Melbourne means that it is about a 2 and a 1/2 hour drive from Wagga.

Dan went on Monday morning and had a few hours to walk around in the afternoon to see it. He was very disappointed that he didn’t take his bicycle – the CSU vehicle he was assigned was a huge Ford SUV and it would have easily fit in the back – because Canberra is a cycling city. It is flat and there are bike lanes and trails everywhere. Lake Burley Griffin has about 30 km of trails around it. He decided that because it is so close, we are going to some day soon strap the bikes on the roof, drive down, circumnavigate the lake, then stop in Murrumbateman for lunch on the way home. Great plan for a Saturday or Sunday morning.

No, that isn't Bruce Dickinson she is talking to unfortunately. But what other bloggers have had a reason to link to two Iron Maiden videos in one week?

Lisa went on Wednesday; she had a bunch of meetings and was also giving a public talk at the National Library of Australia. In the afternoon, she got a call from the CSU media people (who had put out a press release about her talk) that her presence was requested at ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) radio in Canberra (Canadians: think CBC; Americans: NPR but not hated!). So she ended up doing an interview on the afternoon drive program with Louise Maher on ABC 666. And no, unfortunately this isn’t an ‘all Iron Maiden, all the time‘ radio station…it just happens to be the call sign of the Canberra station. Damn.

We managed to get together for dinner that night, then the next day (Thursday) Lisa went to her meetings, did her talk at the library, etc., and Dan went home.

Dan’s trip home was actually pretty interesting though. Just north of Canberra is a small town called Murrumbateman. For a variety of reasons that we won’t bore you with (though we could…Dan heard all about it) it is an amazing location for growing grapes…and what does that mean in Australia but making wine. He stopped at Clonakilla, which is regarded as one of the country’s best wineries. It is pretty small, and makes amazing wines. As he was driving, he only sampled a couple of them, and because we are well stocked after the trips to Corowa/Rutherglen and Young, he also held back on buying too much. But he couldn’t resist a couple bottles from what is known as the premier producer of shiraz and viognier on the island.

A darter and one of the top wineries in the country. Dan thinks that is far better than being on national radio and speaking at the national library. That's why Lisa is a Professor, and he's support staff.

Then, about half way home, he saw a sign for the Jugiong Wine Cellar. Since it was just a short detour off the highway, he went to the tiny town of Jugiong, but discovered a great place. The Wine Cellar is basically a shed that sells local wines, from within about 50 km, so including Murrumbatemen, Young, Tumbarumba, Gundagai, etc. And given the geography and climate here, those distances matter in terms of how much rain and sun you get, soil types, etc. This makes a huge difference – the wine-making apprentice at Clonakilla (he’s a CSU wine student) explained to Dan that they source grapes from a reclaimed quarry, and the sun and soil are so different top than at the bottom that depending on how much rain and how many hot days they have to carefully work out how many upper and how many lower grapes go into each vat for crushing (Lisa here: who cares!). And there is a fruit stand, a pub, and a cafe/deli/cooking school. That is Jugiong. But really, what more do you need! We will be going back soon. We’ve discovered a fantastic hidden gem of rural Australia. And, though he didn’t meet her, the owner of the Wine Cellar said she has an employee from Red Deer! Wow! Hopefully when we go back – there were some interesting wines there, and only available there, so we will be going back – we will get to meet her.

And then the week continued…Lisa in meetings in Canberra, Dan back in the office in Wagga.

And if you are wondering about the title of this post: enjoy!

Posted in birds, Canberra, Clonakilla, cycling, Hilltops, Jugiong, Murrumbateman, wine, wineries | 1 Comment

Young and restless

Posted on November 20, 2011 by waggadventure

We've both been through Young a few times, separately and together, but never noticed that it has big balls (and 3 of them!).

A couple of weeks ago, while driving back from a work trip to Bathurst (CSU has a campus there, so we’ve both been a few times), Dan left a trail of cherry pits from Young to Cootamundra. He had just bought the first cherries of the season. Literally, the first. There was one grower selling them, and they had just opened their stand about 1/2 hour before he drove through. He bought 3 pints, and ate most of one punnet, spitting pits out the window as he drove. Young, for those not in the know – which is probably about 99.999999999% of the world – is the cherry capital of Australia. It is a small town, 150 km north of Wagga, and because of its climate (1400 hours at below 7 C…they call this a cool climate!)  and geography (it is known as the Hilltops region) is ideal for growing cherries, stonefruit, and grapes. So what better thing to do on a warm (35C) spring day than run to the hills in the height of cherry season.

Not much happening at the Young market at 10 am, but Dan managed to find someone selling wine. Lockwood is a very small winery. Most of their grapes are sold to bigger wineries, but they produce a few hundred cases under their own label each year. Take special note of Dan's new kangaroo leather hat!

We got into Young around 10 am, just as it was starting to get warm. Being smart people, we (Lisa, Dan, and a friend, KT),  slipped, slopped, slapped before we went. Our goal of arriving that early was based on 1) getting out of the orchard before it got too hot, and 2) checking out the farmers market that ran from 8-11. Well, the market wasn’t that special…probably everyone in town either grows, or knows someone who grows, all the fruit and veg they need. So, after a quick look in the info booth gift shop (also a really great Hilltops region wine shop…must return for that) and a stop at the loo (Lisa is getting used to the outdoor facilities that are prevalent around Australia), it was off to do some cherry picking.

It doesn't take long to fill a pail of cherries in an orchard this abundant. Even when you eat a few, picking cherries is a fast process.

This is the place that Dan thought looked "too big and commercial"! The sun is frying his brain.

The super-friendly woman at the info booth told us which growers were open that morning (she calls each day to confirm) and we found out that all of them were south of town, on the route we had driven in on. We could have gone back as far as Wombat (yes, there is a town called Wombat, hehe 🙂 ), but opted instead to go to the one closest to town: Ballinaclash orchard. Dan later said it wouldn’t have been his first choice, as it seemed a bit too commercial, but it was a great place.

Ballinaclash is a family business, started by a doctor who moved here from Ireland in the 1960s. His family still runs it, and grows a variety of cherries and larger stonefruit, and grapes. We were trucked off to a far corner of the orchard, and in about 30 minutes filled our pails and bellies with perfect – absolutely perfect – cherries.  When Dan bought those cherries a few weeks ago, the woman there told him she won’t eat cherries once they have been brought into their cold storage, and we now know why: like the oranges we had a couple weeks ago in Corowa, these cherries straight off the tree were beyond-belief good. Most people never eat fruit this fresh, which is a shame because it is really special.

How could we not buy a few bottles of one of the top 40 wines made in NSW, and named after Dan!

After weighing and paying for our 5.5 kg of cherries, we stopped in at the shop to see if they had any cherry pies. No, they don’t sell them there (no kitchen facilities until 2012), but did recommend where to get one in town. And they had a lot of jams, preserves, and other goodies that we bought. And, of course, since this is Australia, wine. We sampled a few of their recent releases, including a Shiraz that recently won some awards (best cool climate Shiraz in Aus). We bought a few…they name their wines using their childrens’ middle names, and we couldn’t leave without some ‘Daniel’ Cabernet Sauvignon.

We then went back into town for what has been described as the best pie (meat, not fruit) in NSW at The Country Providore, a little cafe in Young.  Last time we were in Young together, we stopped there but they were out of pies, so we were thrilled that they had a few left. It was good, as far as Aussie pies go, but no better than the ones we buy from Bernard, the French baker in Wagga. Of course, we’re pretty sure that most Aussies wouldn’t consider his pies to be Australian, so they don’t really count. After lunch we toddled down the street to Wilders Bakery for the cherry pie.

We assume that farmers go through the orchards and berry patches with snake-whacking sticks before letting people pick their own fruit. Otherwise, Lisa would have been buying pre-picked at the roadside stand.

And then, we headed home…until we got sidetracked at Glenn Mohr Farm, a strawberry grower just down the road from Ballinaclash. Dan isn’t a big strawberry fan, and still has nightmares about picking them as a kid at home (Lisa edit: get over it you idiot…that was 40 years ago!). But in deference to Lisa and KT, Dan gave in and went out to the field where we harvested another couple of kilos of beautiful sweet, succulent, red fruit. Red, as in red all the way through, not white in the middle like ones from the supermarket.

Ok, now time to head home. Except the woman at Ballinaclash had recommended stopping at Yandilla mustard seed oil. We had seen it before, but didn’t realize it was actually open to the public. The sign is a bit vague. But then again, we’re still not sure how ‘open’ the tea room and shop really are.  The service was a bit…shall we say…non-existent? There was a sign on the door to ring the bell if no one was around; we did that, a few times, but no one showed up.

We were honest enough not to just load up the boot with free bootie from the unattended Yandilla store. Mustard seed oil is quite healthy, and tastes like mustard (odd that!).

After walking through the place and reading the signs about how the oil is made, we decided to use the honour system: we bagged up some bottles  of oil and left some money and a note in the cash register. Sort of like buying horse poo, you take a bag and leave your money.

Finally, we were done, with enough goodies in the boot (or ‘trunk’ for our Canadian readers) to last us a few days if we got stuck in a blizzard (ooh, sorry about that… might be a sore point for some of our readers; Edmonton had its first big blast of winter this week, with -25 C temps and blinding snow). Below are some of the fruits of our labour: a pail of cherries, some cherry chutney simmering on the stove, and bowls of delicious strawberries.

Posted in agriculture, Ballinaclash, cherries, farmers market, fruit, Hilltops, strawberries, wine, Young | 6 Comments