Return to the Cell Block

Another year, another visit from the Jackson family, another Christmas in Canberra. This can only mean one thing- it's time for Cell Block 69's 12th Annual LAST SHOW EVER. For those of you who may not remember, Cell Block 69 is a college band from the Australian National University who reunite every year for one show around Christmas. Laurel's friend Robbie invited us last year, and we had an absolute blast. He had neglected to inform us that it was an 80's costume thing. Tthis time we made sure we fit right in.

 

Canberra has some epic weather. On the drive in we saw this gigantic cloud reflecting the sunset. How beautiful is that?

This guy was pretty incredible. He was the opening act, and he was a one man band. He sang while playing guitar and the drums AT THE SAME TIME. No idea how he did it. He's apparently a Canberra institution, and has been playing bars and clubs for years. Keep on rocking, buddy.

Greg thrashing some air leg guitar. Thanks for the photobomb, random dude.

We met up with Robbie. He made that shirt. We also have a new theory on Cell Block 69. It seemed that most everyone in costume knew Robbie. Everyone who was not in costume did not. It is entirely possible that it's not actually part of the concert to show up in 80's attire, but that Robbie just decided one year that it should be and has told everyone to dress up. As the years have gone by, more and more people have seen his friends dressing up and have started doing it themselves. Dude has charisma.

The band! Cell Block's gimmick is that they wrote every major song of the 80's, but for one reason or another the bands that we know and love stole the songs from them. Here they are performing "Girls on Film," which Duran Duran released while Cell Block was still cruising the Mediterranean with Italian models. Bastards.

Laurel enjoying a night out and some sister time with Olivia.

Oh, yeah, at one point one of the girls rocked a pole. I think it was to a Van Halen's "Jump."

Keep on rocking, guys, keep on rocking. Sorry we can't be there next year. We were impressed how many of their songs were different from last year. When do they find the time to rehearse!?

Moving on to something totally different. A couple weeks ago, Olivia found a recipe for a beetroot chocolate cake. Sounds weird, right? It also seemed pretty Aussie since beetroot goes on a lot here, so we decided to give it a go. Also, it's gluten free (a key factor for Olivia) which is what prompted the initial search. Here's Olivia modeling the key ingredient.

Now, beetroot turns everything it touches red, so it's important to protect yourself from having stained hands for the next week. Here's Laurel demonstrating proper beetroot protection.

Shredding a beetroot is a far more involved process then you would think. Sadly, the cling-wrap glove was not sufficing so Laurel had to switch to the heavy-duty rubber cleaning gloves. Take that beetroot!

In true Otey fashion, we started taking pictures at the beginning and then promptly forgot about the camera for the rest of the time. We don't actually have a picture of the finished product (spoiler alert- it looked like a cake), but it was surprisingly good. Highly recommend it. Seriously, go make one.

Filipino Festival

By this point, you have all probably figured out that nothing motivates us more than food. One of our favorite things about living in Canberra is going to the local embassy sponsored events. A lot of them offer education about the country and ways to embrace the cultural heritage. That is good and all, I guess, but the real highlight is they always have a ton of delicious food. Up this time was the Embassy of the Philippines, which was having a Christmas celebration. 

Jackpot. Look at all those food stands.

The first stand we stopped at was selling Filipino style spaghetti. Not what we were expecting to see at all, so we bought some. Surprisingly, it was probably the best thing we ate all day. They put some kind of sweet sausage in the sauce, which makes it much sweeter tasting overall. Pretty darn good. Based on this and everything else we tried, we think Filipinos must have big sweet-tooths.

 Greg chowing down on some lobster-ball skewers.

For dessert we had a halo-halo, a traditional Filipino summertime drink. It's ice, cream, jackfruit, coconut, plantain, and sweet preserved beans and yam. Sounds like a strange combination, and well it kind of is. But it's really good, and just the thing you want on an ultra-hot day. It's also insanely sweet, so we were glad we only got one for the two of us.

Too much fun, Mom. I'm done.

On the way out were a couple of highly decorated display cars. Overall, this probably wasn't our favorite one we've been to, but we had a nice afternoon and ate until we were stuffed. So, really, mission accomplished.

And now for something completely different. We were at Babies R Us the other day stocking up on baby supplies when we came across this display. Australians (or maybe everyone, we're still not up on all the baby lingo) call these Jolly Jumpers. You put your baby in there and they are free to bounce and have a great time. However, this display makes it look like something horrible has happened. How did anyone think that this would make you want to buy their product!? Poor sad baby.

Tidbinbilla and Deep Space Complex

No trip to Australia is complete without a visit to see some Kangaroos, so we took Greg's mom and stepfather out to Tidbinbilla. Tidbinbilla is a large nature reserve and is located about 30 minutes south of Canberra. Extreme cuteness alert coming up- look at that little guy!

While it's a nature reserve, and thus all the animals are wild, they are fairly used to people coming around and taking pictures of them. Just a regular part of the day, really. However, we got a little too close to this one and he hopped away.

There are tons of hikes you can do. All of the major ones we definitely weren't up for, since we had Immy with us who still less than a month old at that time. We did do a couple of the little ones, though. We were particularly interested in the hike over to the lake to see the platypuses that live there. Everyone who has ever been here tells us that it is a guaranteed place to see them, and yet, somehow every time we go there- no platypuses. We're beginning to think they don't like us.

After Tidbinbilla, we stopped at the Canberra Deep Space Listening Complex which is right down the road. It's pretty serious, check out this sign.

Yes. Greg can already tell this place is awesome. Any place with giant planet models hanging from the ceiling is alright in his book.

That is a huge 70-meter dish. It's the largest of several dishes they have here, and they are in the process of building two more. This is one of three sites in the world (the others are in Spain and California) responsible for communications with every satellite and probe we currently have in deep space- Voyager, Cassini, everything. This is the place flying them. Awesome.

Australia has several large space complexes that it runs in conjunction with both national and international programs. Australia's location in the southern hemisphere makes it an ideal location to complement sites in the US and Europe allowing for 24/7 coverage. Additionally, it's a pretty empty country, without a large population emitting radio signals to muck with the dishes' reception.

Immy doesn't know it yet, but she is going to be visiting a lot of space and rocketship related places. And she will love ever minute of it.

We were there! Go NASA!

New Parliament and the Australian War Memorial

Greg's mom and stepfather visited in October to help out with the baby. We used the opportunity to visit some Canberra landmarks we had just never gotten around to visiting. This is Parliament. The wind was really picking up that afternoon, so we got a nice shot of the flag. That's one pretty sweet flagpole.

This is actually new Parliament. It openned in the 1980's but was part of the original design of the city. In 1913 they couldn't afford to do it the way they wanted, so they built a smaller, more ordinary structure to serve as a temporary Parliament. That "temporary" turned into 60 years. That building is called old Parliament, and now houses a museum, a very nice restaurant (we ate their for Valentine's Day one year), and some office spaces.

Now, back to new Parliament! Below are a couple pictures from the receiving hall, which can be used for hosting official functions. The mural along the back wall is pretty spectacular.

Like the US, Australia's Parliament is split into two houses- the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each chamber has a very strong color scheme. The Senate is red. Unfortunately, it wasn't in session so we couldn't watch any of the hot legislative action, but it was a pretty nice tour nonetheless.

After our tour of Parliament we headed over to what is probably the biggest tourist draw in Canberra- the Australian War Memorial. It's kind of a Smithsonian museum and national monument rolled into one. Very impressive. This picture is taken from the entrance way into the memorial section. The structure in the back houses The Tomb of the Unknown Solider, paying tribute to all Australians killed in combat.

On the second floor, running along both walls are the names of all those soldiers who died, in what conflict they were fighting, and what unit they belonged to. Flowers are regularly placed along the walls.

This is inside the tomb itself. Check out that quintessential Aussie bloke admiring the awesomeness. Nice shorts.

And here is us on the front steps. Immy was passed out. It had been a busy day.

After the War Memorial, we did the most Aussie thing possible- the pub! Here is our baby girl, at about four weeks getting her first Aussie pub experience. Now, before you call us out for stellar parenting, remember this is a pub, not a bar, and no one looked at us funny at all. It's a family place.

 

She's not a happy camper in this picture. It had been a long day and she was sleepy. At 6pm it was time for bed- wild and crazy times!

Last Thanksgiving in Australia

This year was a bittersweet Thanksgiving. It was our last one in Australia, and this has been our favorite tradition the last three years- sharing a quintessentially American holiday with our Aussie friends. It's been a huge hit, and we're a little bummed that we won't be doing this again. On the other hand though, it's Immy's first Thanksgiving and that is super exciting. She even put on a fancy dress and everything for the occasion.

Mmmmmmm, look at that bird. It doesn't get much better than that. As always, we cooked ours on the grill. Poultry on barbeques is a specialty of ours.

The masses started circling . . .

The feast! This year we had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, green bean casserole, Helena's Potato Salad (a recipe which Greg is totally stealing), cranberry sauce, and gravy.

A nice of perk of it being summer is that you can eat outdoors which is pretty great. Look at those happy post-turkey faces.

One of the things we have made for a long time now is the pumpkin roll. It's Laurel's preferred alternative to pumpkin pie. However, the ovens here aren't long enough to fit the long pan necessary to produce a thin enough cake to roll without breaking. Instead, we have created a kind of pumpkin cake oreo. It's two layers of pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting in between, and powdered sugar sprinkled on top. It's not going to win any awards for presentation, but man it is delicious.

This year everyone was particularly excited by the idea of dessert, because our turkey feast was followed by a second sweet-feast. Not that anyone was complaining. Just extra full of sugary goodness.

Immy has learned the first lesson of Thanksgiving. There is no escaping the Turkey Coma, even when it's diluted in breastmilk. Fortunately mom's shoulder makes an excellent napping spot!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Spooky Cupcakes II!

Sorry for yet another long delay guys. As you are no doubt aware, we've had a bit of change in our life lately, and blogging has just fallen way down the list of daily priorities. Stupid life, always getting in the way of things (just kidding Immy!).

 

Now, let's go into the wayback machine to October 2012. It was time for Year Two of our new Halloween tradition- making spooky cupcackes! Once again, Greg was on the sidelines (hangin out with his visiting Mom instead of playing cricket), while Laurel and her friend Helena got down to some serious baking.  Here they are hard at work preparing the raspberry blood drippings to go on the zombie braaaaaaaaaaaains.

 

 

That is some professional looking application. It's probably good they didn't let Greg help, he would have just tried to glob in on with a spoon.

Last year's batch of Spooky Cupcakes was such a hit, we decided to make three of the four kinds again. Sorry, eyeballs and worms, you didn't make the cut this year. You were a little too spooky. At both our offices, those were the last ones to get eaten. So here are the completed mummies and brains, just as delicious looking as last year.

Later, some angry ghosts got called in to protect the brains. One thing is certain at Halloween from now on- if there are no other cupackes there will be ghost cupcakes. They are Laurel's favorite.

 

 

Here is the new one we made this year- gingerbread graveyards! If they weren't so ghastly they'd be adorable.

 

All four, for your viewing pleasure. In case you were wondering, they were even better tasting than they look, and that's saying something. Greg supports any tradition that includes delicious things to eat.

This year we've started what will probably be a lifelong, non-seasonal tradition: taking pictures of our daughter in situations she's probably not totally cool with. Thus, creating memories that she will be incredibly embarressed about when she's a teenager. But whatever, look how cute she is as a spooky pumpkin! She even tolerated it for a few minutes!

 . . . and then it was no longer okay. Happy Halloween everyone!