A trip to the supermarket

A study came out a couple of weeks ago showing that the food prices in Australia have increased 40% over the past 10 years:

"Australia had by far the fastest food price increases among a group of comparable developed nations, including the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the G-7 and OECD averages".

The researchers conducting the study blame lack of competition. There are two main grocery store chains here: Coles and Woolworths (or Wooly's, as it's affectionately called). Basically, it would be like if only Safeway and Albertson's were the only grocery store chains in the entire United States. (If you're measuring by population, though, it would be like if there were only two grocery store chains for the greater Los Angeles metro area. There are 22 million people in Australia, 20 million in LA.)

Bottom line? We're not crazy! Food is expensive here!

To lighten this post up a bit, below are some pictures from a recent trip to our local Cole's.

First of all, the shopping carts are very hard to control - they don't go straight. This is a little game we play. Puuuuush the baby down the aisle!

Biscuits = "Bikkies" = Cookies

They hate gluten here. Santa is saying, "Rudolph. It's Gluten Free!" on this bag of Christmas candy.

Pet food is refrigerated. Chilled loaves of meat for dogs and cats.

Eggs aren't refrigerated, they're sold right in the aisle. The carton says to refrigerate once you get them home, though.

I don't think they have this brand in the States.

Confectionary = candy. Cordial = flavored syrup to add to bubbly water. Pronounced, "Core-dee-all." Although they sell home brew equipment, you can't buy booze in the grocery store.

Chicken flavor. They also have chicken and soy flavor or honey baked ham.

They probably have this in the States, like at GNC or something, but this was right next to the pie crusts. It reminds me of last summer. I think it was mid-February, we had been sweating for about three months and saw a guy drinking a carton of egg nog in the middle of the street in the middle of the day! Glug glug glug. There's also a gang of Russian gangsters in our neighborhood that drink buttermilk during morning tea. Straight buttermilk!

This is a seasonal item. 5 kg frozen turkey for about $52.

Somebody's eating bananas

Roxy at 6 months old

California wrap-up is coming. I promise.

And then there were three...

Doreen (Mena), Nate and Roxy

Nate's mom left for Philadelphia a couple of days ago. She arrived in Brisbane the same day as Roxy and we (me, especially) were definitely sad to see her go (it's not that Nate wasn't sad, it's just that he's too macho to show it). To all expectant parents: Find yourself a Doreen to live with you for a month when your baby is born. She makes delicious meals, sings wonderful baby songs and is over-the-top generous. Thanks for everything, Doreen! I'm sorry Roxy didn't start really smiling until the day you left. Just think of all of the smiles and laughs you'll get next time you see her!

Vegans! Avert your eyes!

For Doreen's farewell meal, Nate prepared a recipe from Cook's Illustrated's Fall Special Edition issue. Osso Bucco. Yes, it's veal, and yes, it was delicious.

Wee Roxy

Now we're on our own and we've handled things pretty well so far. Roxy's five weeks old and up to 4 kilos! Whenever I'm out with her in the baby carrier, the most common comment I get is, "Oh! What a tiny [wee, little, small, other diminutive adjective] baby!" The electrician that came by the other day and actually asked me if she's healthy! "Well, it's just that she's so tiny!" I think he must be used to large babies because he is Samoan and could probably fit her entire body in one hand.

Staci and coy Roxy

We also had a visit last week from my cousin Staci! She is in Australia with her family and was in Brisbane for a day or two. It was so nice to see her and talk with her about a lot of things and she shared a lot of advice about being a new mom. The timing of her visit couldn't have been better, for a number of reasons... it's funny how the universe works... The day after she stopped in for a visit, she and her husband Michael showed up on our doorstep with an instant baby shower! They gave us all sorts of useful and practical items (including a swing, which has been wonderful!), toys and other sundries. I think I might have scared them because I cried (happy tears) practically the entire time they were here. Their generosity was quite overwhelming for this new mum! Thanks, Staci, for taking time out of your vacation to look after us!

Roxy getting pumped in her new gym

So now we're back to the daily grind. We're surviving our first tropical summer. We've had a couple of really uncomfortable days, but for the most part, it's been pretty tolerable (knock on wood). I'm afraid the bub is going to be too big for all of the newborn onesies by the time it cools off enough for her to wear them.

We're looking forward to the upcoming visit from Eddie and Lisa at the end of the month and then a visit from my mom at the beginning of February! To round out our summer visitors, our former graduate advisors Penny and Peter will be in town for a few days at the end of February/beginning of March. By that time, we will be out of the worst of summer heat (hopefully!) and at the start of autumn. I'm interested to see how autumn manifests itself at 27 degrees latitude.

We just got word that Nate's sister and brother-in-law will be visiting for three weeks in July/August. They took advantage of the insane sale that Qantas is having - check the qantas website for cheap flights!

We will be in California for my sister's graduation from law school in May and I hope we'll get to catch up with a lot of family and friends while we're there. More details to follow...