The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side (of the Planet)

Awww, aren't we cute? :)
Hello everyone! it's been a while since I've posted, and since then we've had two beach trips, Thanksgiving, a trip to DC to see Ellie and Jason (plus a failed attempt to buy Elephant Art which was later resolved), Christmas (we kicked ass at Dirty Santa at Jen's place), New Year's ....

Oh, and Edo and I moved to Australia. For the week of the New Year, Edo and I decided that we'd have a last "hurrah" of a vacation before we had to start preparing in earnest for our move Down Under, so we rented an ocean-front house on Topsail Island (Surf City), NC. The first day, Massimo and Nadia came down with us and stayed for the night. The next day my parents arrived and stayed until New Year's Day.
It was also the first trip we had taken together with Silver, and it was so much fun! The first three or four days, the weather was fantastic, so we spent plenty of time on the beach with Silver and Charlie playing in the sand and trying to get them into the water. Neither of them are exactly water-babies so we were mostly unsuccessful, but there was one time when they had gone in a few feet after a ball and Charlie got clobbered by a wave that snuck up behind him! The entire week was just wonderful; neither of us had work commitments (well, Edo did, but he ignored them because we were vacationing) so we could do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. We ate a lot of seafood at local restaurants like Rick's (particularly stews; North Carolina coastal cuisine is very much seafood chowder-based), and one evening we went into Wilmington with Mom and Dad to eat dinner at Elijah's, always a favourite!

There were some quirks about the beach house that made for a rather interesting week: the heating system was bizarre in that when it came on, the top floor heated up very quickly while the downstairs stayed cool. Thus, in the middle of the night, we were often roasting while the rest of the house was freezing. Also, the master bedroom had a beautiful window overlooking the ocean and there were hardwood floors throughout. This meant that every morning at 6:30am the light came streaming into our bedroom because there was no curtain to cover the massive window (which was fantastic every other time of the day, by the way). As for the hardwood floors, it meant that when Silver got up to turn around or look for something to do in the middle of the night, we heard "click click click" of her paws on the floor. Fortunately, most nights she was so exhausted from playing on the beach all day that she barely moved.

When we got back to Raleigh, we started packing properly for the Big Move. Edo was offered a position at Monash University as a Lecturer in Civil Engineering, so we were off to Melbourne (Australia, not Florida)! The shipping company collected our stuff on the 24th of January, after which we went to stay with my parents for the last few days. On the 29th, we flew out of Raleigh and two days later landed in Melbourne.
The University was kind enough to set us up in a serviced apartment for a couple weeks while we looked for a place to stay, and in spite of all the nightmare stories I've heard about people looking for decent houses to rent in Melbourne, we landed a great place just as that two-week window was about up. We are living in Oakleigh, a suburb of Melbourne that's about 20 minutes by train from the City (and by City, I mean a 1 square mile spot on the map. seriously.)

Oakleigh is very Greek; it's like Little Athens. It's also affluent and has a central district that is more like a European square than the typical strip mall shopping centres you can get in most suburbs of Melbourne. There are cafes and restaurants, plus a more American-style shopping mall, all within about a ten minute walk from our house. We also live very close to Chadstone Shopping Centre, which is a HUGE shopping mall that just dwarfs the mega-malls in North Carolina. Southpoint, eat your heart out. Edo hates it and everything that it stands for, but it is damn convenient.

For all the Hellenic flavour of Oakleigh, the best things about it aren't the Greek ones (except for maybe the baklava at Nikos Cafe which isn't bad at all). There's a wonderful Persian/Afghan restaurant called Nights of Kabul, an Italian-owned fresh pasta shop -- really, that's all they sell -- and the Korean supermarket just down from that sells great little ice cream treats. The produce market is run by Chinese, as is the "if you can't find it anywhere else, we'll not only have it but have it for dirt cheap" shop where I have bought lots of obscure things like draft snakes and reasonably priced CD racks.

Our house has two bedrooms (visitors??? let us know!) and hardwood floors throughout. It also has a beautiful kitchen with stainless steel appliances, a sunroom overlooking the backyard which is big and comes with its own gardener Thank God, and sizable living and dining rooms. What it doesn't have is central heating. It has two gas fireplaces which do well to warm up the house quickly, but in the morning we're quite chilly. We're working on solving that situation. We also bought a car! We decided after renting one from Thrifty over the long Easter weekend that we couldn't live without a car (really, you need one in Australia -- not as much as in the US, but more than in Europe) so we are now the proud owners -- and by 'owners' of course I mean 'slaves to the lending institution' -- of a 2004 Hyundai Getz. They don't exist back in the US because they would be crushed by the Hummers. But it's a cute little car, with great warranty and a CD player, power everything, and very easy to park. It's all about priorities.

We've spent some time in Melbourne City (or Central Business District, CBD), but we find ourselves being pulled out of the city just about every weekend. Melbourne is nice if you're a city person, but Victoria is beautiful! The best thing about living in Melbourne is waking up on a Saturday afternoon and saying "would you rather go to the beach or the mountains?" and within an hour you're there. We have also visited the Wine Country of the Yarra River Valley and Healesville Sanctuary which is full of local fauna. OK I've written a novella here so I'll stop and write more in a couple of weeks. Sometimes we miss North Carolina... actually, we often miss North Carolina. But I don't feel like I want to leave here yet. Maybe one day we'll go back home, but for now I really like Australia. Except for this central heating issue; in spite of what we're all led to believe about Oz, it actually does get cold here in the Fall and Winter!

Oh, and Vegemite sucks :)

July-August 2007

Hi Everyone. Silver here (I'm the Weimaraner that really runs the show around this house -- but I'm smart enough to let Mommy and Daddy think they are the ones in charge).

Since Mommy has been lazy about updating her blog, I decided to take matters into my own paws because there are some noteworthy things to mention about the past two months. To be fair to Mommy, she has been very busy at 'work' (I know this is their secret word for 'park' when they don't want me to go with them! so rude...) and she was also sick for a while... but we'll get to that.

First of all, we'll go all the way back to mid-July when Mommy had her birthday. She kept complaining about turning 29 and how this was the last year of her youth or something. Humans. Who understands them? Anyway, they went away to a place called The Mountains for a long weeked, and they actually had the nerve to leave me at home! Can you believe it? Well, I say they left me at home, but they didn't really. They took me to visit my Grandmommy and Granddaddy, and that's always fun because I get to spend time with them and be spoiled, and I also get to play with my other friends named Charlie, Rasta, and Millie (there's also another animal there called a "cat" named Caoilin but she swats my nose a lot. It's almost like she doesn't like me or something, but that can't be possible. I hear she does this a lot though, so I don't take it personally). I love spending time at their house because they have a huge yard and a swimming pool, even though I don't swim. But the best part is when Mommy and Daddy come to pick me up and they tell me all about their trip! Apparently while they were in The Mountains they stayed at a little log cabin called the Carolina Wren which was beautiful and very quiet. They also went to the Biltmore Estate and saw beautiful pieces of architecture, important pieces of art, and relaxing gardens. The food was pretty good too, so they say. Their favorite restaurant was actually at the Biltmore Village and it was called The Corner Kitchen. However, they didn't really have any bad meals there. They always talk about food when I'm around. It's not fair. They also drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway for a while to enjoy the scenery. The Smokies aren't particuarly tall mountains, but they are very beautiful.

Just two weeks after they got home from their "vacation" (I don't know how they can possibly have a vacation without me; I can't imagine that would be any fun for them at all), all of a sudden, with no warning to me at all, they traded me at some shopping mall and off I went home with Grandmommy and Granddaddy again before I even realized what was going on!!! That was sneaky! I thought I was smart but they really pulled the wool over my eyes on that one.

Anyway, a few days later, I was returned to Mommy and Daddy, but it wasn't at my house. It was at a different house which had lots of strange smells, and also a lot of similar smells. I wasn't sure what to make of it all. After it became clear that we would not be leaving this place, I discovered that they had moved homes while I was with Grandmommy and Granddaddy. They weren't able to move directly from our old house into our new one, so they had to stay with a friend for a day or two, and they didn't want me to feel concerned about our lack of a house, so they sent me off for a while instead. I can understand their worry, but really, if they had just explained it to me, I would've been fine! But, what's done is done, and we're in this new place which is beautiful and it also has a nice fenced yard for me to play in. There are also a lot of cats in the neighborhood that I can look at! That's fun!

The only thing I don't like is the floor. It's so slippery. Mommy and Daddy call it "hardwood" and they seem to love it, but they don't go sliding around all over the place! it's also a lot closer to where they 'work' so I get more time with them at lunch. That's very nice!

In mid-August, my Granddaddy and my aunt Alix had a birthday party! I met her new boyfriend, Ian, and of course I saw all of my friends at Grandmommy and Granddaddy's house. That was a lot of fun. I missed Champ though. He wasn't around. That's too bad, because I like Champ!

A few weeks after we moved to the new place, Daddy's best friend from Italy, Valeria, came to visit for three weeks. She's working on finishing her PhD so it's sort of a working vacation for her. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of her yet because she bought a very fancy camera here and she's been the one taking all the pictures! But once I have copies of them, I'll post them up, I promise! Valeria is a lot of fun; she's so nice to me. We all have a good time together and she gives me lots of attention (which is no less than I deserve, of couse, but it's nice when humans recognize how special I am).

A few days after Valeria arrived, Mommy woke up on Friday night -- technically it was Saturday morning -- around 4:30am with a lot of pain in her lower back and side. So these strange men came and they took my Mommy off in a weird-looking truck with lots of lights. First, I was put into my crate, but just before she left I was let out of it because Valeria said she could look after me. But what happened to my Mommy really scared me. And then Daddy left too in his car! I was inconsolable. Valeria tried to calm me down but I was so nervous; I just knew something really bad had happened to my Mommy. I was worried I might never see her again. Fortunately, that was not the case! Mommy and Daddy came home around 10:30am, and I was so happy to see them! However, it was clear that there was something very wrong with Mommy. She was on a lot of drugs! She went straight to bed and I stayed with her for the next three days. Usually when she's sick, I avoid her like the plague (except when it comes to sharing the sofa, because I like sitting on the sofa and if she happens to be there, well there's not a lot I can do about that). But this time I knew that she was really needing me to be there for her, so I stayed very close to her all weekend. I don't really understand what was wrong; they kept talking about a "kidney stone" but I don't know what that means. All I know for sure is that Daddy carefully watches Mommy's fluid intake, and if she doesn't drink enough water, he tells her to drink more in the same tone of voice he uses if I do something naughty -- which, of course, is very rare. Anyway, Mommy is back to normal now and we've been able to do fun things together with Valeria.

So, there you have it. The past two months in a nutshell. Oh, one more thing, even though this is technically September, I have to tell you good people about my experience yesterday. I went to have my annual exam at the vet, Dr. Jon, who is very nice, but those people violate me in all kinds of weird ways. Oooh, I don't like going there! Mommy says it's for my own good, but I'm not convinced.

Hugs and licks

xxx

Silver

ITALIA 2007!!!!

(note: I have posted a few pictures here but if you want to see them all, please click on "my website" tab on the right)

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. I know y'all have all missed them terribly, but the fact is that the winter was relatively quiet. Apart from attending Ellie's wedding in January

and going to Wilmington for Edo's birthday at the beginning of April,

we didn't do a whole lot of noteworthy things.

But that all changed on May 21st, when we flew the coop from Raleigh to Venice (by way of New York JFK, London Heathrow, and Milan Malpensa). We arrived in Venice at 11pm on May 22nd, and stayed with a friend of Edo named Sara. She's a very lovely girl and we all had a good time together. The weather was hot and humid, but not "North Carolina in August" humid, so when the breeze blew off the canals, we were able to really enjoy ourselves. In Venice we ate fantastic seafood, gelato, and pizza (of course!). We walked around the canals, through St. Mark's Square, and into churches with highly important pieces of art.

I tried to get into the routine of speaking and listening in Italian but, being lazy, I did tend to speak in English whenever possible. Sara speaks English quite well so it was easy to communicate.

She works as a restorator -- Venice is definitely the place to be for a restorator -- and she's currently working on a church that she allowed us the privilege of entering to see the restoration "in action". That was a cool experience... usually those kinds of things are way off-limits for we mere mortals.

On Friday afternoon we headed off to Bologna, or more specifically, Castel San Pietro Terme, a spa town approximately 10 minutes by train from Bologna. We met up with Edo's friend from school, Enrico, his wife Nicoletta, and their 18 month old boy, Davide. Or, based on their own admission of the hierarchy in that household, Davide, Nicoletta, and Enrico! Nicoletta is a wonderful cook and she made us a lovely dinner; then the five of us went for a stroll (Davide quite literally went for a stroll, in a stroller) to relax and encourage Davide to go to sleep.

They live in a beautiful town. Nicoletta and I had the opportunity to talk girl-to-girl (one thing I missed with Sara, unfortunately) and we got along really well. Enrico is also a really nice guy; it was clear when I met him why he and Edo are such good friends. They are very similar in personality and character, and even physically they resemble each other a bit. Sadly, we were only able to stay there for one night because Saturday we had to head "home" to Ivrea, near Torino (Turin) from whence Edo's family comes.

In Ivrea, I met Edo's mom and his oldest brother, Enrico. We stayed there until Tuesday afternoon. It was a nice time; his family is lovely, but they don't speak much English (his Mom speaks none at all; his brother reads it well but doesn't speak so much) so it was Italian pretty much 24/7, except when Edo and I were alone. We didn't stay at the house with his Mom and Enrico, but we did stay with his Uncle and Aunt who live a few minutes up the road. Everyone was very friendly and kind, and his mom, who has been a hairstylist pretty much all her life, even gave me a free haircut :)

Ivrea is an incredibly picturesque town; possibly one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen in Italy and indeed in all my travels throughout the world. It sits at the base of the Alps, and there is a river flowing very rapidly through the center.

According to Edo, several Olympian rowers come from that area, which is not surprising considering their practice waters! The city itself is home to approximately 25,000 residents, so it's a rather small town, but still has all the cool shops that Raleigh/Durham is missing :( and an atmosphere that makes it seem busier than it is by virtue of the number of people in the streets and piazzas. One thing that I'll always miss about Europe compared to America is the piazza. People are always out and about, and it's nice.

We did run into Edo's friend Lisa who lives in Ivrea; it was totally random, but I was glad to be able to meet her. It was a brief introduction, but I know her through emails.

On Tuesday we made it to Torino, the big city in the Piedmont. It's a bit like Milan, but cooler (sorry all you Milanese out there -- it's nothing personal). It's a city of about 1 million people and it too is bustling and interesting.

There is a very active cultural and artistic life which includes the following: a building with a piercing, neon lights spelling out famous quotes from Italian authors speckled throughout the city, the National Museum of Cinema which was AWESOME -- we saw the history of cinema from shadow puppetry to MGM and such items as a contract signed by Jimmy Stewart and costumes from "Lawrence of Arabia" -- plus signs throughout the city describing important writers living in Torino (and then killing themselves... I don't get it.. I guess they're tortured souls or something. Artists!)

We did manage to see some of Edo's friends from the university while we were there. That is one of the ugliest buildings I've ever seen. But everyone was friendly there and they were really happy to see Edo! We also had dinner with two of Edo's friends from school who still live in Torino, Marina and Paolo (and their new baby, Alice). It was a wonderful meal and they both speak English really well so it was really easy for me to understand the conversation!



On Friday afternoon we headed back to Milano to spend a couple of days there visiting friends before our flight home on Sunday morning. Before we left, however, we were able to arrange a meeting with Edo's middle brother, Gualtiero, and his girlfriend Giulia.






We basically crossed each other in Torino for all of one hour, so we sat at a cafe near the train station and hung out for a while. It was nice to meet them finally. They seem like very nice people.





When we arrived in Milan, we met up with Federica and Andrea, Edo's friends







and with my old friend, Luca. We went to a bar to have "aperitivo" which is a sort of pre-dinner drink and snack, but you can get as much food as you want so essentially you can make an entire meal out of an 8-euro drink if you want to, but we decided to hold out for the sushi restaurant Luca recommended. We drank sake and ate gyoza, edamame, and sushi, and by the end of the night I was pretty drunk ;) Luca invited us to Switzerland for a dinner the next day, but we decided that since it was our last day in Italy and our flight was very early on Sunday morning, we'd be better off staying in Milano with Federica and Andrea. Luca was kind enough to find us a hotel close to the airport though, so we didn't have to sleep in the airport the night before!

Sunday morning we came back home after almost two weeks of fantastic food, way too much wine, and seeing lots of people that we love and miss back here in the US. It's good to be home, but Europe will always be with me.

The one thing I would do differently the next time around is, instead of going all over the North of Italy to see all our friends, I would like to rent a villa in Sardinia or Elba and we can all converge there for a couple of weeks! Also, my dear friend Cat was in Italy at the time (in the South, though) and we weren't able to meet up :( So next trip might be back to England to visit her, or maybe we'll arrange a time to go and stay with her family in Roma!

December 2006 -- San Francisco and Christmas

Hi all!

December was a fun month this year (it usually is just by virtue of Christmas but this year was extra special). The week of December 9th, Edo and I went to San Francisco for a national American Geophysical Union conference that he attends annually. We arrived on the Saturday afternoon prior, and Uncle David picked us up from the airport where we immediately went to his friend Bill's house to collect the Aerobed we would be sleeping on; then we stopped by the market on the way home to get some sushi because we were all hungry! Considering that it came from the Castro version of a Harris Teeter, it was damn good sushi.

That night, we went to a party celebrating the 10-year anniversary of David's friends Jim and Sam. Everyone was really nice; the tree was gorgeous, and the food was great! There was a ham, amazing empanadas, and desserts aplenty -- not to mention the copious whites, reds, champagnes, and possibly even beers that were available.

The next day we awoke fairly early and went for breakfast at a restaurant called the Squat and Gobble, which has very good value for money and the food is very tasty. Afterwards, David was kind enough to drive us all over town

(really... ALL OVER TOWN.. I think we covered all seven square miles in one day) to see all of the sights, architecture, and a panoramic view of the city from the Observation Tower at the new Modern Art museum in Golden Gate Park. For dinner, Edo took David and his roommate/friend Dale to dinner at a restaurant in the Castro called Catch. I wasn't feeling very well so I sat that one out.

On Monday morning Edo had to go to the conference to present his poster session and do some schmoozing, so I stayed home for most of the morning relaxing. David and I went into Union Square around 2pm to visit the new mall (I never picked San Francisco for a town that would have a mall but it's very nice). We had lunch at the Coolest Food Court Ever and then David went home while I met Edo outside the Virgin Megastore. Edo and I had a coffee in Union Square and then we went home and cooked a risotto for David and Dale. We really enjoyed having a quiet dinner at home with them; we stayed up chatting and eating until David finally decided that it was past our bedtime so we went to lie down.

Tuesday Edo was working again so I hung out in the morning relaxing, and in the afternoon I went for a walk in the Castro and for a lunch at a place called Fuzio. The food all sounded amazing but I ended up getting minestrone and garlic bread which was very good. After I ate a bit and walked around a couple of shops, it started raining so I headed back up to David's place and then went into town to meet Edo again. That evening we met up with one old friend who moved from Duke to Clemson, and two guys who Edo knew from Torino and had dinner at a place called Lulu. The food was really good! We were going to try a place called Azie but the wait was long (our own fault: we didn't make a reservation) so we went to the sister restaurant next door which had a slightly shorter wait and a bigger bar.

Wednesday morning Edo went to the conference but came home around 2pm, and we headed down to the Monterey Peninsula. We stayed in Carmel-by-the-Sea in a romantic little cottage-style hotel. By the time we got down there it was almost time for dinner so we went to a place called Merlot! and he had seafood spaghetti while I got penne with roasted vegetables in pink sauce. We also had a cup of mushroom bisque which was delicious (better than mine....grrrr) and a dessert each -- profiteroles for me, flan for Edo.

Thursday we drove down to Big Sur and Nepenthe which was beautiful! There was very little fog so we had good visibility and we decided to eat at the restaurant on top of the hill. Mediocre food, extortionate prices, and a view that you can't find anywhere else. It was worth it. That area is probably one of the most scenic in the entire US.

After lunch we headed to Carmel Valley which is the wannabe Sonoma/Napa and has lots of up-and-coming wineries. We visited several of them, tasted their wine (including port from the barrel!), bought lots of it, and then went back to town.

Then we went back up to Carmel which is this cute resort town that looks like a Thomas Kinkade painting (in fact, he's painted Carmel... and he has a gallery there). We also walked to the beach which had an amazing grey hue because by then the fog was starting to roll in, and it was getting late in the afternoon so it looked very surreal. After I make my first $$ couple million, I am totally moving there.

That evening we had dinner at a place called Forge in the Forest. We shared shrimp dumplings steamed with spinach, a bucket of steamer clams and mussels (the mussels were practically the size of cornish hens... I don't know where the chef found them. I'm wondering if they were raised near a nuclear reactor!) OK the mussels weren't that big, but they were large enough to cut with a knife. Definitely not bite-sized. After dinner we shared a wonderful creme brulee. I've decided that my measure of whether a restaurant is really good or not is the creme brulee. And this was a really good one!

Friday was time to head back to San Francisco but not until we'd visited a few other spots on the Peninsula. We took the 17-Mile Drive up to Monterey, driving past Pebble Beach and seeing lots of pretty impressive real estate. When we arrived in Monterey, we walked past Cannery Row and went to the Aquarium.

Dale was kind enough to give us his season passes and we were able to enjoy it all for free. The Aquarium is amazing; if you ever have the opportunity to visit it, I highly recommend it. We had lunch at the cafe there. Again, mediocre food, extortionate prices, and a view to die for! And again, it was worth it.

On the way back up, we stopped by San Juan Bautista and visited the Mission there. In case you've seen the film "Vertigo" by Hitchcock, the Mission is the scene of the climax of the film.

It's a cool town anyway; hasn't changed very much in the past, oh, 150 years or so. It looks like a town from a Spaghetti Western (I swear, Claudia Cardinale is hiding out there somewhere) but this time when we were there it seemed a little less so because there were Christmas decorations everywhere. At least the Mission itself was as stark and Catholic as ever :)


When we arrived back in San Francisco Friday evening, we had dinner at Bill's house.


He made us a wonderful dinner complete with Prosecco, brie and crackers plus a goat cheese dip for appetizers, pumpkin ravioli in a butter sage sauce, and pesto-covered salmon with salad for the main course. Everything was so delicious! For dessert we had coconut cream pie, and Bill was kind enough to give Edo and me a copy of his book.

Saturday morning we headed back home to Raleigh, and a few plane delays later, we arrived around 11:30pm. It was good to be home!

Christmas was lots of fun too, as always. We went to a party on Christmas Eve held by some of our friends from Mexico, and many different countries were represented at the party. There was even a pinata to smack!

Christmas Day we went to Mom and Dad's house and hung out with the family. It was nice to see everyone again. Unfortunately I had my wisdom teeth out the Tuesday before Christmas so I was fairly limited in what I could do and eat, but I still had a great time.

Thanks to everyone for helping make December a very memorable month!