DRIVING and the USA Food Store

First I want to let everyone know that you can click on any of the pictures for a larger view of them. This was something I figured out recently and thought I’d pass it on.

Next, Erica Ann Harris, my 15 year old niece, (pictured in this year's school photo) has informed me that my blog is BORING! So in an effort to spice it up a little, I’ll be taking some of her advice. Let me know if you see a difference and if you too have any pearls of wisdom to make this more enjoyable for the reader.

This weekend’s adventures started with a little road trip! It was the first time I was able to drive since coming here and it was a fun day. Let me back up a little and give you some more details to set the stage. Saturday morning, I awoke around 8am to a beautiful blue sky and warm temperatures. The day was forecasted to be 30 degrees (86 degrees Fahrenheit) I laid in bed with the blankets snuggled up around me thinking now would be a good time to call my mother. She wasn’t home so I tried grandma and got a busy signal. With that I climbed out of bed, stretched and took in some fresh morning air on our balcony. It was going to be a great day! You could smell it in the air, but maybe it was just the bacon I was cooking for breakfast, which did seem to get a rise from my flat mate. After breakfast, Michael said I could use his car to run some errands. It’s a mid 90's Diatshu (probabaly spelled that wrong) little hatch back with 230,000 kilometres on it. I think at some point it must have been a shade of grey in colour but now it is the most sunburned car I’ve ever seen. The doors rattle, the brakes squeak and there are cobwebs in the corners. But the engine runs good and it gets great gas mileage. Since I don’t actually own a car it’s a god sent blessing! I showered and tried Mom one more time. I was able to reach her and we talked for a while. She filled me in on my brothers and other family events. I explained the finer details of living in an apartment again.

Around 11am the time had come to actually start the errands. I needed to find a camping supply store to get some items for my GREAT OCEAN Drive road trip for this weekend. Then go to the famed USA food store a co-worker told me about.

First thing is first, I needed to get the car out of the driveway. After fiddling with the mirrors, stereo and seat. I found out that while the car has power side mirrors it does NOT have power steering! Michael warned me that I might stall it a couple times until I found the gas to clutch ratio. So like any good American I just gunned it to be safe and backed out of our parking spot. Once out on the street I made a mental note to KEEP LEFT and started down the road. In no time at all driving a stick came back to me and keeping left is pretty easy. All I had to do was avoid hitting the other cars coming at me. So with the windows down, the breeze blowing through my hair, sunglasses and sunscreen on, Off I went cruising down the road at 80 kph.
My first stop was Ray’s Outdoor store. Here I found the much need Coleman propane fuel that will light my camping stove. I also found a few other little odds and ends I didn’t realize I couldn’t live with out. $40 later I’m out the door and back in my beautiful little beater car trying not to get sunburned on my right arm. Next stop the FAMED USA food store. Here I couldn’t help but feel a little bit like a kid in a candy store and candy is mostly what they had. The store itself is only about 400 sq feet With a lrge warehouse to one side. The biggest display is of a rack of Jelly Belly’s. It took my all of 1 minute to make the loop the first time around, but more like 15 minutes on the second trip. There was a lot of debating on items to be done. Do I really need a $10 box of Bisquick? Or a $15 bottle of Vermont Maple syrup? Having tried what the Australians called syrup I settled on a $9 bottle of Ms. Butterworth’s lite syrup. It comes in a plastic, kind of rectangular, bottle instead of the classic old round glass full figured girl we all know Ms. Butterworth really is. They had Durkee freezed dried onions, only the small cans for $4. What Thanksgiving Day dinner would be complete without Green bean Casserole? I must have 2 of these. (I’m still going to make some of my old favorites that weekend and treat my friends to an American style of gluttony) They also had FLUFF! Now this particular item made me positively giddy! FLUFF!! (not Fluffanutter or Marshmallow cream) It brought back visions of childhood with a spoon and a jar of peanut butter! I resisted buying the entire stock and settled on 2 jars. A few other things in my basket, 1 bag of groceries totalled at $83! I did grab a can of A&W cream soda ($2.50 a can) to quench my thirst. By now it was mid day and the sun was blazing down allowing the sweat to evaporate off your skin faster than you can produce it. This leaves everything outside and inside your body parched and hungry for moisture. Now I know this is nothing like what Jan Newton experiences in the United Arab Emirates or what it’s like for Tony in Fort Lauderdale. But for this all TOO pale white boy from the New England and the Pacific Northwest. The end of October is the early stages of the rainy and cold season not the beginning of.. get used to it a 40+ (104 F) degree summer.

At this point it was time to return home with my goodies and show Michael what treasures I had acquired! I had earlier told him about Reese’s Peanut butter cups and did pick up some for him to try. He found them salty and rather liked MY Fluff instead. I let him know people have died for lesser transgressions against Americans. So he’d better stay far far away from the jar without express written permissions. I’m willing to share but there are limits to my kindness. (no comments here Phyllis).

After a light snack lunch of hummus, olives, cheese and crackers, and a few spoonfuls of the childhood delight (PB and Fluff) I was out the door one more time to find the last few things on my list. Most importantly being a Eskie (cooler for the non Australians) This particular item was going to allow me to bring a few more interesting food items on my up coming road trip. I was told that there was a LARGE Target store at the ChadStone (pronounced Chad-Stun) mall about 15 minutes away. So back in the grey freedom giving death trap and off I went. Low and behold a Target store was there anchored at one end of what can only be describes as the closet thing to America I have seen in 2 1/2 months (excluding the McDonald’s that are everywhere) A GIANT all enclosed with hundreds of stores genuine, good old fashion mall! After the typical 20 minute search for a parking space I was able to acquire my Eskie from the well known Targe and stow it in the back seat of the car. I had to wave off 3 people who quickly lined up hoping take my parking spot. I can’t imagine what this place is like at Xmas (and no real decorations yet in the stores). I went back inside to wander the shopping extravaganza and see if I could maybe pick up a few more things on my holiday shopping list. I was able to find some things but the perfect B’day gift for my dear mum is still eluding me. She just might be getting it with her Christmas present. I’m sure she won’t mind having to postpone recording another year for a few more weeks. I am her favorite son after all.

From here the day only gets more boring and mundane. Michael and his boyfriend Jock cooked a lovely (a word used quite often here) Green curry stir fry for dinner. I then dressed for the evening and went to the Laird (Melbourne’s true all men bar) It was their birthday weekend and I had some plans to meet my friends from the band there for a few drinks and laughs. This was accomplished quite well and along with a $20 cab ride home the evening topped off a very fun day (Sorry Erica I’m OLD so shopping, and drinks with friends constitutes fun?)

During my trips on Saturday Michael got our new washing machine into the apartment. So Sunday morning I made us a big stack of pancakes (of course with Ms Butterworth’s) for breakfast and then went down to the St Kilda beach for a stroll. Pictured is the Melbourne sky line looking northwest, the tall building kind of by itself on the right side is the Eureka Tower mentioned in earlier blogs.The afternoon was spent doing laundry, reading and a trip to the grocery store. Sunday was very nice. It was the first day where I didn’t have a list of things to do. It’s proving that my life is becoming more settled. That my transitional period is ending. I was able to relax and just enjoy the day.
More updates next weekend after the road trip!

Happy Birthday to Laurie Wrobleski!