Sunday was a day around home. We did strike out for a walk downtown before all the businesses opened to peek in stores and restaurant windows without impeding customers. We were both very pleased with the large selection of clothing stores (men and women) and cute small restaurants. I think it’s safe to say that Balmain East is an area in transition — in a positive direction. Julie checked out several women’s clothing boutiques and found quite a number of things that were good quality and in keeping with her style. She didn’t buy anything but she did look pretty extensively. We also found a few package stores with super nice owners and a nice selection of items ranging from yogurts and produce in the one store, to wines and beer in another. Again, we didn’t purchase anything but it was good to have a look and meet new people. Once again a store owner learned we were from Oregon and asked why we moved to Australia… no surprise to us… Oregon has always been the undiscovered gem in the US.
Most of the stores opened close to noon and we decided to lunch at one of the local restaurants. We had an absolutely delicious charcuterie plate and cheese plate. The place was very Parisian in style (and menu) and we quite enjoyed sitting there for over an hour. (You can see the place in the photo above.) We had cooked breakfast at home and knew we would be cooking dinner there too so a quick lunch on a lazy Sunday seemed a good idea.
We were home by early afternoon and set about knocking off some tasks. I mostly rested my aching knees and Julie did some “home” stuff on her computer. She also tidied about the house while I lazed… thanks sweetheart. Dinner was nothing grand but still tasty. We enjoyed pork, apple and cranberry sausages with a nice salad and some fresh sweet corn. Homemade banana bread for dessert rounded things off nicely.
Today (Monday) has already been a big day. First, the US tied with Portugal in the World Cup even though we played better the whole game. Still, the US has been a strong contender in the Cup which certainly surprises some folks. Bigger than that, WE FINALLY GOT OUR MODEM INSTALLED AT HOME SO WE NOW HAVE INTERNET ACCESS. We’d been forced to use my iPhone to tether to the Web which worked OK but we were always worried about 4G charges for going over our data load. Now, we have smoking fast internet and wi-fi! It also means our VoiceOverIP is working so we can make and receive calls to the US for free. I called my parents first and then each of the kids in turn. All seems well enough on that front -- how nice to hear their voices.
Tomorrow we have our television service installed so we can have twice as many odd and peculiar Australian channels. Australia, like the UK, is not the greatest place to watch the television, but then, that’s not really why we moved here! Take care one and all.
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