First Day Living in Kirribilli

We moved into our new apartment this morning.  We got everything packed up in the hotel, hailed a taxi and got out at 22 Peel Street.  Okay, so we got out a little ways down the street.  For some reason, our cabbie thought that our street was a one-way, but it's not.  He wouldn't drive down the road, so we just got out.  You should have seen us with all our luggage, plus groceries that we had accumulated over the month.  I'm still not done unpacking because we decided that we wanted to head out to the markets and to try to find another grocery store.  The markets were nice.  A little too "flea-marketish" for me, but still nice.  I saw some candles that I liked and there was a lot of food that I'm sure we'll get to sample one day.  The markets are down at Milsons Point station at least a couple of times a month from what I hear, so there will be plenty of opportunity for shopping and browsing.


We found an IGA in North Sydney.  It's probably about a 20 minute walk from our apartment.  That's not bad of a walk, but if you're buying milk and ice cream and stuff like that, well I think I'd prefer to just take the train to Town Hall and go to Woolworth's.  We did pick up some stuff while we were there, though.


Then we came back home.  We stopped at our local haunt for lunch.  Jim discovered the last time we were there that the chickens are roasted with stuffing in them.  I think he was hoping that he could just get a whole pile of stuffing.  He really enjoys stuffing.  I got a toasted sandwich with pork, cheese and mayo.  Yum.


Okay, so now we're back home.  I put away the groceries and took a cat nap for a bit.  Jim was watching TV. I ran the dishwasher for the first time.  Did I mention that the owner has just had the whole place remodeled?  So we keep finding out little things.  Like the first time we were here, we discovered that the faucet wasn't working in the kitchen, but it was only that the water needed to be turned on at the pipe.  So we also found out today that the water needed to be turned on at the pipe for the dishwasher.  Thank goodness Jim is handy.  Perhaps I could have figured it out on my own, but I don't have to worry with Jim around.


I've also done my first load of dirty clothes in the combination washer/dryer.  I was worried at first because we girls know that you are not supposed to put your bras through the dryer if you want them to last.  But come to find out... you can wash and dry separately.  You don't have to run the wash/dry at the same time.  You can program the machine to run each cycle concurrently, but you don't have to.  So I was able to wash a load of whites, take out my bras and then dry the whites.  I haven't pulled them out yet, but hopefully everything will be okay.


We went to 5:30pm mass tonight at Our Lady Star of the Sea.  They are Jesuit priests and a bit modern.  We were the only ones there in shorts and tshirts.  The funniest thing about every time we have to choose a new parish is the way parishioners get communion.  In Connecticut, we were shocked the first time everyone shot straight up and started lining up instead of waiting to get up when it got to your row.  The church that we went to during our first month here - everyone just jumps up and gets in line all willy-nilly.  Like if the people in the last row get up first, they can run up to the front ASAP if they want.  No one waits for their turn or anything like that.  Completely freaked us out.  In this church, we thought we were doing it right.  There were four groups of pews.  It seemed like the two outer groups would just cross over the two middle groups to get to the middle aisle.  But then the people who were in front of us walked to the back of the church and went up the middle.  I'm still confused.  But at least at this church you are given the option to get the wine, too.  Most parishes we have belonged to do not do that.  But this is a small community, so that's probably why.  Or maybe because they are Jesuits.  Not sure.  We will probably join that church.  It's about a 5 minute walk from our apartment, so convenient in that way.  But there are only two options for mass:  5:30pm Saturday or 8:30am Sunday.  That's an early start on Sunday, so we have to make the 5:30pm or take the train into the city for the church where they serve mass once an hour most of the day on Sunday.


That's my update.  Sure wish more of you would email me.  Pretty lonely out here.