Our New Home & Eeyores Birthday Party

2 weeks ago today we moved into our new house, and life is so much better since. Its taking us a while to get everything sorted. The house is pretty big so it still looks a bit empty! It definitely needs some art work and pictures up on the walls. We have been buying plenty of indoor trees though! Here are just a few shots of downstairs, not very exciting but people have been asking to see, and I’ll take some more of upstairs when I can.

8313 Canola Bend (AKA Home)

Now whooo liiives in a house liiiike thiiiisss.......??

Our lovely huuuuuge sofa
Where the pool table will go (if Geoff gets his way!)

The view up the stairs

Last Friday night we had our housewarming party. I had decided that with it being 2 days after St. George’s day in England and with us being English, it should have a St George’s/English theme to it. Could I get St George’s decorations anywhere? Could I heck! I looked all over the internet and NO WHERE in the US seemed to know what St George’s day was. I went on flag sites in the hope I could at least get the St George Cross, but nope! It was very strange that you could get the Irish, Scottish and Welsh flag, and that some sites recognised St Davids day and St Andrews day. Panic ensued as the invitations had gone out all announcing the theme!! So, I asked my friend from England, who was coming our here that week, if she would mind bringing some stuff for the party. She was more than happy to. EXCEPT at the last minute she couldn’t make it. More panic!!! Luckily Goreti was at least able to provide us with a Flag. By that time I couldn't do anymore except where my England top with Pride!

I made sure I invited lots of people down our street but no one turned up except our immediate next door neighbours on one side! There we a lot of people from Geoff’s work though, as well as the usual suspects, so it was a good turnout. Everybody I met was really friendly towards me – in fact this is one thing that I love Austin for. The people here are very friendly and warm, and helpful too, giving suggestions of things to do and places to go.

In keeping with the English theme Geoff went to get Fish and Chips for everyone. We also had a Cottage Pie, Strawberries and Ice Cream (which didn’t get eaten as we were all too busy drinking), and Anne Marie made a giant chocolate chip cookie with a St George’s shield on it in frosting.

Fish and Chip supper

The Yummy St George Cookie

Everyone seemed to have a really good time, and there were quite a few hangovers the next day. Personally, I blame the mint schnapps shots people were doing at the end of the night!!

The following day was Eeyores Birthday Party, a big festival in Austin which is held on the last Saturday of April, annually. How to describe this…… well, it has nothing to do with Eeyore, or any of the Pooh Bear characters - although there WAS a donkey there - for the kids I guess. I actually felt a bit sorry for him as he was in this tiny pen with kids poking and prodding him and it was baking hot!

This year Eeyores Birthday Party was held at Pease Park, and it has a lot to do with dressing up as weird as you can, being silly, drinking and eating lots and apparently playing drums!!! It seems that people just bring any old drums and congregate in big groups together and start banging them. It may sound odd – definitely part of the ‘Keep Austin Weird’ campaign - but the atmosphere it created was amazing!

There were some bands playing too, which was fun, and we witnessed a sack race and the maypole dancing. We ran into Ron, the guy who was forcing the Schnapps on us the night before (that’s MY excuse!), and Ken – Geoff’s oldest friend from Austin - too. Along the path into Pease Park there were various buskers playing music, and artists selling their work. I wish we could have stayed longer than we did and chilled out a bit more.

Merman
Grrrrrr!

I think he was running a bit late ...
Eeyore

Drum Central!

I am so much more settled now we are in our new house - it's made a huge difference to how I feel. I feel happier and excited about the future. Although England will always be my 'home', I am feeling like Austin could be my home too. Life here is going to be great!!

A Month On

Last Monday morning we went to a play scape called Extreme Fun. Anne Marie had heard of it so she rang me up to ask if I wanted to go. Its full of inflatable bouncy castles and slides and Daniel, Matthew, Thomas and Charlotte all had lots of fun, as did Anne Marie and I (the grown ups are allowed on as long as its not too busy – and we used the excuse of ‘assisting’ our children!). Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. After there we went to Ci-Ci’s Pizza Buffet. Its very similar to Pizza Hut Buffet, with all you can eat salad, pasta and Pizza except kids under 3 eat for free, and it includes all you can eat desert. So Tom, Charlotte and I ate for a measly $7 (about £3.50) and, honestly, the food was really good!

Since we signed the lease agreement we have paid lots of visits to the house, and taken the kids to the local playground, which I am sure I will become a regular at. Everybody we have spoken to in the area seems really friendly so far, and our next door neighbours have introduced themselves and welcomed us to the neighbourhood. I am hoping that the US tradition of baking pies and cookies to welcome new neighbours is well under force in our street!!

On Thursday I went shopping for some basics like towels, bedding, a kettle, a toaster, etc. Goreti took me on a tour of the decent places to buy home ware and afterwards we went for a drink at Sherlocks, which is supposedly an English style pub. I looked at the menu and was horrified by the fact that there were no big British dishes, like bangers and mash, fish and chips, a decent curry. A lot of the food was Mexican (enchiladas and such like!).

Saturday we took a family trip out to Austin Zoo. It actually right on the edge of where Hill Country begins and there are some amazing views over the area. It isn’t like regular zoos, which seem pretty cruel to me; it’s also an animal sanctuary for rescued and mistreated animals, some domestic and some exotic. Some are wild animals that were kept as pets. Obviously people couldn’t care for them so they ended up at Austin Zoo. It has a petting zoo, and a train ride with views over Hill Country.

We bought some animal feed at admissions and fed the goats, deer and llama. Well, the kids and Geoff fed the goats – I stayed well clear, as I have never been a fan of goats! But I didn’t have a problem with the Llama, and the deer were lovely. We also saw many species such as tigers, lions, cougars, black bears, pigs, porcupines, tortoises, but the Zoo was huge and we just couldn’t get around the whole of it, so we will definitely go back. It was interesting to see peacocks wandering about so freely. They were very tame and Thomas thought it would be great fun to chase one til I managed to catch him (poor bird!), but unfortunately i didn't get a good picture of them with their feathers displayed. It was a lovely afternoon and the kids seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. I didn’t get great pictures of some of the animals but the website address for anyone who is interested is http://www.austinzoo.org/

King of the birds

Feeding the goats

In the Reptile Education Centre

A Tarantula!

A rescued porcupine having his lunch

The views over Hill Country

Mr Llama
Feeding the deer


Cougars having a bath

American Black Bear
Bengal Tiger

Serval

Sunday morning we went back to Extreme Fun, I wanted to show it to Agnes and her parents. Again, lots of fun was had, and again I forgot my camera (I realise I do this a lot right now but I promise I will get better!)!. Then the Honeybuls and us went to Central Park Market for lunch. This is a big shopping centre with an outdoor (and indoor) eating area. You may have noticed that lots of the places we go to eat in Austin have play areas for kids and this was no exception.

After lunch we said goodbye to Tim, Goreti and Agnes and headed for Fiesta. Fiesta is a big supermarket which (allegedly) has food from every country you could imagine. It was there that, on the aisle marked British, I found Salad Cream!!!! It's funny the things you miss when you are away from home, and Salad Cream (strangely) has been one of them for me. We also found Heinz Baked Beans (the Americans idea of these is not great!), Branston Pickle, Galaxy chocolate and tea bags - again the Americans don't really 'get' tea as a hot drink with milk! I came away from Fiesta feeling very happy!

We have now been here for just over a month but it feels much longer. I feel less like I’m on holiday and more like we live here, which is a good thing. I cannot wait to get into our house, which is this week, and make myself at home properly, and I’m sure that I’ll settle into life here much more once I have.