Rainy Days on Days Off Always Get Me Down

I am a sunny kind of guy. And we have had about four or five days of rain here. And we needed it. But it doesn't really make me happy. Especially not on my day off when I usually like to go outside and soak in some of the nice weather and sunshine.

Not much to photograph in the rain either, so I thought I would take you with me to a typical grocery store, here. We were having guests from teh diocese over and I had promised teh former adminsitrator a typical Cuban meal. The grocery store I visited is a chain called "Coles." The other big chain here is called "Woolworth's" or "Wooly's" though it has nothing to do with the American chain of the same name. At least I don't think so.

Just like in America, one of the first sections you visit when entering the grocery store is the fruit and vegtable section (1). As you can see, it pretty much looks like what we have in the US. Except you might find lots more kiwis and different varieties of that fruit (right now golden kiwis are big) and also more tropical fruits like mangoes and papaya. But it's pretty much like the US.

We also have a deli sections (2), like in the US. But things are sold in metric. So it's kilos and grams instead of punds and ounces. In the meat department (photos 3-5), you will see similar kinds of cuts as in America. But notice how all the packages state "no added hormones" and many say "free range." They seem to be more compassionate to their animals than we are. They also eat more lamb than we do, which must come from their British roots.

I was surpised to find "Wonder" bread (6) though I "wonder" if it's the same as the US loaf. Anzac biscuits (7) go back to WWI. They are biscuits (Australian for what we call "cookies") developed without using ingredients that would spoil. They were made during the First World War to send to the Aussie and New Zealander troops. I like them very much. They taste a lot like oatmeal cookies.

Moving down the "buscuit"aisle we come to the "Arnotts" section of biscuits. Arnotts is like our Nabisco Corp. in the States; they make a variety of cookies, like the world famous "Tim Tams" (8) and then all these other varieties (9). Let me tell you, most are cream filled and hard to pass up!

You can also find Campbell's soup in packet form (10) and in strangely shaped cans (11). The cans are a little taller than what we have in the US and I suspect that's because of the metric thing. They probably sell the soup in a quantity that is metric-sized as opposed to something like 24 ounces. I have tried the packets of soup. It's not bad…but not great, either.

We have Old El Paso here (12). You can also find Heinz Ketchup (13)…though they usually call ketchup "tomato sauce." (You can see that in the photo, too: bottom right corner.) For breakfast we have Kellogg's Raisin Bran except they call raisins "sultanas" so it's Sultana Bran (14). Weet-Bix is something many folks eat here (15) that is sort of like a giant mini-wheat. You pour milk over it and mush it up to try and get it to go down your throat. I haven't tried it, but imagine it's like eating twigs.

The snack food aisle is not like the US. They have a lot of chicken flavoring put on their chips (16). Not sure why someone would want to eat a chip (or "crisp" as they say here; chips are fries to them!) that tastes like chicken? "Smiths" makes the closest thing to a "Lays" potato chip here (17).

I like diet soda (one of my few vices…that I am willing to admit). They don't have many options here. This photo pretty much gives you an idea of all that is available soda-wise in Australia (18). The chocolate and candy (or "lollies") aisle is a different story. Cadbury is very big here (19). They have a frog as a mascot to sell chocolate. "Maltesers" are chocolate covered malt balls and they promote them as the "lighter" alternative to chocolate (20). We also have Lindt and other big European chocolate producers (21). But no Hershey's! I know, I know…I should be happy. I miss Hershey's chocolate. Finally, I wanted to show you they strange things they have here called "bullets" (22). They are short licorice covered in chocolate. And though I don't like black licorice, I don't mind these. The ones in this photo are raspberry licorice with milk chocolate. But they come in all licorice flavors and chocolate outsides. They are strange and yummy.

As I said, We had three members of the diocese coming over and one by one, they all started canceling on me! The last canceled at 2:30 pm on the day we were expecting for dinner at 5:30! Very frustrating as I had one lady makes us the shrimp appetizers (23), I was making the black beans from scracth (24) the Filipinos helped get a roast pig (25) and the flan for dessert (26). I also made the Strawberry Daquirri spinache salad, including candying my own almonds (they don't sell that here in the stores) (27). You also can not get anything alcoholic in a grocery store, including dry sherry. You have to get that at a "bottle shop."

So with no guests, we had a nice meal together (28) and then took the left overs to the Filipinos community here who was throwing a party since they took the other half of the roasted pork. Needless to say, absolutely nothing was wasted and everyone had a grand time (29).

Here are also some photos of the one person who did not mind the rain (30) and a lovely little, red-headed parrot that only seems to come out when it rains (31). And then the sun came out for a bit. I wanted you to see the tulip trees are in bloom (32-36). Notice how many blooms are on the tree…and how many petals are on the ground. Incredible how many flowers are coming out while we are still in "winter."

Lastly, I took a picture of an article about me that appeared in the Catholic paper (37). Thought you might like to see the local celebrity.