Our Home Away from Home

So my friend Debby Brown has asked for some pictures of our apartment/hotel room!  I still don't know what to call it, because it's really a hotel room but it feels weird to be living in a hotel for 3 months.  I have to admit, the cooking has been pretty difficult.  Our oven is so worn that I can't read what any of the buttons say.  Add the fact that it cooks with celcius degrees, and I'm still learning that conversion, and it's all just a big guess as to what the oven will do.  Then there is the stove.  One burner on the stove works really well.  And by really well, I mean you barely turn it on, and it's ON HIGH.  All of the other burners don't seem to do much.  So when I need something to cook on the stove, I must stay close, and keep turning it on, then off for few minutes so things won't burn.  It's always interesting, and you really never know what you are going to get!  

You can picture us in this living room much of the time.  We do school in here, the kids watch TV in here, and you see that glass table on the left?  We eat our meals at that table as well.  (When we don't go out!)

Here is the lovely kitchen!  It has a small dishwasher, a small refrigerator, that the oven and stove. Oh, and a microwave too.  Because food here is so expensive, we do really try to cook in at least some dinners.  At lunch time there are millions of options all around, all the food courts that are mostly under the office buildings.  After 5:00, all of these food courts close down since the working crowd is gone.  There are really not many eating options close by, unless you want to spend a minimum of $20 per person.  And even for that, not just a ton of things my kids will eat!  The good thing is that you don't have to add tax or tip.  Which is good, because the service is usually AWFUL if it exists at all.  I have yet to see a piece of ice in any drink, unless it came from McDonald's or Hungry Jacks.  We have made Tuesdays Pizza Hut night, and we usually have a homemade taco night, and we've done a few other things...there is a grill we can use up by the pool, so we've grilled burgers, (kangaroo burgers too!), chicken with pasta and the best alfredo I can manage with my crazy stove.   There are also McDonald's and Hungry Jacks (their version of Burger King) and Subway close by that are always open.  I have a hard time even defining what Australian food is really like.  I would say that all types of Asian food are by far the most  common thing that I see.  Definitely a lot of fish and chips as well, and there is a store called "Pie Face" that is on many corners.  It has little 4 inch pies, fruit pies, etc but also the meat pies that Ethan has referred to.  Several choices of meats and sauces in them.  I have not tried one!  But I did promise Stefanie Haddock that I would try to post a picture of them!  Sorry, don't have that pic yet.

This is the second bedroom.  Many nights it goes unused, believe it or not!  Sometimes Brady does choose to sleep in here alone.  But the loveseat in the living room is also a pull out twin bed, and one kid sleeps on it every night, with another kid always choosing to sleep on the floor in there!  It does however, provide another "space" when some of us need "time away."  :)

Here is our bathroom.  It works out just fine.

This is the master bedroom, pretty much the same as the second bedroom but it has a TV, the second bedroom does not.

This is the view off of our tiny little balcony.

Another view...

And one of our favorite places...the rooftop pool!  Elise and I come here almost every day.  The boys come too, not quite as often.  As the weather continues to warm up I'm sure it will be a more important part of our days!  (When we're not at the beach...)  

We are looking forward to another fun weekend, and will post pictures next week!

Suzanne