A big decision

We made a big decision in January. We decided to leave Australia. It was both an extremely easy and an extremely difficult decision to make. Easy because it was clearly the best thing for us, but it was difficult to say goodbye to the hopes and dreams we brought with us to Australia, not to mention the special people we had met, and the places we'd enjoyed so much. Shami had to give up a wonderful job and decline a fellowship he had worked very hard for. But we were tired of struggling on and on by ourselves. In Ithaca we would be close to family, and Oliver would be eligible for a top notch Early Intervention program without having to worry about residency status. Yes, it was a very easy and a very difficult decision.


Before we left, we managed to get out for a few "last hurrahs" ...

We finally managed to go to the Sydney Aquarium, and we all enjoyed the fish.


Though we put on our smiles, it was sad to say goodbye to the Botanic Gardens, and especially to the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.




Some of the hardest things to say goodbye to were all the wonderful places we used to explore on our daily walks. We enjoyed so many strolls by the water on the Bay Run, and through Callan park and the grounds of the abandoned Rozelle Psychiatric Hospital.

Goodbye Callan park, and goodbye stray cats.

Goodbye Bay Run, and Iron Cove Bridge.

The easiest thing to say goodbye to was Sydney Children's Hospital!
And we will always remember fondly sitting our deck, and enjoying the view and that wonderful Sydney weather.

Goodbye Darling Street and goodbye to the Rozelle market.

I haven't mentioned the many people we had to say goodbye to. Too many to acknowledge here, but hopefully later. It is always the most difficult to say goodbye to friends.

Happy New Year again

It's official: 2008 is finally over, after dragging on for an extra leap second (2008/12/31, 23:59:60). Happy New Year to everyone, and let's hope the year ahead is a better one.

Although we didn't have the iconic backdrop of the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Opera house, we saw spectacular fireworks over the Iron Cove from the comfort of our own deck. (A brief 19 second video clip below.)

(Our previous New Year's eve posts are here for 2008, and here and here for 2007.)

Merry Christmas!

At the end of a hard year - much harder than we'd anticipated, in many ways - we weren't really feeling the Christmas spirit. Going into the summer solstice didn't really help with that either. But we finally got our act together, unpacked the Christmas tree, opened the box of lights and ornaments, put on some holiday music, and settled in to read How the Grinch stole Christmas.

On Christmas eve, we put a collection of gifts from family and friends under the tree, turned on the lights, and it looked quite cheery after all.



Christmas day was quite laid back and relaxed, a chance for us to catch our breaths a little. One thing it was not: a white Christmas. It was bright and warm and very sunny, a typical Aussie Christmas.

We hope all our readers had a pleasant and very merry Christmas: best wishes for the holidays and the New Year ahead.

Looking back, part 2: Grandparents visit

(October – November, 2007)

We want to take a moment once again to look back and acknowledge some special visitors we've had since Oliver's birth.

Less than a week after we brought Oliver home from the hospital, Oliver's grandparents, his Thamma and his Dadu, arrived from India. It was such a difficult time (they could tell you some stories!) that those early weeks at home have become a bit of a blur for us. Having Shami's parents here was a tremendous help, and in fact we're not sure we would have survived without them.

Notice how the lovely sari Ollie's Thamma is wearing on the left miraculously turns into a special heirloom blanket, complete with an embroidered "OA" for Oliver Akash! Thank you Thamma!

Although we were mostly housebound and too exhausted to do much of anything beyond what was absolutely necessary, we did manage to get out a few times to show them some of Sydney's sights, including a couple of walks along the coast and a stop at Bondi beach. Ollie even dipped his toes into the Tasman sea for the first time, but he was not impressed.




It was not just their help with meals, cleaning and caring for Oliver we are grateful for, but their boundless love and emotional support. We are so glad they were able to come and meet their first grandchild early on, even if the circumstances were far from the happy ones we'd envisioned.

All dressed up: three generations of Chatterjee men. And Oliver with his mum and Thamma too.

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park

We took advantage of good weather and a little extra energy over the weekend to drive to Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. This park dates back to 1894, the second oldest in Australia, and the Sydney metropolitan area has expanded right up to its edge - it was only an hour's drive for us. We drove through the park all the way to West Head, where we enjoyed gorgeous sweeping views of the Hawkesbury river meeting the ocean.

You can see Barrenjoey Head, with its lighthouse, behind Meghan, and Lion Island behind Shami. The entire area is a nature preserve and has recently been designated a National Heritage area.

Alas, we didn't have much time to spend here before we had to drive back, but we did run into a goanna, an Australian monitor lizard. It was big! And don't miss the forked tongue in the (very short) video clip below.

Happy Halloween!

Ahoy there, matey! Oliver wears a patch on his right eye for a couple of hours every day to strengthen his weaker left eye. Inspired by what we call his "pirate time", Meghan dressed Ollie up as a pirate for Halloween. Avast! Shiver me timbers! Happy Halloween to all of our readers.

Cockatoo attack!

About a year ago, when we were getting close to harvesting our kumquats, we woke to find the entire tree had been ravaged by cockatoos. Dozens of kumquats were scattered on the deck, each with a big hole though it. We wouldn't have minded so much if they had been hungry birds, but they just pecked at them and discarded them!

As I was sitting with Oliver today, I glanced outside to find some cockatoos helping themselves to our kumquats once again. I jumped up to shoo them away, but took a moment to snap a few pictures and a little video first. Then I picked as many ripe kumquats as I could, but many of them still need more time on the tree.

It is hard to be too angry though, as the cockatoos are awfully cute!

Forty weeks!

So we made it to forty weeks ... September 7th was our official due date.

Let's hope we have something to show for it very soon, because Meghan doesn't want to get to forty one, let alone forty two!

APEC and the Opera House

This week, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organization is having its annual summit in Sydney. President George W. Bush is in town, although he's not entirely sure whether he's at an APEC meeting or an OPEC meeting. For Sydneysiders, this means massive disruptions to daily life: access to the central business district has been restricted all week, the Opera House precinct has been closed to ordinary mortals, and Friday is a public holiday because of all the road closures.

Apparently Australia is spending over 150 million dollars on security. But that hasn't stopped TV comedians from dressing up as Osama bin Laden and getting through multiple layers of security by flying the Canadian flag. Seriously, click that link - the picture is priceless!

Before all this disruption kicked in, Meghan and I squeezed in a show at the Opera House (a gift from Jennifer and Joe - thanks!). We watched Imagine Toi, a solo show by a former Cirque de Soleil performer. It was nice to have an evening to ourselves before baby makes three (any time now), and we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit.

Happy Father's Day

The first Sunday in September is Father's Day in Australia. As you can see, I'm still working on Shami's gift, but it should be done soon. Stay tuned!

Lunar Eclipse

This week Australia experienced a total lunar eclipse, and we had a great view from our deck. Thanks to a tripod, an itchy finger on the shutter button, and some photoshop expertise from Meghan, here's a quick sequence of how the moon looked. From 6:51 pm to 10:24 pm on the 28th, the Earth's shadow swept over the full moon. For an hour and a half in between, no part of the moon received direct sunlight, but the scattered red light from a thousand sunrises and sunsets around the Earth lit it up with an eerie red glow...

It was astonishing how dramatic and sudden the change was between a black-and-white moon and one lit up in red! We also "discovered" something while watching the eclipse. As you can see, the Earth's shadow enters and leaves the moon at different angles, proving yet again that the Earth is round - or at least, not rectangular!

(Update: These frames were captured on a Canon EOS Digital XT with a Canon 100/f2.8 lens. Exposures ranged from 1/100 sec to 3 sec. With a telescope, you can do much better: for example, see this, and this beautiful sequence.)

A year of passionfruit

The pictures below were taken exactly a year apart. Can you spot the similarities and the differences? We still have a nice deck, there's still a bridge in the background, and the passionfruit tastes just as good as it did last August.

In the meantime, we've acquired furniture, bought a car, traveled a bit, seen some of the local flora and fauna, even held a baby wombat, and much more - all documented for you right here on this blog. As you can see, our life promises to be quite different starting very soon, so here's to a brand new adventure ahead!

Amelie

Stephanie and Mike had a beautiful baby girl on June 12, 2007. Shami and I have seen them twice since then, and so we have been able to practice our baby holding techniques a little bit.

It has been wonderful getting to know Mike and Stephanie. They are Australian, but actually lived in Ithaca for a few years. They are both veterinarians, and Mike worked with Jeanine at Cornell before they moved back to Australia a little while ago. It is very nice to have people around who know and miss Ithaca, including Ludgate Farms, Monkey Run, and even snow!

A few weeks ago we drove up to Mona Vale, where they live - a little under an hour's drive up north, near the ocean. It was wonderful to see them and to meet Amelie for the first time, at the tender age of 5 weeks.

Last weekend we had them over for dinner. Amelie is now 10 weeks old, and it amazed us how much she had grown in just a few weeks! Shami and I took turns holding her, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Good baby holding practice.

Baby gets a dresser

Having a baby + having a car = trips to IKEA for baby furniture!







Et voila! Two hours later, a dresser for baby clothes.


... don't miss our lamb named Woollahra posing on top of the dresser!

On Civic-mindedness

In our pre-natal classes, it has been drilled into us that Australia has very strict rules about transporting infants: you must have a car seat that meets specs in order to bring baby home. It would be a rather long walk home carrying a car seat, so we figured that we first needed a car! Over the past few months, we'd spent some time looking at our options, pricing cars and figuring out the (very pricey) Sydney car market. Well, this Friday the 13th was our lucky day!

Both of us owned Honda Civics in the US, and we've had a soft spot for them. So we were a bit disappointed to find that they were not that common in Sydney, and tended to be expensive. But we came across an online listing for a 2003 Civic from a private seller in the neighboring suburb of Drumoyne, and went to inspect it last week. It was in absolutely beautiful shape, and we got a good price to boot. Sold! On Friday, we handed over a check, got the keys, and drove over to the Traffic Authority to complete the paperwork. And as we drove our new car back home, a beautiful rainbow appeared...