Pickles

The BIG report 1
Each week prior to blogging whats been happening we are going to provide the BIG report. Our goal over the next 2 years is to answer the question with your help does BIG = Better? We are certainly in the country where things are generally big but in Texas things are even BIGGER. They take pride in being bigger! So this weeks big report is on the humble pickle. To the rest of us its that little thing we get on a burger that as a child we watch slide down the window of McDonalds. To the Texan its part of the staple diet. Pickles come with everything, on burgers, salads, you can even get a side of pickles. So why are pickles part of the big report? They are BIG! and sold in a family size container.
Your thoughts - are big Pickles in big containers an Australian dream?

WEEK ONE

 Moving in! We got the keys for our place last Tuesday and started the process of moving everything in. The flat tyre the previous day actually proved to be quite fortuitous as the rental place gave us a bigger car, a much BIGGER car which meant we could move all our 120kg of luggage from the hotel in one trip rather than many.

Our furniture was delivered, which was very exciting! And I even managed to convince Aaron that Ikea is OK - see our pretty shower curtain! We were making the most of the facilities early on, as we didn't have any cooking utensil and our first meal was cooked on the "grill" in the pool area.

Downtown Dallas - we brought the rain!


TWO WEEKS, TWO WEEKS!
It's hard to know whether we feel like we've been here much longer or a much shorter time at present. Big things have happened this week, including my second week of work which has included learning some new imaging techniques and more importantly for the house husband, the connection of the internet and arrival of 300 TV channels!

We seem to have settled in to a nice little routine, which does involve A cooking and cleaning - heaven! Not ironing my clothes yet, or making my lunch, disappointing. But he does escort me to the train in the dark each morning. Unlike Queensland, the Texans do have day light savings so at present it doesn't get dark until after 7, but likewise it doesn't get light until after 7am. I expect this will change sometime in the next few weeks. The weather has also started to change, it was 30degrees yesterday, today it is 11! A cold front came through from Canada apparently.

The immigration officer at UT Southwestern kindly took us out to meet some people the other night. It was great to get out and socialise. It is so much cheaper to eat out than Australia. Mains were about $13, craft beers $4 and delicious Jameson and Dry for $5. A also managed to get a little work from the evening looking after one of those photo booths people hire for parties and functions every now and then.

Well that's the first 2 weeks down, how time flies! Keep in touch.