He Just Smiled And Gave Me A Vegemite Sandwich And He Said, "I Come From A Land Down Under".

Just three months ago I received an e-mail from some friends in England asking me if I knew anyone who would be interested in being an Au Pair for their friends in Australia. Of course I knew someone, ME! I didn’t even ask my parents if I could take the offer before I promptly wrote back accepting. Next thing I knew, I was getting off of a plane in Melbourne, Australia; and here, I’ll stay for the next nine months.

What exactly am I doing here? I’m an Au Pair (or, ‘Big Sister’ as I like to call it) to three sweet children. I’ll be staying with the family until December then I’ll do some independent traveling until about February…or longer…who knows? Anyway, say “Hello!” Or, “G’day Mate”, if you’d rather, to these little sugar cubes:

This is James. He is 4 years old and very mature. He goes to Kinder 2 days a week and helps me watch after the other 2 kiddies on the other days of the week. He also has the same accent as the boy who’s finger Charlie bit in the well known YouTube video; ironically enough James’ little brother is Charlie, so I make him recite the video probably once a day.

This is Charlie. He is 18 months old and quite full of life. He walks like a little penguin and is trying so hard to spit out words. I’ve almost got him to say ‘Dani’ but it keeps coming out ‘Da-Da’. Charlie doesn’t really ever bite James’ finger, but he does love biting other chewy things being that he’s teething right now which puts him on a 24 hour saliva diet.

This is Princess Sophie. She is 11 weeks old and the youngest of the 3. She’s an absolute doll and very well behaved. I can barely keep my hands off of her. Mum has got lots of precious dresses for her to wear when she gets a bit bigger and we can’t wait to dress her up!

Over this past weekend, we spent some time over in a town called Merricks in a darling house by the beach. The beaches here are gorgeous, nothing like those in Florida; the dunes are full, the islands are huge, and the water is like turquoise stone. Merricks is a lovely town and I’m sure we’ll be making our way back over there withing the next week or so.

Here’s a little Australian recipe for a quick treat. It’s perfect for getting something together quickly to take to a party or even to just enjoy at home. Honey Joy’s!

Honey Joy’s

¾ Stick of butter

1 Tablespoon of honey

½ Cup of sugar

4 cups of Corn Flakes cereal

About 25 cup cake baking cups

In a pot, melt the butter, honey and sugar all together constantly whipping it around until frothy. Once frothy, turn heat off and mix in corn flakes. All the little flakes should look nicely coated with caramel, once done, scoop little spoonfuls of mixture into cup cake cups and let sit. You can refrigerate them if you’d like, but they’ll harden all on their own. These things are so delicious, good luck having just one!

For the record, Vegemite is not so tastey. And just for shits and giggles, here you go:

I come from a land down under,
Where beer does flow and men chunder.
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.

-Men At Work

I Need To Laugh, And When The Sun Is Out I've Got Something I Can Laugh About.

Appropriately, this blog should have been posted before my California blog. Unfortunately, in my midst of jet lag, I confused myself. So let’s take a moment and rewind a bit, shall we?

I woke up on the morning of the Third day in May, snuggled right up to my favorite spoon, Jenna. It was a perfect 87 degrees, no clouds with slight gusts of wind; we knew it would be a day to blog about. We dressed in our bathing suits, sun dresses, and popped right on to our bikes for a spin around town.

We weaved in and out of traffic laughing to ourselves and trying to set ourselves a nice tan while riding. At one point, Jenna looked over at me and says, “Dani, burritos?” and I say “Jenna, nothing less!” So we enjoyed our first meal of the [perfect] day here, at this quaint spot on St. George Street:

And got one of these:

Is that not the biggest burrito you’ve ever seen? Jeez, writing about this part is making me expel liquids out of my mouth and onto my keyboard. Anyway, as JP and I rode our bikes down St. George, terrorizing tourists and all, we took a few moments of loving time to play with these precious reptiles:

It was all fun and games until JENNA decided it’d be fun to take a dunk and dive into the turtle tank and get us kicked out of the turtle store! Smooth move, Exlax!

On to the next one it was, we met up with the birthday girl, AK47, and made our way over to the beach.

What a GORGEOUS day for the beach, it was! The clouds stayed away, and the sun stayed still. Having some good, clean fun and throwing a frisbee into everything but one another’s hands, we met up with some good looking studs [if I do say so myself!]:

After a nice lunch with some side brews, we started to get ready for Allison’s birthday dinner, but before, we pre-gamed at her house while waiting for all of our friends to come meet us. Since school just got our for summer, it was wonderful to see some familiar, long, lost faces. So, Kyle bought some goodies:

And coming straight from my Manneken Pis I made some treats:

Then we made our way over to the Casa Maria for a delectable dinner fit for all 17 of us. We had tacos, queso, and tequila all around the table. The Mariachi even gave Al her own little dose of Mexico, sombrero and all:

Now, how does one birthday person end any day of celebrating one of their very own? At the Dunes Cracker House of course! Would you have it any other way?

And that was my day to blog about. There is one, and ONLY one way to have ended that day:

I feel good, in a special way,
I'm in love and it's a sunny day,
Good day sunshine.

-The Beatles

Here I Am For The First Time, Look To My Right And I See The HOLLYWOOD Sign.

And so began my voyage away from Florida!

Day 1: Could I have fallen more in love with LA if I tried? I don’t think so! I spent the past weekend in California celebrating my last weekend in the States before heading to Australia and what a weekend it was! I arrived in Los Angeles where the Lovely Lisa was ever so kind as to pick me up. It was so good to see her being that it’s been quite a few years since I’ve had the pleasure.

She showed all around town including an absolutely delicious lunch with an accompanying pitcher of sangria. YUM!

We went up Santa Monica Boulevard and down to Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills felt so classic to me, I loved it! Speaking of hills, the ones in the surrounding area were so pretty! I’m just so used to seeing Flat Florida that Not-So-Flat Cali was quite refreshing. Thanks for everything, Lees! Can't wait to see you soon!

Day 2: My little taste of St. Augustine, I spent my next day with the only and only Crazy Haley! The second I saw her I had a beer in my hand; I mean, it’s only natural. Haley and her wonderful boyfriend just moved to Long Beach and they both kindly took me in for the night.

We had SO much fun! We purchased a 30 count case of Bud Light – did anybody know these even existed? I was so excited to have seen one, that I sent a picture of this world wonder to Katie. When asking what she thought of such a thing, she simply replied, “That you can drink 6 more beers without wasting extra raw material. LA is so environmentally friendly.” Such a reply could only come of this particular Flagler student.

Day 3: During the day Haley, Spencer and I took a small tour of Hollywood and Bel Air. The houses were to die for. The roads were curvy, hilly and palm trees littered the sidewalks and it was beautiful. We even saw the Hollywood sign! I have a crisp, clear photo in my brain but I couldn’t get a decent picture of it on my camera.

We then had a delicious brunch and this amazing place that I just can’t remember the name of. Either way, the Eggs Benedict was super tasty!

After our day of tourism, the fabulous couple took me to the airport and that was that. Thanks for every thing you two!

And, if there was one thing I could bring back to Florida, it would be these AMAZING burrito delivery trucks they’ve got around town! Umm, Mayor of St. Augsutine, HELLO?

So I put my hands up, they're playin' my song,

The butterflies fly away.

-Miley Cyrus

Seth Isaac Rosen

Welcome to the world my sweet, little boy! Good ‘SIR ‘was born healthy and happy on

March 23, 2010. He is so delicious and simply and irresistible.

Yours is the first face that I saw,

I think I was blind before I met you.

-Bright Eyes