Friday, January 22, 2016

It's that time of year again.

Tyler's tolerance for being away from the US lasts 6-7 months. Every year. Consistently. We return from our winter vacation, have a couple of weeks, maybe a month, and then Grumpy McGrumperson moves in for the rest of the winter. Any number of things can trigger his homesickness, but it consistently arrives around the end of January/beginning of February.

That usually is when I'll kick into gear with some distractions. Favorite recipes find their way onto our menu. I'll involve him in the trip planning for our spring break vacation. We start booking our airbnbs and plane tickets for our Summer Reunion Tour. Usually it just means I'm gonna have a grumpy Gus on my hands until my patriotic homebody of a husband touches down in Nashville. Gus is starting to peek through my husband's usual gentle disposition, but this time we aren't going home for the summer. We likely won't see Nashville again until some time in 2017, possibly 2018. Sooo I'm not really sure how this is going to go.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Tyler and I find comfort in food, and one thing that has kept me going in the past is finding solace in the fact that we are only a few weeks away from our favorite flavors from home. Our most frequently played game around this time of the year is "Know what I miss?"

Tyler: Know what I miss?

Me: What?

Tyler: Good barbecue

Me: OMGIKNOWRIGHT?!?

Me: Know what I miss?

Tyler: What?

Me: Biscuits.

Tyler: Ugghhhhh yaasssss

Tyler: Know what I miss?

Me: What?

Tyler: Southern style sausage

Me: ::wipes mouth::

Tyler: Know what I miss?

Me: What?

Tyler: Sausage biscuits.

Me: Yeah, I could have guessed that.

Previously our most missed foods have been the haram flavors of bacon, barbecue, country ham, and beer and that was because they were not allowed in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. We could, strangely enough, find Southern foods like grits, Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce, and Jello products any time we wanted at the local Lulu Superstore.

Thanks to the fact that we no longer live in a theocracy, we can find pork products in the grocery stores and some REALLY great beer quite easily. There are lots of small things, though, that just can't be found in Australia that I never realized I would miss so much. These are the items that we haven't previously had to go without and have been absent from our usual rounds of "You know what I miss?"



Pillsbury products: I never realized how dependent I was on whop biscuits, crescent rolls, cinnamon rolls (omgimisscinnamonrollsfromacan), and frozen pie crusts until the holidays rolled around and NONE OF MY RECIPES were possible anymore! I mean, I could make monkey bread using handmade biscuit dough, but ain't nobody got time for that!! You don't realize how much of the recipes on Pinterest are Pillsbury-based until you just can't find the refrigerated dough anywhere.



Potato-based lazy-person foods: Monkey bread is Tyler's family's traditional Christmas morning breakfast. Hashbrown casserole is my family's. Guess what? Frozen hashbrowns cannot be found here. I know, I know. I can shred potatoes by hand, but please see my previous Sweet Brown reference for what I think about that work around. Tater tots are also not a thing here, which would really help with our Sonic withdrawals that are going to hit very soon.


Tex Mex: Mexican is super trendy in Melbourne right now, so we have several options for burritos and tacos, but they all have an Australian twist. Turns out Australians haven't evolved far from their British ancestors as far as cuisine is concerned because the general Australian population doesn't appear to like flavorful food, and their Mexican food is no exception. No free salsa and chips at the Mexican restaurants. When you do get the salsa, it comes with no jalapeno. No spice at all in the enchiladas. It's rare to find black beans or green chilis in the grocery store! Thankfully Ro-Tel can be found that the USA foods store, but if we want flavorful salsa to mix it with for some queso dip, we're out of luck!


Hershey's chocolate products: Y'all. I am a Hershey's snob! I know it is generally snubbed internationally as being too waxy, and I'll admit that is the case if the chocolate has been sitting on the shelf for a while, but dang chocolate chip cookies without Hershey's chips and ice cream without Hershey's syrup is just SO disappointing! Cadbury does not cut it, sorry England.

There are other things such as American style bacon, good peanut butter (Australians prefer CHUNKY! What!?), cheddar cheese, and ice cream brands like Edy's and Blue Bell that we have found acceptable substitutions for that will get us through until we go home again. But if we're in this level of homesickness with only 6 months under our belt, I have no idea how we are going to survive the remaining 18 before Tyler graduates and we can go home again!

Vicariously yours,


Wednesday, January 20, 2016

The money struggles continue

I don't mean to make it sound like we are totally destitute, but cashflow has consumed our thoughts lately and I've never had such a hard time generating income before.

Granted, it's been a hot minute since I have waited tables, but I do have 10 years of restaurant experience in a country that doesn't pay a living wage, so I know what it means to provide excellent customer service and hustle for my money. You'd think that would make me more attractive to all the managers at all the restaurants I've applied to since the end of September (my last count was 12). Nope.

I'm very thankful for the job with the catering company that I've found, and our new friends here have been so incredibly helpful with keeping an ear out for any open positions that Tyler and I could step into. Because of our connections, Tyler has found two part time jobs. If it hadn't been for those connections, he wouldn't have any income, despite applying to at least 10 different jobs.

What's really confusing is how expensive it is to find a job here! I know the old saying "You've got to spend money to make money," and I get that, but why does it cost so much money to get a simple part time job here?!

Here's the breakdown of how much we have spent to get any form of income in this country (and this total is all before we worked a single shift). All costs are in Australian dollars unless otherwise noted.

To get a job in a restaurant--

If I want to work at a restaurant that serves alcohol, I have to get an RSA (responsible service of alcohol) certification. Essentially it's a course teaching me how to recognize when someone has been over-served and how to diffuse a situation if a drunk patron gets upset when cut off. This is not unusual, I've had to take similar courses in the States, but the fee has always been paid by the restaurant hiring me. I couldn't even apply for a job at a restaurant until I'd gotten my RSA, so the cost was on me. I also got a RSF (responsible food handling...I know the initials don't match the name of the certificate) certification.

Cost for certificates: $80 

Once I got hired I had to buy 98% of my uniform and tools like a wine key (they call them "waiter's friend" here) because the catering company only provides the apron. That means I had to buy two button-down shirts, shoes, a black tie, and black pants. I already had the black pants, but everything else was NOT cheap! I looked at several stores for a black shirt, and ended up finding some in my size at Target for $30 a piece.

Cost for uniform: $150

Total cost for catering job: $230

*It's interesting to note that if I'd wanted to apply for jobs at a coffee shop, I would have to take a barista course to learn how to make coffee and do those fancy latte art designs you see on hipster instagram accounts. They take coffee very seriously in this city, and the barista course would have cost me another $45.

To get a job at not-a-restaurant--

Thanks to a friend, Tyler has found a job working for an outdoor program with the YMCA which is awesome because he'll be able to work with kids and add something to his resume. Again, super grateful for the opportunity, but this job also comes with a cost. Because he's responsible for the safety of kids, he has to get first aid, CPR, and lifeguard certified. Not unreasonable, and the YMCA has already covered the CPR and lifeguarding certificates, but the first aid course is coming out of our pocket.

Cost for first aid course: $160

Cost for YMCA job: $160

*Huge thanks to our friend Jason who went out of his way to ask if Ty could get the first aid course covered, too. It was worth the effort.

That makes a total of almost $400 for part time jobs that are helping us pay the rent, but The Goal is to get back into teaching which means we have to get certified in Victoria.

To get a job teaching (even substitute teaching)--

In theory that's not a hard task, but one requirement of the application is to show a police report from all of the countries we have lived in for the past 10 years. I've already addressed how complicated that task is for us, and the whole process has been REALLY expensive.

For the background checks we have to send in our fingerprints, which requires an appointment with a specific division of the police department here.

Cost for fingerprint reports: $45 per report, one report per background check request (of which there were 2) = $180

Cost for background check from Kuwait: $108 per request, of which there were 2 = $216

Convenience fee from the post office for getting the money orders required by Kuwait: $8 per money order = $16

Cost of a background check from the FBI: US$18 per request = US$36 (~AUD52)

Cost of mailing everything to the FBI with delivery tracking: $32 per envelope, of which there were 2 = $64

That is $528 before we've even applied to register with the Victoria Institute of Teaching. We're still waiting for the FBI check to come in and our background check from Kuwait expires in February. There is an application fee, of course.

Cost of VIT registration application: $146 per application, of which there are 2 = $292

That brings us to the grand total of $820 spent on a teaching job and we can't even approach a school for an interview until after our application has been approved. That is equivalent to almost 3 full paid days of substitute teaching.

That means, before we have even worked a single hour, we have spent $1210.

For $1210, we could buy three and a half round trip flights from Melbourne to Sydney. We could book a stay at a resort in Bali. That is more than half the cost of one person to take this awesome Outback pub crawl we found where you fly to all the pubs on a chartered plane.

THERE ARE SO MANY COOL THINGS WE COULD DO WITH THAT MONEY OTHER THAN WAIT TO GET PAID!

The interesting thing about living in a country with a living wage (minimum wage nationwide is $17.29 an hour) means that we get paid a lot per hour but our employers are stingy with the paid hours. When I was waiting tables in high school making $2.13 an hour, I would work a 10 to 12 hour shift with no break (because I didn't want one) and could make as much as $300 in a shift at my diner job. That rounds out to roughly $25 an hour and there was no opposition from my manager. Here I am lucky to squeak out 7 paid hours at $16.30 after taxes have been taken out. If both of us were able to work our maximum 20 hours per week when school is in session we would be able to make ends meet easily. But because our employers are shelling out so much per hour, it's tough to convince them to let us work 20 hours a week.

I wish I had known all of this before we moved here when we were saving up our dinars in Kuwait.

Vicariously yours,


Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Melbourne on a shoestring budget


Turns out January in Australia = major down time for the catering industry...or maybe just the catering company I'm currently working for. I've only had three shifts all month, and that sure ain't gonna pay the bills. Thankfully, Tyler's work has picked up and he has been putting in the kind of hours I was working in November and December, so we're making ends meet. Barely.

I'm not complaining about not having to spend 7-8 hours on my feet every day, but I have been BORED sitting at home by myself all day. I'm trying to do my part for our bottom line by not spending oodles of money while Tyler is out of the house working. In an effort to avoid total insanity, I decided to go see what kinds of free activities this expensive city has to offer.

If you google "Melbourne on a budget" or "Free things in Melbourne," there is no shortage of results. What frustrated me with all those lists is that there was one or two truly free things and then the rest involved money somehow.

Tyler and I need literally free activities. Like, our entertainment budget is-- no exaggeration-- ZERO. So "Stroll the laneways and stop in at a cute cafe for lunch" just wasn't cutting it. One list of "free" things to do literally suggested doing a pub crawl. For those that have never been to Australia, alcohol is REALLY EXPENSIVE here! Happy hour at home means 1/2 price beer and well liquor, at minimum. Happy hour here means you get an appetizer for 1/3 off with your full price (read: $8-9 if it's cheap) drink. So a "free" pub crawl would rack up a $100 bill if two people go to 4 or 5 bars.

THAT ISN'T FREE, WEBSITE!

So I culled through several lists of suggestions, picked out the actually free activities, and am working my way through the list. My first adventure was the National Gallery of Victoria.


I didn't have high expectations for my visit since I was only going to be able to see the permanent exhibits because those are free. Outside of the Smithsonian museums, my experience with free collections has been lackluster. Usually enough to be interesting, but the really cool stuff is behind the ticket booth.

This is the first thing you see when you walk in the door. The instagrammers were having a heyday.
NOT the case with the National Gallery of Victoria! Granted, they don't have a show-stopping piece of art, but I spent about three hours looking through only half of the free collection, and only left because the museum was closing and I was getting hungry.

This gallery room was my FAVORITE! Y'all know how much a love a gallery wall. I could have spent hours in this room. 


I don't claim to be an art history nerd, but I really like going to museums and looking at art and learning about the cultures and time periods that create them. I will claim to be super nerdy because I make a game out of looking at the artwork first and trying to guess the year it was painted or in which country it was made. I've gotten really good!

The Gallery has free wifi which most of my fellow patrons were using it to post hipster shots of themselves pensively looking at a statue, but I put google to use again and learned SO MUCH about those hoity-toity art terms that I always see on the plaques and just have to pretend I know what it means.

Like this little guy. The plaque says it is a posset pot made in England...but what is a posset pot!? Thanks, google

And this one. What is a fica gesture? Turns out it's an obscene gesture in many cultures, which means this is basically a goblet flipping us the bird. So punk. So German.  
The permanent collection was divided into European and Asian collections, and I was only able to make it through the European collection. It just kept going and going! I thought for sure after I'd worked my way through the religious art, the sculptures, paintings, and decorative art galleries that I would be circling back to the exit. NO! There was a whole other collection of post modern furniture and modern art. I definitely got my money's worth that afternoon!

This is a cradle! ...I realize it's not a post mod cradle. I didn't take any photos of that collection...



The light on the righthand side of the photo above is coming from the doors to the garden behind the gallery. It's a really cool green space with various sculptures and installations. It was a really nice, quiet oasis in the middle of the busy city.

One of the installations had misters creating a sort of fog on one side of the garden, and the etherial contrast between the mist and the vibrant plants in the garden was like something out of a Neil Gaiman novel. 
This guy is called "The Noble Ape"

I wrapped up my visit to the National Gallery because I was getting hungry and the permanent exhibits were closing for the day. So I strolled across the street to the botanic gardens to enjoy some people-watching and nom on the little snack I brought to make sure I didn't splurge on a cafe treat.



I enjoyed a nice long tram ride home and ended my day with a FaceTime session with the Mister, where we made fun of how comically long his hair and beard have gotten.



Vicariously yours,


Thursday, January 7, 2016

Can't go to New Zealand without seeing some Maori culture

One thing I didn't realize before I went to New Zealand is how YOUNG the country is! Like America and Australia, New Zealand has an indigenous population, but unlike America and Australia, New Zealand has not mistreated their native population nearly as atrociously. Government schools teach Maori handicrafts and you hear Maori* language lessons on the radio.

Maybe some of that respect comes from the fact that humans didn't even reach New Zealand until sometimes around AD 1250, (only about 250 years before the first European colony was settled in North America) when 7 wakas (canoes) filled with Maori arrived on the shores of the North Island and then spread throughout the two islands to become the seven Maori tribes found in New Zealand today. European settlers didn't arrive until 1642 when the Dutch arrived (Zeeland is a province in the Netherlands) and the country didn't become colonized until 1788 when England sort of annexed it as part of New South Wales in Australia.

Don't misunderstand, European colonizers, as they were notorious to do, mistreated the Maori population as they forcibly took their land and greatly decreased their population...but it's almost like modern Kiwis have found a way to make amends with the population and blend native culture with western traditions. It's not perfect, but it is LIGHTYEARS ahead of any "progress" we've made in the States. It might help that there is essentially only one native culture in New Zealand as compared to the thousands of unique tribes and traditions we had in the United States.

ANYWAY (that was a long tangent)

Marisol and I stumbled upon a Maori cultural center when we were in Rotorua at the Te Puia geyser and Maori heritage center.



There were several geysers and natural mud pools and it was really cool to watch them bubble and spew.

The cultural center had a village set up (no one lived there) and they performed the traditional welcome ceremony and led the tourists into the meeting house to perform Maori songs and a haka. It was VERY pre-packaged and a little cheesy, but still really cool.

Part of the presentation included the poi, which originally was a rock covered in layers of leather and tied to a twine and used by the Maori women to mimi the movement of native birds and help to tell the stories in their songs. Now the poi is plastic, but it is still SO cool to watch!!



The next night we went back to Rotorua for a VERY touristy Maori dinner at the Tamaki Village. It's scripted and pre-packaged, but short of making friends with actual Maori people and horning in on one of their gatherings, this was the least invasive way to experience some Maori culture and benefit the local Maori population.

Cheesy as it may be, I really enjoyed Tamaki Village. We got bussed "back in time" to a replica pre-European Maori village and were welcomed by the tribe and given a tour of the village where we stopped at each hut and talked to the artisans or warriors that "lived" there and heard about different aspects of traditional Maori culture. Anyone that has traveled with me will attest that I ask a million and a half questions, and everyone at Tamaki Village was so kind to indulge me and not take offense at my ignorance or accidental insensitivity with my interrogation.

Of course, no Maori experience would be complete without a haka. What I didn't know before going to New Zealand is that there isn't just one haka. A "haka" is a war chant, meant to tell a story about a fierce warrior from that particular tribe as a way to get the blood pumping and intimidate the enemy. Anyone that has seen anything related to the All Blacks--New Zealand's national rugby team-- has seen the haka they perform before a game. The hakas we saw during our trip were different, but equally cool and goosebump-inducing to watch.



If New Zealand isn't already on your list of places to go in the world, put it on there now. You won't regret it.

Vicariously yours,














*Before coming Down Under, I though it was pronounced "MAY-oh-ree." Then the Australians told me it is pronounced "m-OW-ree." Kiwis say it more like "mAHree" with a rolled R. Y'all just read it inside your head however you like. 

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

New Zealand continued to be amazing

Marisol and I continued our Kiwi road trip after Hobbiton, making this my first time ever driving on the wrong side of the road. Thankfully the rental company had already stuck a bumper sticker on our car apologizing for my extremely slow speed as I ogled the beautiful views while simultaneously trying not to kill us in a head-on collision.


And boy were there some beautiful sights to behold.


This was the view from our former colleague's backyard. This is literally his back. yard.


This was the least attractive view we had on our amazing hike at a beach that was literally a 5 minute drive from his house. *hint: this view was in no way unattractive!*


This was the BEAUTIFUL view Marisol and I bestowed upon the other patrons as a local berry farm that made yummy home made mixed berry ice cream. Berries are kind of New Zealand's thing, especially at Christmas time because it's the summer and height of berry picking season.


This was the view we had over the local town when we rode to the top of a beach-side hill near our former colleague's house. The cows have become unimpressed with the mind-blowing beauty they are surrounded by every day.


This is another shot from Hobbiton, but it's worth sharing. Seriously, there were so many moments that I was just gobsmacked by how beautiful New Zealand was! I kept saying that I couldn't believe our former colleagues ever left to go to the desert. I guess you don't really come to appreciate green until you're surrounded by brown desert for a few years.

Vicariously yours,


Monday, January 4, 2016

Y'ALL, NEW ZEALAND IS AMAZING!

Even though it was wildly financially irresponsible, I can't resist an infection of the travel bug and took a quick trip to New Zealand with our friend Marisol while she was visiting for her winter break. No regrets. New Zealand is awesome and it was equally awesome to get to spend quality time with Marisol.

We went to the North Island to visit with some former colleagues from Kuwait, and no trip to the North Island is complete without a tour of Hobbiton.


So, I'm not really a Lord of the Rings kinda person. I've never seen the movies (though I've begun the first one probably a dozen times), never read the books. I am ashamed to call myself a middle school reading teacher, but I just have never been one for elves and fairies kind of books--Harry Potter excepted. BUT, even without having seen any of the movies, this tour was pretty cool. I learned a lot of movie trivia and got to take in BEAUTIFUL New Zealand views.


Spoiler alert: If you plan on ever going to Hobbiton, I'm about to ruin the tour for you, so STOP READING NOW!

Fun LOTR movie trivia fact 1: the "town" of Hobbiton was built on a small part of a sheep farm that was found by movie scouts during an aerial tour. They knocked on the farmer's door and said they would like to see the farm as they might consider it as a set for the new Lord of the Rings movie. The farmer was not impressed ("Lord of the what?" He apparently said when meeting with Peter Jackson during negotiations), but his sons likely saw dollar signs and welcomed the scouts onto the property!

Fun LOTR movie trivia fact 2: The set was originally built out of temporary materials (read: LOTS of styrofoam), but shortly after the movies were released, eagle-eyed Kiwis recognized the mountain range in the background and started showing up to the farmer's door asking for a peek at the hobbit holes. An enterprise was born.

Fun LOTR movie trivia fact 3: The holes in Hobbiton are actually just the facades. The inside scenes were shot at Peter Jackson's studio in Wellington.

Sorry, y'all. There's nothing inside Bag End.
Fun LOTR movie trivia fact 4: When Hollywood returned to film The Hobbit, the farmer's sons subtly suggested that the set be rebuilt using permanent materials, thus solidifying a large source of income for as long as nerd pilgrims will make the trip. The family also continued with the sheep farming for when, if ever, the nerds lose interest.

Fun LOTR movie trivia fact 5: Profits from the Hobbiton tours are now shared between Warner Brothers, Peter Jackson, and the farmer's family. The farmer, however, has passed the farm on to his oldest son, and has retired...to a smaller farm nearby.

Like I said, even without an abiding love of all things Hobbit, I thought Hobbiton was pretty cool. And you get to cool down at the end of the tour in the replica Green Dragon pub and pose in cute hobbit doorways for a SUPER touristy pic.


Tyler's dad is a major Lord of the Rings fan--the books and the movies--so I will be making another trip to The Shire when his family comes to visit. Perhaps I'll study up and watch the movies beforehand.

Vicariously yours,




Sunday, January 3, 2016

This year's birthday was a throwback to high school

So, I have a December birthday, and much as my parents tried to make it a special day growing up, I learned real quickly that having a December birthday sucks. My extended family frequently did the birthday-Christmas combo gift, no one could make it to my birthday parties past the age of ...eh... 10. The only people that could show up to my 21st celebration was my big sister and my then-20-year-old boyfriend (who later became my husband, thanks honneeeeyy!). I gave up on trying to celebrate my birthday in high school. The nice part is Tyler is also a December baby, so he and I celebrate together each year. For the past few years we've celebrated with fancy grown-up dinners or lavish trips to fabulous locations, and for our three years in Kuwait our amazing Kuwait family threw us awesome themed parties.

This year was familiar but resembled my birthdays from my teenage years as opposed to that of a 33-year-old.


The day started with a little breakfast date with my precious niece while she had dinner in America. We were practicing our silly faces.

Then the hubs and I went to a movie-and-a-lunch by going to see a Lux showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.


Lux is, I assume, short for DEluxe because we got to sit in cushy recliner seats, got waited on at appointed times during the movie, and Tyler got to upgrade his complimentary popcorn and soda to a special commemorative Star Wars popcorn tin and large soda cup.


Tyler was REALLY excited for the movie before it started, and my gift to him for my birthday was I ACTUALLY LIKED A STAR WARS MOVIE! I spent the week leading up to my birthday watching the original trilogy to study up for this new one and see if maybe, if I actually watched and paid attention, I could get hooked on Star Wars and go into the new movie just as excited as my husband. That plan didn't work, but JJ Abrams helped me to see the plot-hole-riddled light and I am actually now asking to see the movie AGAIN!

It's a birthday miracle.

Continuing the birthday-from-my-wonder-years trend, I had to leave Tyler behind while I went to wait tables. On my birthday. Until 1 in the morning because my managers didn't care that it was my birthday...ok, that's not fair to them. I didn't tell them it was my birthday, but my past has taught me that they wouldn't have cared anyway.

Here's to a more Australian kind of birthday next year.

Vicarously yours,
















PS. I would be remiss to leave out the fact that our amazing Australian friends actually gave me a bit of an Australian birthday this year, just a few days early. They were hosting a Christmas cookout and I arrived first while Tyler was at work and they surprised me with a birthday cupcake and a chorus of happy birthday. In Australia, the birthday girl gets three cheers after the birthday song is sung, and then cuts the cake. I'm not sure if it is an Australian tradition or just one for this particular family but I hilariously messed up the cake cutting.


They handed me the knife and, since it was a cupcake, I thought it was a joke when they said, "Cut the cake!" I laughed and pantomimed cutting the cupcake into teeny pieces for everyone at the party and then put the knife on the table and devoured the yummy goodness.

When Tyler arrived for the party (I'd already left because I had to work), they sang to him and also handed him the knife but explained their tradition: the birthday boy cuts the cake and if the knife touches the plate, he has to kiss the person next to him! I didn't know about that part, and I just laughed at how anticlimactic my "cake cutting" was the first time around! haha! oops.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Australia's got this coffee thing figured out

I will admit that I'm not a big coffee drinker. Probably because, if I drink coffee, it's Starbucks or whatever is brewing in the teacher's lounge, and that is never the good stuff. I don't enjoy drinking coffee in America, so I haven't exactly gone on the search for the world's best cup of coffee.


But it's a different story here. I actually enjoy drinking coffee here and will voluntarily order a cup or more at meals. I suspect it is because we are so close to coffee growing countries like Indonesia, but because I'm not coffee obsessed, I haven't tried to figure out Australia's secret.

There is one aspect of drinking coffee here that I find most enjoyable: the to-go cups. I'm sure all of Australia is collectively face-palming right now, but it's the little things that get me.


The to-go cups here have little sippy cup tops that made me chuckle at first, but the more I drank the more I came to love it! I don't know how it does it, but somehow the coffee is not so scalding hot when it is drunk out of the sippy to-go cup.



At home, I have to let my coffee hot chocolate sit for a while before drinking because I can never tell how hot the drink is so I end up burning a small oblong oval onto my tongue or lip and not being able to taste anything anyway.

I'm telling y'all, Australia's got this whole coffee thing figured out and I might be hooked. All it took was a child-like to-go cup.

I'm an easy sell.

Vicariously yours,