Travels with The Rayman

What a great day, this national eating holiday. And we made the most of it. See Charlie cut the chard tart while Al looks on with pride.

 
So, everyone arrived at 10 a.m. to begin a day of cooking and eating and drinking together. Too much fun. The way it works is that I plan the menu and buy the food. Then everyone cooks. It is true that I assign the dishes, but people are free to switch, trade, help on additional dishes, etc. It is so much fun to do a big meal like this. This is our second year and I’m sure we’ll do it again next year.

There were 11 total people. Three buddists, one vegetarian, a thespian, a lawyer, 4 bicyclists, and a bunch of us are retired.

The TV remained off but the music played all day. Pandora was streamed and I chose Traveling Willburys as the station early in the day and then Fleetwood Mac later on. Great music to cook to if you ask me.

We ran out of shallots and brandy which necessitated a run to the store. That may have been the only faux pas on my part as far as groceries were concerned. Not bad.

The recipes are on included to your right except for the persimmon pudding. And may I say a few things about the food. It was GREAT. After years of contemplating this turkey cooking method, I took the leap and decided to have the butcher cut up the turkey like a chicken. And I also had the breast cut in half. Used a 15 pound bird which, if it had been any bigger, would have necessitated more pans. And speaking of pans. Convection ovens were marketed to us as faster cookers…which they are. What they didn’t tell us or what I missed in the sales pitch was that convection ovens are smaller. And many of my pans don’t even fit in the darn things because I had a big old Wolf before and I could, if I had desired, have roasted a goat in it, it was that big.

But I digress. So, the pan barely fit but it did fit so two pans were avoided which made things much easier. And cutting up the turkey allowed me to use my instaread thermometer on each piece of the turkey to ascertain the temperature so that I could remove each piece when it reached the desired temp. As a person that includes cooking as a hobby, the intaread should be present in every person’s kitchen. Actually, I recommend at least 2 just in case you doubt one you could verify with the other. So many people that fancy themselves cooks do not have this tool and I don’t get it. Of course, you can feel when a steak is cooked to your desired “doneness” if you are experienced in that methodology. But, there is nothing like knowing exactly where the meat is (temperature wise) thereby avoiding under and over cooking. It takes the guess work out of it and when I’m cooking a piece of meat that costs, let’s say, $16/pound, I want to know when it is medium rare. If I overcook the darn thing…I get cranky.

The recipe called for a bed of root veggies cut up that was then used as a “pillow” for the turkey. That was fabulous because all the turkey fat and the flavored butter that was used between the skin and the meat, dripped or oozed all over the veggies and they were sensational. And did I mention how easy it all was? It took about 1 hour and 15 minutes to cook. WOW.

My cousin, she had a completely different kind of experience. I called her the day after and asked her how her meal went. She had announced earlier on that she was cooking EVERYTHING HERSELF. I used to do that but have given up on that idea because by the time I sit down to eat my back hurts, my ankles are swollen and I’m just exhausted. Because let’s face it. It is hard to cook and entertain simultaneously. My cousin, she is smart and she had cooked nearly everything but the turkey ahead of time. So what could go wrong? Well…she purchased a very expensive, very special turkey that was pre-brined and it came with special instructions which she said looked “suspicious”. But she followed the recipe and the turkey (17 pounds and unstuffed) did not get done. In fact, when she pulled it from the oven there was something about congealed blood that really bothered her…you think? Well, the turkey took an extra hour and thirty minutes and when she took it out she declared that the white meat was done…but not those pesky legs so wouldn’t let anybody eat the dark meat. And did I mention that Susie is a perfectionist? This did not go down well and I can report that I know this for a fact because she was going to buy an oven thermometer and check her heat and then write a letter to that turkey company explaining exactly how they ruined her dinner and she also swore that she would never, ever, ever, ever again cook a turkey in her home. No sir. She is going to buy it pre-cooked and keep in warm in her oven. But no more cooking of the turkey. And, did I tell you? She doesn’t even eat turkey…too wild tasting for her. Well…I howled. I couldn’t help it. The story after the fact was a scream. I love my cousin. She is a hoot!! Actually, we have a storied history. One time when she was down for a visit I made banana cream pie. The crust was so hard a jackhammer would have come in handy. The cream was runny…a total debacle. And I followed the recipes to the letter.

So…back to my party. I digressed again and people wonder about me digressing. But there are worse things…like wandering into the pantry and then looking all around it hoping that whatever you were going to get in the pantry would present itself because you don’t have the foggiest idea of what the heck you’re doing in there. But there I go again.
Anyway, we started the party with billinis, a chard tart that Al made and brought to us and scones around 10:15 and the party lit up right away…I made the persimmon pudding which required 2 1/2 hours of steaming on the top of the stove. K.C. started the pumpkin pie because the crust needed pre-baking and then after cooking, the pie needed to cool completely. Al, who is of Italian descent and for whom I chose the Italian theme for the dinner, made the Italian sausage dressing, Bob cooked the pancetta, Jake cut the root veggies up, Bub made one of the cranberry dishes, his sister Charlie, married to Al, made the other cranberry cherry, shallot compote, …the lawyer, Katy and her beau Brandon, the thespian and teacher, made the vanilla cream and hard sauce for the persimmon pudding and they did dishes and helped in many things as the craziness transpired. Margaret did the Brussel sprout salad which required hours of carefully shredding 3 pounds of sprouts….meticulously. Good thing I didn’t do that one…I would have thrown them in the cuisinart and shredded them in about a minute…but the process was important to her and the shredding continued by hand. Did I mention it took hours? Oh, I kid Margaret. Bob did the fresh beans. Perfectly. Actually, everyone did everything perfectly. It was wonderful.

Jake chops the roots.
Of course, how would I know? As we cooked we drank. There were a zillion wine bottles left empty and two of the eleven didn’t even drink. Oh, my. This may have slowed us down. It did take from 10 a.m. until 3:30ish to get the dinner done…with all hands on deck…yes, wine may have contributed as we would chop and slurp…mince and sip… dice and then pour another glass.
Margaret toasts, Bob stands by his beans.

When we sat down we all had plenty of energy left and ate with great gusto. Seconds were had. And the stimulating conversation continued. Seriously, it was wonderful preparing the meal together and then partaking of it together. A communal happiness emanated from the kitchen and dining table. Everyone had a great time.
From the left, Bub, Katy and Brandon

Well…I did manage to burn myself with steam so I applied aloe vera 100% gel on it and that stuff worked like a charm to calm the heat. I keep it by the stove at all times because I do tend to burn myself with some regularity…this may fall within the category of standing in the pantry. Oh, I forgot I just took that pan out of the 400 degree oven two minutes ago and the handle is HOT. Yikes. And I do this sort of thing all the time. Oh, well. If you do something, something is bound to happen. And I’m embarrassed to say I think I was the only person to self inflict pain. Uhmmmmmmmm.
Our beautiful plate. So colorful, so delicious.

After dinner, we moved to the couch and comfy chairs to let things settle before dessert. Well, about a half an hour later, half the group was dead to the world…sleeping. OMG. And I wasn’t even showing them on vacation pictures at the time. And did I mention, everyone brought slippers to the party? and wore them? Yes, they took casual to a new level! How cool was that? Myself, I can’t cook in slippers because if I drop a knife on my foot…it wouldn’t be pretty and there is, unfortunately, a few gouges in my wood floor that prove that knives have fallen. Sometimes coordination fails me. Although, sometimes I get hurt through no fault of my own. This Tuesday, Ray and I arrived at the golf course and started unloading our clubs and I bent down just before he started pulling his clubs out of the back of the SUV so that when I stood up the bottom of his bag hit my on the head…sort of keystonish. He was horrified and I was seeing baby birdies. And I didn’t play so good that day either.

But I digress. Where was I? Oh, yes. All the cooks were sleeping except for me and Ray and the lawyer and thespian (they are young) and we simply could not allow ourselves to fall asleep at our own party…this time. But when they started coming to, we went back to the table and ate dessert and that pumped us all full of sugar so we could continue the fun.

 
Reminded me a bit when I was a kid…I grew up around all adults (in terms of age) for the first 10 years of my life. And so after every thanksgiving meal I can remember…all the adults disappeared and took naps…of course they were all related and had worn themselves to a frazzle in the annual family fight…but I digress.

Thank goodness for friends!!! We pick them!!

Good morning all. Big Sur, south end, what can I say? We caught a beautiful morning the other day when driving north on highway 1 to see the elephant seals. And we were the only ones on the south path of the preserve. That was special all by itself so we decided we’d travel up the coast to Ragged Point for breakfast. And this is what awaited us. Wow.
See all the butterflies. The Monarchs. They made a beautiful picture with their orange color against the backdrop of the purple flowers and green leaves.

Here’s a picture of our good friend, Nancy, who had ventured over to visit for a few days. We had a grand time.
I really like the special effects caused by the sun. This pic was taken by me holding the iphone. Very cool.

So, Nancy and I love french macarons. We’ve made them together before. We also love France having visited several times. Our plan, then, was to bake some cookies when we returned home after breakfast.

What could go wrong? I had printed out several articles about the proper way of making this delightful meringue cookie and we settled on a caramel macaron. Yummy. But let me back up. One of the articles I had printed out contained very specific instructions on the making of this cookie. Nancy read the article and pointed out that it must have been written to scare the cook. Language like “this is a critical step” infused the tome. See sidebar for the article if so inclined. She got us laughing about how scary the article was. So with that in mind, we donned our aprons and got to work.

One other thing. I wanted to try the italian way of macaron making. It includes adding hot liquid to the egg whites for a superior meringue. Also, I had noticed that the woman that penned the article about macarons used dry egg whites to stabilize her meringue and that intrigued me as well. So. My aim was to try this method.

One of the things the generic instructions included was the idea that you must separate the eggs and let the whites rest at room temp for up to 72 hours. This is so some of it evaporates and causes the meringue in some way to be superior. The media has us completely afraid of food. I personally must wash my hands with soap and water 33 times when preparing and cooking chicken as an example. So the idea of leaving the egg whites out caused some concern…but not enough not to try it. So I had “room temperature aged egg whites” standing by. Nancy sifted the almond meal and the sugar together, I beat the egg whites and everything came together just fine. We piped the batter onto cookie sheets and let them rest for 30 minutes. But wait. Our scary instructions told us to let them rest but the recipe we were following did not. We opted for the rest. Then the recipe said to bake them at 200 for 5 minutes and then raise the temp to 375 and complete the baking for 8 minutes. The original scary recipes did not say anything about two bakings. We opted to follow the recipe. Fete accompli. However, the cookies were a flop. They looked okay but they were soggy.

Before we knew they were soggy, we made the caramel. Caramel is tricky. It’s very easy to undercook and a disaster if over cooked (with a putrid burnt taste). It has to be just right. So, I got right to it, screwing it up from the start. I flipped the directions and put in 1/4 sugar to 3/4 water. When it turned a fine shade of color, Nancy stirred in the cream and then the butter. Well, the recipe said it was supposed to look like paste. Ours had the consistency of water. OMG. We had to do it again. That’s when I discovered my mistake. It should have been 3/4 cup of sugar to 1/4 of water. AND the recipe stated 200 g of cream. So, I double checked what that really was. We had that wrong too. First of all, who ever writes a recipe using 200 g of liquid of any kind? That doesn’t make sense. I equate grams with dry ingredients. Well, google reported back to us that 200 g of liquid was about 1/2 the amount we had used before (using some arcane methodology). So….we were pretty much cursed from the beginning!! And I did our share of the cursing. Words like “dogged gone it and fiddlesticks” came floating out of the kitchen.

Well, the second batch of caramel was much better BUT it wasn’t a paste. Would work well over, say, ice cream.

There we were, two firecrackers of food in the kitchen with soggy meringues and not-thick-enough caramel. We howled with laughter. We were armed with the very detailed instructions, a half-baked recipe and fine ingredients and we ended up with a total flop. As I threw the instructions away, I glanced at the recipe one more time and noticed that it was not even authored by the author of the detailed instructions. OMG. Just about everything was wrong. The measurements, the baking technique…everything. And the recipe did not, I repeat, NOT use the italian method and it did not call on the addition of powdered egg whites. OMG. What were we thinking? More howls of laughter ensued.

So…for those of you that think experienced cooks don’t have flops…well, you’d be wrong. It happens.

Epilogue. We cleaned up the kitchen, left the house, went out to dinner and took in a movie. Ray will eat the meringue “nipples” as he dubbed them and we’ll use the caramel sauce for an ice cream dessert at thanksgiving. Or maybe I’ll throw it away. Either way, we had a great time and learned a lot…what not to do. And it starts with the recipe. If you don’t have a good recipe when you bake (it’s chemistry), you are going to have a flop. Also, it helps if you read the recipe correctly…but I prefer not to think about that.

Next time I will do the italian method and use one of the good recipes that add egg white powder. Main thing is…there will definitely be a next time and it will probably occur when we drive over to Ridgecrest to Nancy’s house because we are both obsessed!

Ah, ha. You thought, perhaps, that once on American soil that the sheep stories would dissipate. Well…that would be a logical assumption but you would be wrong.

 

Yesterday, we headed south to the California desert and arrived at Borrego Springs. See the sidebar and click on the link for Borrego Springs for more info. On our way, we had to stop to take this picture. Out in the middle of no where. That’s what is cool about taking 2 lane roads…you never know what you are going to see.

 

 
Our old friends, Al and Charlie (she’s a woman), recently moved there to be able to ride their bikes year round although they will escape the summer desert heat by heading to friendly weather. Anyway, we wanted to see them on our way to Palm Desert which is our final destination to meet friends and play golf.

Our visit included a visit to the a Day of the Dead festival and an excellent pork dinner at their home. But the best was yet to come. This morning we took a walk to see if we could see any big horn sheep that reportedly live in the mountains behind the golf course. And this is what we saw. See the sheep on the mountain? A far cry from the NZ sheep we had just seen. These guys live in the rocks…not nice green pastures with plenty to eat.

 

So imagine our surprise when the sheep came down the mountain without any prompting from us. They blend in so look really, really close. Until they jaunt down from the mountain and head for the golf course. Pardon the thumb on the top of the picture. Just too excited to concentrate.
Then…

 
the others started coming down. And more came.
And then more….
And more…

 
And they walked right by me. I was hiding behind a tree. The first male stared us down and all my friends and Rayman moved to the lawn, you can see some of them in the distance. I moved behind a tree by myself. Once the lead males walked by the rest of the sheep followed except for a few which stayed on the mountain at various points…must like look-out men. It was fabulous.

 

 

Then there was a steady stream…OMG. And where were they going? To the GOLF COURSE!!! And then after grazing on the 7th fairway…they headed back up the mountain with the aid of the greensman beating a golf cart with a golf club…

 

 
What an incredible experience. I accused our friends of hiring the animals to pose and visit for us…they denied it. This is not an everday occurrence and we were very luck to see it. Oh, and all these pictures were taken with with our iphones.

 

 

 

The two pictures above were taken by Al and he used a camera with a zoom lens.

We then made our way to Palm Desert to join our friends in Palm Desert for a week of golf. There will be stories!!

Something to consider. We’re going 968kph in our 747 zooming toward Los Angeles. We just took off and they have already called for a medical practitioner. I have the menu selection to consider while they reboot the entire entertainment system…there is a glitch. Oh, I hope they get that fixed because they are showing Midnight in Paris and I’d love to see that movie again.

I’ve had my issues this trip but one of the more interesting has manifested itself in getting myself all tied up. Let me illustrate. To fly, I’ve been wearing jeans, a top, a scarf. The scarf is so the jeans and top don’t always look the same. It’s a fashion thing of sorts. Anyway, I’ve also been at times in charge of the camera which dangles on a strap. And the passports are kept in a passport carrier which hangs by a strap as well. Oh, and my purse. It has a very long strap so that I can easily push it aside or toward my back as circumstances dictate. So…the international flights have caused me the most problems. As you can imagine, I’ve got a bit going on with those straps and when passing through security issues arise. At one security station, I took off my purse which I forgot that I had donned before my jacket. The order should have been camera, jacket, passport holder, scarf and then purse. But in the heat of the moment I did camera, purse, jacket, passport holder then scarf. Well…everything was wrapped up with everything else. The straps got, for lack of a better description, intertwined. I’m quite sure even if I tried I could not replicate the situation I found myself in….which required me to drop my purse completely to the floor and step through it to extricate myself. And while doing that to unwrap the passport carrier from around the camera…twice and untie the scarf that had formed a knot. How did I do it? I have no idea but my feelings got a bit hurt when the guy on the other side of the conveyer belt said something to the effect that he had never seen anything quite like it to which I replied, “Just call me Houdini.” In the meantime Ray had moved away from the scene in hopes of avoiding himself any embarrassment. It was a hoot. And after further reflection, I have decided that I remind myself of Inspector Cloisseau (or however you spell it. Peter Sellers.) Except that I’m an unintended comic genius.

So…at every opportunity to go through security I tried to avoid performing this fete again to various degrees of success. This a.m. was my best performance yet…but I did notice that Rayman wanted to hold the passports, the boarding passes and anything of any consequence. That may because as we were boarding the shuttle at the hotel to go to the airport, the driver came out of the door of hotel holding up a wallet and asking if it belonged to anyone. IT WAS MINE. I slithered up and took possession and asked the driver where he found it. “On the floor in the lobby”, he replied. Well. Rayman just looked at me. Well, okay, glared at me. This required a hug from him after we arrived at the airport. Reassurance is very important after such a major screw-up. Oh, and we gave the driver a very nice tip!!

So…resolutions for the next trip.

1. Take the small camera that fits IN MY PURSE. It does not require a strap.

2. Leave my coat at home. I’ll wear a sweater that will remain on my body until I’m strapped in for take-off.

3. Forget the scarf.

4. Delegate the passport holder to Rayman.

5. Take a purse that zips shut so that things don’t go missing.

Poor Rayman. I’ve had so many snafus on this trip I fear for my freedom. Having me committed might be one of his options. Or perhaps refusing to leave town with me again. Even I have to admit I look hapless and hopeless at times. He is a dear for not raising his voice….although he may end up with an eye problem before all is said and done because of excessive eye rolling.

Oh, well. They are giving us drinks and nuts as we approach the international date line. Guess I’ll close for now and enjoy the ride. God knows I paid enough for it.

We made it home!! We are so happy to be here…the sunset was fabulous, the weather warm, the taco from Taco Temple divine…and my bed beckons. Yippee!!

Approaching Sydney.

 

The phone rang at 0600…how annoying. And we asked for it. What were we thinking? Oh, that’s right. We had a 6:30 shuttle to the airport. So off we went. To the Auckland airport which is a very modern and wonderful airport. As airports go.

We flew Air New Zealand “over the ditch” back to Sydney and I chose as my movie, A Shot in the Dark with Peter Sellers. OMG. It was funny all over again. Rayman watched Monte Carlo and was thrilled that he understood a french phrase. You go, Ray.

So, now it is time to talk about the difficulties of travel. We’re busy retracing our steps and reflection is in order. First, it is hell getting old. Losing things is particularly disruptive and we’re sure we’ve set a new record for things lost in one trip. First the charger for the iphone. We lost that in L.A. before even leaving the country. Second, there was the Kindle. Retrieved yes. But…the agony of not knowing it’s whereabouts detracted from, let’s say…the giant clam at the Great Barrier Reef. Then there was the jewelry. My jewelry (all costume) went missing and has not been found. In fact, the hotel is ignoring me. At their own peril which is pure bluster on my part since I hold out no hope of ever retrieving whatever I packed in the cloth envelop for use on our journey. Thank goodness I never took my earrings off or they, too, would be among the missing items. Then today I left my lavender light microfiber wrap at the hotel. Rayman and I never saw it and we checked the room twice. But it is not here in Sydney so off an email went to the hotel to ask them to return it to me though Rayman says I’ve had my monies worth but I’m determined to try to recapture it.

Auckland was cold and raining. Landing in Sydney we couldn’t believe the weather…warm and comfortable. So we took the train into the City and had lunch by the Opera House

 

 

and then bought an ice cream and jumped on a ferry. Didn’t even care where it went and apparently, no one else cared either. Ray bought tickets but he didn’t know for which ferry (confusion set in which leads us back to being old, although we do also have the convenience of blaming in on not understanding their accents)…so we just jumped on a ferry and rode it up an arm of the bay and back. Took about an hour. Below is one of the docks near the City.

 
Sydney is amazing. It has many arms and there are fabulous homes at water’s edge along the arms. Many have boat garages right on the water. Others have small harbors. Today we saw lots and lots of rowers.

 
Rowing is a big sport here and the rowers were out on the water plying their sport…mostly as teams with 6 or so on a very long boat with a motor boat going along side with someone with a megaphone badgering the rowers…opps, coaching the rowers. But that scene was interrupted by a bunch of screaming, shrieking kids on the nice relaxing ferry ride we took. One little girl who could barely walk kept running down the aisle screaming…big brother(about 4 yrs old) grabbing her and dragging her back to her mother. First time in our travels we ran into a parent that was entirely oblivious to the other passengers. We never saw that in France. Or AU until today. Rayman left the ferry with headache…me with a toothache. Man I hope it feels better tomorrow. I predict it will. With this red wine I’m drinking and the dark chocolate I’m eating…there is no pain evident as I write.

Look at the photo below and see if you can spot the bridge climbers on top of the bridge.
Shooting into sun didn’t do much for this photo. The fact that they let you walk across the top of the bridge is one way that they are different from us. No fear.

But I digress. My lower left molar has been bothering me…I’ve been applying Oragel but it hasn’t been too effective. So tonight when we returned from the city (we’re staying by the airport)…I had a gin and it’s been much better. If not better tomorrow, I’m looking for a dentist because I don’t want to be in pain on our 15 hour flight back to LAX. Rayman is fine.

Opps. Digression occurred back to back. You know, though, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. If we stayed in the city, the cost of a room might have been $300 a night. Parking extra. So we opted to stay near the airport but that necessitated buying tickets on CityRail and the ferry to move about. Coming and going they get you. Traveling is expensive. And it is hard to figure out what the best way to do things might be given all the variables. It will be nice to get home where we really, really know the variables. Variables make life hard if you don’t know them. But maybe I’m feeling this way because I’m tired of being a tourist. I want to be a resident!!

OMG. The Rangers and the Cardinals. This is all news to us and Rayman just tuned in to discover the World Series is on and these are the teams playing. We’ve been so absorbed with rugby…who knew? Well, I’m rooting for the Cardinals. I was in St. Louis once and the team wasn’t owned by Dubya…so I’ll root for them.

Okay, so I’m engaging in stream-of-consciousness tonight. Maybe it’s the gin. Another observation. I think men’s legs might be skinner where the leg meets the torso. This is because I ran out of undies and borrowed a pair from the Rayman and I felt like my circulation was hindered today. True confession. I didn’t bring enough undies and that’s all the further I’m going on that topic as it has been a topic of discussion on more than one occasion.

And finally…communications are difficult. They charge for wi-fi at almost every hotel. And it’s a sizable charge. This interferes with my staying in touch….although I’ve learned that the people that love me the most based on the numbers of emails I’ve received are Nordstrom, Groupon, Lamps Plus and Best Cigars. Most importantly it hinders my ability to post my blog. It’s not easy. The wi-fi situation reminds me of telephone call charges in hotels before cell phones became ubiquitous. If we had our phones on, 3g seems to be everywhere except the mountains of NZ. But we didn’t want to come home to a big, giant cell bill so we’ve kept the cell phone off and cursed wi-fi charges.

Last evening after dinner in the hotel (which was quite good and reasonably priced for a Holiday Inn), Ray went for a walk to the drugstore to fetch some Advil for me and my tooth/gum situation and he managed to get lost while reading his map so it was quite some time that he was gone and while he was doing that I was looking for something I had lost in the room and I found two more Advils which I took to ease the pain. Meanwhile, Ray finds a pharmacy which had the hours posted on the door proclaiming that it was open until 6:30 but it was closed at 6:10 when he arrived so that prompted him to wander farther afield and he finally found a pharmacy open and bought Advil with codeine (didn’t know there was such an animal on the market) and regular Advil and brought it back to me, his damsel in distress. I alluded to a bit of this in last nights rant but I wanted to paint the picture fully for you, the dear reader.

At 4:10 a.m. I awoke with pounding in my head so I go up and took two more pills…one of each variety and managed to get back to sleep only to awaken at 7. At this point Rayman reminded me that in his search for a pharmacy, he saw several dental offices so he suggested that we walk down to Mascot (name of the suburb we’re in) and find a dentist. Blind faith. So, I agreed because I didn’t have a better idea. So, we got to a dentist office that said it offered 24 hour emergency dental service. Only the place was closed and no one was inside (the front of the place was all windows). Uhm. People of Mascot play fast and loose with the time. So, we crossed the street and entered a building that said, “Mascot Medical and Dental Service” mainly because it was the first office that we came across that was open. We were directed upstairs by a very friendly woman where we entered a reception area that was comprised of one desk with a counter that had a sign on it warning people not to lean on the counter. And there was a cheerful young woman standing there. She had just about enough room to turn around. There were several (maybe 5 seats) lined up against the wall to her left and two ‘booths’ with doors directly behind her with a printer and on her right and a television above her which was on a channel with lots of commercials. When I sat down, I was maybe 5 feet from the reception desk and we were close enough that she(seated in her chair) handed me paperwork (and I was sitting down too). Anyway, she said she would check with the Dr. He was the only dentist working today and his schedule was very busy. Oh, dear. But there we were.

The Dr. was Egyptian and had an Egyptian accent blended with Aussie and Kiwi accents so he was very hard to understand. After asking a few question, he announced that x-rays were needed. And he took me back out of his office and into the reception area and straight into door number 1…a booth. In it was a tall, white machine. He had me bite down on a piece of plastic and stick my chin in an indented place designed for chins and then he left the booth. The white machine came on and circled my head. Ray described it as an orbital x-ray machine. Then he came in and got me and led me back into his office. His office was also quite small. He had a desk in the corner with a screen and that is where he instantly looked at my x-rays. More questions were asked. Several questions were repeated because I had no idea what he was saying. But we muddled through. So now it was time to look in my mouth. He made the very comfortable, modern chair recline and there was a television suspended from the ceiling and the news with arabic subtitles was on. When he was finished literally banging on my teeth, he took two more x-rays in the comfort of my chair to verify what he was suspecting. When he was regarding those additional x-rays which instantaneously appeared on his screen by his desk, I told him how impressed I was with his office equipment. I’d never seen an x-ray machine like that. No gagging involved. What a revelation. And the TV above me. That was a nice touch. The assistant said, oh, yes, there is another TV monitor on the wall for when the patient is sitting up partially and one right in front of my face hanging at eye level and in front of some of the dental equipment. Wow. He explained that all his equipment was digital and it was much better for the comfort of the patient and was also better for the Dr. “More expensive but worth it. And the TV provides a good distraction for the patient. They like it.”

He was very curious about cost of dentistry in the U.S. He said crowns in AU ran about $1500. $1300 for a root canal. And he was amazed at how little insurance we have. Our plan I told him covered about $2000 a year for a family. Rayman and I blew through that in March. Very interesting conversation. He said he would email my x-rays to my dentist, gave me his card and deposited me out in the waiting room. Oh, and apparently I do not have a tooth issue per se. My soft tissue is inflammed so he wrote me two prescriptions on one piece of paper, charged me $320 and sent me on my way. The two prescriptions cost me $17.20.

While paying the bill we found out that you can watch your favorite show, bring in your family photos on a DVD, bring in a movie. Whatever. And whatever you watch will be projected on all three screens. And the Dr. also has the ability to show you your mouth and x-rays on it at well. Perhaps a frightening thought…my opened mouth on three monitors. I should have asked if people had ever been compelled to run out of the room faced with a picture of their mouth?

But I digress.

Okay. Now. I ask you. Does your dentist do this? Have you ever seen this before? I was blown away. Wandering in off the street in a multi-ethnic neighborhood and getting seen within 30 minutes of arrival by an Egyptian dentist in a small, cramped office outfitted with the most modern dental tools in my world… where I can watch TV or a DVD while a procedure is performed is in a word, stunning. Really. And the whole experience took 20 minutes with the dentist.

And we yada yada yada about socialized medicine this, and socialized medicine that…and long lines where you have to wait months. I’m just saying.

When we returned from the dentist, I had an email from our new Aussie friends that we exchanged homes with so I emailed them back and we arranged to have lunch together. And they picked us up at our hotel!! Then they drove us to an area of town we had not seen. Here’s some pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Then they drove us to a point where I snapped the pictures below. Then we drove by Bondi beach and they then delivered us back to our hotel.

What a delightful afternoon we shared. They were so nice and very funny. It was a hoot. Jed had some funny sayings that he used. Wished I would have recorded it. Like ‘he’s about to fall off the perch’, meaning die. And he was smitten by the hair hats I have…they are baseball caps with fake hair on top. So he went out and bought one for himself. And then they got such a bang out of being greeted by Elvis inside our front door, that he took pictures of that. All these stories were stitched together with very colorful vernacular language.

I asked our hosts of they had ever walked across the Harbour bridge. “Oh, yes. It is quite extraordinary.” Jed then told us that they took his 80-year old mother up for the climb on her birthday. He reports that they put you in zoot suit, strap you in so you can’t possibly fall away, and you speak thru a microphone and wear earplugs. So while up there they sang happy birthday to his mum even though she was, “as deaf as a post” explained Jed. Lyn said mum smiled and read their lips…”she knew what we were doing.” How cool was that? Not just anyone would think of that…torturing their dear old mum for her birthday by marching her up and down an extremely high bridge. But, hey. I kid our hosts!! And I do that because they told me they read my blog. So…I want to make them laugh.
Here is the point which is famous for suicides, good views and possibly murders. This is also the opening to Sydney harbour.

The other thing is our conversation was very informative. They do retirement different here. There is means testing for social security. And they have defined contribution plan but at age 60 they can access the fund in their plan tax free. How good is that? They also give citizens dividend tax breaks for investing in companies that are located in Australia. And you are required to vote. No excuses. I think Jed mentioned that a fine may result if you, say, stayed away from the polls to work on your model airplane. So, while the U.S. states are busy trying to make voting harder, the Aussies are working very hard to make sure everyone participates.

It was also interesting to hear their impressions of California. They went to a Giants game and loved it. They were amazed at our micro-climate weather. Liked our wines, fruits and veggies. Sounds like they loved our spot in the world as much as we loved theirs!! I’d call that a win-win. And we all agreed that home exchanges are a great way to travel because you are in a neighborhood for a time and you get to experience the place and the people.

So…now Rayman and I are in our hotel room, waiting for the semi-final rugby game between Australia and Wales to find out who ends up in 3rd and 4th place. We’re all packed ready to head to the airport in the morning for our flight back to LAX. And I can’t even drown my sorrows because the antibiotic I’m now taking restricts my drinking which will be good for my waistline…but a bummer in other ways like what am I going to wash that dark chocolate down with tonight? Humm. A sip wouldn’t hurt, would it?