Finding a little piece of Australia around the Manhattan corner.

When we moved to America I made my peace with the fact that certain aspects of my life, which I took for granted in Australia, would no longer be available. These farewelled past-times revolved mainly around food.

Flat Whites - Never mind that you can order a "decaf, soy, skim-milk, caramel, upside-down, wet latte", Americans do not know what a Flat White is, let alone how to make one. This was something I was unprepared for, but begrudgingly accepted. I tried to adapt my taste-buds to the drip-filtered variety that American's have grown up on, but alas I do not like coffee that much. We discovered if we ordered double-shots, and asked for a "wet-cappucino" we usually managed something resembling an espresso coffee we would expect in Australia. But nothing was quiet the same as my beloved "Flat White".

Vegemite and cheese sandwiches - Whilst vegemite was easy to bring with us, decent cheddar cheese was a hard staple item to find amongst the orange-rubber which Americans call Cheddar. Not to mention the bread issue - Americans eat bread which is more closely related to cake than the Sunblest, TipTop, or even Helgas varieties we grew up with Down Under. The American varieties emit a sickly sweet caramel smell when toasted, crumble when biten, and do nothing to compliment the salty-savory flavours of vegemite.

Cadbury's Chocolate - Whilst America does indeed have Cadbury's as a brand, it is made by Hershey's, and even the "glass and a half of full cream dairy milk" will not counter-balance the atrocities of using vegetable oil in chocolate.

Crunchie Bars and Flakes - Sadly Americans, for all their Reeses Peanutbutter Cups and Hershey Kisses, are deprived of the wonder of golden honeycomb covered in chocolate or flake away slivers of soft creamy milk chocolate.

Tim Tams - Even stocking up on family-sized variety packs of Tim Tams at Sydney airport was only ever going to last us for so long. Especially with the inevitable impromptu visits by our Aussie friends which followed our return from any trip Down Under.

So to all of these "Australian staples" which I had become accustomed to, and taken for granted for so many years, I had farewelled. That is, until we moved to Manhattan.

When we first arrived in Chelsea, at a quaint coffee shop, Grumpys, we found Flat Whites on the menu "For our Australian Friends". Even better, several mornings a week, I would be magically awakened by the aroma of a flat white drifting through our front door as Nathan and Noah returned from an early morning walk. Now that we are in the Lower East Side, I have again had to farewell Flat Whites, however The Roasting Plant on Ludlow Street offers a pretty close substitute, and who is complaining when your Son and Husband deliver it to your bedside 3-4 mornings a week!? Not to mention the fact that Noah is on a first name basis with the early morning barister, Crimson.

Indeed living on the cusp of China Town has proven very advantageous for us home-sick Aussies. The Golden Carriage Bakery across the road, with its enthusiastic staff who leap over the counter to tug on Noah's chubby cheeks and feet, offers a wonderful white sugar-free alternative to the American cake-type bread. Something that closely resembles the sliced varieties in Australia - no caramelisation when toasted, no crumbling of cake as you eat it, and it compliments vegemite (albeit without decent cheddar) on toast beautifully. Even Noah is enjoying morning toast and vegemite on a daily basis.

Then one night, when I had sent Nathan out in search of ice-cream at 10pm, he returned with an altogether surprising and wonderful discovery - a Crunchie bar for me and a Flake for him! Delicious golden honeycomb covered in chocolate devoid of vegetable oil. Delicious. And available from our local corner store along with some delectable Haagen Daas ice cream flavours.

We also discovered the Sweet Life on Hester and Ludlow. A store reminiscent of "Willy Wonka" with jars of sweets and chocolates, including the deliciously sinful 'Dark chocolate covered orios'. And there on a shelf in the window proudly sits jars of vegemite and packets of Tim Tams. Overpriced? Yes, but when you are almost 10 000 miles from home, a few extra dollars is worth it (and we are going through our vegemite at a rate of knots now with Noah eating it every day).

Yes, we are still in search of the Australian variety of Cadbury's chocolate, and will have to suffice with taxing our international guests with delivering several family blocks of Cadbury's Dairy Milk whenever they visit. But all in all, this Aussie Mum is feeling more at home in New York thanks to the little things around the corner.

Rained Out!

For the first 5 weeks after we arrived in New York I put into my diary "Aussie Mums & Bubs playdate Central Park". And 5 weeks in a row it rained on a Wednesday - and I thought we were arriving in New York in Summer?

After 5 weeks of rain, I was determined to make it to Central Park. I was decked out with NYC-appropriate baby-transport gear - we now had a lightweight stroller so tackling the subway on my own was difficult but manageable (give or take a few bruises acquired going up and down the stairs). Or I could go via taxi and strap the car seat into the stroller. Noah's morning sleep meant there was hope that his afternoon sleep would be conducive to getting to the park for the 3:30pm start. It was a sunny morning in Chelsea. Tick, Tick Tick.

But of course all these ducks lined up in a row were just too good to be true. By lunch time it was sprinkling intermittantly. Noah went down for a much later sleep than usual. All looked doomed.

Or was it? Noah woke up early. I could make it if we left immediately in a cab. Changed the babies diaper, threw the baby in the car seat, grabbed the diaper bag, decided my hair and outfit were passable, put on a smidge of eyeshadow and blush, grabbed a rain jacket and ran out
the door.

I hailed a cab - buckled the baby into back seat, collapsed the stroller and threw it in the boot, jumedp into back seat beside the baby and said, "To Central Park please at West 81st Street".

"I am going to make it!" I thought proudly to myself. I was excited and so I texted Nathan to show him what an adventurous wife he has - getting out and about in New York. Meeting new people.

Traffic was bad - school had just come out. That's ok though. "I don't want to be the first to arrive anyway" I thought to myself reassuringly.

Then after about 20 minutes, around 60th street, the heavens opened.
At first just teasing me with a few sprinkles and I started to weigh up my options.

"It's raining" said the cab driver in a thick Polish accent (at this point in time I did not know that it was a Polish accent, but still it was a thick accent).

"Yes I can see that" I thought to myself.

Then it poured. Big fat soaking drops of rain. Noah's eyes widen as his view out the back window was obscured by rain and the noise in the taxi was drowned out.

"It's really raining now" said the taxi driver. "What you doing in Central Park? Going for a walk?"

"Mmmm not good." I weighed up my chances that the rain would stop or not even be falling in another 20 blocks. But the black sky ahead of me warned of impending doom to my adventurous outing.

"Would you mind taking us back to 21st Street?" I reluctantly asked.

And so Noah and I spent an hour and $30 going nowhere. When we arrived home I swear Noah looked at me like I was crazy. "So Mummy, you threw me in my car seat, stuffed me in a taxi, and an hour later, all we did was drive around the block? That was no fun at all!"