Cereal Blog #7 - Mini-Wheats

Kellogg's Mini-Wheats ..... mmmm, mmmm, one of my favourite cereals..... wait a minute .... Australia only has Whole Grain Mini-Wheats. There is the "good for you" wholegrain side, featuring: triticale, oats, barley, wheat, and rye. However, there is also the same serious taste on the other side. Where's the fun-loving sugary side. I want my choice of Brown Sugar or White Sugar. I want to be able to soak them in milk, and pick the sugar coating off with my teeth and throw the rest in the garbage. It's like baking a cake, but not putting icing on it, or saying you have a mullet, but without the party at the back!

When I eat my Mini-Wheats.... I feel like a part of me is missing....

The fun side :*(

Meekatharra Reloaded

Meekatharra Reloaded ….. some of the highlights (& lowlights) of 10 days in the bush at temperatures hovering in the low 40’s!!!! (in point form …. I’m getting tired of sentence and paragraph structure):

• I watched an emu run straight into a wire fence .... with humourous results
• I had my first kangaroo .... FOR DINNER!!!! It's just a chewy version of steak. Not bad. Very lean, and no fat.
• 6am start one day, not wakeup but start. Got to see my first Outback sunrise! It was good .... but not great.
• We chased 3 sheep and 1 lamb (not on purpose) down the road in the landcruiser. The lamb tripped and fell, and then one of the sheep bailed overtop it. They both struggled to get up.... them BAMMM. They both got on their feet and ran off.
• One night, watched an Australian Quiz show in the pub and the question was "This person was born in Victoria British Columbia, Canada ......" The answer turned out to be Tara Moss .... she went to my high school!!! Therefore, I am cool….
• Got to see a few more cool animals (dingo, bungarra…. etc)
• Sinead O ‘Connor Karaoke in the Landcruiser. “Nothing compares 2 u”
• Participated in “Chase the Ace” bar game, in which one person gets to draw cards. If they get the Ace of Spades, they win $4000. There was an incident where I heard “70” and thought I WON …. But in actual fact it was “17” … Still have trouble understanding the Australian language.
• Had a CDN moment in a crowded pub on Friday night. Went with 3 straight BA songs. I had to ask everyone to “Please Forgive Me”, because “Everything I do, I do it for you” … haven’t you “Ever really really really really” wanted to listen to BA.
• Holy Crikey!!!! Hearing “Never in 15 years of fieldwork….” and “In 10 years of drilling, I’ve never seen flies this bad” from the more experienced workers is not a good sign. I’ve almost gone completely insane. There have been times when I’ve looked down at my hands and had about 40-50 flies on each of them. I’d say there were probably 1000 within 5 cm of my body. Buzzing, and climbing all over you in desperate search of any bodily fluid. I went to the grocery store, and the mosquito nets were sold out. What are the odds! But there were food covers!!! So I did a little scissor work, and will now look like a bride getting ready to walk down the aisle. Except the aisle of the church is a dusty road in the Outback. And instead of a groom waiting …. I have 1000 little bugs. Yeeeaaahhh!!!
• One great thing about being here for so long. I decided to get a few Cereal snackpacks. Kellog’s!!! Now most of the cereals have actually already been blogged about already;
• However, some new ones:
  Frosted Flakes = Frosties … and bizarrely there is no frosting on them. Theeeeeyyyy’rrrrrrr not Grrreeaaattt!
  Froot Loops – appeared a bit more sugary
  Special K – bigger than the Canadian version, and doesn’t have that crackly sound
• Had my first view of a DEADY Australians spider in a sample bag. The White Tail Spider. Crikey!
• There may have been an appearance by Keanu Reeves. Pop Quiz Hot Shot …It’s 45 Celsius, and you have no water, What do you do? What do you do?
• Took part in my first true outback Australian Barbie!
• Had a different kind of Remembrance Day Ceremony. We attempted 1 minute of silence, but the flies didn’t do a very good job complying.
• Wow, it actually rained for a couple minutes.
• I decided to give up the 3+ weeks of beard growth, and went with a Handle Bar moustache. I was quickly given the nickname Chopper, as there was an infamous Hitman named Chopper Read in Melbourne who had similar facial hair. The nickname then morphed into Chopper Five as that was my room number. I would pound my chest and then give a weather report from “Chopper Five” …. "It’s going to be hot today in Meekatharra”.
• There was an interesting show from one of the locals one morning. It began at 7:30 as he walked into the Corner Store, arms raised, and “Roaring”. He then crouched down, turned towards me and “Hissed”. Very similar to what Misty (childhood cat) used to do. He then checked around the store a bit, before making eye contact with me again. He then started doing some random punches, kicks, and then The Crane (Karate Kid move). At this point, the owner of the store says “If you are going to act like a F@#!ing Idiot, then get the F@#! Out of my store!!!!!!”. He quickly left. Rumours were he was on Petrol. Very very very funny.
• One night one of the driller’s offsiders took offence to something that was said by my coworker. Actually conversation is as follows:
  Him: “Dude, you gotta tell me what room he’s in, I’m going kick his ass”
  Me: “Sorry man, I can’t six say, what room six he’s in, that would six, just go against six work ethics. Room Six”
  Him: “Oh man, come on, you gotta tell me, I’m so “bleeping” mad. He dissed me man, he dissed me. What room is he in”
  Me: Sixry … I mean sorry, I six can’t say man. If six, you went to room six, and beat him six up. I’d get six in trouble, room six.”
  Him: “Shit man, just tell me”
  Me: “Six … I just six can’t say, you’ll have to six, find out six what room six he’s in from six someone else.”
  Him: “Fine, I’ll find out from someone else”
  Can you tell alcohol might have been involved ….. let’s just say, he didn’t show up to work the next morning.
• Finally, brought out the Don Boyd look for the final day.

mmmm mmmm .... my first kangaroo

CSI: Australia .... who ate that kangaroo?

Viewing my first dingo

A bungarra

Stop bugging me!!!

Cereal Funpack

Homemade bug net

Killer spider in the sample bag!!!

A willy willy

Chopper Five

the "Don" Boyd look

Cereal Blog #6 - Milo

Mmmmm, mmmmm, Milo. What happens when you mix chocolate, with cereal, with milk, add a little chocolate? You get Nestle's Milo, the Nutritious ENERGY cereal. Something tells me that cereals that have there own chocolate bars, and powdery milk drinks aren't the most nutritious in the world. However, taste wise, Milo is amazing. You start out with a big bowl, and by the end you just have chocolate milk. It's 2 for the price of 1. Warning! Do not try to fill the bowl with the same left over milk from the first. You may create the most Choc-tastic drink you will every experience.

In day to day news..... I've really begun to integrate into Australian culture. By that I mean I have taken up swimming. People who know me well know that I could swim about 20 metres before gasping for air, and screaming for my life. Today, I went for 1.35 kilometres --- with some help from flippers ;). For the first time, I got to a point where my entire lower body shut down from cramps. My feet, my ankles, my calves, my quads, my hamstrings all went numb and screamed in pain. At that moment four Staffers started yelling at me. "wow, they can tell I'm struggling .... Lifeguards are amazing!". Nope, they wanted me to swim to them, and then dive down to search for a woman's ring. Let's just say, I didn't have much success, as I was more worried about staying above water than finding something at the bottom.

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Tomorrow is the Melbourne Cup!!! A big horse race. Victoria (Australian State that Melbourne is in) actually shuts down and has a stat holiday for the event. Not bad. Unfortunately Western Australia does not either, but it's supposed to be a good show. I will update you on the happenings tomorrow. Hopefully there will be a work pool.

Cereal Blog #5 - Nutri-grain

Wow #5 already. Don't get too frightened family. I have still have enough to make it to 7!!!

I've been giving Australian cereals a hard time of late, and in some cases it is well deserved.... "Rice Bubbles Squares" ... Anyhoo, I thought I might write about an Aussie cereal that gets a thumbs up of approval. Nutri-grain!!! No, not that Nutri-grain. You're thinking of that savoury, fruity chewy bar that you eat in the morning because you have no time cereal. This nutri-grain is an actual cereal, and is "THE ENERGY CEREAL". It's High in Protein, Carbs, and Low in Fat!!! Tastewise and Lookwise, it has a bit of a "Honeycomb" vibe going on. So far my favourite Aussie Original. But then again, I haven't tried Milo yet, and I'm not talking about that black guy from the early Saved by the Bell shows.

In life news. I'm off to spend a night at a hotel in the Swan Valley for work. Hopefully some more interesting stories / photos to come!!!

Cereal Blog #4 - Snap, Crackle, Pop!

Kellogg's Rice Bubbles!!! Wait a minute, back it up here .... beep, beep, beep .... Rice Bubbles???? What the *bleep*? What happened to the Krispies? Are Australians not educated enough to understand what a krispie is? so they have to call them bubbles? The characters are the same [Snap, Crackle, and Pop], the box is the same, the cereal is exactly the same [snaps, crackles, and pops when you add milk], so why the name change?

Now to the even more important part. Do they have Rice Bubbles Squares? Is that what they call them? Rice Bubbles Treats? Looking for some confirmation from the Aussies here. It just doesn't roll off the tongue very well. I'm not impressed....

ps I did win the Mini XBox Game .... SCORE!

Life Update: I successfully passed first-aid today getting 19/20 on my test. The guy beside me yelled at me as he admitted copying off me for the question I got wrong. Highlights include: Getting the most action all trip ..... from a dummy ;), Pretending to have Epilepsy, having 4 of 4 people pick out I'm Canadian and not American!, and all the awkward moments where you have to touch [be touched by] complete strangers while you are pretending to be in drama class.

Cereal Blog #3 - Weet-Bix

Weet-bix. Made by Aussies. Loved by Aussies. The closest thing to this in Canada is Shredded Wheat. However, instead of being Shredded into wire-like pieces, Weet-bix is just one big, massive brick of "Weet". I'm actually considering building a house out of Weet-bix. Problem is that these things act as the greatest Sponge in history (photos below). You put a few bricks in a bowl, fill it with milk, and let it sit for a couple minutes. The milk is gone! Dry Weet-bix bad, Spongy Weet-bix.... GOOD!!

Cereal Blog #2 - Sultana Bran

Well, do to the OVERWHELMING success of Cereal Blog #1, I've decided to keep the blogs coming. The day I published the original blog had a daily site visit of 26. Smashing the previous top three days of 15, 14, and 12 visits.

Back to business.... So in Australia, they have Raisin Bran, but instead of calling it Raisin Bran, they call it Sultana Bran. The raisins they use in the cereal are called Sultana Raisins ;). As you can see from the picture below, there certainly aren't "Two Scoops of Sultanas in Kellogg's Sultana Bran". It'd be lucky if there were two teaspoons. Also, notice how naked the sultanas are! Where's that delectable sugar coating??? This cereal is Boring and takes the fun out of eating bran. I might as well just stick with eating All Bran.

Final Verdict: "Two scoops of Raisins in Kellogg's Raisin Bran"

Cereal Blog #1 - Just Right

Well, the true colours are finally coming out. The real reason I created this blog.... to talk about Breakfast Cereals! My mind has been blown away by the Australian cereals. Here is Feature #1.

Just Right ... Probably the greatest product name in history. What are you eating? Just Right! How does it taste? Just Right! How's the mix of wheat, corn, oats, and rice? Just Right! BUT WAIT , Australian Just Right is completely different!!!! It consists of wheat flakes, rolled oats, triticale (what's that?), sultanas, apricots and honey. It's totally sorta like a kinda mix of different things completely. Taste wise it's not that bad. Not regular Just Right good, but so far it's my fav Aussie Cereal (behind Wheet-a-bix...more on that amazing product another day). Australian Just Right does include the little puffs you get in Sugar Crisp, but they are "sugarless". Man... I can't get enough of that Sugar Crisp.

Final Verict: Australian Just Right, is alright, but not just right like Canadian Just Right.

In other food news..... after a hard target search of every bakery, cafe, market, supermarket, grocery store, general store, and food store in a 10 km radius. I have FINALLY found BAGELS!!!! Wahoo!!!