Meeting the Parents and the First Aussie BBQ!

Well, the past few days have been a bit busy. I'm finally over my jet lag and have managed to make it through the grocery store twice now without running over anyone with the trolley. Probably because Darren was driving it, not me :-p

Saturday night Darren's parents wanted to take us out to dinner and meet me, so they came over about 5:30 or so to get us. I was extremely nervous beforehand, it's a rather big deal to meet the family you know? Darren's mum even told him ahead of time that she remembered being nervous meeting his dad's parents, and that I shouldn't be nervous because we're all just regular people. I thought that was very sweet, that she realized that, and I think they were a bit nervous as well. :) But everything went really well and we all had a great time. :)

Darren's dad is a bit of a jokester, a very funny man :) He is always telling jokes and stories, and you can't help but laugh. His mum is a very lovely woman with whom I hit it off with right away.

We started off with a beer here at the house before going out, while Darren and his dad watched a bit of footy and his mum and I chatted. After a while we called a taxi to take us to the Chinese restaurant we were going to. It didn't appear that busy, but apparently they were all booked out for the night, however Darren's dad sweet talked the hostess into seating us anyway :) The food was really good! Darren ordered an appetizer (called an entree here) of Boxing Chicken, which is deep fried chicken legs in a very sweet sauce with rice noodles. Was very yummy, a bit spicey but I liked it. His dad had gone and bought us all drinks (not sure if it's the same in all Aussie restaurants, but you bring your own drinks. So if you want wine, you bring wine, if you want beer, you bring beer, etc. You can still buy water and soda and such, but most people bring their own.) and I was drinking something called a Cruiser. It was vodka with melon flavor and it was bright green. VERY yummy! :) I think that's my new favorite drink, at least over here. Have never heard of them back home.

Anyway, we all had ordered and were just chatting away while we waited for the food. They put the plates all in the middle and we just shared and took what we wanted, that way everyone got to try a bit of everything if they wanted. There was Prawn (shrimp) Fried Rice (which I did not try, being as I don't eat seafood ;) ) and Beef Hokkein noodles (not sure if I spelled that right,) Chicken Satay, American Spare Ribs, and Chicken with Cashews. Can you guess which one I ordered? Hint: It wasn't the American one ;)

The beef and noodles were very good, with big, fat noodles like lo-mein I think. The Chicken Satay was in a peanut sauce, which was pretty good but very rich, and no one could eat much of that. The ribs were good, deep fried and in a wonderfully sweet bbq sauce. And the Chicken with Cashews (which if you didn't guess, is what I ordered) was very mild but good, and you could really taste the flavor of the cashews. A very good meal :)

Afterwards, we decided to walk across the street to the pub for a drink. Darren and I started ahead of his parents while they were taking care of the bill, and of course I need Darren to watch out for me when crossing the streets so that I don't get hit by a car. I do look both ways, but it's hard to remember which way the cars are coming from, and I feel safer having help and remaining in one piece as to becoming roadkill, thanks :-p We went to a pub called Judds. It was quite large inside, with the footy game on one TV and music videos on another. There were pool tables and little set ups where people could sit in groups. We ordered our drinks and went outside to the beer garden, where you can smoke and have a drink at the same time since you can't smoke inside. (I did not smoke, no worries!) There was also a large platform with pillows where people can hang out when it gets crowded and they've had a bit to drink ;)

They didn't have cruisers at the pub, so Darren ordered me a Smirnoff Ice, which is similar to what we have back in the states, although it tasted a bit more puckery to me, but nice. His parents joined us, and we found out that some fellow at the chinese restaurant had paid for our meal! We were all quite amazed. After a drink we were invited back to Darren's parent's house for another drink and to visit for a bit, so we left the pub after not very long, which was alright with me :)

We walked down the street a short way and grabbed a taxi back to the house, with a stop on the way at the liquor store (called the bottle shop or a similar term with the word 'bottle' in it ;) ) Darren's dad had us all in stitches in the back seat laughing when he ordered some "Smirkoffs" from the gal instead of Smirnoffs, but she seemed to understand him alright and he went inside to get the rest of the order while Darren's mum and I laughed our asses off in the back seat of the cab. I was in tears, literally!!! Good times :) I'll never be able to call it by anything else forever more ;)

Getting to Darren's parent's house, I got to meet the two other members of the family, Bill and Matilda. They are Shitzu-Maltese mix dogs; Bill is a light cream/whitish color and Matilda is dark black/gray color. Matilda was happy to jump right up onto my lap for a rub, but Bill only really had eyes for Darren. ;) We sat and had another drink in front of the fireplace, and it was quite warm and pleasant, making us both sleepy and we decided that it was time to head home before we took to snoozing on the couch :) It also goes to show that I've acclimated to the cooler weather, because even as cold as I've been, sitting in front of the fire for a longer period of time was too much for even me :) We called for a taxi and went in the front yard to cool off a bit while we waited. When the taxi did come, we hopped inside and there was some random guy trying to get in the car with us, or wanting a ride or something, but we just had the driver leave because it was a bit creepy. Get your own taxi, buddy! :-p

Apparently, I made a good enough of an impression that we were called the next day and invited over for a BBQ with the parents and cousins as well. :) I really did have a good time, and was looking forward to spending more time with Darren's family. We headed over about 3:30 or so, and Darren's mum had gone all out with all kinds of food set to be BBQ'd. Sausages, steaks, meat patties, and all sorts of ribs and things. Of course, I'm not a butcher and didn't know what I was looking at, but it was a ton of food :) Darren's cousin Jason and his wife Christy and her son Ethan came over shortly after we arrived. We had rolls with butter and meatballs in a very delicious sauce as we were chatting. After a bit, the men decided to head out to check on the bets Jason had placed at the pub, leaving us girls there to chat a bit. It was really very nice, and we talked about all kinds of things, from schools, to kids to food :) Mum and Christy had a giggle when I told them that all Braden would eat was peanut butter and jelly. :-p Over here, jelly means jello. They were curious as to what I meant by jelly, thinking that there was no way you could keep the jelly on the bread if it was the one they were thinking of! :)

We got onto the topic of where I was from, and it's funny that people have misconceptions about the US the same as they do about Australia. People always wonder if Aussies ride kangaroos to work and all such nonsense (well a common sense person knows that's nonsense!) but they wonder about the US too... if living in the wild west like Arizona means there's gunfights and indians everywhere :-p We all know that it's from what the TV shows, but it's interesting the same. I was telling them about Tombstone. Christy told me that it happened to be one of Ethan's favorite movies, and that he loved talking and learning about other places. Sure enough, when the guys came back, I mentioned the word Tombstone, and Ethan's head shot around like a rocket at the word :-p He was a pretty good kid, 11 1/2 and being the only kid he did pretty well entertaining himself and staying out of trouble ;)

So when the guys came back, the food went onto the BBQ and we were in business. There was so much food, I ate until I was stuffed and there was still so much left over :) And it was very delicious... all the meats, plus potato bake (double yum!!) and veggie bake, as well as salad and my mom's favorite, beets ;) You'd love it mom, they have beets with everything :) I thought of you ;)

After we all ate until we were stuffed, we sat around the table outside and chatted about all sorts of things. One of the topics was poisonous creatures. I was telling them about all the warnings I got from my friends about the venomous animals in Australia, but when we compared, we have almost as many in Arizona as they do here :-p I was explaining to them about Gila monsters and scorpions and rattlesnakes. Christie was most concerned with the tarantulas, although I told her that they don't bite. Most people seem to be afraid of spiders, regardless of the bite, myself included xD

I had a really great time, and I really like Darren's family. They are very fun and lovely people. And I really had a blast at the BBQ... it's like our holiday BBQs, but you don't need a holiday to do it ;) All in all the weekend was a success :D