Our 'hit'

In this COVID-CHAOS we've all had a moment (or moments) where we feel like we've been hit by a tonne of bricks. Ours came this week when our flight to the US for our annual trip was canceled.

We logically knew we wouldn't be going to the US in June given the sh*t storm it is and the relative calm we have in AUS. See below for comparison stats

But that email that said "We are contacting you to advise that your itinerary has changed" was a gut punch. 

The subsequent 'itinerary change' did provide much comedy, though, as our return flight from the US hadn't been impacted and had us departing the US before we would have arrived!

Updated itinerary for getting to the US

Original itinerary in full

I phoned and immediately reached a human - wow! - who graciously canceled and directed me to the online refund request form, which is already being processed. 

(It should be noted that I was disappointed to reach a human so quickly as I LOVE their hold music! You're welcome.)

Maybe by October I'll be able to visit for my niece's Bat Mitzvah, but not holding my breath.

Much love 💕 from Down Under 🇦🇺 Stay safe and be sane, 'Murica 🇺🇸

MMUN BC

Like the rest of the world, we now divide time into BC and AD - Before COVID-19 and After Distancing. Though I think that's a bit misleading given we're actually DC - During COVID-19 but that lacks historic significance at this point.

We all have a COVID-19 story. Here's our BC:

The Sat 29 Feb departure date was quickly approaching. The excitement was growing. So was the anxiety and nervousness. Luckily, though, the excitement prevailed. Some emails were exchanged between parents and school about COVID, whether the trip should continue, how the kids would be kept healthy and safe, etc. In early February, the parent info night was scheduled and school expected COVID to be a hot topic of debate. It wasn't. Cell phones dominated. Should the kids have personal phones or not? What would they do in an emergency? How often could they ring home if they didn't have a phone? How would they take pictures without a phone? What if, what if, what if...?

Trying on suits! Winner :-) 

The bag was packed. New suit, dress shoes, warm clothes. Warm clothes. NY is cold in Feb / March, he must have forgotten what cold feels like. Don't forget the MMUN binder. That's what this is all about, after all. Montessori Model United Nations. What an experience for the kid. What. An. Experience.

Departure day. No tears. So brave (for both E and mom). Fly little bird. Fly. Tracking the flight. Wondering, but not worrying. He's safe. He needs this. I need this.

With my big guy on departure day

The group - 3 incredible educators + 10 students!

By Mon, two days after departure, public schools are no longer allowed international excursions. Oh. They left just in time. No handshaking.

Reassuring emails. Parent WhatsApp messages flying. Phone calls home. Positive reports. No call from E, but that's ok. A visit from his Nani and Papi <3 So much love. Exploding with love. Our hearts are so full. Still no call. Daily emails. Pictures. He's ok.

With Nani & Papi in NYC! What a lucky guy.

The conference begins. He is a delegate from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The arms race in space. I don't understand it at all, but he does. Pictures, videos, swapping home-country trinkets. Success.

Social distancing introduced. Keep distance. Prevent the spread. Flatten the curve. Stay home (STAY HOME) if you're sick.

One phone call at school's insistence. We were ok. He was ok.

The long flight home. Crossing the International Date Line, leaving the US 8 March, arriving home to AUS 10 March. And somewhere mid-air, the email. MMUN arrivals should not return to school for 6 days. Siblings, too. Anyone that came in contact with the overseas group. Okay, we can do this. We knew this could happen. I can work from home, take time off. We'll make this work. We always do.

He's back! 

Some of the travelers got sick. Tests. Negative. All negative. How did they dodge this bullet? They left the US just in time.

AUS acted quickly. Quarantine. Self-isolation. Stay home. STAY HOME. Borders closed. STAY HOME. Wash hands. Social distance. Don't touch your face. STAY HOME.

And yet, we feel so fortunate that our bird had this opportunity BC.

Happy Australiaversary to us!

Today is our third Australiaversary 🇦🇺 As cliche as it is, it's hard to believe it's been three years since we first arrived to Sydney.

Eytan was 8 yrs old and Micah was 5 yrs old; Micah is now the same age Eytan was when we arrived! It's so hard to wrap my head around this.

This photo was from 23 Jan 2017. M wore those shorts
a few days ago and was wearing that shirt this
morning (pictured here on E). M still sleeps with
"kangy" that he picked out that day.

Micah is undoubtedly the most Aussie of all of us, having lived 3/8 of his life Down Under. One of his favourite songs is 'I Am Australian'. It's up for review and debate whether he has an accent; he doesn't sound fully Aussie, nor does he sound fully American (though he skews strongly American). His lingo is undoubtedly Aussie. His love of American sport leaves no doubt which country issued his passport (and who his father is, lol).

Still not sold on vegemite but we keep it in the house for visitors!

Our 18-month adventure has (happily!) turned indefinite. We're finalising materials to submit our application for permanent residency and my once far-off dream of having dual-citizenship may actually come true! Forget an inheritance - Aaron has decided this will be his legacy to our children.

We've figured out driving on the left hand side of the road, we've been in awe of Uluru, we've learnt a new language (and spelling!), marveled at the Reef, explored Tassie, enjoyed The Tennis and so much more!

Our family has evolved in incredible ways and I'm crazy proud of us. Since we're here for the foreseeable future book a flight and come for a visit!

We're okay!

We've been inundated with the most beautiful messages to check on us from so many parts of our lives - friends from childhood, acquaintances of our parents and grandparents, friends from high school, university, jobs early in our careers, many cities we've lived in, many cities we haven't lived in. Just so much love, concern and care. Thank you!

We've been thinking about writing this post for so long but it's been really difficult. In part because the crisis isn't over.

So, what the hell is going on in Australia?

It's bushfire season. It's a thing. Around Sydney, bushfires kicked up late October. We'd have an occasional day where we'd wake up and have to close all the windows because it would smell so smoky. Outdoor play at school was turned indoors. Baseball would get canceled. The sky would be hazy. For days. We'd hope and pray for rain. But it didn't come. The sky would be hazier. Ash would fall like snow. Ferries would be canceled due to low visibility. Schools had 'fire' days instead of 'snow' days. Hundreds of fires in New South Wales. Hundreds of fires in Victoria. Our country was ablaze. Small bushfires couldn't be contained. Homes destroyed. Lives lost. Animals gone. A billion creatures.

But we're okay. There aren't fires directly in Sydney. The nearest fires are outside the city. Some in the mountains to the west. Some to the south. Really bad in the south coast of our state (NSW, which combined with another fire in N Victoria) - that's what most people saw on TV the first weekend in January. Devastation.

This photo is from Sunday 12 Jan looking from Victoria Rd in Balmain / Rozelle toward the CBD ("city") about 4kms away. It was one of the smokiest days we've had, though it doesn't look as bad as other days have looked.

There are still hundreds of fires. There are firies from all over the world that have come to help. Heaps of American firies. They're celebrities arriving to the airport with their gear and game faces. Help from all over the world. Our neighbourhood community has rallied so beautifully, donating anything we can that is requested. I'd imagine all communities are doing the same.

Food being dropped in ravaged areas for wildlife. NYC putting up stuffed koalas to encourage ppl to donate to WIRES to help the animals. A concert. Controlled burns to prevent catastrophic uncontrolled fires. Tributes.

Please don't think this crisis has been solved just because you may have stopped hearing about it. Australia can't do this alone <3

The mane event

Today was Melbourne Cup day, a state-wide public holiday in Victoria. Though we live in New South Wales, Melbourne Cup is watched nationwide. Some call it 'the race that stops a nation.'

Melbourne Cup is a 3200-metre race for horses three years old and over, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria, and is part of the Spring Racing Carnival.

Melbourne Cup is always run on the first Tuesday in November and is scheduled to start at 3pm. So transport yourself to a Saturday evening in May where you have some friends over dressed in your Derby finest, flip on the Kentucky Derby and throw back a mint julep or four. This is Melbourne Cup. But on a Tuesday. Mid-day.

My office put on a lovely spread and blocked out our diary for a small spring celebration.

The race is quite long by comparison to the Derby -- it lasts for about 3 minutes.

This year's winner was Vow and Declare, the first Australian-bred winner of the Melbourne Cup since Shocking in 2009. Here's a video with highlights.

Julie works for a rather socially conscious company, so we also raised funds for the Racing NSW Equine Welfare Fund. We raised about $15 to help care for thoroughbred horses at every stage of life.

More soon!

The blog is (not?) dead

When almost a year goes by without any blog posts, you can assume your blog has died. I think about it often - quite often, in fact - but time is a hot commodity these days. Maybe this will be its revival.

To recap, here's what's gone on for the Fidler Four over the last year-ish:

We're still in Sydney so come visit! Julie accidentally returned to work (I know, rt?) in June and quickly found her groove after almost 11 years of mat leave.

We haven't been traveling much as of late but we've got a few trips booked coming up:

• Meeting Julie's dad, Larry, in Fiji in December because #whynot?
• Eytan is going with school to New York (!!) in March for Montessori Model UN
• Far North Queensland / Port Douglas with friends in April

We plan to continue visiting the US from the end of June annually for 3-4 weeks each year. It can be a long time between seeing family and friends but it'd be insane to leave Sydney for the N American (Detroit, especially) winter when it's summer Down Under.

The jury is still out on whether the boys are developing accents. They're no doubt Americans by birth but each day that passes we notice more Aussie lingo (and intonation!) that has become part of our everyday language. 

Otherwise, spring has sprung, it's baseball season Down Under, and the kids are eagerly anticipating summer!

Here are some photo highlights of the last several months:

The boys are playing zooka (machine pitch) baseball this spring and Micah has really enjoyed playing catcher. As of 25 Oct, they're 3-1. Go Falcons!

The boys split a day of school holidays between Aaron's office in St Leonards and Julie's office in Chatswood. They took the train between locations and enjoyed a refreshing fresh juice when they arrived to Chatswood.

The boys on their way to a Swans match...including a headlock of #brotherlylove

Rugged up for a weekend outing to the CBD for our favourite vegan fast food,  Lord of the Fries😋.

We found our friends at the Detroit Zoo!

Lots of hugs with GG Connie and Papa Ivan!

And lots of snuggles with Bubbie Erma!

Coogee to Bondi ocean walk, M living his best life #always! 

Family photo!

First day of school (Jan 2019, lol...better late than never!)

The boys cooking up some trouble

The Harlem Globetrotters came to town!

Cheers, mates!

Lunar New Year

Sydney celebrates Lunar New Year in a really cool way - dragon dances, parades, displays all around the city, markets, food, dragon boat races and so much more!

This is the year of the dog. Arf!

The Queen Victoria Building (aka QVB) in Sydney's CBD did a fun interactive art installation featuring dogs. When you played with the large tennis ball on the pedestal, the dogs on the flat screens moved around following the ball. Fun!

We explored some of the Lunar New Year events, including dragon boat racing in Darling Harbour. Wow! Such strength and power.

Just generally opening our minds and hearts to enjoying all the events and activities Sydney has to offer!

School, work, life

After our amazing summer of travels we had to get back to reality. We jumped back into our routine with gusto!

We moved houses and are now in a house (vs. an apartment-style condo). We have a dedicated guest room and a playroom since the boys are sharing a room. We made some (odd) tradeoffs - we gave up two garage parking spots to street park; and we gave up a full size dishwasher for a half size. Why someone would put a dishwasher that small in a house with 4 bedrooms is beyond me. Not very well thought out, but we're surviving just fine. And parking has been far less of an issue than I thought it would be. We also no longer have a dryer so sunny days = washing days.

Micah, age 6.5 at time of photo, doing laundry! To his future partner: you're welcome!

Real life in Sydney is much the same as real life anywhere. Except, if I'm honest, it's really beautiful and amazing. Can you tell I LUUUUV life in Australia? But the realities of life are the same - dropping off dry cleaning, making sure the boys have brushed their teeth twice / day, seemingly nonstop laundry (but now revolving around the weather), grocery runs (though now we have a lot of our groceries delivered!), after school activities, birthday parties, thinking about how I haven't been a good blogger as of late, etc.

Just two sweet boys (mostly) walking to school!

Aaron's office recently moved from the CBD (that's Aussie for Central Business District or what Americans might call downtown) to St Leonards in the North Shore. His commute has changed quite a bit but still includes a ferry ride on occasion.

Since the boys don't have homework (LOVE!), they have flexibility for after school activities. The current lineup is hip hop, swimming and Hebrew school. This means it's sometimes a pain in the arse to rally on the weekends and get out of the house since we're a bit scheduled during the week. Lunar New Year in mid-February was a great reason to explore Sydney...

AFL Theme Songs, by the Fidler males

Please note: this is a guest blog by Aaron, Eytan and Micah; all opinions expressed are theirs, not mine (Julie). I only like one of these songs and can maybe be heard singing it occasionally. Or often. That's subjective.

Since moving to Sydney the boys have really enjoyed following the AFL (Australian Football League - aka that odd sport that you used to watch on ESPN2 in the middle of the night in college). We’re fans of Sydney and GWS (Greater Western Sydney), but enjoy watching just about any game. We especially enjoy watching Collingwood where Mason Cox, the only American in the AFL, is a ruckman and key forward. The Australian crew at the New York Times just did this super cool story on Cox.

As we've learned more about the sport - and recently attend a finals match of Sydney vs GWS - we've discovered that there are theme songs (aka fight songs) for each club.

Image courtesy 3AW.com.au

Listed below (thank you, wikipedia!) are the songs for each team with our ratings (out of 10) for each and a short comment on the song. We hope you take the time to listen to a few of these (some will sound quite familiar to many of our American friends, though with different lyrics) and enjoy our take on the AFL theme songs!

Club name	Name of team song	Basis for team song	M's take	E's take	Daddy's take	Comments
Adelaide	"The Pride of South Australia"	"US Marines' Hymn"	5	6	7	I keep expecting to hear “from the halls of Montezuma…” The first in an ongoing theme of, “hey, isn’t that song actually…”
Brisbane Lions	"The Pride of Brisbane Town"	"La Marseillaise"	4	5	5	Plays to the large contingent of French AFL fans.
Carlton	"We are the Navy Blues"	"Lily of Laguna"	1	1	4	About what you’d expect for a club that calls themselves the Blues. Not the most exciting song choice.
Collingwood	"Good Old Collingwood Forever"	"Goodbye, Dolly Gray"	5	7	5	Here we get introduced to the term “barrackers” which is a surprising synonym for “fans” since Aussies usually bias to shorter names. It’s the capsicum of sports terms.
Essendon	"See the Bombers Fly Up"	"(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up"	4	6	6	M: “I see why it says ‘up’ - it’s an airplane.” That about sums it up (pun intended).
Fremantle	"Freo Way To Go"	"Song of the Volga Boatmen"	9	9	9	A family favourite. That said, the intro sounds like something you’d hear the jews in egypt singing while building the pyramids.
Geelong	"We Are Geelong"	"The Toreador Song"	7	5	4	Starts w/ something like the rhythm of “nanny, nanny foo-foo.” Also, their coach is insanely intense. You do not want to mess w/ that guy.
Gold Coast	"We Are the Suns of the Gold Coast Sky"[3]	Original	7	9	7	Our first original song. Too bad the team is terrible because this is a good song.
Greater Western Sydney	"There's A Big Big Sound"[4]	Original	10	10	9	We love this one. After listening to the song you need to check this clip out.
Hawthorn	"The Mighty Fighting Hawks" (also known as "We're A Happy Team At Hawthorn")	"The Yankee Doodle Boy"	5	5	5	There’s just no way to make Yankee Doodle an intimidating song. But it’s fun to listen to.
Melbourne	"It's a Grand Old Flag"	"You're a Grand Old Flag"	8	7	7	If you’re going to steal a song and make it about the colors red and blue, just take the Penn song.
North Melbourne	"Join in the Chorus"	"Wee Deoch an Doris"[5]	6	6	5	Good, old timey song.
Port Adelaide	"Power to Win"[6]	Original	9	9	10	Another family favourite - nice work on the original song.
Richmond	"We're from Tiger Land"	"Row, Row, Row"	10	10	9	Rumour has it that their barrackers only really know the words “yellow and black” (that’s really all you hear if you go to one of their games).
St Kilda	"When the Saints Go Marching In"	"When the Saints Go Marching In"	1	2	9	Clearly, the kids and daddy don’t see eye-to-eye on this. How can you not like “When the Saints Go Marching In?!”
Sydney	"The Red and the White"	"Notre Dame Victory March"	9	9	9	I love all of this. Except that it’s Notre Dame’s fight song!!! Since we cheer for Sydney, we know all the words - it pains me that we do. Because, again, Notre Dame!
West Coast	"We're Flying High"	Original	5	5	3	Not the strongest start to the song. Doesn’t really do much after that.
Western Bulldogs	"Sons of the West"	"Sons of the Sea"	3	2	3	It gives a good description of a bulldog. Not sure that makes for a strong fight song.

AO

To wind down a truly magical and adventure-filled summer, Aaron and I were invited to the Women's Finals of the Australian Open. Wow! Thank you, Mastercard!

Loved this sign giving visitors directions to AO!

AO logo filled with tennis balls!

Mastercard had a very cool beach club where guests and cardholders could relax, soak their feet in a cool pool, enjoy entertainment and have a bite to eat. There were spontaneous Priceless moments, too!

Glad there was a pic of the beach club online from Nadia Cameron of CMO.com.au

Like when Chris Evert came out to give us her predictions on the match (Caroline Wozniacki vs. Simona Halep, by the way).

Australian chef Neil Perry and American tennis star Chris Evert

Our view of the court

The tennis was incredible! The players were well matched (as you'd expect at world ranked #1 vs #2) and it was no sure-thing for either woman. The three sets were intense. In the end, Wozniacki won (and became ranked #1 for a short time) - and it was her first Grand Slam. It was great to witness that history.

Aaron and I rushed back from the AO to pick Micah up from our friends house and meet Eytan at the return bus from camp! We had one day before the school year started and our extracurricular activities resumed. It was a bit insane looking back, but I'm glad we had the opportunity to do so many great things over the summer!