A little greener living

So by living here in OZ, we've managed a greener lifestyle.  I thought I'd share some of it with you all.
Our house:
 No heating or air conditioning.  It's all done with the windows and shades.  Being up on the hill, we get plenty of wind and breeze so we just open the windows and it's cooler.  Close them, and it's warmer.  So far it has worked.
 We have solar panels on the roof that run the hot water tank.  There are laws in place that are requiring all Aussies to have either solar panels or gas for their hot water heaters by the year 2012.  No electric hot water heaters are allowed after that.  (the government has lots of programs to help home owners switch over to this).  All newer homes (4 years or younger) have the solar panels and the rain tanks as it is required by law.
  We hang almost all of our clothes out to dry.  With lower humidity than Maryland and lots of sun and breeze, they actually dry quickly and really well.
 We have two giant rain water tanks outside and toilets and outdoor faucets run off the rainwater.  Once the tanks are dry, then we'd run off city water for everything.  The cold water on the washing machine also runs off the rain tanks.  Awesome!  There is another law that requires all homes to use rainwater for outdoor watering at a minimum.  It's harder to convert an older home to a rain water system since there is a lot of separate plumbing involved.  All public toilets at parks, playgrounds, etc are required to run from a rain water system.
Our bills:
Here in OZ, we get billed quarterly rather than monthly.  This means less paper being mailed, less fuel used by people to read the meters and less fuel used by postal carriers to deliver bills.  Also, post only comes Monday through Friday and comes by motor bike.  If you have a package that's too big for the motorbike, then you have to go to post office to pick it up. 
Shopping:
While reusable bags are being used in the States, they are much more in use here.  Most stores will not give you a plastic bag unless you have over 5 small items.  Large items are never bagged and many many stores charge for any plastic bags.  Every parking lot of every shopping place has a "don't forget your bags" sign in it.  If you forget your bags, you get these looks from cashiers as if you have committed a great sin.  No one wants that shame!  I think every lady I know carries some kind of reusable bag in her purse to pull out if the shopping mood strikes.  Love it!
Also, packaging- all Aussie stuff is packaged in stuff that makes less waste.  Spices and baking products are all packed in baggies.  You buy plastic containers for pantry and fridge and just refill them.  Products that are made in Australia are much less expensive than those made anywhere else.  Fruits and veggies at the store are about 99% Australian grown.  Garlic is from Mexico for some reason though. 
All foods here also have less preservatives.  Better for us, but things do go bad faster so we have to watch how much we buy.  The first couple of weeks here had a fair bit of wasted food that we let go bad.  We adjusted and I know how much to buy at a time so we waste less. 
Lots of people compost here, but we haven't yet.  Our house backs to bush land so we have to be a little careful.  If we start throwing out fruit and veg scrap, we'll attract mice and flies into the yard.  With the mice comes snakes.  With the flies come more spiders.   We don't really want the snakes and spiders so we've decided not to compost so far. 
The recylcing program here is good, but not as good as Anne Arundel County though.  We have to wash our containers and they don't recycle pizza boxes for some reason. 
We can also walk to the shops and to school.  To be honest, we don't walk to the shops much because I have no way of getting everything back home again.  We do walk down to the shops for dinner when we go out though.  We went out last night and walked the 30 minutes to dinner, ate, drank and were merry...then walked 30 minutes home and put little ones to bed.  I do walk to school a few times each week pick the boys up from school.  It really irritated me that we weren't allowed to walk in Pasadena as we were across the street.  So instead we walk the 2 km one way to school.  Going there is easier as it is down hill, coming home is all uphill. 
Electricity is much more expensive here, but it is split up by the hours it is used.  Peak hours are the most expensive, between 2pm and 8pm on weekdays.  Electricity cost $.35 per kw/h during peak hours.  Shoulder hours are 7am-2pm and 8pm-11pm weekdays and 7am-11pm weekends.   Rates then are $.21 per kw/h.  Off peak is all the rest and is about $.15 per kw/h.  In the States we paid about $.115 all the time.  By knowing it is more expensive during peak hours, we delay our dish washer and dryer, etc until shoulder or off peak hours.  It is better that way for the environment as well.

Shopping trip and friends

So the pasttime of most ladies here seems to be shopping.  I am having to learn to adjust.  Instead of my typical go out and get what I need, I wait until someone wants to go shopping.  Then I go along and get one or two things on my list.  I don't get everything I want because then I wouldn't really have a reason to go next time.  Plus, I am making friends at the same time. 
So, let me tell you about some friends so that when I talk about shopping, it will be easier to follow. 
Aleeya- Aleeya has three kids, a boy age 9, a girl age 5 and in Tom's class and a boy age 2.  Aleeya's husband is RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) and is actually on the Wedgetail project.  Jay and her hubby don't know each other though.  He's been on the project for a very long time and they actually lived in the States from about 2003-2006 in Seattle.  She's taken me under her wing and shown me the ropes of living here.  It's very helpful that she has lived in the States because she can tell me what things here are similar to the States and where to find stuff.  She has lived in this area for about 3 years so she knows her way around.  Aleeya is similar to me in that she married young (even younger than me) and had kids early.  Tom likes her daughter so that's a plus as well. 
Selena- Selena has two daughters, one in Tom's class who is 6 and one who is 4 and will start school next year.  Selena is a recent move to this area as well and her oldest started school about a week before our kids did.  She is a bit of a free spirit and apparently used to backpack all over the world before settling down and having kids, getting married, etc.  Aleeya is also showing her around as well.  Selena's hubby is the chef at a local high end resort. 
Rachel- I don't know much about Rachel as she's furthering her education and is just now getting done with stuff for a bit.  She has 3 or 4 kids of her own and babysits two kids as well.  She and Aleeya have been friends for a while.  Rachel also has a daughter in Tom's class and this daughter is the girl that Tom has a huge crush on.  He thinks she's the best! 
Nicole- She is another Northrup wife and lives down in Newcastle.  She is 26 with no kids, but she is the only person I know who scrapbooks.
Aimee- A Boeing wife.  She just moved here last week from Turkey.  She has two little girls, age 4 and age 2.  They will be living up near us, but are friends with Nicole and her husband.  I don't know much about her yet as we've just met. 
So, last week on Thursday, I rode to Newcastle with Selena, Aleeya and two of the kids.  Sam was in school so no problem.  I had invited Nicole to meet us for shopping because Ryan was out of town.  Nicole brought along Aimee to meet us since she'll be living up near us.  We had a good time and Aleeya decided she needed to go back to Newcastle on Monday to buy her hubby's birthday present.  She asked if anyone wanted to go and since Sam was in school, I went along too.  We never made it there.  Her little boy threw up in the car about 20 minutes down the road.  All over himself and the car seat.  I helped her clean everything up at a service station.  Then in true Aussie fashion, we had a cup of coffee before turning back around for home.  Though first, we went by the base to another car seat for her son.  Poor kid was not sick the reason of the day and acted just fine.  Maybe he just didn't want to go shopping. 
I have also joined a playgroup.  Aleeya invited me to hers and that's where I've stayed.  Nice moms and good kids.  Sam really enjoys going, though he hasn't really made friends with anyone yet. 
We're going to Rachel's after school tomorrow for afternoon tea and then to a park on Thursday for Aleeya's birthday.  We also have a birthday party for a girl in Joe's class on Saturday.  I'm very excited about it all because I miss all my friends and family in the States. 

Learning to drive

On Friday, I had my first driving lesson.  It really felt like I was 16 again and having no clue what to do behind the wheel.  While I know the basics of braking and steering, it all feels weird.  Here are the biggest issues for me:
Turn signals:  Okay, the control for the turn signal is on the right hand of the steering wheel.  The controls for the windshield wipers are on the left side.  I tend to turn on wipers when I try to take a turn.  Not every time, but lots of the times. 
Hugging the shoulder:  I have the tendency to be way over on the left hand side of the road.  I have a hard time making myself be more over to the right.  It doesn't help that the minivan thing that we are driving slopes way down on the front and makes it hard to see where the front left corner is. 
Backing up:  I am so used to turning my head to the right to back up.  It just feels unnatural to turn to the left.
Parking:  The one time I parked, it was a mess. Parking spaces are very tight here in general and then add to that the big slope and the weird feeling in general of being on the wrong side of the car. 

All this driving should get better the more I do it, but it's just weird. 

I went shopping for some more items yesterday.  Some things like plastic cups (the apartment only has glass) were really expensive.  Other things like washcloths were inexpensive (8 for $4).  I went to KMart for my shopping experience.  Stores here tend to be small and all stores or shops are part of a shopping center.  Nothing is stand alone.  Stores also are a lot smaller than what we have in the US.  The KMart was part of  a shopping center, very much like a mall.  The other anchor stores for this center were a Bi-Lo (sorta like Big Lots), Woolworths (grocery store), and Target Country (a clothing store, not at all like our Targets).   The mall also closes at 6 pm on its late day and about 5 every other day.  This is really going to take some adjusting on my part.